Sketching Portugal: Keeping a Travel Sketchbook

1. Welcome!: Have you ever wondered how to keep a travel sketch book, how to travel more mindfully and record your souvenirs during your travels? Hello, I'm Barbara Lull. I'm an architect and urban sketcher, and author of already three books with urban sketches, two in Japan and one in Brussels. And now I'm making a book with urban sketches in Portugal. So this course will all be about sketching on site ban sketching, and I will show you how I organize myself and how I choose my subjects, and how I organize myself also to travel light with my special travel sketching equipment. I hope you enjoy it. 2. Class Project Travel Sketchbook: So as a class project, I invite you to grab your sketchbook and your little seat and your materials and to go and sketch outside. Of course, you don't have to travel and go to any spectacular place. You can also just travel outside in your neighborhood. So, that's the inconvenience of being in a great very busy city, very nice to sketch, but a lot of noise. So you don't need to go to such a city. You can just travel around your neighborhood and sketch outside and maybe with a couple of friends that's the nicest when you're with some friends, and just sketch whatever you want. Like you see in the class, sometimes I sketch a tree, sometimes I sketch a building, sometimes I sketch tiles. It doesn't have to be spectacular. Just sketch what you find interesting and what you like. That's the most important one because it's yours neews. So when you have a sketch ready, please create the project in the project a resources tab on the platform, and don't hesitate to go and look at what other people are making. It's always very inspiring. I look forward to seeing your sketches. 3. Materials For Travel Sketching: Hello, welcome to the materials video. In this video, I want to show you what I take with me to travel sketching. So I have two sizes of sketch books that I take with me. Make sure if you want to watercolor to take good watercolor paper sketchbook and think about which size you like to take. So this is a quite small one, and then I take also a bigger one, which has accordion format, so I can make long sketches. And then I take with me a light comfortable chair because you want to sit, and it has to be light and small. If you want to put it in your bag, this fits in my backpack. But if you want to sit more comfortably, you might want to take a bigger chair with you. And then I have my pocket palettes. So these are very small palettes in aluminium, very small, and I put them in a small pouch like this. And Then this is possible to wear as a handbag on my shoulder. And it has room also for my travel brushes here with rubber bands and for some pens and some pencils and my clips. And then I have travel brushes like this one. And I also have this pouch to take normal brushes. I still find it any way more comfortable to sketch with normal brushes. And this bamboo roller protects my brushes, and I put also pencils in it. It's very handy and also very light. And I take watercolor pencils with me and normal color pencils also, because I want to add more and more color pencil in my watercolors. Then I have normal graphite pencil, and I also like to use from time to time this RCo it's Portuguese. Water soluble graphite. I also have videos on my YouTube channel where I show you how I use it. Of course, I have binder clips to keep my sketchbook open. And I have water spray. I like to use it sometimes to wet my page, sometimes or to wet my palette, especially when it's very hot, and I have this foldable water bucket. I went to empty it so I can show you how I fold it. I can fold it like this and becomes very flat. And then I have also this to roll my pencils in it. It's full of colors I never use. But I like to take it with me because I want to try it. Of course, if you want to have normal pencils, you need a sharpener. So this is very handy. And what else do I have? Yes, very important. Cloth to clean up if you make a mess or to dab your brushes, if you want to absorb water or paint. I clean the brush, I press it hard, and I can absorb the paint. I showed you all the materials, and now I will show you how I start my sketchbook. I have two sketchbooks, I take to Portugal, and I start a third one. And I will show you how I start a sketchbook. In each front page of a travel sketchbook, I will draw the map of where I'm going. So this is Portugal, here is Spain, and I like to collect some old stems. These are old stems from Portugal. And then I like to indicate where I'm going with the cities, the rivers. And the sea, the ocean. And then I will sketch the materials I use for the moment. So these are my pocket palettes. I use a green, blue one and some black and gray I made. And then here is red, orange, yellow, brown one, and the colors are written here. You can find it in the attachments of the class. That's a foldable water bucket, my chair. So this is not on scale. My chair is not that small, but it's small anyway. Then I take binder clips. I take brushes. This is a new Korean brush I bought. And this is my travel brush. And of course, all my brushes are not there. But then I also draw my sketching material. I like to use some ballpoint pen. I like to use this micron secura fine liner. Then I also like to use color pencils. This is a watercolor pencil. This is a normal color pencil. Then this is a black watercolor pencil. And this is my usual graphite black win pencil. So, that's it. You can also find how I make these sketches on my YouTube channel. Please subscribe if you want to see more free tutorials. But let's dive into the class now. I'm curious to see what you sketch on your first pages of the sketch books. Also, don't forget to put your name, your telephone number. So if it gets lost, some nice person can give it back to you. 4. Filling the First Page: L et me show you how I finish this first sketchbook page. When I start a new sketchbook, I always draw on the first page, my art supplies that I use at that moment. Here are most of the art supplies that I take on a trip on this trip. I have the palettes, and I add the clips and my favorite travel brush by Escoda, and then I will when I finish the drawings, add some water color to them. This is my favorite black aranas watercolor pencil, and I draw these in pencil. So this is my Sakura fine liner that I like to draw with. And when you look closely at the page, you see my lines are very wobbly. So when you think you can't draw because you can't draw a straight line, don't worry because wobbly lines are fantastic as well, and there is room for all kinds of lines in the art world. This Crisma pencil are a series of pencils. I have left from my student times. Unfortunately, this brand is not made anymore in this configuration. There still exists some chrisma pencils with another design, and I think it's Japanese and there are fantastic pencils, I think. They have these wooden colored ones, which are normal color pencil, and these blue colored ones are watercolor pencils. So to finish this drawing, I add my foldable water bucket. This is very handy when you're on a trip because it's totally flat when it's folded. And then I will also add my chair. It's a very small chair. And I add it in this corner because there's not much page left. And of course, it's not scaled to the same size as the pencil. My chair is much bigger than my pencil, but it's the freedom of the artist. You draw the way you like, and you don't need to justify yourself. So I add some watercolor to the sketches and then we can leave for our trip because then my sketchbook page is ready. So see you on our trip and have fun. And of course, you can also travel in your own neighborhood. You don't have to go abroad to take this class, and also if you don't like to watercolor or draw on paper and you prefer digital drawing. You can also do this class with the iPad. Feel free to draw with whatever materials you like. Oh. The map was done before already, and you can find on my YouTube channel, you can find a video of me drawing the map and painting the pocket palettes. You will find s book page in the res of the class. 