I sketched my art supplies for the urban sketcher’s symposium in Toulouse. I like ink lines and watercolour, but I’ve had to pack a few extra supplies because of the workshops I’m attending.

Exploring an interesting colour triad for Toulouse buildings and street scenes. The Manganese Blue Hue provides a bright and vivid contrast to the opaque mixes created by the Indian Red and Buff Titanium.

Putting my Noodler’s Ahab Flex Nib pen through its paces to see if it’s ready for the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse. I created a variety of different line weight by adjusting the pressure, and the angle of the nib. Then I used it to test the writing and sketching capabilities.

I’ve created a set of small watercolour canvases for portraits I do on location. They’re only 8cm x 6cm, and ideal for doing loose quick sketches to give to the subjects I sketch. On the back is a linocut self portrait I created last year.

I’ve been prepping these three books for my trip to Toulouse to attend the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium next week. Three are Hahnemühle watercolour books, and one is a hand-made matchbook swatch book that I made to consolidate some of my colour swatching ideas for painting the Pink City. I also made a spiral bound sketchbook for notes during my workshops and making thumbnail sketches.

Daniel Smith published their suggestions for painting Toulouse street scenes during the Urban Sketches Symposium. So I experimented with how to mix these from the colours I already have in my watercolour palette.

Day 137 of sketching people. Urban sketch of men at the IMT office in Faro, with some poetic reportage as social commentary to illustrate the scene, and make the story about the make-shift “Silence” sign.

Sunday morning sketch in Cabanas capturing a street scene with bougainvillea in ink and watercolour, using a colour triad to ensure colour harmony, which is especially useful when you’re sketching lots of foliage.

Another outing with the Algarve Plein Air Collective, this time to sketch foliage and a statue in a park scene. Where I moved foliage and a park bench around in my sketch to create a strong L-shaped composition.

My first outing with the Algarve Plein Air Collective. Although we were on the Cabanas boardwalk to sketch the boats in the water, I was drawn to the Sunflower, in front of our local newsagents, which had its face turned towards the morning sun.

Day 129 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. Today I sketched a couple of people in Tavira and added some poetic reportage to these otherwise uneventful scenes. I also did a bit of portrait practice back at home.

Day 127 of sketching people in the waiting room of a government office in Faro. Experimenting with page layout by adding signs to help convey the location of the sketch, and filling negative space with some poetic reportage.

Day 125 of sketching people at cafés in Tavira and Cabanas. Experimenting with page layout and composition, to see how well overlapping figures, and using V and L shapes layouts works.

Day 113 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. A return trip to the hospital, and filling the waiting time with sketches of other people waiting.

Day 109 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. An unfortunate trip to the hospital, but filling the waiting time with sketches.

Day 105 of sketching during a day our flight out of Lille. I sketched people before our flight and during our flight. A good end to our trip, with some pleasing people sketches completed.

Day 103 and 104 of sketching people. During our trip to Lille I only managed to sketch people at the train station and on our metro ride to a museum housed in an Art Deco swimming pool.

Day 102 of sketching during a day trip to Brugge. Looking at the impact of negative space and how to create a strong sketch of a person using a triangular shape as the key compositional element.

In Ghent for day 101 of sketching people at the flea market and captured a bit of reportage sketching at the cafe, illustrated with a short poem about their dormant cell phones.

In Paris for day 98, 99, and 100 of urban sketching people. Experimenting how to manipulate the line and colour on a page to create a sketch that has a clear visual path and a strong focal point.

A quick people sketch at the cafe, and swatching a muted shade of green, that morphed into a beautiful skin tone shade using natural sienna, cobalt turquoise light, and opera pink. I also ruminate on how I sketch people and how they see themselves, and how those are two very different things when I sketch my version of reality.

Day 95 of sketching people. Today I sketched groups at the monthly Sol de Inverno event in Tavira. I used a different easel today, made out of an A5 watercolour book cover, and it worked really well.

Day 94 of sketching people at a live sketching event at a local art gallery. I faced the dilemma of wanting to add colour to my sketches but having to wait for the page to dry before I could begin another sketch.

Day 93 of urban sketching people at Tavira Plaza. Ink and Tonal Shading sketches on location, and discovered that if I leave the Tombow water soluable ink to “cure”, you can add watercolour on top of it and it doesn’t bleed or spread.