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The Spirit of Travel Sketchbooks #2- with Ken O’Connell
“Travel sketching is our plan. Our tools are portable and light.”
The spirit of the travel sketch is the spirit of beginnings, of fragments you see and want to study more. Slowly you connect with the subject as you draw it. The beauty of the sketchbook is that it is just for you and your journey. A sketch helps you to see and to remember. It does not have to be finished or perfect. In fact, the less complete the image is, the more it allows you to participate and mentally complete the picture in your imagination.
This workshop will teach you strategies to explore and work in your sketchbook, both during and beyond your time in Italy. The rhythm of the sketchbook allows you to get into it in less than five minutes. You can spend longer time and return to a sketch to experiment more. The set up is simple and the tools are simple. This keeps the focus on learning to see, learning to participate in your experience.
Color is another aspect to explore in the sketchbook. We will put areas of color on pages that act as background for the sketches. Light and shadow are patterns that help us see structure in the landscape. Your mind and eyes will be trained to see the darkest dark in your subject.
You won’t take easels or chairs, instead you will use low walls and cafe chairs and tables as your easels. On outings in the morning the group will take a selection of supplies so as to allow focus on the quick sketch process and not get overly stuck in one long time sketch.
The approach requires portable tools like ink pens and brushes, colored pencils and watercolor sets, and two sizes of sketchbooks (paper in one should be 110 lb. to 140 lb. weight). Mornings are out in the hill towns and landscapes working. The afternoons are in the studio, developing some of the sketches more and creating new ones. There is also time to rest wash clothes, walk around the grounds and sketch. Dinner is at 7pm and sometimes followed by a slide show.
Ken has taught people to experience the world by quick and extended sketching. You will sketch food, buildings, patterns, fragments of landscapes, people, and places as you travel to the hill towns of Umbria. Ken brings his love of sketching and watercolor painting to explore the visually rich world of Italy.
About Ken
As La Romita School caters to multiple levels of instruction and various forms of the arts, prices will vary by session, season, instructor, and offerings.