When I am on a scheduled tour of a new city in a new country the last thing I want to do is sit down at one location and start sketching. You may think this is crazy talk but let me explain. When exploring new countries I get so excited about the amount of places and people I get to see and hopefully photograph on tours that take you to all these places and to
the people you meet. It would be impossible to see so much and even take tours of so many cities if you had to sketch it all.
These last 5 days proved it to me that I can not take a group on a tour and sketch while touring. It just doesn't give artist's time to see very much.
I remedied this by telling my students to use the camera and capture as many shots as you can and if there was time where you were waiting or had up time in a location
that was worth sketching to just do a quick pencil sketch and take a photo of the scene.
When you finally are back at a hotel or back on board a ship after the tour find some time and a place to do some sketching. I totally recommend investing in a tablet or laptop so when you sketch from the photos you took earlier and while they are still fresh in your mind, the photos will be easier to sketch if you can see them bigger then from your phone or
camera.
I am not saying that you shouldn't sketch while on the spot.... sketching plein-air is probably the best way to learning about sketching and about the subject you are sketching. What I am saying is if you are traveling and seeing a lot of places, one usually doesn't get the time sketch so the next best thing is photographing the scenes and sketch from those digital files.
The sketches below were done like I talked about above. I
didn't have time for myself or my students to sketch at all the locations we visited so we took photos and we worked from them when we all had the time from photos we took earlier.
When sketching with the pencil drawing out pencil lines go as tight as you can, but when you apply paint try to simplify the washes as much as possible. Try doing the sketches in 3 washes..... light color wash, followed by a large dark colored wash followed by a final details
wash.
Below you can see 4 of the 12 sketches that I did so far on my Danube workshop.
David
