Stopped, rather than finished!

Lara in French windows.  Summer 2013

I have been working on this drawing, on and off, for a month or more.  I am presently weary of looking at it yet continually see touches I could, and probably shall, add to improve the drawing but, for the time being, I shall give it something of a rest.

Back to Paint

I have been distracted from painting for a while now by drawing.  Although it can have been no more than a week or so ago, quite how I came across Tom Nixon and his just started 'Watercolor for Sketchers and Journalers' Facebook page is now a mystery to me.  Nor is it important.  What is important to me is that I have joined in the fun and am now following Tom and his on-line course.  Much of the painting I have done with him thus far has been by way of exercises; necessary but rather tedious stuff.  Beyond completing the exercises Tom invites his 'students' to try something 'freelance' but related to the current exercises.   Here is the first of mine; a portrait study effected in just three values of one colour (Ultramarine Blue):

And here the second, a drawing coloured in an infinite range of tones of mixtures of just two colours - Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna.

Kafeneon at Kaplani

Yuletide Greetings!

“. . . The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and many a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see, who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door. . . . . .

`I am the Ghost of Christmas Present,' said the Spirit. `Look upon me.'

Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.”

From, ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens 1843

'On Location' Today at Logga, Messinias, Greece.

Early Morning Sunshine, December 2013

The track between the house and the village on the first clear and sunny morning after several days days of heavy rain.

Good News for the Built Heritage of the Balkans

The following three sketches were made from photographs illustrating the text of an essay in the Ancient Monument Society's publication “Transactions”, Volume 52, 2008; ‘The Built Heritage of the Balkans: A Rehabilitation Project’ by John Bold.

Jusuf Maskovic Han (Caravanserai), Vrana, Croatia.  Built 1644/5

Fortified Church of St. Nicholas, Drauseni, Romania. Present building dates from 13th Century

Aladza Mosque, Bosnia and Herzegovinia.  Built 1550/1, destroyed 1992/5.  This beautiful Mosque was completely destroyed by Christian Bosnian Serbs attempting to eradicate all traces of a Muslim Culture in  their country.  The remains of the building, scattered over a mass grave, are presently being recovered and used to restore the Mosque to something of its former glory.

A First!

This is the first drawing I have made on a large sheet of paper, rather than in an A5 sketchbook.  I worked this drawing up from the 'On Location' drawing I made last week of Vasilitsi Church.

Drawn onto 300gm2 Fabriano Acquarello HP paper, size 51 X 35.5 cms with .005 and .02 Pigma Micron Drawing pens and a Pentel Brush Pen.