More Delft sketches!

I have finally made a sketching group here in Delft and we have already had 3 events! Hopefully I will be able to sketch more every month. Because of the sketch-group I am also meeting a lot of interesting urban sketchers from Rotterdam and Hague so things are going pretty cool. I will quickly put in the sketches I forgot to update the blog with.

Sketching at Oostpoort

Surrounded by canals, Oostpoort is the picturesque old Eastern Gate (and the only surviving gate) at the southeast corner of the old town. Built around 15th-16th century, Oostport is an interesting example of brick gothic architecture complemented with a classic white drawbridge, in short- a perfect subject for sketching. 

 Sketching at the Delft main market

The first sketching session near the New Church. The session ended with some lovely apple pies and coffee.

Sketching at Burgwal

Delft springs to life on Saturdays with its flea market around the canals in the city center! The flea market promises lovely subjects of people selling old antiques, flowers, the famous stroopwaffles and much more quirky second hand stuff ready to be sketched. For the sketchers interested in buildings, the area around Burgwal has quite many old houses, cafes and the Catholic church for sketching too. 

Sketching the 'New' Church of Delft!

Although it was long due, finally I stepped out and drew the New Church of Delft! 

Even though it is called New church or Nieuwe Kerk in Dutch, it was built in 1496. So why is it called the New Church you ask? Because of the glorious and slightly tilted Old Church built in 1246. That, I believe is as creative naming could get here.

Draft 1

The New Church is situated in the Historic center of Delft, which is a place I love going to mostly because of how beautiful and lively the area usually is. The statue you can spot at the bottom of the drawing is of Victor Hugo and the people next to it are completely imaginary as it was rather crowded that day hence most of the bottom part of this drawing is missing/extrapolated/approximated.

Draft 2

The new church

However highly I speak of this church, I must admit I haven't been to this church. Maybe I will next time.
Next on my list in Delft is the Oost port. Hopefully that will be soon. 

Sketching at Den Haag with Usk-Den Haag

Den Haag skyline

On May 1st I went out sketching in Den Haag with the new Urban Sketchers group in Den Haag.

This is the first time I did urban sketching in Europe after a long dry spell due to the awful weather conditions.

Had a great time, met nice people and most importantly, sketched outdoors after a very long time!

Urban sketchers

Sketching Saint Niklaaskerk, Gent, Belgium

This weekend I was in a beautiful city of Belgium called Gent. Famous for its University, beautiful churches, castle and veggie friendly menu, I have grown a liking for this place. The city center is one of the prettiest of all the historical city centres I have seen. Having come here many times, I was always let down by the cold rainy weather, because of which I couldn't sketch. This time I checked the weather forecast beforehand, packed accordingly and on a beautiful sunny day I was able to sketch down St. Niklaas Kerk (St. Nicholas Church) at Korenmarkt.

Saint Nicholas church

Among many other buidings, I was particularly fascinated by the architecture and facade of this church. The interiors were very ornate and the most striking feature is the massive organ inside it.

Meta

Things I observed while sketching:

1. Structure the building's important parts first to avoid running out of space later

2. Creating shadows using line width. I haven't figured that out yet! Next study will be focussed  on that. (I will be sketching in Vienna soon with a good friend. What a place to study!)

I will post a good close up of my sketch soon.
Here is an interesting photograph of a sculpture I found in this church.

A rusty tractor

I walked past this tractor everyday hoping, one day I will draw this and there I was one whimsical evening ready to sketch this thing. After a span of 2 weeks between sketching and painting, I ended up with this:

Mahindra Tractor

Lesson number one: Never sit on uncomfortable surfaces! In my case, a rather sharp one. no matter how brave you think you are, after 20 minutes it hurts. It hurts bad. So what do we do? Bring your own god damn seating arrangement if you love that particular perspective so much, or  like in my case compromise for a much farther point which makes you squint  your eyes to be able to notice the details well and crib at the loss of those beautiful defining perspective lines.

Initial sketch in ink

Lesson number two: Plan your sketching/painting session well in advance. You do not want to carry all your painting material only to finish sketching and realising that the sunset makes it impossible to see anything for painting. I had to break down my session to two visits, and in the land of procrastination, that is a huge gap!


Lesson number three: Create one focal point! I got carried away and emphasized way too much on the closet in the rear while all the focus should have been on the tractor.

I am sure there are many more things I was unsatisfied with in this painting but oh well! every experience is a learning experience.  

Horniman circle garden

Remember the old Lay's jingle: "No one can eat just one"? Well the feeling is quite similar when I describe a sketching session at the Horniman circle garden. You cannot sketch here just once! Circumvented by landmarks like Asiatic library, Elphinstone building, St. Thomas Cathedral church this place is a sight to sore eyes wherever you look.

At 2:30 pm in Bombay's heat, I decided to sketch whatever good was at sight from inside the Starbucks cafe(Which BTW has amazing interiors at this particular place) and not risk the sun outside. I ended up drawing the visible section from the cafe window of St. Thomas Cathedral Church:

Observations and discovery:

1. Choosing a focal point. : Every painting/ sketch has a point in focus, a region of more significance than the rest. This means either using strong colours, sharper edges or putting most details in that area. Eg. : The trees in the background do not have leaves while the ones in the front do as they are meant to be more prominent.
   I did a mistake of putting bright red on the lamp post which draws unnecessary attention.
2. Texture: The plain walls initially were bothering me for lack of life in the picture. No matter how much shadow or layer of colours I put to change the saturation, it seemed lifeless. Then I decided to put bricks and voila! I ended up discovering a new technique while doing that, which involves washing semi dried feature to give a smoother texture. 
3. Shadows: I need to learn how to put it on the sheet! No matter what colour I used for the shadow (Blue/payne'sgrey/purple), it looked comical! Then I discovered this colour "Sepia Coloree" which beautifully complimented the warm colors while also putting the dull shadow without taking too much light. Tip: Check out the entire palette before dabbing the brush like a colour blind monkey!!
4. Leaves: Layers! On wet layer or on dry layer the leaves turn up beautifully. Next time I would try to use shadows too, but for the first time it is OKAY. 

Thank you to Anurag Bishnoi ji for the wonderful colours which is making my learning process faster and more elegant. 

Elephanta caves

My father was visiting me this weekend, so I decided to take him along for the sketch walk. He had always wanted to see Elephanta caves so I asked Kishan to arrange this week's sketch meet up there. The whole trip was lovely! The Ferry ride with occasional spotting of huge Navy ships, the toy train ride, the monkeys snatching our food and finally the caves!

Like a fellow traveller said "This is beyond my imagination. How some people back in 8th century dug out these caves to make something this beautiful!". Yes! the caves are extremely beautiful. Although most of the caves were damaged after the Portugese rule, the most prominent bits still remain intact while the others have been restored.

I found myself a quite place on the side, as I wanted to sketch the pillars and the whole perspective play. The other people were sitting in the main cave and drawing the famous sculptures, and before they could finish, they were asked to move as sketching inside the premises is not allowed! Yup, you read that right. Only once a year artists are allowed to sketch/paint inside the caves. The reason behind this is beyond me.
As the other people in the group moved out and sketched outdoors, I finished my sketch:

Elephanta caves

A broken pillar

We finished the session with a nice lunch at the MDTC restaurant(It was impressive!) and a trip to the Afghan Church. Later, I took my father to Leopold cafe, Theobroma and Jehangir art gallery.

Great Sunday!

Warm up sketching at the Ferry