Oil Pastel sketches

Hi folks!! Today I'm going to share some oil pastel sketches I made during the last months. They are all from the country near my home (that's new!!)

In the first one I also mixed some watercolors pencils:

Watercolur Sketches

Hello!! This day I want to share some watercolours I've done during the last months. Some of them come from last summer, so it's almost an year... But anyway, the time has come for them to be on this blog. They are the product of my spare time of the weekend, often some strolls nearby my hometown. Some photos are a bit altered by the digital filters. Feel free to ask if you are interested in some of this watercolour!! They are made on Fabriano Artistico 12.5x18 cm.

Summer Watercolour

Sorry, it's almost a month without publishing.. and I'm not going to share some recent drawing.. Here are two watercolurs I made this summer. They can be useful as a lesson to watercolor. It was a late afternoon in July; I started this one...

Plen air oil sketch

Hello!! Here I post a plan air I made in August 2014.

Riomaggiore digital

Hay ya!! Here I introduce a digital sketch of a landscape made during a recent trip to the Cinque Terre. Here I was in Riomaggiore, the first of the villages on the sea of this handsome region. It's really rough and it'd need a lot of refinement..the colors are quite different according to the screen. I'm not confident with the software yet. This is done with Sketchbook pro.

San Miniato

A windy day. 8th March 2015. Still cold, even if you can see the coming of the spring in some buds and and canes. I was able to see white rushes and the snow on the far Appenine. I went to Corniano, on the southern side of San Miniato, with my new Schmincke Horadam watercolour.

I know.. The city with the famous stronghold isn't in my sketch... but it won't be the first time that I ignore buildings... Maybe I need more patience and precision, and I relax at best with painting natural object. But it could be a field were I pick up. And also I could try to paint the tower and the town someday.. Let's notice: too color density on the near hill. But I had to test the glazing with this strong watercolour brand. You can get almost a guache effect, and that's good for me, but need practice obviously. Pehaps, for the sake of watercolour, it's better to stay away from high density, but I think that finally the attention is focused on San Miniato hill, and that's not bad, because we have a stronger subject.

REFLECTIONS & Some sketches in the field

Here are some sketches of 2014. I'm not particularly proud of them, perhaps I shouldn't post this (and the photos are horrible too), I could make an effort on it); but I think that this can be tought and said for every post. So I will tell the world this sketches, but mostly as a "backup" sketchbook. Maybe is  cushier to collect picture here, I can see what are the worst part and think about correction, and also I can contextualize the picture, and evoke a particular mood without having the need of looking up the originals spread out somewhere in some drawers. I hope this will help me keeping motivated. If you have any comment or critics... feel free to post!!

Una domenica pomeriggio in Ormicello

Finalmente ieri ho trovato lo spunto per impugnare il cavalletto e i colori ad olio ed andare un po' in esplorazione. Inizialmente pensavo di andare verso Castelnuovo, ma poi ho deciso di esplorare la zona di Ormicello dopo Casenuove (sempre ad Empoli). Ho trovato dei posti tranquilli e splendidi e anche raggiungibili agevolmente con la macchina. Mi sono piazzato davanti a questa valle...

Scelti il soggetto e al composizione, ho proceduto con l'underpainting. Ho fatto una scelta abbastanza felice con Transparent oxide red e ocra gialla, che fin da subito hanno espresso i colori dominanti.

Devo annotare che anche per il cielo ho passato l'underpainting rossiccio.. questo ha creato un po' di fango con l'azzurro cobalto che ho usato dopo, dato che non era molto asciutto. A casa ho poi sistemato un po' il cielo.

Ecco un altro step... e quello finale:

a casa ho poi ritoccato alcune cose... ma grosso modo è rimasto così. Alla fine la tentazione di far virare i colori verso il salmone arancio del tramonto novembrino era forte... ma ho ceduto solo parzialmente. Il bilancio comunque è positivo.. Da annotare che per dipingere an plein air il pomeriggio da Novembre fino a Marzo bisogna mangiare molto presto: alla fine avrò dipinto dalle 14:00 alle 16:30 (dimensione 30x40 cm).

Acquerello copia / Watercolor copy

Ecco una copia da un libro economico ma ben fatto della DIX.

su carta Favini, circa 20x30

A copy from a book about watercolor technique a couple of year ago.

Colline a Petroio (Vinci)

Ecco un olio all'aperto di ieri.

Here's a plein air oil sketch. 

Partiamo dall'underpainting:

Let's begin with the underpainting

Dipinto paesaggio

Un'occasione per  fare un po' di pratica con Photoshop: avevo fatto uno sketch a olio sulla pesa, poco prima del Turbone a Settembre. Mi sono divertito a fare una versione digitale. E' un lavoro veloce, per fare un po' di pratica anche con la tavoletta, ma comunque meritiava qualche rifinitura in più ... alcuni elementi non li ho copiati, magari ci rimetterò le mani.

Primi passi con il digital painting / First exercises with digital painting

Ecco un esercizio che mi hanno insegnato: si parte da una palla "volumetrica e distendendola si tira fuori un paesaggio immerso nell'atmosfera dettata dalle tonalità della palla...

Here is an exercise to begin with digital painting. You build a sphere and you light it up. From this tones you try to build a landscape sampling the colors and tones from the sphere.

che poi diventa ...

which finnally becomes...

un bello scacciapensieri!!!

quite mind refreshing!!!

Cipressi

Una tradizione passare a giugno da queste parti con un taccuino.. matita rinforzata da pennarellino indelebile.

It's a tradition for me to enjoy the nature and the peace of this little hill. I can see the Montalbano in a relative isolation, enjoing also the shadow of the cypresses. In pencil reinforced with fineliner.

Vista da malmantile

Colli intorno a Malmantile, Lastra a Signa, a carboncino (06/2012).

Hills around Malmantile, a tiny and beautiful village with some ruins of a castle. This was done on location with charcoal (june 2012).

Fra i colli

Uno sketch fra i colli intorno a empoli con il pennello pentel. (Dic 2011)

A sketch about the country near Empoli, made with Pentel Brush. It was almost Christmas eve, but a sunny day.