5. Sketching Lagos: On Choosing What to Sketch: So welcome to sketching with me in Lagos, a beautiful haceranda tree. It's really an amazing tree with beautiful purple flowers, and I really thought, Oh, wow, I have to sketch that. And that's how I mostly choose what I want to sketch is when I have this wow feeling, and I think I must have this in my sketch So these flowers are very important. Of course, it's the main reason I want to sketch this. So I made the page wet with water spray and splash the purple flowers on the wet page. As purple, I use rows of ultramarine, and I add some shell pink to make it more lively, but you can, of course, mix your own purple with beautiful red and ultramarine blue or another transparent blue. And then I will paint the branches. Look very well in what direction the branches are going and how thick they are, so you can make it look natural. For the branches, I use the beautifully granulating brown tigers Ignine by Daniel Smith, and I will add some water soluble graphite in it. It's a graphite paste made by Varco Portugal so it's Portuguese. And this graphite paste is very granulating. And if you add it in watercolor, it really adds a great texture in the watercolor. So again, now I sketch the tree trunk, and I look in what direction the trunk and the branches are going. I use a long sable, regular brush, and it's very long, natural hair. It holds up a lot of water and paint, and I hold it quite vertically so I can have a good control over the tip of the brush to make it go where I want to go. To help you have control over the tip of the brush. You can keep your pinky finger on the page while you hold the brush over your page. And so you can control the pressure better. Look well in what direction the branches are going and how thin they are in the end. In the end, the branches are really skinny and thin. If it's not possible to do this with the brush, you can also, of, make them with a simple pencil, color pencil or a graphite pencil. I force myself to keep this quite simple and suggest a pavement and some flowers on the ground, and then we will sketch the house behind it. I finished the ends of the thin branches in pencil. Look well in what direction. They are going they're going a bit down towards the ground. They're going a bit down towards the ground because they're very skinny, and the graphite pencil makes it much easier to draw skinny branches than it is with the brush. Now, I paint the house. I draw first with the brush because I wanted to stay in the background and I use titanium buff. Titanium buff is a nice base color by Daniel Smith. It's really sandy color, so it's perfect for the natural stone of the house. So I first draw with the brush, and then I will add some textured lines with the pencil to make the lines a bit stronger. But drawing with the brush makes me concentrate much better, and it's much more fun for me. So now I draw with the pencil in the wet paint. And I draw the balcony with a graphite pencil. I tried to suggest the beautiful ironwork of the balcony, but without really detailing it too stiffly. I just want to suggest that it's a beautiful ironwork balcony. So I want to be careful not to make the house go into the tree too much because the house must stay on the background behind the tree. And I will not detail all the windows. I will detail only one beautiful window on the first floor on the balcony because the other ones are behind the tree. In reality, there are other windows more visible, but I simplify this sketch. Again, we are not copy machines. We just want to have fun and make a nice sketch. So it doesn't really matter if it's not totally correct. The doors on the ground floor from the shop are not beautiful, so I won't detail them. I will only make a shadow in them for the shadow in the windows. As it's daytime, it's quite dark. I mean, it's dark inside the house, and I use my shadow cray, which is my mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent orange. Now, I will sketch the tiles in the facade, and to suggest the tiles in the facade. I will make the paper a bit wet first, randomly wet, not totally wet. And then I will suggest the tiles by thin blue lines in the partially wet paper. They structure the facade. I use ultramarine blue and seran blue, and I splash a bit also different kinds of blue. When I splash, I hold my finger over the window because I don't want any splash tiles in the window. And I try not to go too much over the flowers. I also add some quit blue, and I vary the intensity of the colors and of the linework to make the sketch exciting and h. And I also draw a bit with watercolor pencil in the wet paints. When you make a sketch with a foreground and a background, like here, the tree is in the foreground and building is in the background. Be careful that the foreground stays in the foreground. So I don't want to sketch over the branches and the flowers with my building. Otherwise, the building will mingle with the tree, and you won't see what is in front of what. And at last, don't forget your shadows. 6. Sketching Evora : On Storytelling: Sketching outside is a challenge. Almost every artist I know often feels frustration and uncertainty with the act of sketching outside and showing his work and making a book. I worry about whether people will like what I make, and I worry about whether you will like the videos and learn something, and also about the outcome of my book, of course. But the more you do it, the better your drawings will get, so please don't really watch the videos, but grab your sketchbook and do it. Draw, paint, play, and enjoy. You don't need to go abroad. Sketching your neighborhood is fun as well. I do it often. The first challenge is the choice of what to draw. Of course, I think about what story I want to tell, like what is typical of the place, where I am now, and what do I like about the place. Of course, if you sketch outside, you have to think about sitting somewhere where you are safe. Here I sit next to a car. It's a bit smelly and not so romantic the car park spot. But I'm safe and I have a nice view. So please be careful where you go and sit down so you don't get any accidents. And then you choose what story you want to tell on your page as you start your travel sketch book. What's typical about the place you visit