I needed to add some colour to this sketch of the kitchen hatch in the Bella Italia, Birstall, as I'm intending to use it as the basis of the backdrop for the Old Bazaar in Cairo when I paint the scenery for this year's pantomime, but, as I mentioned on the previous page, I'd come out without a brush.

I dipped the rolled-up corner of a paper serviette in the very last dreg of my wine (of course there wasn't much of that left but Barbara helped by topping it up with a little of her water) so I picked up a little colour (yellow, yellow ochre, crimson and raw umber) and dabbed it on the palette, moving to clean corners of the serviette when I needed to change colours.