Tower of the Ladies

Another couple of designs from my 24 Patterns for Drawing the Alhambra book.

This time I did a couple of tiles on A3 paper, bigger than usual. I also completely deviated from the original colour schemes. One more successful than the other I think.

This is the first Tower of the Ladies pattern. The original only has the ribbon coloured in blue and green. I chose to keep the ribbon white and fill in the rest with colour. It’s come out a bit like stained glass. Not entirely sure that I like it. It’s also the first time I’ve done a weave for a while…that is satisfying to do!

Of course, I hadn’t been able to resist a Cass Art sale (there’s always a sale at Cass Art and I’m a sucker) so I’d bought this new box of paints. 21 full pans of vibrant colour. I love them. I’m not entirely sure I made the right colour choice here though. (I mentioned where I found out about these great paints in a previous post…Introducing Rosa Gallery Ukrainian Watercolours on the Ken Bromley Art Supplies website)

Another pattern from the same location. I’ve deviated quite a bit from the original which has a woven white ribbon and is done in navy and darkish green. I’m happier with this one than the first. I’ve done a dark blue rosette before and it came out really well. I think the shades of blueish green work really well. Quite happy with this.

This time I returned to my trusty Winsor and Newton half pan paints. I really like the selection of blues in this. These came in a large set in a dreadful plastic box that was almost impossible to open. Fortunately, Rosa sell some empty tins that you can put pans in to, their paints are full pan but the half pans fit well. I’ve ditched the useless plastic box in favour of these tins. Each of the small size tins holds 21 half pans. I got these from the London Graphic Centre. Love them.