Sketchbook Challenge - 29th and 30th January

The last two of this challenge. I'm glad I managed to complete it, although occasionally hurrying to get my day's contribution down just before midnight!

Eastleach sketching trip

After a couple of dismal days, our small group were fortunate to choose excellent weather for our planned sketching trip to Eastleach village in the Cotswolds earlier this week.

We met up for coffee on arrival and then later for lunch on the terrace of the Victoria Inn.  My first sketch was of the Clock Tower Cottages, just across from the Inn.  Lots of awkward angles to contend with here. These five cottages (built in the early 1870s) were designed by a renowned Victorian architect, Henry Astley Darbishire, at the request of the squire, Sir Thoms Bazley.  It is understood they were originally used as almshouses.

Pencil and pen sketch (8" x 5.5")

After lunch we made our way over the old "clapper" footbridge and alongside the River Leach, where I found a shady spot near one of the two churches in the village.

Pen and watercolour (8" x 5.5")

Postcard collage

 Another collaged postcard - 

Lino printed tissue, paste paper, texture paste, sketch
and machine stitch (6" x 4" on Hahnemuehle postcard

I am enjoying making use some of my facial sketches in these small collages.

Postcard collage

 Another small collage using one of my Hahnemuehle postcards.

 

Printed and painted tissue, book page, scanned sketch,
gold gel pen, machine stitch (6" x 4")

Updated Sketchbook Challenge spread

I've finally got round to adding a little more detail to the sketchbook pages I shared at the end of December.

On the left I have used some wine cork stamps and on the righthand page I stencilled paint through a fine paper-cut image from an old birthday card.  The latter didn't work particularly well, but there was enough information to bring out some detail with coloured pencil.

Sketchbook

Not a lot happening with my sketchbook these last couple of weeks, but I have been raiding my files of old sketches and doodles to see if there's anything I can usefully include.

The two drawings I've glued onto this spread are quite some years old, both based on fashion magazine images - with a little bit of collage added to tie in with the background colours. This is not finished, but I am not sure yet what is needed.

Collage, acrylic paint, printed papers, coloured pencil sketches

Sketchbook experiments

Another spread almost complete.  Again, repurposed earlier work, with figures vaguely based on the type of traditional design used for playing cards. 

For the background I used a purchased stencil, the Queen and the four symbols are lino prints, the King and the Knave are mono printed using oil-based ink (with some added pencil details).  As my attempts at mono printing the Jester did not come out well, I used my Sharpie drawing instead, with colour pencil.

Sketchbook challenge continued ...

Adding more to pages already started.

This spread utilises past sketches, scanned and enlarged to fit within the paint-scraped border.  On the right I have used a fine liner pen to reinforce the inkjet print.  Underneath the tracing paper insert on the left, I have collaged a piece of cover paper from my original handmade book to mimic the colour of the snakeshead fritillaries.

A saved Austrian Christmas card image has been added here and I have used pencil (and imagination) to extend the scene.

Sketch for a concertina book

Computer problems have left me attempting to add this post on my iPad mini - not ideal! 

My daughter and I were given the opportunity to spend a few days in Devon a couple of weeks ago. We took all our food supplies with us - we didn’t want to break our routine of isolating as much as possible. The weather was good, excellent walking, no tv or internet so our evenings were spent reading or playing Scrabble or card games. I decided to do a panoramic sketch of the long, narrow garden and since returning home have redrawn this on a 30” x 7”  length of watercolour paper which should result in a finished concertina book of approximately 4” x 7”.

This is an enlarged scan of my original sketches which I have taped together. Because my drawing was done in different stages as I moved along the garden there are some odd perspectives - some I have adjusted slightly, others I have not. Coloured pencil has been added as a guide for the final painted version.

Different media on black paper

Another page in the Hahnemuhle Black Book.

The small knapweed sketch made with metallic gel pens certainly stands out on the black background.  Colour choices are limited, but I did add a bit of coloured pencil for the brown base of the flower.

I was going to use watercolour crayons for the cape primrose, but they weren't opaque enough against the dark background, so I reverted to gouache plus some watercolour to get the colours needed.

I have only a small selection of pastels and pastel pencils and must admit don't use them often as I can't get to grips with their fragility as a sketching medium. However I do admire the work of artists who use them well, particularly if not over-blended.  In the rose image, I also used Derwent Drawing pencils which are a soft, wax-based product, available in very muted colours.  To me they feel very similar to pastels.  I did use a fixative on this sketch which appeared to dull the colours slightly.

