More charcoal

This week's sketches

Encouraged by one of the newer members of our sketching group at U3A, I have been working on my skills using charcoal pencil this week, and as my best critic (Margaret) says, the result is an immediate improvement in liveliness of the sketches.

Many of them come from photos in the newspaper, which do not depend on the weather.

On the left is one of Vladimir Putin.

Then there are three from photos in the paper another day, and below on the right a portrait of a South Taranaki resident who is turning 100.

Then there was a shot of this year's capping procession by the staff and students from the Western Institute of Technology here in New Plymouth.

And from the travel pages, a shot of a cottage on a remote island off the Irish coast.

But I have also kept up the watercolours as well.

This is based on a photo taken when we were in Europe a few years ago. 

This is the formal garden in a courtyard of the buildings known as Generalife at the Alhambra in Granada. This was the private part of the palaces, set aside for the Royal Family away from the ceremonial rooms for the administration of the kingdom.