Liz sketches in Sydney

I can only apologise to Liz for the late posting here of her card. I received it ages ago but must have popped it in a sketchbook for safe keeping. It was only recently I used the book to find, with great relief, the card inside.

If you're a follower of Liz's Blog I think you might detect a change in her work, a freer, looser use of the watercolour medium.

 I love the direction she's going in and it's great to see the sheer joy she's experiencing coming through in her sketches.

Liz says this card, showing St Thomas, North Sydney, shows her experimenting with distorted perspective and loose brushstrokes.

And I should mention that the sketch was to be completed in under 15 minutes

It's wonderful to have a real Liz Steel in my possession.

http://www.lizsteel.com/

Postcards From California

Receiving a card from Pat is always special, and i was doubly lucky to receive two!  The top image image shows Pat's walking trail in Orange.  I think Pat is particularly brilliant at depicting trees in graphite.  All those negative spaces and array of tones.  I always feel inspired to pick up my pencils after looking at her work!

On the reverse of the card is an image of Sam, Pat's cat.  The nice thing is, Sam looks just like my own cat, so it's particularly fun to have received this. Don't you just love the wacky positions cats can get into when they are grooming!




The second card depicts the beach near to where Pat lives. She says "I can watch the water forever and not get tired of seeing the colours change, the shapes transform and of course, the people."

I love this, it captures the beach and the weather and sea breeze perfectly.

 

Thank you Pat! 

 

 

Four students from Albrecht's drawing course at the Swabian Alps.

I am a big admirer of Albrecht's drawings. Looking at his postcards, you will understand why: No fanfare and funny tricks, but good solid knowledge of technique and with a talent to add just the necessary creativity and expression to bring it to life. Not many artists have all these skills in balanced amounts.


If you look closely at his postcard, you will see that one can take away any of the elements and the artwork will still be able to stand tall. I see many sketches which rely on the addition of a second or even third medium to turn it into good art. It is an aspect I strive fro in my own art: the ability to draw a single line so that it draws on all elements of good art making to be able to stand on its own. Which brings me back to my firm belief: to do good art, one has to have a knowledge of drawing. Technique and the basic principles of drawing DO have a solid place in art. Albrecht's postcard is testament to my belief.
Have a look at the close-up to below see the lovely lost and found edges, a technique which seduces the eye of the viewer to "continue the lines and complete the drawing", a great way to get the viewer involved in a painting/drawing/sketch.

This sketch was done by Albrecht during his last drawing course of the year and it is four of his students busy working under the beech tree that he captured. the course took place at the Swabian Alps, "which was about 50 million years ago the borderline of a warm Jurassic ocean". Albrecht and his students were fortunate to find many fossils during this course...something else I love...digging for fossils!

Read more of this course and his other work here.

Thank you for my beautiful postcard Albrecht.

Postcard from Pat

I can't really call this a postcard from Pat as in reality it is 10x8" and is so exquisite it needs to be framed and hung on a wall! The scan doesn't really do all the colours in this card justice but it shimmers with warm Californian sunshine and the darks lead you into the distance and draw you along this beautiful path.

Pat's great sense of humour comes across with these gorgeous little painted stamps on the back!

As if all that wasn't enough, there is also a fabulous pen and watercolour sketch on the envelope! Thank you so much, Pat!

Willow reflections

Katherine's card popped up at Coin Perdu in the New Year, but it was actually done still in the old year. Maybe reflecting on the old year, while sketching the reflections of the willow...?

..the willows..
done in colored pencil and pen on Arches HP paper, 19x28.5cm

Between the full sketch and the crop below, one can get a great feeling of the marks Katherine makes with her pencils and pen. a lot of cross hatching, some erasing for the higlights, some darker pressure here and a soft touch there... I especially love the darkness of the reflections breaking up into softer tones and hues and more highlights and finally disappear into the lefthand corner, adding such lovely diagonal movement. I feel as if I'm slowly passing in a canoe, dragging my hand through the ripples and reflections.

...the willows(detail)...

Katherine chose to compliment the Loire here in my world with her sketch of the willows at the basin of the Regent's canal there in her world...very appropriate and very special! Thank you for a lovely card Katherine!

Fresh from Coin Perdu

I'm not sure exactly which month this card was scheduled for - in between Ronelle going through a hectic time, and it sitting unannounced in my local post office - at last I got a notice that this envelope was 'still' waiting to be collected. Addressed to Mme, I knew who it would be from and was as excited as a child to see the brown envelope and the familiar free, exuberant style of the sketch on the front. Inside, it was Christmas come early with another joyous sketch of the old 1840 outside bread oven at Coin Perdu, Ronelle's private paradise, which will one day be converted into her atelier - and the treats hinted at by previous lucky postcard-from-Ronelle recipients - what a breath of warm, freshly baked tourte et pain from France.

Great Dixter, Sussex

I don't think my words, or my scanner, can do justice to this magnificent card from Katherine. It's a symphony of colour. Katherine has a unique way of blending and layering her colour pencils so that all the colours are visible and appear to radiate off the paper. The reds in the shadow areas have an incredible effect on the greens and how she has managed to capture that soft, warm, hazy sunlight, I will never know!

Thank you Katherine, for this beautiful card!

I want to be in this Potager.