and what do you like? I only sketch things I like because when I try to sketch something I don't really like, I don't have fun, and I don't make a good sketch. Have fun. To avoid overwhelm and to force myself to concentrate on the subject. I started this drawing with the brush and with watercolor. And with the focal point, this is the very typical arcade in yellow och color. And this is a very typical color in vera. And also this type of arcade is a very typical piece of architecture, which I loved very much as soon as I saw it because it's a nice impressive site, and it's also with impressive shadows. So I started drawing with the brush, and it forces myself to concentrate because, of course, you can't erase it. And when I'm tired of painting, I will add some pencil lines either in graphite pencil or in pencil with colors like watercolor pencil or plain color pencil. So choose your subject carefully and then observe carefully in what directions the lines are going and put that onto your paper. The mechanism of drawing with the brush is similar. You just look in what direction, the lines are going without worrying about perspective. So again, just look in what directions the lines are going. I'm not drawing a building with the arcades, door, roof, window. I'm just drawing a bunch of lines. So look at any subject you want to draw, a building or a tree, just as a bunch of lines, and then it makes it more fun. Here, I'm working for a book, so I choose some quite realistic colors. But again, we're not a copy machine. It's okay if it's not quite correct, and it's okay if it's not the same colors. Just choose the colors you like, the colors you have in your palette, and there's no police coming to check if everything is correct. You're not a copy machine, you're just drawing and having fun. All these lines are the edges of the different object that compose the building. Start anywhere you like. I'm always starting with the part of the subject that is my focal point, the part of the subject that interests me most. Here it was the arcade. I start with the arcade. If it would have been the roof, I would have started with the roof. Start anywhere you like. Look in what directions the lines are going. So if you want to draw with your brush, be sure to choose a brush with a nice point, and if you want control over the thickness of your brush lines, you hold your brush vertically, and if you want a broad line, you push a bit more on it. If you want a fine line, you hold your brush vertically and just touch the paper with the very tip of your brush. So let's recap. What's the key take from this lesson? I try to keep it short sweet and simple. Just the main things which interest me in the sketch and leave out of the sketch what you don't really like to draw or what you find too difficult or complicated. Draw what you like. Observe carefully in what directions the lines are going and how long is one line compared to another line. Make fine lines, and make thick lines, make a variation in lines. And look where is the light and where is the shadow. Choose your favorite colors you will use on the page and choose the story you want to tell. And still when lasting, pay a lot of attention to your shadows. It's so important to attract the eyes to your focal point for your storytelling. 7. Sketching Mertola Thumbnail 1 : Simplify to Amplify: Today, I will sketch in Mert in Alango. Mert is such a fine village. I think it's a perfect place to make some tum nail sketches. So I make a Tump Nail page to try to catch the atmosphere. It's a beautiful and historic town located at the Gagliana River. If you want to make a temnil page, like I explain in my other class about temp nails, specifically, I try to choose the colors for all the tempnils I will put on the page. I want to repeat some of the colors in each tum nail to make sure the page will look good and that temp nails will fit together and will be connected together by the cos. So in a tamp nail, it's best to simplify. If you simplify, you amplify your subject. Otherwise, the eye doesn't know where to look in that small image. So I challenge myself. I simplify as much as possible and draw and paint at the same time, again to avoid overwhelm and to force myself to concentrate. So this is a very beautiful yellow house. And in the background, I see the natural area, the mountains with a village behind and a lot of forest. And in the small tem Nail, I want, of course, people to look at the house. So I start painting the yellow house, and to create some depth. I paint the background in quite cool green. Simplifying can be difficult. Try to find the essence of the subject you want to draw. What do you like most about the subject and start with what you like most to make sure you don't miss it. Also think where is the light. Try to capture it with the shadows and shadows will attract the eye to the main subject. In these thumbnails, I will draw and paint at the same time. I try also to draw with my brush. First I paint, then I draw it pencil. And when you draw in the fresh paint with the pencil, it takes some paint along the page and makes nice colored lines, which can be very beautiful. I like to do this because it also forces myself to focus and to be more mindful in a more playful way. So I start with the main shape of the sketch, my focus point, the yellow house, and it's one of my favorite colors, yellow, and then orange for the roof. The orange is burnt sienna or light red. So the main subject, the small house is brightly yellow ochre. The green background is cool, green earth color to push it to the background, the warm and bright colors, the orange, Pontiana red and yellow, yellow ochre, come to the forefront. And the green vegetation of the hills behind Myrt are important in the sketch to give it atmosphere of this village with all the nature around it, but I want to push it to the backgrounds. To end this video, some tips. Don't make all the windows the same in your sketch. Use enough paint and water to have nice washes and let them flow into each other if it's possible. If you want to try on a separate page first, if you want to exercise your washes. But in such a small, a wash will be kept quite simple. Experiment with some tees, by splashing. Make some splashes of color on your paper if you're afraid to your paper, and don't be afraid. It's just paper. And if the drawing doesn't go the way you want and you find it ugly, just continue anyway. Most of the time, we're the only ones to find our drawing ugly, and other ones will find it beautiful. Try to have fun. What also helps to bring a subject to the foreground, your main subject, and to attract attention to it is to add more details than in other parts of the drawing. In this yellow house, I pay a lot of attention also to the windows and to detail some tiles on the roof. And the windows will to the house. I add some colors to the windows, and I pay attention to add some details to the window frames. The detailing and the sharpness of your lines and of your shadows will the subject to the foregrounds. So the background will automatically be less detailed and cooler. One of the difficulties I have also is to know when to stop. I think a lot of artists share the difficulty because when