From my living room window

 

It is still cold and grey here, and outdoor sketching has been out of question. But my hands were starting to itch, so I sat next to my living room window and started to sketch. The gated area is the Athelstan School car park, which was completely empty being the saturday before Easter. I used a Stabilo point 88 to draw the poles, as I didn't have a flat surface to rest my arm and it would have been difficult to paint straight and fine lines.

I found the winter poplars a bit difficult to draw/paint. I did some online search before painting them, but didn't find much. I just added some additional branches with my pencil after painting them, to make them look a bit better. 

Up in the snowy mountains

Aschi Alto - Abruzzo, Italy

We went visiting my in-laws back in February this year. They live in central Italy, up on the mountains and it snows a lot during winter. This sketch was done on location, during one of our afternoon car trips. We pulled the car over the side of the road (we only saw one car driving on the same road that afternoon!). It was cold outside, so I stayed in the car. Shame about the electricity lines, which I love in general; they came out too big, but I didn't really have a flat surface to keep my sketchbook steady.