Marília   Africantapestry and Myfrenchkitchen  has now left Coin Perdu for the winter but took one last chance to sketch the potager in all its glorious chaotic state. 

Her description of "all over the place tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, herbs, marigolds, celery and physalis hiding their golden fruits in gentle yet firm lanterns, soon to explode with seductive sweetness" paints such a wonderful word picture. But you can see that from this lovely sketch which captures the scene in the potager at this time of year. I love the way Marilia uses pen and watercolour so spontaneously and lyrically to tell the story of the place.

Then there's the envelope showing the

" white pumpkins stretching their arms in every direction and ruling the garden with dominant huge canopies " beautifully done in mixed media.

I want to be there too - I can almost see the insects scurrying around exploring the new wildness as the garden returns to its untamed state .

Towers and Tea From Sydney

My turn to receive a card from Liz Steel. Another super combination of architecture and afternoon tea!
I particularly like this side with the Sydney Town Hall tower on it. The unfinished towers in the rear, which i guess are office buildings, give a great insight as to how Liz works.  Basically no hesitancy and no fuss!  I need to try and instill that into my own pen work.

The rear as ever has beautiful stamps and the special one of Borromini.  I met up with Liz while she was in London a few weeks back and we had tea and scones then too. Sadly our tea didn't come in such a brilliant tea pot.  This colour red is lovely!!

Thanks Liz, it's a super card and a wonderful reminder for me too of our afternoon.  I hope you'll make it back to London soon! 

A postcard from Lisbon and London!

I feel very privileged this month to get two postcards for the price of one! On the front, Liz has drawn a view of the Belém Tower in Lisbon, when she was attending the Urban Sketchers Symposium with the equally famous (in the Sketchercise group, at least!) Portugese Tarts in the foreground. There is a lovely balance between the loose and colourful watercolours and the very delicate pen lines.

Later in the month, Liz went to London so on the back is a drawing of St. Pauls with a cup of tea from Fortnum & Mason's tea room in the foreground. The colourful stamps and the lovely handwriting enhance these wonderful, vibrant images. Thank you so much Liz, for this amazing card!

Oolong Berry Tea and BB's Stamp!

How wonderful it is to receive a "real card" from an artist whose work you've admired but only seen online. Photos can't make up for actually being able to hold her card and of seeing up close how Liz uses pen and watercolour in her own personal style to record her much loved tea and scones. I am full of admiration for her drawing skills, her vibrant colours and the way she composes her sketches and makes the whole tea drinking experience one I wish I was participating in. One day please Liz - if I ever go to Sydney !!

Liz has seemingly tried 57 T2 teas and has only 89 to go!! This one is a new tea Oolong Berry described as "Raspberries combined with green oolong and intense yet delicately flavoured". Who could resist that - especially served in these beautiful teacups - shared with her friend after a rainy day's sketching in a Tearoom called Cockatoo Island.

And I'm now the proud owner of one of BB's stamps.

Introducing Martin Stankewitz

Hi, I am posting from the South of Germany,where I live in a small town named Maulbronn.

First of all I want to say thank you to Katherine Tyrrell, who kindly invited me to the Sketchercise group and to Ronell van Wyk, for starting this postcard project and organising us.

Being a member of Sketchercise is not totally a coincidence for someone with a life long preference for loafing in the woods and then to read comic strips or illustrated books at home afterwards. I tried to do my own drawings from early years on with varying zeal and success.

To spent time at a quiet place somewhere in a beautiful landscape with observations and sketching, drawing or a little painting is a necessity for me and a luxury at the same time.



My preferred media are pen, ink and opaque colours like gouache and oil pastels. I would love to do more charcoal drawings, but unfortunately I have not enough and proper space to store those. That is one of reasons why most of my work is in sketchbooks.

Apart from the outdoor activity I am very interested in monotype printmaking.
My website: www.edition-handdruck.de my blog: www.draw-a-tree.com

Introduction Albrecht Rissler

Postcard from Paris, Cafe Fontaine, self portrait, ball pen, 2009

Hi, I'm Albrecht, living in Heidelberg. I started drawing as a child and I haven't finished since then. I didn't have any choices because there was no talent in other fields at all. All my various professions had to do somehow with drawing or art in general. Finally I ended up as professor at a University of applied sciences, teaching drawing and illustration for 20 years. Now, being retired, I can’t stop. I teach landscape drawing at two private art academies. My studio has everyting I need to work on postcards or on huge sizes on an easel.

I try to take my scetchbooks wherever I go. For me they are dieries and a sort of a labaratory in using all kinds of techniques. These days I'm using the thickest pencil (20B!) I can get, it is absolutely perfect for me even in small scetchbooks.

Scetchbook Heidelberg 2010, Castle, Powder Turret, Graphit 20B

Scetchbook Paris 2009,
Tombstone of the murdered Journalist Victor Noir at the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery

Postcard from Mallorca, Cala S'Almonia 2002, pencil and watercolor


Scetchbook Balcony, Ladybirds, pencil, watercolor, May 2 1990

I send art postcards for many years. I guess I've started in the sixties. I keep swopping self-made cards with lots of friends all over the world. So I'm looking forward to have my collection enriched by this great project
POSTCARD FROM MY WALK

www.risslerart.de
http://drawinglandscape.blogspot.com