paintings prints and stuff

Ogwen Valley and the little river Ogwen winding through, watercolour/mixed media The Ogwen valley, watercolour and mixed media sketch I'm just back from a week painting in Wales with friends.  Wales + mountains means we knew there would be rain - but it made for some lovely atmospheric scenes to sketch. Friend Ros, that I travelled with, and I stopped on the way in a beautiful valley I last saw about 20 years ago when my daughter was at Bangor university,  I was determined to get there to paint again.  Nigel another member of the group met up with us there and we all got thoroughly wet and bedraggled sketching. The end of the valley was lost in rain/mist and the little river Ogwen tumbles through the valley from Llyn Ogwen (Lake Ogwen) above.  The narrow, single track road goes up and down like a switchback along the side of the mountain.  The waterfalls were beautiful with all the rain we've had.  Welsh black mountain cattle ambled by, with h...

Up in the hills of the Northumbria National Park, above Alwinton, Watercolour/mixed media in A4 S&B Delta sketchbook I absolutely loved it up in the hills of the National Park. As the single track road rose higher, the land grew wilder, bleaker and more dramatic.  The land folded, carved by glaciers and drystone walls zigzagged, showing the contours of the land. I painted a couple higher up as the sun was going down - I'll show those later. This one is a mix of watercolour, conte pencil,. coloured pencil, tinted charcoal pencil and a bit of white ink.   I wanted to get the different textures quickly and mixing media was the best way for me to achieve this. Below are a couple of photos from higher in the hills. I would definitely like to revisit this area.  The landscape and history are wonderful.

Porth Nanven, evening, Derwent charcoal in Stillman and Birn A4 hardback sketchbook  Another from Cornwall.  Attempting to catch the silvery dazzle of light on water.  A little stream tumbles down the Cot Valley to the beach below - Porth Nanven. The new Derwent charcoal sticks are luscious to use and there is a little of their charcoal pencil in there too.  The photo makes the horizon slope - the drawing doesn't . S&B sketchbooks are now available from Jacksons in the UK.   The Beta  paper is lovely , heavy and really well primed so that it takes any medium I choose. Epsilon and Zeta are smooth and beautiful for pen and ink work.  They will take watercolour but if you want to use a lot of  media and layers, then the others are more for you. Has anyone tried the new Derwent charcoals and graphites?  or the S&B sketchbooks?

More playing with Sketch Club on the ipad.   A portrait of my grandson. I need a finer stylus for finer detail, like features.   There is a good comparison, i n 2 parts, on youtube .   I want that pen type with the circular clear disc.   The brush would be fun maybe, though not essential.  He also recommends the Bamboo stylus - but buyers on Amazon slated it for an ephemeral lifespan - has anyone any experience of this? This was sketched in a mix of the pen and brush tools in Sketch Club and then using the text tool just for fun. The drawing was done on one layer with the colour added on the layer beneath, varying the opacity and brush size so that colours were overlaid and blended. more to come ................

Quick sketch from life, the window sill and silhouetted resident tiger And yes the plant is tipped over thanks to madame there, my perspective wasn't out!   Done using the Pen and Ink app, then opening the image in the Spray Can app.   The trouble with this is that it sprays over your drawing, whereas using Photoshop on the computer allows you to work in a layer beneath.   I used a low opacity so that I could overlay colours - there is a very limited range. I haven't used the spray app much yet other than this. onwards ..................

Cardoon seedhead in Artbar, Gouache and Tinted Charcoal Pencil One of my students, Toni, had promised me some cardoon seedheads and this week brought a big bag of lovely toothy/fluffy/prickly specimens. This one had lost virtually all its scales.  They are so much fun to draw.  It ended up with nearly half the class deciding to have a go.  Cue much concentration and muttering. This was done in my Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook (A4), with a mix of Artbars , gouache and Tinted Charcoal penci ls. Mine never did much good in my garden and sadly died this year.  It had wonderful sky blue flowers but only managed one in its first year, two in its second and none this year.   It probably needed more sun and lighter soil.  I did manage to draw it though.  I think these have the purple flowers like the one below, perhaps I'll try planting some of the seeds. Old, more detailed sketches of similar seedheads in other drawing media: ...

New born: very quick sketch of Charlie at 15 hours old, pencil in Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook This is one of the reasons I've been absent - new arrival Charlie, my youngest daughter's first child :>) Other hospital stuff also going on with more sketches to follow and hopefully I'll catch up with the series I was writing.

  Summer's End,   Derwent Artbars and Studio pencils in a Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook This one was done with Derwent's new Artbars in an A4, natural white, Alpha series S&B sketchbook.   This one has 100lb paper, which took the washes very well, it seems to take all sorts of media without complaint - though I do admit a deeper love of the lusciousness of the heavy 180lb Beta and Delta series!   I have a 'thing' about nice paper :>) This was done from a digital image I showed some time back, moving on, not just copying but letting the language of marks of the media make changes.   I'm really liking the Artbars.   There is a little glazing and line from Derwent's Studio pencils in there too - but mostly Artbars used wet and dry. You can see a review of Artbars that I did here, with further work using them.

I made a spring themed necklace as the weather has a definite, if cool, feel of Spring.  I was really pleased with how it all came together as I'd hoped.  I've not learned a lot yet but I used 2 of the techniques I've learned so far :>) I'm going to do variations on this them, different colours, different seasons. I must update the Etsy shop with paintings - and I may - just may - do a page for some of these when I makes some more.   What do you think?    From a different angle. I had a puncture this morning : > (   and whilst waiting for the AA to come and put the spare on for me, I sketched the trees I could see.  Nothing brilliant but better than being bored : > )   They were done with Derwent Graphitint.   The colours were really suitable for the cool morning light.  It's better in real life though, the photo doesn't show up the colours quite well enough. I'll carry on with the series of issues to...