Care Mail and handmade books

Our local council is asking for notes or cards which can be forwarded to care home residents to help cheer them up during this lengthy period of isolation.

As well as some of my printed cards, I am sending a couple of artists' booklets.

This one is a little wild - a while ago, I had the urge to completely fill an A3 sheet of black paper with my handmade floral foam stamps, then wasn't sure what to do with it.  Hopefully it will brighten someone's day.

Cover - 4" x 6"

Gesso, acrylic and metallic ink

The other was a prototype for my garden pop-up book (final version here) - this just needed some coloured pencil added to the pen illustrations to finish it off.

You can find my cutting guide for the booklet in this post.

3" x 5" folded from one sheet of A4 paper

Facial pencil sketches

With all this time in lockdown mode, I should be ramping up the art activities, but it just doesn't seem to be happening.  Some days I have been really busy - gardening, cleaning windows, clearing cupboards, touching up paintwork, sewing, etc. - and then other days I seem to achieve very little.

However, here are a couple of pencil portraits done from the Sketchbook Revival videos, the other from the television, I think.

Sketchbook Revival - All Messed Up

Another gem from the Sketchbook Revival 2020 videos - Karen Stamper's "Wild Garden" in black and white.  I was particularly looking forward to this as I had found Karen's contribution last year inspiring and freeing.

Materials and techniques suggested were graphite, charcoal, candle wax, wax crayons, glue stick, torn paper stencils, leaf prints, ink (for drawing, spraying and wash), biro, markers, collage, etc.  The idea was to start with random graphite and charcoal, loose scribbles, areas of denser black with rubbed in crushed charcoal, resist marks with wax and glue stick, more charcoal, leaf shapes erased or sprayed through stencils, real leaf prints (directly on the page or collaged), finer lines with biro, inked lines with stick pen, etc.  All really wildly messy, but great fun.

I should probably have left more white areas - I did use white acrylic and then some gesso, but neither covered the charcoal as much as I would have liked.

The Tangled Hedge - mixed media in watercolour Moleskine 

Detail

Moleskine toys

To save my blog from going "rusty", a couple of sketches from a past evening workshop devoted to toys, both completed in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Water soluble pen and watercolour

Water soluble pen and watercolour bear over a mixed media collage

Urban Sketchers 5th October

An excellent turnout today for our meeting at the Hall & Woodhouse public house in Wichelstowe, a satellite development to the south of Swindon.  Building started in 2008 and it is estimated that 4,500 new homes will have been completed over a period of 20 years.  Parts of the Berks and Wilts Canal running through the area have been restored, with plans to provide a vibrant canal side area.

The recently built pub was certainly interesting, with a narrow boat built into one wall, the interior lavishly decorated with canal and river paraphernalia and waterside views.

A section of the pub interior -
definitely a "boat house" ambiance

A few of the 20 plus sketchers

My view of the narrow boat which offers trips along the canal

Floral sketches

At this time of the year our garden is over-run with Japanese anemones and I have sketched them many times in the past.

Mini collages

A couple of years ago I made a book of mini-collages using pages from some tiny sample pads sent to me by Hahnemuehle.  That book can be seen here.

Winding down after framing three paintings for my local art group's exhibition later this month, I wanted to play around with another set of small collages, using up some painted paper scraps, sketchbook scribblings and left over lino prints.  It was a conscious decision to start with a floral theme, but I hadn't particularly planned the pink colour scheme which seems to have taken over!

The pages are 3" x 4", cartridge/drawing paper I think, which I have primed with gesso on both sides to make them a bit sturdier.  Once I have enough pages I will probably make another little book to display them in.

Pencil flower studies

We have had some really gorgeous weather here over the Easter weekend.  An opportunity to relax in the garden and spend a little time capturing some of the flowers in my sketchbook.  The Spring Snowflake has put on a beautiful show this year - I was lucky to get this image before the flowers started to wither in the heat.

Pencil sketches

Not much in the way of serious work going on at the moment, but here are a few recent pencil sketches.  These are done in an A5 sketch pad.  The first two pages are from imagination, exploring ways of getting the facial features in the right proportions.  For the third, each was an attempt to capture the likeness of a video presenter - so not static images, but with little variation in the poses.

Urban Sketchers 2 March 2019

Our group was fortunate to be offered use of the premises of a charitable organisation for this month's meeting.  Although the weather wasn't too bad, it was good to be able to sit in comfort in this high street, shop front location to capture the passers-by and the buildings, as well as the interior space and fellow sketchers.