Street View – Chinon

The houses are tall and the streets narrow in Chinon, so it’s hard to frame a good view. Here’s an attempt from a photo I took the other day (most of the others were disappointing). I used my new sketchbook, handmade by Marta, and some Schminke paints that Laura kindly left me to try.

I like the Schminke paints, but it always takes some time to get used to new art supplies – at least for me! The prussian blue isn’t quite as green as the one I’d been using, and they go on with such intensity that I held back – and they dried much lighter of course. Now I really need to do something with a bit more colors in it to try out the reds, greens and earth tones. And I’m glad to have finally done something in Marta’s sketchbook – it’s so pretty that I was terrified to use it!

For anyone wanting an update on the figure study video (see post below), after all the terrifyingly complicated calculations and measurements you have to commit to memory in the early lessons, it seems to be getting simpler around lesson 20. Or maybe I just finally understand what we’re doing! For now I’d say it’s worth it to soldier on, if you’ve started and are wondering if you should stop!