A quick comparison

On my flight back home I made the traditional sketch on the plane.

Those are always hit or miss for me, but this time I think I pinned the perspective down quite well, actually.

My method was a mixture of the susual instinctive sketching and what I learned in Civita. Can you spot the vanishing point?

Slightly curved perspective even!

As a comparison, here is the sketch I did on the flight to Rome.

Just winging it

There is always room for improvement, but I think I got a bit better.

Back in Rome after Civita

The workshop in Civita went by way too fast. Luckily, I still had 2 days to spend in beautiful Rome, one of which with Stephanie and some of the workshop participants.

Stephanie lived in Rome for a while, so she knows the city pretty well. She took us to the Pantheon, telling us that it has a nice cupola to sketch.

I thought she meant there was a small cupola in the middle of the building, but in fact the whole place is a huge cupola. Talk about a challenging subject!

I tried to apply what I learned in Civita, and it helped a little, but working with curved lines everywhere really is something else. This is the best I could manage.

Hiding all kinds of mistakes behind ghost people :D

After this, we more than deserved a bit of rest at a nice terrace on Piazza Navona. I know, not the smartest choice. Could there be a more expensive place in Rome? But the place is so beautiful that, really, why not indulge in a piece of pizza there?

Time also for a very simple and minimalistic sketch. A real walk in the park after the Pantheon.

I loved the signs here

The following morning, Stephanie took me to the Quattro Fontane, a very busy crossing with four big beautiful fountains I had never heard of before. I chose to sketch the one of a woman with a swan (Leda maybe?).

I was surprised at how easy it felt compared to what it would have been just a week before.

Tourists and traffic everywhere

I was on my own for the rest of my stay there, walking pretty much aimlessly (like I love to do when exploring a city), catching a few typical Italian sights (Vespa, what else?).

This one was a beautiful bright yellow colour

I challenged myself to another city scene. I couldn't resist this strange-shaped building.

Just need to learn how to combine this with colour now

On my way back to the hotel, I walked through Piazza della Repubblica again, where the Basilica S. Maria degli Angeli i dei Martiri lies. It is wonderfully cool and very pretty inside.

I didn't muster the courage to sketch the place, though, but I quickly managed to capture one of the angel statues inside ; my last sketch in Rome for this time.

It had a Mona Lisa smile

That's it for my latest Italian adventures. I already look forward to my next holiday there!

A week in Civita - a taste of la dolce vita

My week in Civita was not just all work and no play. Actually it was all play even when it was work, but what I mean is that I did get to sketch outside our classes and record a bit of what living in Civita with a small group of sketchers feels like.

We were all staying in apartments that belong to NIAUSI (Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy).

It felt so very Italian to prepare my morning coffee in a cute blue and orange bialetti and take it to the garden where we often convened to eat together or sketch between classes.

It was the cutest bialetti I had ever seen

Tony, who has been living there since he renovated the place with his wife a few decades ago, had around 15 cats (!) and a very cute black ape (litt. bee) that came in very handy when we had to face the bridge back to reality at the end of the workshop.

Spot the kittens

A real life saver

There is a fantastic view on the calanchi, particularly in the early evening when the sky starts to change colours.

View from the turtle terrace

One of the things I always enjoy best is to meet new people, specially if they also have the sketching bug. This group was particularly diverse with a broad palette of ages, nationalities and personalities, which you could also find in the variety of sketches.

Our first lunch all together

One of the participants was called Alan Moore. I got a kick of imagining Alan Moore, the writer, author of comic books like Watchmen, V for Vendetta or From Hell, among us.

This Alan Moore, however, was very different, if only for the fact that he is younger and lacks the huge beard and monster rings.

Deep in thought, thinking of his next creative endeavour

 Alan Moore had a very interesting coconut hat I just had to sketch.

Great things are planned under this hat

It wouldn't be Italy without delicious food and even though Civita is very small, it can boast to have delicious gelatto and very good restaurants, particularly Alma Civita where we had our first and last dinners together as a group.

Sketchbooks were passed around during the whole evening

Such dinners are always bittersweet, as I do get attached to the people and it is always a bit sad that such a fun time comes to an end. I can say it was a very successful week in many ways.

