Wednesday 31 August 2011

A Little Fishy


Teri Casper, over at Twenty Minute Challenge, added a post yesterday referring to fishing.  That set me off thinking about fish and as I had some spare paint in my palette (I hate wasting paint) I decided to use it up.

I started with the fish itself, loaded my brush with a mix of Quin. Gold and (little tiny amount of Burnt Sienna) and made the initial shape.  When that was dry I added a slightly darker mix and then used up my Prussian Blue and a bit of Ultramarine Blue, that was just enough with clear water - after all it is a fish!,  and the result:


Twenty Minute Challenge completed!


- Thanks Teri for giving me the inspiration -





Thursday 25 August 2011

Algarve sketches '06


Well, they do say better late than never.  That's certainly the case here, only 5 years since I did these sketches.

Trawling through old sketchbooks, journals etc. I came across these sketches from our holiday in the Algarve and thought I would share them with you.  We were staying in one of the Riu Hotels at Olhos de Agua east of Albufeira


I did them with Derwent pencils



Isn't it funny how looking back in these sketches all that time ago, I actually remember
exactly where I was sitting when I did this sketch.
Husb. had gone swimming, so I wandered down to the sea front and
found a little restaurant where I stopped for a coffee and did my sketching......










So glad I had kept this sketchbook




Tuesday 16 August 2011

Shapes

I managed to do some impromptu sketching the other day whilst out shopping. It's quite a good opportunity to observe - on this occasion it was quite a windy day and this tree caught my eye as it was blowing the branches over so much


- as I noted to myself, the shape tells us what is happening with the weather in a painting -

 Whereas, these fir trees, even on a windy day, stay rigid


- in a painting these fir trees would make it more difficult to understand
that it is a windy day -


Painting or sketching people isn't something I do too much of, but I don't mind capturing them for middle distance 




This lady stood still whilst taking

a phone call, so  knew I only had

a short time to sketch.

Instead of worrying about what 

she was wearing, I concentrated

on her shape.














The next lady was moving quickly and

her shape was more difficult to judge.

So I concentrated on her very large

shopping bag and worked the rest of

her around it
















 They didn't all work out though


This was meant to be a man resting on the edge of the boot of his car!  I didn't get it - so I moved on......



.........and managed to get this man heading off to the shops.  He proved to be a much easier shape

Finally, this lady was putting shopping in her car


but I considered the initial shape  first




Would love to know what you think

How do you go about a sketch?

Do you approach it differently and how do you get on?






Tuesday 9 August 2011

more pages



..............with my Sketchbook Project 2012 book


As you will see I am still keeping it coastal at the moment





The next two pages are of Mortehoe Village 
which is just up the hill from Woolacombe






 I am now getting to grips with how I want this sketchbook to look

and I'll gradually add some more pages soon

- it's a case of Watch This Space!!









Friday 5 August 2011

Sketchbook Project 2012

Having read last year about the Sketchbook Project I thought that this time round I would give it a go for the 2012 Tour - it's described as being like a Concert Tour but with Sketchbooks!

I have put a link HERE to their official website and will be showing you some of my pages from time to time.  To begin with, here are the front and back covers - and the Theme I have chosen is "This is a Sketchbook......"






The inside cover and the first page




Followed by




For the next two pages, I felt that as we are at the beach, I would start with just that

beach things,




~   and that's the story so far!   ~




Enjoy your weekend






Wednesday 3 August 2011

Coded message!

Robin over at Pink House Studio - (this is another favourite blog site of mine), mentioned Monkey's last week, which reminded me of something that happened around 1985/6 or thereabouts, when our children were very young.  We were on a family outing, to who knows where! - just an average family day out with the kids.  On our journey, husband spotted a sign to Monkey World (which I had missed completely, typical me).

Well, picture the scene, you have 2 small kids in the car, if you say "we are going to........." and it doesn't happen, then all hell breaks loose, so husband decided to use Code to me (remember I hadn't seen the sign, so had no idea what he meant).

Conversation goes:

Husband:   "We could go to that place which begins with MONmouthshire"

Okay, I think I've got that bit........MON  (so far so good)

then Husband says:    "and ends with the thing you close a door with"


........?!?!......I'm thinking hard and he has to repeat it a couple of times, but Ah  - I get it, and I'm thinking

......HANDLE !

(doh!   you 'close' a door with a 'handle' - made complete sense to me)

but I'm still thinking, how is that a word?

Of course, husband is slightly perplexed that I haven't cottoned on yet


In the end, he decided I had better say what he had tried so hard to keep in Code.... so I said:

"but what's a MONHANDLE ?"  to which husband and the kids laughed .....and husband says, in between laughing and trying to drive....

"MONKEY, you daft bat"


I STILL TO THIS DAY, believe his clue was wrong!   I think he should have said:

"What do you lock a door with"   - not -  'close' a door!!

and, to this day, we always refer to Monkeys as Monhandles!   Oh, and by the way, we did get to stop and visit and had a lovely day, with lots of laughing at my expense.


Thank you Robin for reminding me.