Last week we hosted a second Virtual Tour (V-tour) for the people who had signed up for the Palladian Odyssey tours in 2020. It was a lovely escape – a chance to connect with each other and pretend we were in Italy.

As per the last V-tour, I prepared some short instructional videos for the 2020 Gang and it was fun to compress a week’s worth of teaching (based on the concepts from SketchingNow Foundations and Buildings) into the best tips to suit the locations we were ‘visiting’ that day.

And as an extra bonus Monica – an incredible art historian who joins our tour – filmed a number of short videos on location. She showed us the outside of two new Palladian villas, gave us an update on the bridge restoration at Bassano del Grappa and even included a special appearance by Guilio at the Villa di Maser winery who normally prepares an amazing lunch for us.

 
In terms of my sketching, I had hoped to do some more experimental work this week but only managed it a few times.

However three new things occurred in my work during the V-tour:

1. I started using more Potter’s Pink than normal and this led to more pink/purple hues in my work.
2. I finally started using my second Fude pen with De Atramentis Urban Grey ink. I’ve had this in my kit since the start of my Virtual Trip (5 weeks ago!) but hadn’t used it.
3. I really enjoyed pushing myself to do quick sketches of complex buildings in perspective. There is no doubt that my architecture sketching has really benefited from all the insights and new tricks I developed while doing the Buildings Group Run-through earlier in the year.

So here are some of my sketches….

And here are all the spreads in full – click on to see them larger.

If you would like to have a go yourself, we would love for you to join in and when you post your work please use the hashtag #palladianodysseyvirtualtour2020

You can see more at the Palladian Odyssey Instagram account here.