Exhibition and another doodle

Watercolour, fine liner and gel pens (3" x 3")

Finally, after two years, our art group is able to hold a "real life" exhibition.

Mini watercolour sketch

 The series continues, although the blooms are getting a bit more fanciful.

The mini series continued

 

Pen and watercolour 3" x 3"
Cobalt Orange, Magenta and Cobalt Turquoise
plus white gel pen

A small change

 

3" x 3" in watercolour Moleskine

I tried out Golden high flow and fluid acrylics on this one.  After the subtlety of watercolour, I was a bit overwhelmed by the strength of just a small amount of acrylic.  I went overboard and added a background glaze of gold ink, then decided to try and tone that down with some hatching in watercolour pencil and white Neo-pastel.

Mini doodles continued

 

Watercolour, black fine liner, white gel pen
3" x 3"

I have been having issues with the removable tape to mask off the edges of these small images.  Stix2 removable tape worked OK with my first two efforts, but subsequently began to tear the paper surface in some places.  On this image (and a subsequent one) I put down a band of matte medium around the edge of the square, then used the tape, but that only resulted in the paint bleeding under the tape.

I have since raided the first aid box and tried out some microporous dressings tape - so far this seems to be  a better option.

Mini watercolour sketch

Watercolour, black fine liner, white gel pen,
silver acrylic ink (3" x 3") in
Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

Getting quite hooked on these small watercolours, started with no plan, just responding to the blended wet in wet colours.

Another doodle

 

Another watercolour with black fine liner
and some gel pen (3" x 3")
in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

More Moleskine doodling

Watercolour, fine liner, gel pens, gold ink (3" x 3")

 

Moleskine doodling

In the main, I have used my watercolour Moleskine books for experimenting, trying out new materials etc.    I must admit I haven't used my latest version much at all this year.  However, after watching a recent video tutorial by Tracy Weinzappel I was tempted to try a bolder approach to a technique I have often used in the past.

I taped off an area of my page, liberally coated it with water and then randomly dropped in 3 or 4 watercolours, allowing them to blend at will. Once dry,  the arrangement of colours might suggest a subject or composition and here I have drawn this in a black fine liner. Several negative glazes have been added to enhance the main image.

Watercolour Moleskine, black fine liner, watercolour,
white gel pen highlights (6" x 4")

More Cotswold sketching

Pen, watercolour and gouache 

We managed to pick another good day for sketching this week.   A trip out to Miserden (a charming estate village hidden in the Cotswolds between Cirencester and Birdlip).  An early pub lunch outside the Carpenters Arms, a wander round the village, a bit of sketching and then a short but strenuous walk into the valley and around the lake.  Unfortunately, the manor house gardens are only open Friday to Sunday at the moment, but a good excuse to make another visit sometime.

The pub car park has been converted into a larger, socially distanced outdoor eating area, but there is still a hitching post for the horses!