Hola! Here’s another study from the time trial on Stage 1, this one an experiment with water soluble pastels on black paper, which gives a great contrast for the colour. The rider is Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) who charged to the line with what looked like a combination of determination and brute force to achieve his place on the podium – wonderful to see!
Campanaerts leaves nothing back!
Hola! Here’s my next piece based on this year’s Vuelta – another from Stage 1, this time a study of Rohan Dennis waiting to start his time trial. He rode a phenomenal stage – he is a gifted time triallist, along with his team, BMC. The picture shows him calmly waiting to go, but I wanted to convey the anticipation by using strong lines – I like the contrast and feel this would work up into a bigger piece perhaps – that’s for another time but here he is… waiting.
Rohan ready to go – study
Bonjour! Stage three was one of my favourites so far. A team time trial, which I always enjoy. What I love is the grace of the team moving as a unit and I love the repetition of the colour. I see great abstract qualities in this event – so these first two sketches reflect that interest. One is more literal, I think it’s the Mitchelton-SCOTT team, but I was playing with the colour a bit, so not quite sure! The other is definitely BMC, as I wrote it on the page! When I work like this, I enter a bit of a trance, so some of the detail of who, what, why and where often escapes me as I’m concentrating on other things!
Anyway, see what you think….
BMC – Red and grey – £100
Mitchelton-SCOTT – possibly! – £100
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Bonjour! Stage 9 was a magical stage – for me at least – maybe less so for those riding it! I’ve always loved the Pyrenees, love it when the Tour nips over the border to Spain and Andorra is a special place for my husband and me. This visit was exceptional – a stage of two halves – extreme heat, blazing sunshine, followed by an almighty hailstorm at the close – sol y sombra and more! Both conditions provided great images to capture. In the race itself, Alberto Contador was the notable retirement (there haven’t been many thankfully), Team Sky and BMC were dominant with Chris Froome retaining Yellow and there’s a great race building for Adam Yates in second place. Dan Martin put a great bid in the rain but the stage was taken brilliantly by Tom Dumoulin. An amazing day! Here are my drawings:
Bonjour! A team time-trial provided the excitement on Stage 9, before the rest day and the first real mountain stages in the Pyrenees on Tuesday. Time trials show the technique of riding so well and it’s a delight to see a well-practiced team moving like a machine, absorbing the air to go faster. This course was unusually placed in the Tour and with a sharp kick-climb at the end, really tested each teams’ skills. There are several masters of this discipline, including the current world champions, BMC – who are a joy to watch. They took the win from Sky by one second. Phew! On to the mountains…
Here are my drawings:
Maxine Dodd 