Sketches from Orvieto

I arrived in Italy in June and made my way straight to the beautiful hilltown of Orvieto, north of Rome. Across from my hotel was the amazing duomo, famous for its facade and the horizontal banding inside and out. I went a bit nuts with this sketch, as I only had 1.5 hours till my taxi would arrive, so my pencil and watercolor flew!! (I've added this sketch again at the bottom of the post so that you can click on it and see the detail--same for all these sketches!)

I walked around town and did 5 sketches all in the same day...I was trying out a new sketchbook, the 7"x10" Pentalic AquaJournal--the paper I knew well but the format and size were totally new to me. It occurred to me that I might not have enough pages in the sketchbook to last for 6 weeks of travel, so I decided to do 2 images per page...in the end, it became a format I would repeat everywhere I went, as I loved being able to see sketches side by side.

Below are my 5 sketches from Orvieto (makes me think I should always sketch with jet lag!)  

To the left is my favorite of the sequence sketches, done late in the day in the heat...

For me, Urban Sketching is about capturing my experiences on paper and learning about what I see through the act of drawing and painting...so all these are sketched and painted on location.

 This was the view from my hotel window!

The taxi arrived on time, and I headed off to Civita for the workshop! (Click on the duomo interior sketch to see the detail...)

Here come more posts...at last!

[by Stephanie Bower, Seattle]  I am finally back in my studio, after over two months of travel mostly for teaching and some for work. Alas, it was pretty much impossible for me to post ot the blog while traveling. Days were packed and often I had little to no internet! I did manage to post some to Instagram, as it loaded on my phone when the blog or Facebook or Flickr would not...so please, I invite you to see my posts on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stephanieabower/

For the fifth summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to teach a workshop in the amazing Italian hilltown of Civita di Bagnoregio. It is a speck of a town, you can walk it from end to end in about 5 minutes, and it is only accessible by a steep foot bridge and thus has no cars. You feel transported back to the Middle Ages, but for all the tourists. Civita is remarkably picturesque, Rick Steves says it is his favorite Italian hilltown.

This year, I taught two workshops back-to-back, and since it was roasting hot, we sketched inside the cool, dark chiesa and worked on really "Understanding Perspective"!  I love the simplicity and scale of this church, and it is filled with interesting relics from the past. There was likely an Etruscan temple on this spot nearly 3000 years ago.


Below is how I teach people to start perspective sketches--I start a sketch like this with what I call drawing the "Shape of the Space". Then I use the eye level line and VP to construct the bones of the sketch. You can see how I draw the entire ellipse to help me draw the arches.

I kept this drawing and colors very simple, letting the openings in the arches recede by painting them a cool blue...painting like an architect to make sure the spaces read.

More sketches will follow, including a dozen or so from Italy, then Holland, then England...and of course, there was Chicago...

Thanks to everyone who participated in the workshops and to The Civita Institute for their support of this opportunity!  Ciao, tutti!

Workshop, Inside the Chiesa San Donato

Late June in Civita is blazing hot, so one of the ways we escape the heat is to sketch inside the Chiesa San Donato. I've done a few sketches of this lovely church on past trips, you can see the first one from 2013 in my Pentalic sketchbook below. 

The concept for this sketch above is exactly the same as for the one below...I always start with the big shapes. An advantage of this particular view what that I was also able to use that center arch as a way to determine where the elements on the far wall were located...for example, the spring line for the far arches is just about half way up the front arch.  So this makes getting shapes and proportions easier.

Here is the photo of the nave of the chiesa, and below it is the diagram I draw in the workshop to explain the concept of drawing the arches. As I always teach, we start with the shape of the space, then the VP and eye level lines, than I use this structure to fill in the basic lines that describe the space.

Pretty early on, I'll add the arches...first by drawing the rectangular bays made by the columns, then I put in the spring line where the arch starts.  You'll see I also lightly sketch in the entire ellipse, as this makes it easier to get the arch shape. Once I have all that structure in, I start filling in the sketch.

There is a lot more info on this in both my book and Craftsy classes.

Diagram sketch of the chiesa space and arches.

This is one of my all time favorite sketches!  It might be where I started doing these wide-angle views
that I love so much.

When I paint these sketches, I also approach the watercolor thinking like an architect. The first thing I'll do is paint in that pale blue (cobalt with a touch of perm. alizarin crimson) in all the openings, so that the voids appear to recede.  Next I'll use a little gray and yellow ochre to warm the walls and arches in the center nave, so that they advance in space. I'm always thinking about solids vs. voids in architecture.

And here we are at the end of the day, in front of the beautiful salmon colored Chiesa!!

DRAW CIVITA 2016, perspective sketching workshop in Italy!

Whew!

