Edinburgh WDE

WDE reference by Triduana

pencil in 4x6 sketchbook

I went to Edinburgh in 1985 but I made the newbie mistake of buying an SLR camera just before my trip. I'd never used one before, but I took a photography class after I got home.  I think did manage to shoot one roll of film before I left for the trip.  Anyway, I mis-loaded the film several times that trip and developed 3 or 4 blank rolls of film.  I was able to retake most of the London pics before I went home, so Scotland, Netherlands, Germany and Venice has lived on in my memory.  This reference of Edinburgh is typical of what I remember of that city as we drove around in circles, dead reckoning our way to the castle.  Traveling was so much more of an adventure before Google Maps.

The very last time I mis-loaded the SLR camera was on the Great Wall of China in 2007.  Fortunately, I got a few digital snapshots on a 6Mb point-n-shoot.  Lessons learned:  After the China trip, I went and got a digital SLR and after the Europe trip, I have always traveled with more than one camera. 

Venice

This is as close to Venice in almost 30 years.  A telephoto view from the stateroom balcony.  Acrylic paint in the crispy crunchy paper homemade sketchbook.

Just passing--couple photos taken from the bus & combined.  Acrylics, same sketchbook.

Holyland sketches



I'm back from the other side of the world. I needed a couple weeks to catch up with my life, so I'm just starting to scan my sketches and make new ones from my photos.

Acrylic ink in the self-made 6x8 in sketchbook. This is the mosque of Mohammed Ali the Great in Cairo. This was painted from one of my photos. So hot that day, so hot inside the mosque.  Mom wasn't doing well with the heat, so I spent alot of time encouraging her to walk, besides photos were allowed.



Oil pastels on dark gray pastel paper (same self-made sketchbook) of The Grotto of Revelation.  It's where St. John was exiled to this little Greek island.  It was really dim in there, I really couldn't see much.  Photos were not allowed, so this is kind of from memory and kind of from a dim picture I took of the tour guide's picture.  The grotto is a cave where St. John went to pray and meditate.  There's a relatively new (considering Jesus died over 2000 years ago) facade in front of the cave which is now maintained by the Greek Orthodox church  (hence the cabinetry.)  God talked to St. John (the deciple, not the baptist) from that point where 3 cracks come together in the ceiling, which is real life was actually at face level.  St. John wore out a spot on the ground where he used to pray and a spot on the wall where he helped himself stand, he was in his 80's & 90's.

Thai statue

Inktense, about 6x8 inch in the sketchbook I now travel with:  Pentallic Leather Journal.  It's got thick watercolor paper but there's not much sizing on it;  I wasn't scrubbing but I was trying to blend the colors in the background and the paper started pilling so I switched to a softer brush.

Westlake (China) 2004

Micron pen in the 6x8-in drawing sketchbook.  I think I've drawn this before in another medium.  I know it didn't come out as well as this.

Had just one page left.  This was in my head.  Amazing what I'll find in there when I'm not overworked or under pressure.  That Inktense is really intense IRL.  So, YAY!!  Sketchbook #13 is finally done (#6 art goal in 2011).

Inktense Blocks & GIMP

My truck passed CA smog yesterday.  That's an enormous monkey off my back.  I celebrated with a drive to my "closest" brick 'n mortar art store (30 miles) and unintentionally came home with $100 of art supplies, including a set of Inktense blocks.  I really haven't been thrilled with the Inktense pencils I've had for quite a while. I find them clumsy to sketch with outside the house BUT I've really "clicked" with these sticks with & without wash.  Going down, they feel like I wanted the Prismacolor art stix to feel like.  Right before this sketch, I put down the first line with the art stix -- I got a clear wax line, bleh.  I'm seriously considering taking this set on my trip.

The sketch is Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.  I (finally) downloaded GIMP last week (been meaning to for 2 years).  I tried some smudging in the blue sky to get rid of strokes that the wash didn't smooth enough.

Buddha 2004

Charcoal in the 6x8 drawing sketchbook.  I took the reference photo in 2004 near Shanghai where monks have carved like a hundred Buddhas into the mountainside.  I didn't see the belly button in the reference but I thought he needed one.

Dang it, I'm actually doing better on the 2011 art goal (use up sketchbooks) than on the 2012 goal (use up acrylic paint.)

Stonehenge 1985

I got my first camera just before my first overseas business trip.  I had a long layover in London so I had time to take local tours before the tour of Western Europe.  I lost alot of pictures because I didn't load the camera properly and I didn't recognize the clues that it wasn't operating properly.  I learned all that in a photography class I took a year AFTER the trip.    Compared to today, I hardly took any pictures!  Just a couple at each site but I got the important tourist shots.  I lost the few pictures I took in Scotland, London, Holland, Germany, and Venice, though I did get to go back and retake my London pics. 

I got to see Stonehenge before they put an ugly fence around it.  That day, that grass was soggy from rain before we got there and the rain clouds weren't that far away.  This sketch is part oil pastel (the green) and part hard pastels.

Another travel sketch

Bought some hard pastels to play with because I liked the earth tones.  This is Tallinn, Estonia from a picture I took in 2006.

