Out and about with our sketch books

There is a curved low wall just outside the museum at Chateau de Penthes.  Up it grows wisteria, in flower at this time of year.....

  and giving off a heavenly scent.  With your back towards the chateau museum, you can face down a sweeping hill towards the lake, which glistens in the afternoon sun against a backdrop of majestic mountains. 

So how could you resist perching atop that wall, legs dangling below you, clipboard on your lap, doing your best to capture that beauty with a 2B pencil?

We looked carefully to start with, noticing things like: the shape made by the tops of the trees.....

whether what we think something looks like is what it actually looks like.....

We looked at the relative sizes of things; remembering that small things close to us (like the leaves above) can appear bigger than things that are further away (and look smaller when they are actually much bigger).

And then we chose our perspective, or which way we would face.....

maybe took advice.....

and had a go.....

 

Here is some of the story so far.....

And after all that concentrated effort, what better way to release a bit of pent-up energy than by rolling over and over down the grassy slope?  Sorry about all the green knees and bottoms, though!

Oh dear - a last minute panic; possible lost boy.  Has anyone seen Matthew W?