97. Firenze, Ti Amo!

The Dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore,

Pilot G-Tec C4 on A4 paper

Hi Everyone, we've just returned from a week in Florence to celebrate our birthdays and wedding anniversary. Within an hour of arriving, we sought out il Duomo. It is much more imposing in real life than in any photograph or sketch; the sight of it when you come around the corner and see it is amazing. Highly recommended.

I have lots of sketches and will post them up periodically.

96. Going Somewhere

Landscape, oil on wood panel, 4" x 4"

I knocked this out before going off to a meeting. I used a mix of brushes and a painting knife. The title comes from my husband's comment: "Well, it certainly looks as though it's going somewhere!" 

95. Gallery Sketches: Veronese

After Veronese, The Conversion of Mary Magdalene (c.1548), Pilot G-Tec C4 on paper

This is one of the best exhibitions I have ever attended and I've been to some very good ones. 

Again, during my OU studies years ago, we touched briefly on Veronese so it was such a privilege to be able to view 50 of his paintings in one (very large) place. The man was truly a genius, able to paint figures (and facial expressions), architecture, fabric, flora, fauna, textures, etc, etc. We were given a small booklet which contained a little introduction to each of the 50 paintings and I scribbled extra notes into it from the audio guide. I then wrote some of them up in the following few days. I think the two paintings above are my favourites but really, as 'Brucie' says, they're all my favourites!

We went in the middle of April but it runs until mid-June.

94. Gallery Sketches: de la Hyre and van Honthorst

Rendering fabric, Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 3B on A4

In the first image, Vicky told us to choose a section of the painting, Allegory of Grammar (1650), and draw the folds by doing a line drawing of the shape of the fold then filling it in. That was excellent advice as it worked for me.  

Picking out highlights, Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 3B on A4

We then took a clean sheet and blocked out an area by shading then used an eraser to pick out the highlights of the fabric. A few people preferred this method and produced lovely tonal drawings. To be honest, I preferred the line method but it could just be that I should have started with much darker shading.

Finally, we went into the next room and looked at van Honthorst's Christ Before the High Priest (top right); the painting has a very dark tone but is lovely. We then had to combine the two methods to show the light and shade in the painting. I enjoyed using both methods and, given more time, may have made it a bit darker. An excellent and informative session, as usual.

93. Earth Colours

Oil on canvas 20cm x 20cm (approx. 8" x 8")