Te Henui

The very rare sunny winter day off. What a beauty! I have to give credit to Maurice for the idea to come down to Te Henui stream to draw and paint. I could have happily sat there all day and sketched.

Te Henui Bridge

This is a pedestrian bridge that forms part of the Coastal Walkway. It crosses the Te Henui stream just before it flows into the sea. I did the watercolour about half a year ago but I didn't really like it and put it away. After I did the pen sketch, I pulled out the other one to compare (as it was of the same place). Maybe it wasn't finished, maybe it needed more paint, maybe the darks weren't dark enough... It's hard to say since I'm sort of just starting to use watercolours myself. So I went back into it and did some more painting; it's much better than before. I saved it but it's a lesson in how important it is to get the right amount of paint/water when putting down colours the first time on a page.

Richmond Cottage & Te Henui

Te Henui walkway bridge

One of the two new bridges build on the Te Henui walkway in New Plymouth .  MLB

Te Henui Walkway

Today we went to sketch the new footbridges on the Te Henui Walkway near Spencer Place. They were designed by Opus Graduate Engineer Cameron Moratti. It was a lovely day for sketching. As we sat and sketched lots of people were whizzing past on their bikes or walking with their dogs.

Here is a photo:

I used this sketch as an exercise in negative painting to capture light. I liked the look of the trees against the sky so I didn't so much sketch the bridge, more the trees and the surroundings.

Here is my sketch: