SKETCHTOUR KIRCHBERG - Nightsketching

 

The first evening of Sketchtour not everyone participated at nightsketching, because some were really tired of their long travels. Five iron sketchers stayed with me close to the tower and gate of Kirchberg centre and we sketched the view with the gate and different light sources, focussing on colour contrasts:

This was the view of the first sketch. The lightsource was at the gate and the surrounding buildings were a lot darker. A few windows were illuminated...

 

Next day at daylight I could see that my sketch was not dark enough to be really read as a nightsketch. Therefore the next evening I intended to paint much darker in value.

We went further down the street and that day many more sketchers came as they heard that we had so much fun the day before... here is the on site photo of some of us:

 

We had headlamps and Claudia brought her magic granulation spray, which I actually used in the sky of my painting. It looks as if there were many little stars...

 

In my nightsketch you can see that the values are much darker than on the sketch of the night earlier. The reflections from windows and walls were stunning and the whole atmosphere was so quiet. We enjoyed nightsketching with all senses, this is why I would propose to all participants: let's do it again soon...

LOKET SKETCHTOUR - Nightsketching - colour & contrast

 

LOKET church in the background had just a few lights to its sides. We stood (some like DJ's working on larger pieces, like Jan Vitek, @janvitek.art) or sat in the town centre and sketched the area.

My sketch is in a sketchbook A5, double sided. My head torch was on and I was lucky to be able to see my paper for drawing...anyway we all tried to show the atmosphere of this late summer evening. The sketches of my fellow companions are on fb Urban Sketchers Prague

The next evening we were just three persons to still do a night sketch and I forgot to take my torch, so I sat down besides a street lamp below the massive castle of Loket and just did an inksketch of the castle garden with large round bushes, the lamps and the castle wall. The church tower was not illuminated and invisible in the distance. I used a mix of lunar blue and another dark watercolour directly from the tube to get a really dark sky and some shadows. In the end I used the beautiful cream coloured pencil, I once received as a gift from my sketchfriend Johanna from Hannover, while we did the last sketchtour (fb: johanna bd or @johannabd)

I was so happy that @elartista777 and @simon.north.77 were two of the very tough sketchers who were as enthousiastic as I was and we had a great time by the castle with chats about sketching materials and art talk.

Nightsketching is always veeery fun and some kind of experiment, as you never know what you get. The conditions are totally different from daytime and usually the timespan you sketch is much shorter than usual, due to not seing a lot, being tired and often harsher conditions (weather, insects, cold...)...This time we were just a little tired, which is why I did not throw a lot of watercolour on my sheet

Let's do that again soon!

Sketchbook Sicily - Sketching into the night with Maria-Francesca from USk Palermo

Maria-Francesca (USk Palermo) and I had an appointment at 6pm on a roof terrace in the middle of Palermo and we were both happy to meet again (even in such difficult times). We wanted to keep our meeting just between the two of us and not all the friends from USk because of the actual situation. 

We had a lot to catch up with, as our last meeting was about nearly a year ago. 

Our  todays goal was to draw the Panorama as it was getting slightly darker. In the hills behind, the lights were turned on and the sky was getting darker. I saw Maria-Francesca placing plants of the terrace into the foreground and borrowed the idea from her for my own sketch. Here is my whole double-spread:

 

Maria-Francesca brought her new illustrated book of the "Unusual Gardens of Palermo" and she gave me the book as a present as well as a print of a large panoramic view she drew about five years ago at this very same place. Very beautiful. Thank you Maria-Francesca. You can order her book by using the ISBN number indicated on the backside of the cover if you are interested in purchasing it. The book has an english version booklet within, as well as 10 of Maria-Francescas accordeon sketchbook prints in real size in the front pouch of the book. Beautiful masterpieces and a great idea.

Maria-Francesca von USk Palermo und ich trafen uns auf der Dachterrasse und malten in den Abend hinein. Die Lichter am Berg in der Ferne gingen an und alles wurde etwas dunkler. 

Sie brachte mir ihr Buch über die ungewöhnlichen Gärten in Palermo mit, das sie illustriert hat. Das Buch hat eine ISBN Nummer auf der Rückseite (siehe unten) und kann daher auch bei Interesse bestellt werden (die Kindle Version gibt es auf italienisch z.B. bei Amazon). Es enthält ganz wunderbare Zeichnungen der Gärten von Palermo. Die italienische Ausgabe hat eine englische Übersetzung und Drucke von Maria-Francescas zehn Akkordeon Skizzenbücher, die jeweils für einen Garten stehen sind in Originalgrösse in der vorderen Tasche des Buches enthalten. Echte Meisterwerke und eine super Idee.

click to enlarge

 

Es war schön Francesca wieder zu treffen und wir hatten eine vergnüglichen Abend. Sie hat in der gemeinsamen Zeit ein sehr schönes Abendbild gemalt und wir hatten jede Menge Spaß. Es gab wieder sehr viel zu erzählen, denn wir hatten uns ein knappes Jahr nicht gesehen. 