I just finished a slew of back-to-back work and book deadlines and now find myself happily thinking about sketching again.  I'm already planning for next year's Urban Sketchers symposium in Manchester, England...but before that is what will be the fourth annual

DRAW CIVITA 2016... June 24-30, 2016

This is an amazing 5+ day intensive perspective sketching and watercolor workshop, set in one of the most incredible places on the planet, Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy.  

Civita has recently been featured in The New York Times and also on the PBS Newshour here in the US.  Travel guru Rick Steves writes that it is his favorite Italian hilltown, and for good reason...amazing views, medieval stone buildings and streets, great food...and well, it's Italy!

I'll be posting images and more info about the workshop in the next few weeks.  For more information, click here Draw Civita 2016.

Only 4-5 spots are open, so let me know ASAP if you are interested.  Ciao!

Working Inside

Today the morning broke cool, thank goodness!  Italy is having the "worst" summer anyone can remember with much more rain than normal (I heard the exact same thing in Paris last year too and am starting to get paranoid, because both summers, it seems Seattle has experienced the sunniest summers on record),  but I was very grateful for today's break in the temps.  So while it poured outside, I was cozy inside working on 5 images, which I may try to sell here in a local shop!  I particularly liked these two, they are small and simple, but I really like how the colors and composition worked out.

What colors am I using?  I use Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Sienna and touch of Alizarin Crimson (a mix I learned from Stephen from Vermont who took my workshop in July--thank you for this great mix, I am using it constantly!), yellow ochre and raw umber, and for glow, I'm really liking Daniel Smith's Quinacridone Burnt Orange, similar to Burnt Sienna but doesn't get muddy when I drop it into wet paint.

Tomorrow is a holiday in Italy, Ferragosto or the Day of the Assumption of Mary, so Civita will likely be packed with visitors...yesterday, there were 1,200 tourists...

Etruscan Caves of Antica Civitas

(Using my ipad mini for photos), here is the sketch done yesterday while sitting on the dusty floor of Felice and Maragarita's Antica Civitas, a small museum they created in the Etruscan caves below their house in Civita.  These caves were carved by the Etruscans around 3000 years ago, and the Romans added or converted a cave here to a water collecting cistern.

It's full of interesting things--the bed of an ancient olive oil mill, two niches with olive oil presses (where the paste goes after the olives are ground on the stone mill by a small donkey that walks around the circle--see on the right of the sketch), along with lots of other pots, jars, and remnants of so many things. 

On the left, the caves open up to the side of the cliff, from where you get a great view of the valley to the South of Civita and of the dramatic Calanchi spikes...

Well worth the admission price of one euro, and Felice and Margarita are so very nice too.

Inside the Etruscan cave of Antica Civitas.

Lots of detail

Today I colored the Chiesa San Donato interior sketch--most before lunch, a bit after lunch. Well, I probably went overboard with the detail, but the original actually looks OK.  I compare it to the one I did last year (on the banner at the top of this page), which in many ways I like better because it's sketchier, but this one will work well for my walking guide project, as it shows more detail. The color is much nicer in the original, softer, this looks a little garish digitally from my camera photo.

Tomorrow, I'm taking a break and heading to Orvieto--I'm hoping they'll let me sketch inside the famous Duomo!

Detailed interior of the Chiesa San Donato in Civita. August 4-5, 2014

Inside the Chiesa San Donato on a hot day

Today, it felt like summer in Italy again.  So in the heat of the day, I wandered over to the dark Chiesa San Donato, to attempt a second version of the sketch I did last year which I loved and will probably never surpass.  But this time, different proportions and paper (part of my project series), and I wanted to talk more about some of the detail in the church, of which there is much. I also want to use the finished sketch as part of my walking guide, so it would be useful to show more of the church content. But looking at it now, I think I probably went overboard with the detail and should have left it sketchier. We'll see once it gets color!!

I really like this church...it is most likely built atop an Etruscan or Roman temple (note the remnants of columns on the exterior), probably built by the Longobardi (Lombards from the north who were in this part of Italy roughly 500-700AD--thank you, Wikipedia), then renovated various times, especially on the exterior facade.  

And the church is full of stuff, a lot of interesting stuff.  I really like the basic white Romanesque layout and simple arches, then in various spots one finds an explosion of detail, gilt, history. Not fussy, but rather casual, a little dusty, like a real church and not for show. Also inside are the relics (as in preserved remains) of two saints--Santa Vittoria who was martyred in 251AD and St. Hildebrand who died in 873AD.  San Donato himself was from Arezzo and was martyred during the 300's.  Then there are the Roman, Medieval, and maybe even Etruscan remants either incorporated into the building or lying around in some corner.  Well worth a close look to see this profusion and history.

Tomorrow, the color version...

Four Views of the Piazza San Donato

I've been spending lots of time in Civita trying to learn about its architectural history. Lots of books, including some I stumble through in Italian, lots of walking around, and a fair amount of sketching (although I need to do more). 