you start to like a sketch or painting, you just want to continue because then it starts to be really fun. And the difficulties tend to know when to stop. I have to force myself to stop when I really like the sketch because it happened a lot of times that I overdo it and that I end up ruining it and not liking it anymore. And there's nothing more frustrating. So know when to stop when you really like your sketch, just stop and leave it as it is. We 8. Sketching Mertola Thumbnail 2 : Simplify to Amplify: Myrt Town hall is a particular building. I like the details which make it look a bit like a palace, big windows and a beautiful balcony. But I found it to be a difficult building. When you sketch a very difficult building, a good tip is to start with the vertical lines and vertical lines will give you some structure to hold on to. The house on the right is not the main subject, so I simplify it to attract attention to the town hall building. Again, the main subject should be a bit more detailed than the rest to attract the attention. The roof line of that house and also the pavement are leading the eyes to the town hall. Pay attention to your layout. When you start sketching. Dividing your tumnil sketch in thirds will give you an interesting layout. Don't place your main subject right in the middle. Make a variation in intensity in washes and in lines. So your lines look more and your painting will look less flat. You can also repeat your favorite colors to link the tumbnils together. Look what color you used in your previous sketch. And mainly, let's not take ourselves too seriously. Otherwise, it will get too stressful and you won't have fun. And the main part of this sketching activity is to have fun. O Some tips. If you make a mistake in watercolor, you have several possibilities of reaction. When the paint is still wet, you can absorb the paint with the dried brush, clean the brush, press it in the tissue, and absorb paint with the clean dried hairs of the brush. You can also the wet paint with the tissue and continue painting. If you notice the mistake when the paint is dry, you can try to erase it with a synthetic brush. A synthetic hair brush is stronger to rub the paper. But make sure to test if your paper supports this rubbing of the paper. You don't want to damage it. If you do this with your sable brush, also, you will damage it. The sable brush is too fragile and too soft. Be careful not to damage your paper because afterwards, you have difficulties to continue sketching. You can also just ignore the mistake and continue painting over it. Usually, it will come out okay when your painting is finished, and also very important, usually, you're the only one to see that there is a mistake or to find that it is a mistake. Most of people don't notice it. Some other tips to add some extra texture to your drawing like I did with the balcony, draw with watercolor pencil in the wet paint. O. One of the most difficult parts of this sketch I find is the roof of the townhall building. So Gutrick, if you find something difficult is not to draw it, of course, but not drawing the roof of the building is a bit weird. So I suggest the roof of the building, and I will try not to detail it too much. So I wouldn't attract the attention to it. I want people to look at the balcony and that the windows of the building, the window, which is open, will attract the eye. And I will detail the balcony in a beautiful red. So I will attract the eye to the window and the balcony. And I hope people will not look too much at the roof. This diagonal sable brush I use here for the roof is one of my favorite brushes. It's a sword shaped brush, and it's flat. It's not round shaped. So what it does is that when I tilt it sideways, it helps me to make a quick straight line, like I did here with the roof. It gives me a thin straight line by holding it tilted against the paper. And when I hold it flat against the paper, It can make nice small washes. What I did here with the roof, with the edges of the roof is to make them wet with the washes of the sky and the trees next to it. I did that to make the roof fade away a bit against the sky. It would be less detailed and it would go a bit to the background. That way, also I link the roof and the building to the background to the sky, the trees, and everything around it. And again, like I said in the previous stump nail, the worst mistake you can do is to overdo your sketch. The most difficult part is to stop on time. So just stop when you start to like your sketch. 9. Sketching Mertola 3 : "Negative" Painting: On the page next to these dump nails, I decide to use the whole page to sketch this wonderful little chapel on the walls of Myrt because it's a very impressive view. It's one of the most impressive views in Myrt. It's a great building with a view from the top of the streets. Myrt is very hilly. So it's a great view from the top of the street with a great contrast of this white building against the river in the background and the hills in the background and houses in the background. So in this sketch, I focus on the perception of light and shadows and because the building is white, the only way to paint it is to paint the shadows. So it's also what we call a negative painting, which means that the shape of the white building will appear clearly when I paint the shadows and when I paint the surroundings. So the places where the sun hits the building will be totally white. This means that it's the white of the paper and it's not painted at all. I made the sketch in watercolor pencil because I don't want to see black lines for that building and the house next to it. And the watercolor pencil dissolves when I paint the watercolor over it. After finishing the sketch, I immediately start painting the background. For the background hills, I use different kinds of green. There's different kinds of vegetation, different kinds of trees which have different kinds of green. In general, the background will be less detailed of course than the foreground. So in this wash, I made the paper wet first, and then I put the green paint different kinds of green on the wet page. So they will flow into each other. In general, parts that are further away, I tried to use color green like green Earth, which has more blue in it and trees that are closer by and more dominant, we have warmer green with more yellow in it. So I let the greens flow into each other, and I also paint the roof of the house on the right and let it touch the still wet background, so it will flow a bit into the green, so they will be linked together. I like to see different colors flow into each other. I use synthetic brush. By Skoda, and this is a synthetic brush with very fine tip, but it's anyway a quite big brush, so it holds a lot of water and paint. I can paint a nice background wash. Thanks to the fine tip, I can paint carefully around the difficult shape of of the building. And when I paint around the roof of the building, the shapes of the roof will stand out because they stay white. Oh. So the shape of the building appears by painting the vegetation in the background, and that's what's meant by negative painting really. Negative painting is a technique in the painter focuses on painting