Landscape practice

Hmm, looks like the scanner washed some color away.  Getting some landscape practice in for an upcoming trip to an exciting place!  Right on the edge of sanity.

These are done from travel brochures with inktense pencils and new water brushes.  Not sure about either one, might go with my trusty ol' water brushes which seem easier to fill and the Koi pans.

Sketchcrawl day on the Panama Canal

Hehe, not much to sketch on the Panama Canal. Most of the time you're just surrounded by walls. I transited through all the chambers, all the way from the Atlantic side to the Pacific Ocean. The cruise ship only went through the Gatun Locks, I hopped (literally) onto a smaller boat to complete the transit all the way through the Pedro Miguel locks and Mira Flores locks. We went back to the ship on a bus.

I sprained my knee on the Panama Canal, thus the hopping. I was passing though the seats and someone didn't pull their legs in and I tripped over their shoes. I didn't fall, I caught myself but twisted my knee. I hopped straight to the drink cooler and grabbed a chunk of ice. Mom brought an elastic bandage I could use for compression, and I kept it elevated whenever possible. The only thing I didn't do was stay off of it because we got back to to boat late, then had an early excursion the next day. I happened to have an accupuncture appointment for that (Panama) evening (for my back) and she did sort of an accupuncture first aid on the knee. Don't know if it works but between that and the herbal oil/gel she sold me, it's healing pretty fast after the knee popped back into place two days later. Anyway, it kind of killed my mobility for moving into places where I could sketch my trip, so I'll be sketching from my photos.

Taste of France

Storefront of the cafe where we had lunch. Very popular place for lunch. I had no regrets, YUM!

Re-scanned my room sketch. Unfortunately no more sketches for the rest of the trip. I had my kit with me for the Botanical Gardens but all those greens intimidated me. I will be sketching or painting from my photos, though.

Zoo Sketches

Elephant Odessy, water soluble graphite & micron pen in the 6x8 inch sketchbook.

Condor in the 4x6 inch Aquabee, watersoluble graphite. Only 10 more pages to go in this sketchbook.

8 hours at the San Diego Zoo, I only got 4 sketches. I took a ton of pictures until my battery ran down almost an hour to closing. Lots of walking and I still didn't see it all. Too much walking for Mom. I did get to see polar bears and pandas. Missed out on the big cats and monkeys.

Memories of Scotland

Here's the 2 page layout in my journal. The pen, for scale, is 5 inches. Bottom left page, is what I remember of the TV room in the basement of the bed 'n breakfast. Top right page is my memory of eating fish 'n chips out of a rolled up newspaper with my two co-workers and travel companions.

My Travels - English Tea

Landed in Glasgow, Scotland and had a short drive to the ferry pier. The ferry ride seemed to last a couple hours. I only remember gray and drizzle. We checked into the bed 'n breakfast about 2pm and I was starving. So while the others napped, I looked into the dining room. It was dark. I was told it was only open for breakfast but the nice lady at the desk said, "wait downstairs in the TV room and I'll bring you tea." I shrugged, better than nothing to get me to dinner. I was just expecting a hot beverage, but she brought a tray with a couple sandwiches, quartered and with the crusts cut off. Never had cucumber sandwiches before. Never had a sandwich with alfalfa sprouts. There were biscuits (shortbread and cream sandwich cookies) and chocolates! Of course, there was tea and cream...never had such dark tea before, I needed the cream. Bright sunshine was streaming into the room from a huge picture window. I only regret that I didn't leave a big tip on the tray, or any at all, because the meal never showed up on the lodging bill as I'd expected to add tip to my meal bill. As you can see, I've never forgotten my first encounter with British hospitality. I only learned years later I'd been given "tea," meaning a substantial meal with tea, the hot drink. Americans would think of it as an early dinner.

The sketch is gouache and ink. It's not much, but I'm rather proud of it as I've never been able to draw from memory or imagination. All the sketching practice of everyday objects has paid off.

My Travels - Ireland

It's St. Patrick's Day. How cool that my next planned sketch was my memory of our one hour fuel stop in Ireland. Not sure, it might have been Dublin. I only remember the brightest green in my 20 years. I don't even remember if the sky was gray or blue.

Of the sketch, the window ended up too big. I only wish they made airplane windows this big. I might have taken a picture of this sight but the shot would have been lost in my first mis-loaded roll that developed blank.

My Travels - New Project

This is the first entry of my new project. I'm scanning my travel-related 35mm film to draw/paint them into My Travels sketchbook. The sketchbook has smooth, but thick, 12x15 inch pages which are bound to be able to lay flat for double-page spreads. It's great for colored pencil, but I hope to do more gouache, acrylic inks, and fluid acrylics on the pages and in more of a journal format.

The drawing is of my first camera, a Canon AE-1 Program, in colored pencil. I used it from 1985 until 2006 when I went all digital. I was waiting for just the right digital SLR. That lens (extended) is really long and heavy from back in the days when lenses were made with glass and metal, but oh, what a workhorse this combination was!