Luckily I still had a couple of days to spend in Rome, where I would have the occasion to sketch with Stephanie and a few other participants (Anne, Morgan and Emiliesa).

A week in Civita - what I learned

What I learned during the workshop in Civita can be summed up in 2 words: a lot!

Pretty vague, I know, but it really is how I feel after this week. Between the heat and what I was learning, some days it felt like my brain was fried. In a good way.

Now to get into details, the two areas I feel I improved on are use of watercolour and my understanding of perspective. Which were the objectives of the whole workshop, so once again: well-done, teacher!

When it comes to watercolour, I always used to wing it, really. On one hand it was more a colouring than painting medium to me, and on another I didn't feel comfortable mixing colours.

Stephanie introduced us to some colours I had never heard of before (alizarin crimson, for example) and how to mix them. We learned how to mix more vibrant greys and also how to paint beautiful light by using initial glazes over our drawings.

My first "aha!"-moment when it comes to light occurred when we sketched in the cave of the Antica Civitas museum. I started with a light glazing, which in this sketch might be too strong in places, and gradually added layers of painting.

This place dates back from Etruscan times

The result is something I have long tried to do and had never quite learned how to achieve. It was a bit laborious, but with practice it gets easier.

In this next picture, for example, I was much more confident with that technique. I think I also slightly improved how I deal with greenery. I'm not quite there yet, but as long as there is improvement, I'm happy.

The arches in Tony's garden were sketched a lot that week

Perspective is the other main subject on which I learned tons. I did have some understanding of perspective before the workshop, but there were still some things that I hadn't quite grasped, in particular the practical applications of some theories.

Stephanie has a gift for explaining this complicated topic in simple terms. For example, I often struggled with how to find the vanishing points and after Stephanie's tips and instructions it seems like the easiest thing to do.

The painting I'm most proud of for the whole week shows how, by combining perspective with a few watercolour tidbits, sketching the inside of a church can be challenging but extremely fun at the same time.

My biggest achievement of the week :D

I might be biased, but I do think I managed to capture something of the spiritual atmosphere of the church.

There was one last element Stephanie tried to teach us, and that was how to do a 180° view. To be honest, I struggled a lot with that and felt a bit discouraged at some point, but then I learned one more valuable thing: to just have fun with my mistakes.

So instead of drowning in self-pity (there was much unhappy moaning, complaining and sighing going on all around, it was quite amusing, really), I decided to turn something that was frustrating me into something I could laugh about and would just be fun.

The church tried to run away from me but failed

As a result I have a funky looking drawing of Piazza S. Donato; not the classic drawing of a quaint Italian town, but my version on how much amusement can be had when you just let yourself have fun with what appears to be a failure at the time.

Civita as seen from the other side of the bridge

A week in Civita - 15 minutes!

One fine morning in Civita, Stephanie gave us a scary prompt: sketch in only 15 minutes!

Scary drill sergeant that she is, she timed everything, allowing us about 5 minutes for our pencil sketches and 10 more for painting.

It was an intimidating exercise at first, but a fun one, too. Being forced to translate a scene to its essential parts was a very beneficial exercise.

1st attempt

Getting better

As you can see, most of my drawings look more like they were made in Morocco than in a small Italian town, but I definitely learned a lot about translating light to my drawings.

This is Morocco, right?

This one became quite abstract

With only 15 minutes to sketch a place, I was forced to find a balance between being methodic and spontaneous, so as to not overthink what I was doing but still being confident in my process.

The results are not always very convincing, but there is always something to learn from them.

Playing with values

A week in Civita - getting to work

Our week in Civita was so packed with new knowledge and sketches that I don't really know where to start. We all had lots to learn, many questions and a big motivation to get to work.

Stephanie first gave us a class on perspective and later on watercolour. Her classes were packed with new information yet simple to understand. Many things made more sense to me.

Our first assignment was sketching a frontal view on Piazza S. Donato. Not yet too complicated, but as with any urban view, the tricky part was to allow enough space to sketch everything.