the spaces around the subject than the subject. This approach helps to define the edges and the shapes of the subject by highlighting the contrast between the background and the subject. Essentially, the negative space, which is the background or the area around the subject is painted to make the positive space, which is a subject stand out. Without shadow, our drawing has no light, and the shapes of the building will not be visible. As soon as I bring the shadows in the sketch, the drawing starts to light up. A tip about shadows. If there's no sunlight, the shadows are harder to see, but the natural light anyway outside always comes from above because the sun is still there above the clouds. For the greenery, just next to the walls of the chapel, I add some per green to make it even to make the chapel stand out a bit more. So now I see that watercolor pencil I used to make the sketch of the building is dissolving with the watercolor. And I wanted this effect because I didn't want to see the black lines of a pencil drawing for this chapel. So if you want more light in your painting, you should go darker in your shadows. Forget that the painting becomes lighter when the watercolor dries. For the river next to the building, I just made the paper wet, and this made the green of the trees dissolve a bit into the wetness of the paper. So that gives an impression of water, I think, with reflection of the green inside. For the shadows of the white chapel, I used different kinds of blue. If you put too much paint, you can absorb excess paint by drying your brush in a tissue and by absorbing with the dry hair, the excess paint and water of your paper. Now, I will give you some extra tips. You can add watercolor pencil, and if you use it in the wet paint on the wet paper, you will get nicely textured lines. To make the white buildings stand out, you can make it surroundings. The background will be darker. The green trees can be darkened with darker green or with gray. And if you want to mix colors together, it's best to use transparent colors to mix together to avoid a muddy water color. The transparency of the paint is indicated on the tubes or on the pants. So don't be afraid to go dark to make the shapes pop out. Make a variation in the value in your shadows, observe what you see, some are darker than others. Use enough paint and water to have an ice wash. Don't be afraid to experiment. It's just paper, so don't be afraid to have fun. And if your watercolor sketch doesn't turn out like you want, you can just start a new one. 10. Sketching Lisbon Tiles: Now I'm in Lisbon and Lisbon is full of fantastic buildings and impressive views. Of course, I want to try to sketch something of that. But travel sketch book doesn't need to be filled with all these impressive views and complicated buildings. You can also fill it with smaller objects like Lisbon is full of fantastic tiles, the Azulos, and I want to sketch some of them. So I want to sketch one now in this video. And later, I want to sketch teacup because these tiles I sketch now is facade of beautiful coffee shop where they also have nice tea. And your travel sketch book can also be filled with all these kinds of objects. Like if you don't want to sketch a complicated building, you can just sketch a window or a door, you find beautiful. And drawing smaller objects is also perfect for a travel journal. It's more quick and easier. The main purpose of sketching in a travel sketch book is to sketch what you like to see and is to sketch what you find interesting and what makes you happy. So what are your travel memories? My travel memories are made of these little pleasures, beautiful tiles or other details or these tea and coffee break. I love the Portuguese styles everywhere. And as we're having this coffee and tea break, I decided to sketch the tiles of this beautiful coffee place. I thought it would be simple, but it took some time for me to figure out the logic of the geometrical composition of these tiles. So I had to go close by to study them. So there's a little part of a video missing. I hope you don't mind. So first, I drew a light pencil grade of tiles on my page, and then I painted the blue and green squares. And finally, I add the black lines in watercolor pencil because I love how the watercolor pencil dissolves in the wet paint. And of course, I add slashes. I added splashes from the beginning because it takes away the fear of making my sketchbook page dirty. Splashes are fun, of course, but not only fun. They connect the different elements of the painting together and add a playful looseness to the sketches. When everything was, I add the white lines with a pen. The next video, I show you how I painted the A 11. Sketching a Lisbon Tea Cup: Those of you who know me, know. I love to sketch tea cups, but also coffee cups. I did this cappuccino cup last time, but I didn't film it and it's in color pencil because I want to explore some color pencil. In one of the next videos, I will show you how I make the color pencil cup. But now I will sketch this t and it will be in watercolor. So I start with sketch, and then I add the shadows. And then afterwards, I add the color of the mark and of the tea. Pay attention to the proportions of the cup and pay attention to what direction the lines are going and try to sketch what you see. As a shadow color, I again a some gray mixture I made with ultramarine blue and transparent orange, and look carefully where is the shadow of your object, and pay attention also to attach the shadow to your object. I'm not waiting until the shadow is dry. I immediately add the color of the cup because I want the colors to flow into each other. And I add different kinds of colors plashes also to make a variation in the color wash. So as the t is not dry either, I leave white space between the color of the cup and the t because I don't want the t to flow into the color of the cup. I just want the shadow color to flow into the t and into the color of the cup. Don't worry too much about using very realistic colors. Of course, I use the colors I like. Now I add some pink in the t, why not? Anyway, use the colors you like, and these color choices will also determine your style. 12. Sketching Lisbon Houses: Hello again. Welcome to Lisbon. So this is a great spot I found in Lisbon. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world and second oldest European capital city after Athens. And finding a nice, calm, safe sketch spot in Lisbon is really not easy. So this is a safe spot away from the cars. Be careful to sit anywhere you don't disturb the traffic. So you don't endanger yourself. And also somewhere, not in the middle of a pavement where you disturb the people passing by, so you can better enjoy your sketch. This is a lovely view with a view to the river in Hilly Lisbon, with lovely colored houses, old houses, and a lovely house with tiles and a wonderful old tree. So it has about everything I like about Lisbon. I want it especially ours with tiles to show you a way of simplifying tiles in the architecture. So I first make some spots on the page wet, not everything. And then I draw the lines in the direction where are the joints of the tiles with the color of the tiles, and I use different shades of blue, ultramarine blue, turquoise, and different intensities of blue to suggest the very ornamental side of the tiles. I try also not to make everything the same and not everything of the same intensity. So it wouldn't look too flat. Also, don't forget your shadows. I use again my shadow gray mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent orange. Here I have different houses. So different windows, and I also try to make different types of windows with different colors. I suggest some different types of activity inside the house. A lot of artists start to paint immediately without preliminary sketch, and I like to do that because it forces myself to concentrate well. You can't erase it. If you make a mistake while you sketch with your brush, the best way to correct it is to put immediately fresh water on it to try to dissolve the paint. When you have a complex scene, the best thing you can do, I think, according to me, is to just start with what you like most in the sketch. According if your left or right handed, start to the left or to the right, if you want to sketching watercolor, so you don't sm the page. I add an open window also to suggest that somebody's home. It makes the house more dynamic. Then what I liked. Also in this view is, of course, the fantastic old tree in front of one of the houses. It's an amazing old tree. I use this soft graphite pencil to make it quite rough, and then I splash different kinds of green to suggest the leaves. I also always add some torquis in my green because I find it refreshing color. The tree is really huge. Actually, there are several trees. When you make a complex sketch, try to look at it in an abstract way. In what direction are the lines going and which line is in front of the other. What is on the foreground, what is on the background, and, what is on the foreground, B what is on the foreground is in front of the rest. The foreground here is a white building just on the right of this scenery. But that's not really the main subject, so I make it quite simple. And the tree is behind it. I disappears next to that line of the edge of that building to the right. So by painting the tree and by painting the yellow house behind the tree, that building will appear. When you draw a tree, look well in what direction the lines are going of the branches and the tree trunks and try to follow all the curves in the branches and try to have the proportion of your tree correctly. So the tree would be recognizable. Try also to make a variation in intensity of your lines and a variation in thickness of your lines, especially if you draw a tree, so that would look more natural and more interesting. The yellow houses behind the tree and the umbrella of the little market are a bit to the background of the tree. So I won't detail them too much. But they're really lovely yellow. I love all the colors in Lisbon. But again, if you don't have these colors in your palette, just use your favorite colors which you have in your palette. I add also some people, and then I will add the houses which are between my scenery and the river. But I will leave them simple with pencil lines. I won't color them because otherwise, I think it will distract the view of what I wanted to sketch. So what is important for me in this sketch of the tree and the people and also these beautiful colored houses, and then also the river in the background. So I put a light blue color for the river. I leave it quite light blue because it's in the background, and I had some colored spots on the horizon line to suggest the other side of the river. When you want to sketch a complex scenery, try to see for yourself what story you want to tell and what is important for you in the sketch, and try to simplify that. And then I finish with some extra splashes and these splashes suggest the activity of the c and also these splashes connect all the different elements in the painting together. So one other way to simplify these old houses, when you have these beautiful balconies is, I think you noticed, I just suggest some curls going anyway. I don't really draw them correctly. There are p of ways to simplify things. You can also draw just a piece of a window. You don't have to draw all the windows. And anyway, the eyes will correct and complete the sketches. So I hope you like this sketch and tell me if you have any questions. And also, of course, you don't need to sketch the same things as me. You can just try to apply this way of sketching to you like to sketch. The main part of this sketch is to experiment and to and see what you make out of it. H 13. Sketching a Natural Landscape: Algarve Beach Cliffs: Hello. This is Barbara ill. We're in Algave, Portugal, and I will paint now in my sketchbook, the Bagel sea cave here behind me on the steel level. It's a wonderful sea cave, which is accessible by Boat, if you want to. But for the moment, I will sketch it from here. I'm not going down there. And behind, you see the other cliffs with Bena gel in the background. So before we start, I want to give you some attention points for the layout because this is a very vast scenery, so you quickly get overwhelmed. So for the layout, I will put the sea level on one third of the page. And then I have a lot of sea, and I have the cliffs in the painting, and I put this wonderful pine tree in the foreground. And maybe I move things around a bit because this is my small sketchbook, so I squeeze a bit what I find interesting and what doesn't fit on the page, doesn't fit on the page. You control everything. This natural scenery will also be first drawn in watercolor pencil because I don't want to see much black lines in this natural sketch. In such an impressive scene, it's very challenging to create some depth and to have foreground middle ground and background. It's good to plan your composition. Sketch your composition lightly, plan where a ground middle ground and background. Here I have a tree in the foreground, and then I have these cliffs and further away background, and the cave is the middle ground. So then I start with the washes with the background, I paint the sky and the sea and already some green of the tree in the sky. And I give the sea the same colors as the sky because the sky is reflecting in the sea. Then I will add the washes of the tips. This is a typically watercolor where I will build up several layers and go in more and more detailed for some elements. And the foreground elements will be much stronger than the background elements. These several washes will transition from very light in the background to darker in the foreground. And in the foreground, I will use stronger and warmer colors. I throw the branches of the great pine tree in the wet paint in water soluble graphite pencil to make it stand out in the foreground and to make it stand out in the foreground, it should be strong and bold. So it's obvious that the tree is just standing in front of me. And I tilt the pencil to make thicker pencil lines. For the tree, look in what direction the branches are going and the tree trunk and how thick the tree trunk is compared to your branches. Obviously, the trunk should be thicker and the branches become the higher we go. So the extremities of the branches should be