There’s never enough time to sketch everything I’d like to when I’m traveling, so it’s nice to know that I have options for capturing memories even when I can’t take the time to draw and paint.
I sometimes print out photos on matte photo paper and glue them into my journals after a trip, but for this page in my Belgium journal, I bought a postcard that shows classic scenes from Bruges and used Yes! Paste to glue it into my sketchbook. It almost looks like a gridded page, doesn’t it?
And the grid squares even have corner details! I couldn’t have planned it better if I had done it myself. 🙂 I like that it has a hand-painted look, and it’s made of 1/16″ thick wood. Much more fun than a glossy printed photo postcard, this one seems to fit right in with my sketches.
I used the colors of the postcard in the sketches on the adjacent page, so the two pages complement each other.
We took a boat tour of the Bruges canals one morning and were treated to views of beautiful old buildings, arched bridges, nesting swans, and Minnewater Park.
That same evening, we found a fun and funky little restaurant for dinner that had really cool decor. One wall had vintage boom boxes stacked from floor to ceiling, and another wall was covered with old LP records. It was so cute! Oldies music played while we enjoyed burgers, fries (sweet potato fries for me!), and yummy drinks.
I sketched this page that evening after dinner, but I had to wait until I got home to paint it. I wasn’t sure at first how to make the records actually look like records and not just black circles, but I figured out that the key was the highlights, which I lifted out with a brush while the black paint was drying. After the paint had dried, I added the narrow black lines, and, ta-da! They looked like shiny black records.
The “Bohemian Burgers” lettering was sketched in pencil first using a reference photo of the cafe’s logo as my guide then painted with a small round brush.
It’s hard to see in the scan, but I used Fine-Tec silver metallic paint on the boom boxes. Fine-Tec metallic paints are loaded with mica, which gives them a wonderful sheen. They’re pricey, but there’s no substitute for them when I want to add touches of gold, copper, or silver to a sketch. They come in lots of other scrumptious colors, too.
I need to remind myself to play around with them more often.
4 Comments
Wow, your painting looks like a photo!! And those metallic paints are incredibl!
Fantastic Leslie. Burgers and boom boxes abs the records look terrific. Love that postcard! Your Bruges sketchbook looks as wonderful as your trip!
❤️
Beverlee
Fantastic and fabulous! Maybe you will offer an online class on these techniques?
So beautiful Leslie! Looks and sounds like you are all having a fantastic time. Have fun!!!