"travelling along" - at Toronto Botanical Gardens

I spent the day painting with the Don Valley Art Club at the Toronto Botanical Gardens, also known as Edwards Gardens. If you haven't been, it's a fantastic place to sketch. Lots of greenery, flowers, little buildings, people walking around, sitting at the cafe, and of course, this waterfall. It sounds more 'nature' than 'urban' but it's definitely 'TOUSK friendly'.

Here is my step by step process...

Here's the drawing in 6B pencil on my 6x8" hot pressed watercolour paper.
I painted the waterfall while working from my trusty little paintbox. It's got my Cotman Travel Watercolour Palette in it. I used up the pan paint that it came with, then replenished it with artist quality tube paints, mostly Holbein brand. 

Half way there... I like to add darks early, so I can determine the values right from the beginning. Artists often do watercolour from light to dark however, when I do that it never seems to get dark enough...

All done. You can see the pink bulldog clip on the right of the box holding a rag in place. There's also a few paper towels, a compact mirror (to look at the piece in reverse while painting) and I always bring an 8x10"mat to make sure the composition will fit nicely into a store bought frame when finished. 

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friends with

Spent a lovely Friday afternoon enjoying a tea and drawing a few people. Cafe culture is up and running now that Spring is in the air. : )

close up -

I drew this with a 6B pencil then added some watercolour from my Winsor & Newton travel kit. The painting is 6x8", so pretty discreet at a cafe.

close up -

It's nice to see people talking to each other, rather than staring at their computers and iPhones. ; ) 

If you haven't tried sketching at a cafe, I highly recommend it. No one has ever minded that I am drawing them, in fact the few people that notice over the years, have been thrilled! Happy Urban Sketching Everyone.

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