thinner than branches which are closer to the tree trunk. I paint the cliffs with a mixture of iron from Daniel Smith and raw amber. And I add several green spots for the vegetation. I used the same tiger's ignine for the tree trunk. It's a nicely granulating brown cool brown from Daniel Smith. And then to make the cliffs impressive, I will have to add some shadows. You see the water color becomes lighter when it dries. The shadows of the caves are very important to texture the painting. I use my usual shadow mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent orange. If you don't shadow the cave, you won't see it in the painting, then it will look quite flat. O. So I slowly built up my painting layer by layer. I look what intensities the color have and where are the shadows in the vegetation. And this building up layer by layer is kind of a typical way to work watercolor for these kind of natural landscapes. And I add some color pencil for the shapes of the cliffs. Otherwise, the shapes are not visible very well. And these cliffs have very typical shapes. So I want to make them stand out. So this is a classic so this is a classic color pencil, not a watercolor pencil, so the color doesn't dissolve when it gets wet. The sea has very strong color because it's sunny with blue sky. So it's kind of different shades of blue. This turquoise blue and ultramarine blue. And as the water color has dried, it became less intense. So I had another layer of blue to make it stronger again. It's time to add some splashes and these splashes add some extra texture. And then now as the sky has dried, I add some details in the pine tree, and I use a flat brush to sketch these needles. I just tap with the side of the brush on the paper, and that makes small little lines. And now I add some finer branches with a regular graphite pencil. These pine trees are very typical for the area. So look in what direction. All the branches are going and try to render the tree in a natural way. So the branches are quite wiggly, as you might say. So I want to make them like looking natural. So I try not to make them too stiff. The tree has dried, and it became a bit too light. So I add another layer of this tiger's eigine color. And also look how thick the trunk and the branches are. And as you come on top of the tree, the branches and the trunk become less thick. I also splash some grain in the tree to suggest there are more needles and to suggest some more vegetation. So you see here different ways to create depth. So you have atmospheric perspective with color gradation and value contrast. What is farther away is less strong and cooler, and then you have diminishing sizes. So linear perspective, so the houses and the trees which are further away are smaller. Then you have detail and texture. So what is closer by will be more textured and more detailed. You have the foreground detail of the tree. So the tree is stronger and more textured and more detailed than everything in the background. You can also play with edges, have hard edges and soft edges. So the tree has sharp defined edges with the needles and the trunk and the branches, and what is behind has softer edges. So that means that they are not well defined and a bit diluted because they are more in a distance. And then you have the color temperature. So the cliffs in the foreground are more yellow and warmer than the cliffs in the background. So to enhance the sizes and the greatness of the cliffs, I need to add some human activity and human objects. So I will add now with a pencil, some people on the cliffs. And I will also add with the graphite pencil, some people in boats on the sea near the cliffs. And these human subjects will give a size to the scenery. That's also very handy when you draw a building to put people next to it to show the size of what you draw. So I'm curious what you will make in your sketchbook. You can also tag me on Instagram at Barbara Well, so I can share your artwork, and it's always very inspiring to see what everyone is making. Enjoy and have fun. 14. Sketching a Windmill and an Old Tree: On Vegetation: Hello. So now we're in Algara in the beautiful village of Otis. I hope I pronounce it correctly. And this is the Windmill I will sketch with the houses, and I will also take this beautiful cork oak tree with it in my sketch. It's very windy, so I hope that the camera doesn't move too much. Enjoy. Etching outside is really a challenge. Here, I have a comfortable bench to sit, but it's really terribly windy. I think you see everything moving a lot. But the view is amazing, and this beautiful windmill is very typically Portuguese, I think, so it will definitely end up in my book. I made first quick watercolor sketch. I mean, with watercolor pencil because the windmill is so beautifully white. So I don't want any black lines, and I start with the grass. I make the greens of the grass flow on the page. I leave everything freely flowing underneath. So this is again a negative painting to paint the white building, I paint around the building. And the white of the building is the white of the paper. I will shadows later to make it look round. So for this blue sky, it's really amazing today. I use cerlian blue and french turmarine blue, and I try to make not the whole sky of the same intensity. Otherwise, it will look quite flat. So I make the blue a bit darker around the windmill and on top of the pitch, and I will let the blues flow into each other. So they're quite granulating. It will add some nice effects. There are some houses in the background of the village on top of the hill, and I make a suggestive sketch for these houses, and they're also white with tiled roofs. So I will suggest some night terracotta roofs. Let's sketch the tree. It's a very old tree fantastic. Look well in what direction the trunks and the branches are going. The tree is tilted from standing so long in the wind. So I throw a tilted tree trunk with a soft graphite pencil. And I wet page a bit to paint the leaves of the tree on the wet paper. So the greens will flow into each other. So I first paint the leaves of the tree, and not all the branches are visible because there are a lot of leaves, and I splash the green around it in the leaves, and splashes are a great way to suggest leaves. Look well also for the shadows in the tree to give it some volume. Add green and gray to suggest the shadows and the darker leaves. Otherwise, it will look quite flat. So underneath is darker because, of course, the sun is coming from above in the sky. For the tree trunk, I use my gray mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent orange. I almost never paint my tree trunks brown. I see that often brown tree trunks in paintings, and I don't like it so because I think it doesn't look very natural. Most of the time tree trunk looks more grayish. Now I add the shadow on the windmill, and this will make the building look. If you don't add shadow, your building will look quite flat and you might think it's a square building. When the green is a bit dry, I add some extra shadows also in the tree. I make it in layers, and I really fell in love with this tree. I think I will overdo it a bit. So I really think I will remember this windmill forever because