Piazza S. Donato

Throughout the days, Stephanie took us to different types of views with different challenges, always giving us some pointers or demos on how best to tackle each subject. Everything seems so easy with her.

Civita was pretty peaceful

One of the demos that made it click for me most was this next view. Finding the right colours for the shadows and shapes so that they don't look flat and lifeless can be pretty challenging. Watching Stephanie mix and apply her colours taught me a lot.

Copying the teacher. Not quite there yet, but learned a lot by trying

One thing I learned, for instance, was the difference between shadow and shade, shadow being colder than shade. It's the kind of seemingly simple information that can make a lot of difference in a sketch, in my opinion. In this exercise I tried to apply that, but got a bit carried away.

It doesn't look like it, but tourists kept walking by all the time

There is no shortage of pretty views in Civita. We were spoiled for choice, so good thing Stephanie knows the town like the back of her hand and chose the best spots for us beforehand.

Porta S. Maria, entrance to Civita, seen from inside the town

A week in Civita - my first fashion show

I was forewarned that the bridge to Civita is quite steep, but one thing is to know about it and another is to actually to experience it. Let's just say I was happy to have a backpack and not a big suitcase.

Once I arrived, though, all those efforts were forgotten, the charms of Civita were taking over.

Civita is a beautiful little town in the middle of the calanchi in the province of Viterbo.

This little jewel was founded by the Etruscans more than 2,500 years ago and you can see traces of that culture all over town.

It is quite remote and in constant danger of destruction as its edges fall off, leaving the buildings built on the plateau to crumble.

When I first saw Civita from the bus, I was instantly enchanted. Surrounded by the calanchi, it looked positively dreamy.

As luck would have it, a wedding was celebrated in Civita's church that day (there would be another one during my short stay), so I got to see the very interesting show of people in fancy dresses and suits sweating their way up the bridge.

I have to admit that it felt pretty good to sit in the shade while enjoying this show of Italian elegance.

The bride came up in an ape, though, so she looked fresh and lovely when entering the church.

Riccardo's and Enrica's ape was too cute not to sketch

That day I saw Stephanie again, our teacher for the week, whom I had met in Paraty at last year's USk symposium. She was one of the people I liked the most from the Paraty crowd and it was great to see her again.

The lovely Stephanie, only she's much lovelier in reality

The other participants slowly arrived one after the other. There were people from the US (mainly from Seattle), from the UK and from Switzerland.

All in all a very interesting mix of cultures, ages and skills. Just the kind of surroundings I thrive on and the perfect victims for some lunch and dinner sketches.

Show and tell in the garden with Anne, Suzanna and Marley

Drawing in Rome - pre-Civita sketches

A few weeks ago I went to Italy to attend a workshop held by the amazing Stephanie Bower in Civita di Bagnoregio.

For those who do not know her yet, she is an architectural illustrator from Seattle, an urban sketcher and a great teacher.

Before I arrived in Civita, however, I spent one day in Rome. Last time I was there in the winter and I had just taken up sketching again, but this time, as my skills have improved since, I had even more fun.

I'm not the type of tourist who wants to see everything at all cost. For one thing, I'm on holiday and don't want to get stressed out, and for another I really like to take my time discovering a place, getting lost and finding little treasures.

As I had already seen most sights on my previous trip anyway, I could be even more relaxed about it this time, and since I only had one afternoon, I basically stuck to the broad neighbourhood of my hotel.

That is how I ended up at Porta Pia, where I tried my hand at sketching the whole place. I definitely think that my skills have improved lately, if I say so myself, and I know that on my last trip to Rome I would not even had tried to sketch this, so I was pretty pleased with this little sketch.

That is so Rome: no need for a plan, you will always find something interesting to see or sketch

I cannot express how lovely it was to be able to walk and sketch in the sun. The weather in Luxembourg has been pretty erratic, so the stable heat and sunshine of Italy was a very welcome change.

In the early evening, I somehow arrived at Piazza della Repubblica, where I fell in love with the arcades and sat down for a coffee and another sketch, wondering all along if this exercise would get any easier after my stay in Civita.

I loved these huge round lamps

I didn't get to sketch these particular arcades again on my trip so I could compare, though. Maybe next time.