Vielleicht haben wir beim nächsten Wiedersehen wieder die Möglichkeit ein Treffen mit all den anderen Mal-Freunden zu verabreden.

 

 

 

 

 

This was our view in the beginning from where we were seated. 

In the end it was close to dark, just the little lamp on the table was there to illuminate our drawings for the final photo of our watercolours.

Thank you Maria-Francesca.

 

 

My Sketchbook Sicily 2019-I (Video Flip Through)

My Sketchbook Sicily 2019-II (Video Flip Through)

Sketchtour Dinkelsbühl - Nightsketching III

Our third nightsketching was also close to the church. We chose this place for the good lighting and the hustle and bustle on this Saturday evening. Isaac sat on the steps of the main church entrance while I did the view to the protestant church in Dinkelsbühl. We had many spectators that evening and one even said that we should put up a hat.  I used heavily granulating colours for the sky and was happy that there were such nice round lights on the flooring in front of me that would make a good pattern in my watercolour sketch.

Here is my approximate view

We finished at around 11 pm and as soon as we packed our stuff, the lights went off. Really funny...there might be somebody watching us finish...;) With a great laughter we went back to the hotel. 


Jan suggested an "early-morning-sketch" tomorrow at 7 am...huh, I think it will only be the two of us..."who else is as crazy as that"!


Für unser drittes Nightsketching waren wir in der Nähe von St. Georg. Wir wählten diesen Platz, weil er sehr hell ist und an diesem Samstag Abend noch etwas los war. Isaac saß auf den Treppen des Kirchenportals, während ich etwas seitlich mit Blick auf die ev. Kirche saß. Wir hatten während unserer Zeit dort sehr viele Zuschauer und einer sagte, wir könnten doch einen Hut hinlegen.

Für mein Bild verwendete ich sehr dunkle, stark granulierende Farben im Himmel. Die runden, im Boden eingelassenen Lichter machten schöne Muster auf mein Bild.

Um fast 23 Uhr packten wir dann unsere Sachen zusammen. Sobald wir uns vom Platz entfernten ging das Licht aus. Wir schauten uns an und lachten, denn es kam uns so vor, als hätte uns jemand beobachtet und dann das Licht ausgeschaltet... gut gelaunt gingen wir zurück ins Hotel. 

Für morgen früh hatte Jan zum "Frühsketchen" aufgerufen und ich befürchte, dass um 7 Uhr nur wir beide erscheinen werden..."wer ist sonst noch so verrückt?!"

 

Sketchtour Dinkelsbühl - Nightsketching at Segringer Tor

Our nightsketching event on Thursday evening after sundown was at Segringer Tor. I forgot to bring my headlamp which I left in the hotel room. That was my main mistake that evening, because from the place I sat I could barely see anything on my paper and as it was getting darker I had to rely on my knowledge of the colours in my palette and not on eyesight. Therefore I kept everything very simple. 

I was sure that for the next nightsketching on the following day I would pack my headlight as well as my fancy dark colours like lunar blue DS etc - and Johanna brought me a vanilla coloured pencil of Caran d'Ache which I would like to test as well. 

Our day was quite packed and we were all very tired. Good night.

See you tomorrow...

Unser Nachtsketching Event am Donnerstag Abend nach Sonnenuntergang war am Segringer Tor. Ich vergaß leider meine Kopflampe aus dem Hotel mitzunehmen. Das war ein grosser Fehler, denn an dem Platz an dem ich zum sketchen saß konnte ich kaum den Pinsel auf dem Papier sehen und als es dunkler wurde musste ich mich auf das Wissen, in welchem Farbtopf welche Farbe auf meiner Palette war, verlassen. Daher hielt ich die Skizze auch sehr einfach. Unter diesen Umständen war einfach nicht mehr drin.

Für den nächsten Tag würde ich mir mein Kopflicht einpacken, genauso wie die Tuben mit dunklen Farben, die ich extra fürs Nachtsketchen ausgewählt hatte. Johanna hat mir einen vanillefarbenen Stift von Caran D'Ache mitgebracht, den man evtl. für Highlights einsetzen kann und den werde ich sicher zum Ausprobieren auch mitnehmen. 

Wir haben die Zeit zum Malen perfekt genutzt und waren dann auch extrem müde. Gute Nacht.

Also dann bis morgen...

Nightsketching in Dinkelsbühl

As a small part of sketchtour Dinkelsbühl we do some nightsketching (if it is not raining). I was looking forward to that, as I very much like to let the colour flow with limited palette. The strong contrasts in light and dark are quite interesting. I will post more of that soon...

Bei der Sketchtour Dinkelsbühl machen wir auch Nachtskizzen (wenn es nicht regnet). Ich freue mich sehr darüber, denn ich mag es wenn die Farbe fließt und die Verwendung einer limitierten Palette mit starken hell-dunkel-Kontrasten. Mehr davon in Kürze...

#sketchtour2020