paintings prints and stuff

The Cheviot Hills, in Northumbria, Derwent tinted charcoal pencils with a little of their watercolour pencil.  S&B  Delta sketchbook Another one from the hills, higher up than the previous one, Late afternoon with the light about to go and passing drizzly showers.  But beautiful.   I love the high hills with the dramatic, steep slopes carved by glaciers, sheep and the occasional tough breed of cattle.  Fast streams, waterfalls, isolated farms, single track road .....  I love it! I scribble a little watercolour pencil to get the underlying clear green and the basis for the sky and then worked in Derwent tinted chyarcoal - it's perfect for the colour, mood and texture of this landscape.   I really like them. Again in the lovely S&B Delta sketchbook/ And there's more ....

Trying out Derwent's inktense, watercolour pencils, Graphitint, Graphitone, Artbars and more on their new watercolour paper pads Derwent Watercolour Paper Derwent have brought out some new watercolour paper pads , perfect for their water soluble pencils and crayons.   It's 140lb which is heavy enough for the amount of water I'd normally use with these - I wouldn't normally have huge wet washes. I tried out sketches of items from my sketching roll and various coloured pencils and crayons.  All worked really well, the surface was a delight to work on with colour flowing freely, with the potential to lose or keep marks as I wanted. Products used here were  Derwent watercolour pencils Derwent Inktense Derwent Graphitint Derwent Graphitone Derwent Artbars Derwent Aquatone Derwent Charcoal Pencil Rotring Art Pen ....  with sketches of their electric eraser, sharpener for pastels and waterbrush, just some of the things from my pencil roll ...

A quick sketch of the rocks and sea in Cornwall (from previous plein air work) to experiment with the Derwent Aquatones.  In A4 sketchbook. Derwent Aquatones: An early Christmas gift :>)  - I wanted to experiment with the Aquatones and see what was possible as I hadn't used these before.   They are a pencil made of solid pigment with a coating of paint to keep hands clean   They feel harder in use than the watercolour pencils and don't provide such a strong colour whilst dry  but colour still washes richly out when they are wet.   I found that the same scribble and pressure gave richer colour on the 110lb paper - the 75lb needing more pencil application or layers built up to achieve rich colour  ( the sketchbook reviewed in the previous post ). Colours mix well on the paper - something I need them to do.   Drawing back into wet washes made nice marks.   It is easy to wash out marks entirely (on heavier paper) o...

edited 4.1.11   additional work in carbon pencil, ink, watersoluble graphite and more ........  Water soluble graphite and graphite pencil Near Porthgwarra , Derwent Aquatone pencils in Derwent 75lb A4 sketchbook  Back to painting and sketching - and testing out some early Christmas gifts.   First of all is an A4 75lb hardback using  a set of 24  Aquatone pencils and a waterbrush .   I'll do a review of the pencils and brush another day. I revisited my plein air sketchbooks and previous subjects of paintings, so that I could compare the variety of marks possible with work already existing, the depth of colour achievable, the ability to glaze colour and to achieve the translucency of water and colour mixing that happens in the painting, that I want. Sorry if you are tired, seeing Porthgwarra again!  - it's just a very suitable subject for the problem solving that I wanted to test these items against.  The changing col...

I've finished illustrating up to Z - so now the covers and then putting the book together in Publisher, printing and binding - nearly done! I'm putting the illustrations together on a page   - see the tabs at the top of the blog as those not interested in illustration may be getting thoroughly bored with these :>)   So  A-Z is uploaded there.   Covers to follow. And hopefully some 'serious' painting time soon.

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).

My well used, watercolour box - the hinge is broken on one side and the lid is held on by gaffer tape and it needs a bit of a clean up! When I did the post on my oil painting plein air kit, I said I'd do a follow up on what I take if I'm going to work plein air with watercolour and mixed media.   You really don't need to buy special kits and they will never be quite 'right' for what you want to take. Here it is  .............. The Paintbox : I hesitate to show this grubby specimen!   but this is the true state of it so I'll be honest!    :>)   I bought this at an art materials fair years and years ago. I don 't use a small travel size watercolour box because I like a wider variety of colours to choose from  - and quite honestly the size/weight difference isn't huge - the weight comes from the bottle of water not the paints.  It's a White Nights set of full pans in a box that held 24, see above.   The central s...