  Leonardo da Vinci, Hands I've been asked to expand on the points I made in my post about what I considered the essential elements in drawing and painting.   So, I'll take each point at a time and expand on what I mean, with examples.  This is 1 of 10. Because I think globally, holistically, I find it difficult to separate them!   My brain is wired so that these elements totally interlock and depend upon each other.  I will attempt to talk about each separately - with occasional lapses and links because I can't help it! 1 Observation:   All the images shown here are the result of intense observation from life . Unless your work is totally abstract, with no representational element at all, observation is crucial.  A different kind of observation is still needed even then.   Learn to look hard.  It's often necessary to take longer looking than actually drawing. Each time I say drawing , please read painting-and-dr...

Another very very rough sketch for Lucy's book Another very rough sketch. Lots of words added to the list of possibilities but any ideas welcome as nothing is fixed yet - everything is a the very fluid, sketching out and thinking through stage, With other books that I did for Sam they were around a theme - him on holiday or playing football etc - this one is a bit different and so I'm needing to plan how I put it together a little more.

Autumn, watercolour and mixed media, 8.5 x 5 ins approx Looking from the field's edge, across the stubble left after the wheat was harvested,  towards the far trees.     This one is a study in a limited range of colours - warms vs cools.   I really like the bleached colours of the dried grasses and stubble at this time of year.   Autumn isn't actually quite this far advanced here but I wanted to use this limited colour range so moved the calendar on a bit :>) This was done in watercolour, with the addition of watercolour pencil drawn and scratched into wet washes and a little biro (ballpoint pen).

quick sketch of the house tiger before she moved - so not a cooperative model Working with a limited palette - I forgot to put a scribble of the brown down on the left - but done with just 5 colours.

detail of the sketch below   A quick sketch on a very windy day with Rotring pen and watersoluble ink, with a little brush pen (waterproof ink) and a touch of gouache.  I do like watersoluble ink for those lovely washes.    The Crowns, Botallack, pen and ink sketch in Canson sketchbook.  Vivien Blackburn And turning 180 degrees this was the skyline, with another ruined mine engine house in the distance. This one was done in carbon pencil.

details from Pendeen Lighthouse, watercolour and mixed media on fairly rough paper Pendeen Lighthouse, watercolour and mixed media on fairly rough paper, whole image , about 9 inches across as I remember This postcard was the most recent one I did for the exchange , sent to Cathy , it will be published on our group blog today so I can now show it to you. I was very relieved when it arrived safely as one, from another member of the group to her, is lost somewhere in the sorting office, so disappointing. I put it in a very dull brown envelope with no decoration to make it appear boring to any would-be-thieves. The sea in the dip, where the water is shallower really is that beautiful pthalo green/viridian - impossible to describe without those colours in your palette. Just a short distance along the coast are The Crowns at Botallack - old mine engine houses perched precariously on the edge of the cliffs, where I have also sketched. more sketches and paintings of Cornwall Has anyone bei...

Fosse Road in April, biro sketch Rather than wait for my mother in the dentists waiting room, when I dropped her off for a check up, I sat out in the car sketching. A cheap biro was handy so I used that, which meant no erasing. I prefer my Parker biro' for sketching, it flows much better. On the left there is a terrace of 3 storey Victorian houses, on the right behind the railings are allotments full of greenery, rows of vegetables, old sheds, trees and bushes a breath of fresh air in the city. The road dips under the pedestrian bridge - it used to be a railway but is now a walkway/cycle track that crosses the city and links to the canal towpath as it crosses nearer the city centre. The road is part of a Roman road that went from Exeter to Lincoln in an almost straight line.

The resident tiger, coloured pencil in A3 folio moleskine A drawing of the resident tiger, looking down at her, done when himself was hogging the tv because golf was on, . She refused to pose, saying she had better things to do, so I'm afraid it's done from a photograph. details to show the scribbling that makes the fur and the 'drawing' back in with an electric eraser for the light over dark sections: As usual there are some subtle tones that aren't being picked up, bleached out by the scanner. The viewpoint is looking down a little at her and she's sitting slewed with her head at an angle and her body slightly twisted - thinking of moving off. more sketches of cats here

The latest life drawing - it will not photograph well for me - there is a soft cream in the highlights but they are reading too garishly :>( Done with willow charcoal, compressed charcoal and cream pastel. Again about 90 minutes work, I wanted to concentrate on the 'portrait' aspect with this one. Charcoal is such a lovely medium to work with, messy but so adjustable. I can sweep mistakes away with a brush of my hand (yes I do get very grubby) and redraw, draw back in with an eraser to paint lights back in and be really flexible. I edit. A Lot. We've got the same model, Lucy, very chatty, again next week, with the same pose for those who paint and work slower. So I'll choose another view.

With tonight's life drawing group in mind I did these very quick sketches of some of my class with the Pentel brush pen. I like the variety of marks it makes but of course, being ink, it's very unforgiving of mistakes! I've added a few unflattering years to the poor student below! Of course they moved constantly - so inconsiderate ; >D

Kerry, A3, Charcoal and compressed charcoal, 90 minute study The first life drawing in years . I worked in charcoal because it's so fluid and a brush of the hand erases and allows you to move elements around, lay down blocks of tone and push-pull until it's something like. It's done on grey pastel paper. I could have used white - or better cream, which I didn't have with me - for the highlights but decided not to. Next time I may work on a warm cream paper. It's a drop in session and I'm definitely going again. Life drawing is such good practice for observation. There's no hiding anything lazy or wrong. There's definite room for improvement but practice practice practice ......