The last of my art journal and sketching from my Swiss Alps road trip! This one is about landscape, more precisely mountains featuring a few alpine sheep we had spotted there. Apparently, sheep, along with goats, are among the oldest domestic animals even dating back to prehistorical times. Sheep have since been herded above the tree line in the high Alps because these animals,, are surprisingly robust and do not require much maintenance. This makes them adaptable to harsh climatic conditions and scarce food supply, letting them thrive worldwide. I also love watching these little critters roam around aimlessly just minding their own business in their own little world. They are so cute! And no sketching journey in Switzerland is complete without including the Alpine Sheep!
So here is a cute watercolor painting on my 20.3 x 14 cm Stratnmore watercolor sketchbook. The spine of this book is actually on the shorter end making the pages landscape than portrait, and hence it opens to a horizontally wider spread. Great for “panoramic” stuff like mountain ranges. I thought I’d try it out here, and sure enough it’s turned out rather well! Here, I went for my SAI Traditional Japanese Colors aquarelle markers, this time going a step further and spreading the colors out with a wet brush. It took some practice to become accustomed, but now I’m getting the knack of it. The colors remained vivid even when diluted with water and blended so beautifully. I would definitely use this method again!
Not sure if I am 100% happy with how the sheep turned out, but it was good practice. Focus was more on the result of blending the aquarelle markers with a wet brush which I was happy with. Furthermore, I wanted to experiment painting mountains on this “wide angle” sketchbook for that panoramic effect. Happy all turned out well, and in future I’ll sketch the sheep in better details. For now this concludes my Alpine sketching journey, and now moving onto my promised Swiss Travel Poster so watch this space!
My Kawaii Quarter 