Took a little time in an air-conditioned hotel room on a hot day to sort through some pads and papers and photograph a few examples. None of these are going to win any prizes and some of them pain me to look at, but that’s a good thing, right? If looking back two months kinda makes you want to go back and give yourself a little advice. So, with no further adieu.

This was an odd little experiment. Some wet-on-wet color blending and then at the last minute I lifted out the rough shape of the traditional house. Let it dry. Then went in to draw the house and color that. Might have worked except I got wrapped up in trying to draw the underpinning posts and pillars. Should have just left it vague as would fit the background. This is a recurring issue. Note to self. Leave. Stuff. Out.

But, in the future, creating that negative space to then work in is a good idea.

Kept trying to capture these swooping roof traditional houses without much success. Just muddy. A good craftsman doesn’t blame his tools, so I won’t. I will however blame my poor choice of economizing with a cheap pad of sketch/drawing paper, not real watercolor paper.

Irregular hexagonal shelter gets a loose treatment also on crap paper. Hard edges not really great.

B5 size Unfinished of a shop house on the corner in Bandung.

Looking down from a cafe into an out building with steps and sculptures and stuff. Kinda messy. Unintentional cubism is not really a great look, but it kind pf feels more energetic than the others.

This A5 size sketch of the Post Office Museum, Bandung is kind of getting back to urban sketching. Perspective gets wonky on the left. On actual watercolor paper for a change and that helps. Some of the proportions are off, but just go with it. Two good things about this one: I was sitting in the gardens surrounding the museums, and people did look on as I was doing this, and I did it fast because it was closing and mosquitoes were coming. About 25 minutes, which is fast for me.

So, let all of that be a lesson to me. Getting there… getting there.