The start of a new round of my 'sketchers diet' and a few car sketches

April 3, 2014 | 3 Comments


Today:
All of that cake and wheat lately has been a bit much so it is time to go on a short sketching diet… sketch my food before I eat it. I have done this a number of times before and it always works to get me on track with my eating. Simply because I am accountable. Some days I don’t feel like I could be bothered sketching my food… well – if that is the case – I can’t eat it! Simple hey?

I have been thinking of doing this for a while, but yesterday at the gym I committed to do it! I am going to use the project to really work on my mixing using my colour detox palette(a small palette with limited colours- trying whenever I can to mix my colours from a primary triad… but I also have a burnt sienna and a crazy green in the kit) This makes the task somewhat harder as the mixing of colours slows you down (a trial when one is really hungry)
Today it seems I am having a line detox at the same time…


Yesterday:
I suddenly had the desire to sketch the unattractive back lane view I have from where I park my car when I visit the gym. I think this had to do with the fact that my car was not in the boiling sun(like it normally is) so it was quite pleasant to sit in my car with the window down.

I knew I had put my sketchbook and brushes in my bag…and my paints? No, it seems that I omitted my paint tin. BUT I did have some watercolour pencils (WCPs)- not the full set I normally carry… but enough! I really wanted to move pigment and water around the page so I was determined to see what WCPs could do to satisfy my urge! I do like WCPs and I especially like using them in association with watercolour paint. On their own, I have often been a little disappointed mainly due to their opacity and the fact that they keep lifting and a lot of the intensity of the pigment is lost if you put too much water on the page.

You can see on the left side of this sketch my experiments with fully loading the page with WCP and then trying to move that pigment around. I am not really happy with the result (a bit murky, and flat) However, I find what I was doing in the middle and right of the sketch more interesting…. It was a lot of fun and as always when I try something new, my brain is ticking with ideas for stuff to try next time!!!

I completely missed my turn on the way home (what is wrong with me… my auto pilot went on a break!?) so I ended up at an intersection that you have to wait for a long time… and well…. I sneaked a sketch! I have also decided to make myself an emergency paint kit (some old half used pans and a little container that I used to have in the office) so as least I always have some paint in the car now!

3 Comments

  • Your diet looks healthy, Liz! And so yummy. Do you keep a water brush with you at all times? Or did you move the pigment with water once you got home?

  • Sue Pownall says:

    I like the sound of your diet. I'm eating crisps and cakes reguarly (stress-eating, but that's no excuse). Maybe if I could do lovely sketches like you I'd eat healthier.

  • I'm afraid my 'Sketching Diet' failed after I was reprimanded by a chef – "When the food comes out, it is at it's peak!" and from then on it is downhill! I felt so guilty – He offered to bring me a fresh plate once I'd finished sketching, but I hate to waste food – so took reference photos and tucked in (Classic Caesar Salad) Now I sketch in the majority of the meal, before taking reference photos and eating. And I know it's not the same as sketching the entire meal before eating it, but I do get a but obsessive about the hatching.

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