Moleskine Folio Books There are some new sizes of moleskine sketchbooks and watercolour books available - in much better sizes for creative images. They are now doing A4 and A3 in both the sketchbook and watercolour books. At the moment they are on a special introductory offer. They call them Folio books. acrylic ink over oil pastel in moleskine sketchbook I bought the A3 watercolour book . A3 for those unfamiliar with European paper sizes is equivalent to 2 sheets of computer letter paper side by side - about 15 inches across the landscape format page - so 30+ ins approx across a double page spread. A really nice size :>) A4 is computer letter paper sized at half A3. I like the elastic band closure and robust construction of my moleskine sketchbook, so, thought this was worth trying out. The previous small size of the 'large' watercolour moleskine meant I had never bought one. I believe the paper is the same. This book has the same format and pocket in t...

Sennen Cove, Rainy Day, mixed media painting, 19.5 x 7.5 inches, Vivien Blackburn For some reason I don't enjoy working on panoramas in this format - turn it to vertical and I love working on a long thin canvas or paper - horizontal? - no :>( So I may well crop it to something like this and maybe get a further small painting cut out from the right hand side. What do you think? to crop or not to crop, that is the question. possible crop? detail of foreground rocks detail of the sea The photograph of the whole piece loses detail and texture so these are close ups of sections of the painting. It's a gloomy rainy day now and it was photographed with flash - never a very good idea, natural light is so much better. other potential crops? so ........ to crop or not to crop?

The view from the house windows, misty drizzly morning, Low Tide . Mixed media on Canson watercolour paper, 11x9 ins, September, Vivien Blackburn This was the view from 'our' windows (for one week only :>) ),one drizzly, misty morning, Even though it was misty the sea was still soft lavender and jade colours and the grey clouds had hints of lavender, the distant cliffs hazy without detail, the wet sand shining with mauves and pinks and hints of autumn reds in the foliage on the nearest cliffs. It's in mixed media - mostly watercolour but with touches of coloured pencil, watercolour pencil, a little oil pastel ........... that's about it but there could be more! I'm interested in catching the light, mood and particular colours, not in producing a purist watercolour-only work ; >) I like to use mixed media for the extra marks and 'language' potential, using coloured pencils sometimes to scumble a contrasting colour over underlying rocks or sand to creat...

Night Beach, ACEO, watercolour pencils, 2.5x3.5ins Vivien Blackburn and a few more ACEOs. Winter Sunset, ACEO 2.5x3.5ins, watercolour, Vivien Blackburn Approaching Rain, ACEO, 2.5x3.5ins. watercolour and cp, Vivien Blackburn Night Beach, ACEO, watercolour pencils, Vivien Blackburn Please take a look at my Etsy shop if you haven't already - I'd welcome feedback :>) http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568 and if anyone has the time to explain to me how to do those shortened urls I'd be very grateful! .

Evening Beach, watercolour pencil, 2.5x3.5 ins ACEO. Vivien Blackburn I've never done ACEO's before but decided to have a go. It's not a format or size I would normally use but I actually really enjoyed doing them. If you are interested in buying any of my ACEOs take a look at my Etsy site as I'll be uploading them there later today and tomorrow. I've only just begun and I'll keep adding new ACEOs and paintings as I go ..... My shop address at Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568 Blue Morning, ACEO, watercolour, Vivien Blackburn Night Beach, ACEO, watercolour, Vivien Blackburn Spring, Breezy Morning, ACEO, watercolour. Vivien Blackburn Spring, Breezy Morning, ACEO, Watercolour, Vivien Blackburn I had fun with these so there will definitely be more :>) What do you think?

Mawgan Porth, Sunny, Wild Day. Watercolour, watercolour pencils and coloured pencils. approx 9 ins square. Vivien Blackburn I decided to have a play with paint and pencils this morning before I have to get ready for the next hospital visit. This is done in watercolour with touches of watercolour pencil and glazes of polychromos coloured pencil to enhance colours, like the pink glow of the wet sand. I really like to use coloured pencil, just a little, over watercolour like this. This is a favourite place for me - the beach that was only a couple of miles from where I lived as a child. It was done from a combination of sketches done plein air and photos I'd taken last year. The day I wanted to capture was sunny and the sea was wild, the horizon a heaving mass of swells and line after line of huge breakers pounding in and crashing against the cliffs in clouds of spray. The clouds were fine., white and hazy. Mawgan Porth , Dusk. Watercolour pencils. 6x7 ins approx. Vivien Blackburn At ...