Exercise: Fleeting Moments

It was a sunny Sunday so we took a day trip to Sorrento. There is a terrace which overlooks the bay of Naples and Vesuvius providing a spectacular view. When we arrived there  there was a large group of Japanese tourists already there. I found watching the people more interesting than looking at the view (which I've seem many times before). Very few of the people there were looking at the scenery without the view being mediated by a screen of some kind - either a table or a camera of a phone. I did deverel quick sketches of the tourists taking selfies and photos of each other to document their trip to this place on social media.

I liked the angle of the pose of this guy as he leaned casually on the railing for his friend to take a photo:

This elderly lady in a beret and a hooded jacket looked slightly bewildered. She had her phone in hand but seemed a bit uncertain as to what to photograph. I think this is the most successful drawing of this series as I used continuous line and was more selective than in the previous four drawings. I subsequently reproduced this drawing using an adaptation of the 'oil transfer' technique I saw at the Klee exhibition. I covered one side of an acetate sheet with oil pastel and redrew the line drawing on the reverse side so that it was transferred onto the paper beneath. I then embellished the background with watercolour.

I also did a rapid sketch of my son leaning on the railing and glancing back towards me. I used the oil transfer technique again and coloured pencil to reproduce this drawing: