Prep for travel to London

My wife & I are leaving for London in one week! We will be there for two weeks and are lucky enough to have tickets to some Olympic events. In addition to spending time in London, we will visit a friend in Hastings, and also go to Ramsgate to see the vacation home my sister-in-law recently purchased. Since the trip will be quite busy, I don't believe I will have a lot of time to paint, so I'm not taking my pochade box with my acrylic paints. Instead, I will take ink pens & my travel watercolor box. I have been practicing a quick way of sketching which I will use on this trip. First, I use a black gel pen (water soluble) and sketch the scene. Afterwards, I use a watercolor brush to add water and create a black/white/gray image. Finally, I go back and add just one or two (or, as in this case, three) watercolor washes  just to add a bit of color. As long as I get the first step done on location, I can finish the sketch at a later time, which will work well while traveling.
This building is a local bar called George's Hideaway; the structure used to be a train depot. Over the years, the building has settled and now appears totally crooked.

Sketchbook practice

This is a small, practice painting (in my sketchbook) for a larger painting I'm planning. It is still very rough, but that is okay---I just wanted to get an idea of composition & color. Color needs altering, as well as value differences. This image is from a photo taken by my good friend Lola, who lives in Madrid. She sometimes travels to Lanzarote (one of the Canary Islands). This year she went there again, and this was the view from her room. Lola is coming to visit me the week of Thanksgiving and I am beside myself with joy over this. We haven't seen each other in around 17 years, and she was one of my closest friends when I lived in Madrid. I want to paint this image for her as a Thanksgiving gift.

When there's no time to paint....

....sketch in a Moleskin calendar.

New medium

I went to the art supply store (FLAX) in San Francisco the other day and bought myself this watercolor sketchbook with beautiful handmade paper. I also bought some watercolor pencils. I like the idea of them for having painting materials while traveling. The concept seems simple enough---draw with them, then add water and presto! What looked like drawing with colored pencil now turns into watercolor! I'm finding, however, that they need to be used in layers, just like watercolors. Of course they don't work in quite the same way as regular watercolors, so I'm struggling with them at the moment. Much more practice ahead of me!

From my sketchbook

Tomorrow is the last day of school! I hope to paint a lot this summer. Apart from painting in acrylic on canvas, I want to get back in the habit of doing frequent, quick, watercolor "sketches."