The main piazza here was an Etruscan then Roman forum nearly 3000 years ago, and it is still the heart of all the activity in this tiny town.  Tonight, there is a jazz concert here, and the entire town and visitors will turn out in the piazza.

I decided to do a series of wide angle drawings of this ancient space, with notes that would describe some of the buildings whose history I was learning about.  Here are four images of the Piazza San Donato, one view in each direction, turning counter clock-wise. My favorite is the last one.  I hope to do more project drawings in this same format.

And you can see how I eventually figured out the color palette, including shadows and shade-- a lot more gray than I expected! And I switched from Burnt Sienna to Quinacridone Burnt Orange for the glow...

Looking East toward the Chiesa San Donato

Looking North toward the medieval Priest's House and prison

Looking West toward the medieval house turned Town Hall in the Renaissance.

Looking South toward the grand Palazzo Alemanni

A little slice of heaven...

My beautiful apartment here in Civita happens to be directly over a wonderful restaurant, Alma Civita, and under that, are Etruscan caves.  I wish I could eat there every day, but on Sunday, I heard about an amazing dessert, so the next day, I went downstairs, sat at a table, and had nothing but dessert and caffe latte.  Pure heaven, I was literally in a trance as I savored every morsel.

The next day, as I called down from my window to say hello, Maria the amazing chef of this family business (they must be the hardest working people in Italy) who works wonders in a tiny kitchen with a real, wood burning fireplace stove, offered me another piece, saying it had been made fresh that day.  Made with fresh eggs from their farm, etc.  She disappeared, then a few minutes later, I heard a knock on my door, and her lovely smiling face held out a plate with yet another slice of heaven.  I had to document it for posterity, and here it is in my window, the one I leaned out to say buon giurno...

~~Alma Civita's Orange and Rosemary Tiramisu...dessert of the gods.

Caffe Latte with Maria's heavenly
orange and rosemary Tiramisu.

Working...

Yikes, with the internet down a lot, I seem to have gotten out of the habit of posting to this blog!  For shame...now it is working, so I'll start up again.

The weather has gone from very hot to very unusually wet and COLD--as I put on my fleece jacket for the first time today, it felt more like early October instead of the end of July, and the valleys surrounding Civita are lush and green...very strange, especially since it's nearing 90 degrees in Seattle!?!

But at least the weather has been conducive to working indoors and spending a lot of time researching my project: to create an illustrated walking guide to the town.  I am learning A LOT about the history of this place, I'm pretty much ready to start conducting guided tours :)
I also seem to have gone into quite a few of the Etruscan caves of late, and I'm thinking more and more that many or most of them were actually tombs, as creepy as that feels at times since they run 2 and 3 levels below many of the houses here.  The temperature drops as you go further down, with the bottom-most caves staying a consistent 17degreesC, at least I think that's what I heard...basically, perfect for storing wine.

Here also is a shot of the map I'm using for notes for the project, and I also have many pages of notes on my computer, and soon, I'll need to put them all together.

I've also completed wide angle drawings of the piazza, looking in all four directions, which I'll post soon as well! I promise to catch up!

Part of my fellowship study, I want to create a section drawing
that explains elements of a typical house, something most visitors
only see from the outside....

Writing lots of notes on this map of town, and even more on my computer...I'll need
an editor  (I'm actually understanding the Italian in the books I'm reading pretty well...)  

This ~3000 year old Etruscan cave opens out to the cliffs,
common for tombs. Sandro is there for scale,
and he is showing me the cave! He is an original Civitonico.
The cave is right under a house down the street...

And here is the cave, a sarcophagus would lie on the left, and someone later
added an oven on the right...sure, baking in a cave tomb, why not?

Draw Civita 2014, images...

The drawing workshop ended on Thursday last week--it was 
an amazing and wonderful group in an amazing and wonderful place!  
Here is an assortment of images from the five+ days in Civita di Bagnoregio~~
(I apologize that blogger doesn't let me arrange these in an elegant way...)

 

  

It finally starts today...Draw Civita 2014

This is something I've wanted to do my entire adult life:  travel and teach sketching.  

A year and a half in the making, together with the amazing support of one Stephen Day, Architect and past president of NIAUSI/The Civita Institute, 6 workshop participants are showing up today in this amazing tiny hill town of Civita di Bagnoregio.  We'll draw and paint, learn perspective and basic watercolor for 5 full days, have some amazing meals, and marvel at these ancient stones and dramatic setting.

And yes, the idea is to do this next year too (anyone up for Draw Civita 2015?)...and the year after that...and...

After the workshop, I'll be here till August 22 working on my fellowship project, an illustrated architectural walking guide to the town...grazie mille, Civita Institute!!

Can you imagine me hauling my groceries up this bridge?