making sketch books is the best way to remember your travel afterwards. When you draw a place, instead of taking a picture, you're really mindful and present. And I will remember when I look at my drawing afterwards, I will remember the feeling and the sound of the wind and of co, the wonderful sun. So now I add some details in the roof and the shadows in the windows. The shadows in the windows are really dark because the walls are very thick, and then there's this beautiful blue line around the windows and on the building itself. Apparently, these blue lines are Mostly for fisherman's houses, and the yellow lines on the houses are for farmers. I heard. I add some grass, and also the grass is tilted, and that will make the impression of a windy scene more lively. I make dry brush strokes for the grass to suggest the wind. And now I try to draw the rest of the windmill. And I will start in pencil first, and that's a bit tricky. Look in what direction the lines are going. I use colored pencil, and the direction of the lines for this meal are a bit tricky actually. But anyway, again, we are not a copy machine and it doesn't really matter if it's not totally correct, but I want of that people see it's windmill. And I add some old branches with a hard black pencil. It's a Pier noir pencil by Conte, and it's really quite hard pencil, which gives very dark black lines. So to give you some steps to paint the tree. Study the tree, look at the shape, the leaves, the branches, the colors. Trees have different kinds of colors, and note how the light and shadow play on the tree. This is a co tree. It's very important tree in Portugal. So look at how high and white the trunk is, in what direction it's growing, and note the proportions of the trunk and the green crown. At some shadow also under the tree. So the grass under the tree is a bit darker because you have the shadow from the tree on the ground. So don't detail the background too much. Otherwise, it will come to the fronts of the painting. And I made the roof with butters pink and with light red. And I also added some butters pink splashes on the windmill to connect them together. And of coquis slashes in the tree and around the windmill. I love toquas. Use the colors that you like mot. There's not pink here in reality, but I think butters pink fits everything. A black, I like lunar black because it's very textured. Of course, you don't have to sketch this windmill. Just sketch something typical from where you are at the moment in your sketch book. 15. Sketching Big Format : Ponte De Lima: Today, I will sketch here in Ponte Dima in the north of Portugal. Ponte Dima is one of the most characterful and charming towns of Northern Portugal. What we see here is the Lima river, and it has been the primary river crossing since the Romans constructed a bridge here, and that's what we will what I see here is the Gothic part of the bridge. Ponte Dima is also one of the oldest towns in Portugal, and there are great medieval houses, pretty plazas, and ancient religious buildings in the town. What we see here is a great mix of historical sites with the bridge and the houses behind it, and then further on is natural site on the mountains. This great bridge, it's an ancient stone bridge over the river Lima. Originally, it was constructed by the Romans, what we see here is the medieval period, the Gothic period, and it was the only crossing point in a pilgrimage route from Braga to Santiago to Compostela in Spain. So I started a pencil sketch with watercolor pencils to set out the shape of the bridge and the arches. The arches are a bit difficult. So again, just look in what direction the lines are going. So I set out the lines in watercolor pencil because I don't want to see the lines really in my watercolor sketch. But the finer lines like the chimneys and the windows, I make in graphite pencil because they're very fine. And after setting out the great lines, I start sketching with the brush and the paint, and I will alternate the painting and the drawing. So this is a very special sketchbook, a different sketch book than in my previous videos. It's a big a t sides sketchbook with multimedia paper. So it's not specific watercolor paper. It's very smooth thick paper, and it allows me to experiment a bit more by adding color pencil and by coloring parts in color pencil. But it also allows great washes in watercolor. And it's also special because it's much bigger than what I'm used to. So I want to challenge you here, also to try some new formats and to try some different kinds of paper to experiment different ways of sketching and also to see what you like best. So here I mix drawing with painting and drawing with pencil and with color pencil and drawing with the brush. And I will also color a bit with color pencil. And that way, you can experience different kinds of textures in your sketch. Oh, M 16. Final Thoughts: Congratulations, we're at the end of this class. We're back from Portugal, where we sketched a bit. Well, I'm between two Portugal trips. I'm leaving for other ones. Maybe I add some classes, by the way. And I hope you enjoyed travel sketching. Also, if you don't have the opportunity to travel, don't worry. You can also sketch your hometown. I made this in Brussels. And as you see, there's some sceneries from Brussels, but also beer bottles. Travel sketching can be very large. And I hope you enjoyed documenting your life with me. Tell me if you have any questions. In the class discussions, I can answer any questions you have. I enjoy a lot keeping a travel sketchbook. By keeping a travel sketch book, you will be able to enjoy more of your travel or your life at home, by looking again at your sketches, you remember it better because you're really present in the moment. You remember the places you sketched, what weather it was, and the sound, the smells. I promise that the more you sketch, the better your drawings and paintings will become. It's not about talents or gifts. It's about skills you can learn and get better at and don't stress. It's just paper. It's just a sketch book. You just play around, try things, enjoy yourself, and have a great book full of souvenirs. This way, this way. So be sure to post your class project and your sketches in the class. And I will always enjoy watching all your sketches. I look at all the sketches. And you can also tag me on Instagram so I can share your beauty and your art with the world, and we can connect in other ways as well more directly. And if you're in Brussels, please contact me so we can go sketch together. And if you like to see more examples, you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel where I share free tutorial videos and where I also can answer you questions and subscribe to my website. If you want free tips and also tutorial videos, I send e mail with new discoveries from time to time, like every two weeks. And so Thank you again so much for taking my class, because without you, this wouldn't be possible. And please leave a review. Leaving a review is very helpful for a teacher because we know what we can improve, and also it helps other people to find classes that they like. So again, don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. See you later.