Outdoor Ink & Wash Sketches

Hidy ho strangers!.. Me and the other half went for a lovely working trip to Morib today (a beach location in Malaysia about an hour out) which has some really wonderfully desolate looking spots..

One of the things I'd promised myself to get right to once I'd moved, was to do much more outdoor en plein air paintings and sketches, and lucky me, my partner in crime just so happens to take regular trips to out of the way spots for his photoshoots (you can check out some of his work at Framing the F-Stop & Celebration of Marriage!)..

 Without a proper pochade for more prolonged oil en plein airs however (just gathering the materials at the moment to make my own, custom made to my personal preferences) I'm warming up my outdoor painting bones with some ink & wash sketches for now.

A very dry mangrove tree.
Size: 8.1 x 5.8 Inches

After a short excursion to check out the spot a few days ago, we were quite happy that it would suit both our needs perfectly and so off we went today!.. Lesson of the day.. Always bring two containers of water just in case one gets spilt by an infamous klutz (me). 

Size: 5.8" x 8.1"

The spot we chose is ridden with dead, dry mangroves, some of them so dry as to be smoking embers just from the heat of the sun. 

There were two minor flubs that tried to disrupt this little insignificant piece.. Firstly, the stump I just had to paint (above) , just so happened to be one of the smoky ones, leaving me barely able to keep my watery eyes open while sketching! It sure was a great reminder to squint while sketching though!..

Secondly, I'd just laid the first wash when my water spilt and lo and behold, another brilliant way to practice watercoloring was formed! Knowing I only had the water on my palette left, I had to work methodically, perfectly mixing the paints from light to dark as I just wouldn't be able to water them down later. What couldn't be helped were the times when one sometimes softened or modulated the edges of paint with clean water on the painting itself.

Fun..Fun!!

Ok this one was done in my garden the other day, but I thought I'd just drop it here.
More info at: Newly Hewn Mango Tree Sketch

We'll be making another trip to Morib soon, so hopefully I'll have finalized the pochade's design and made it in time for a little test run there!...

Thanks for the visit!.. :D