An Estuary on the Isle of Wight

Our recent trip to the island was very relaxing.  We had plenty of time to explore and on this trip we went down to Newtown Estuary.  Never been there before, but so worth the visit.

there was a pulley system to get the little boats back to shore...it was a bit like a washing line boat park!

then we walked back to the Old Town Hall and past the water pump

look at the slope on the lintel above the door in the next picture.  Apparently the building has been like this for a very long time

 this old building and the nearby estuary are run by the National Trust

Firework night

We are still a couple of weeks away from

Firework Night.....

but the village have started building the bonfire.....it appears to be a stripey elephant this year!

Pen and watercolour

Here's a sketch I actually did a while back,

but never got around to adding it ...

thought it was about time I did....

sketchbook - 6" x 4"

 pencil - pen (Uni-ball eye) - watercolours

Sketching William

I thought you might like to see how I go about sketching our lurcher lad, William.  I set up the

camera on a tripod......it still managed to go out of focus for a few seconds grrrr....but overall it

is clear - I zoomed in on me sketching and I think the result gives you the general idea of how I

sketch the lad.

It's all about SHAPES

Shapes...okay so I'm going to say that word a few times here....

Everything is a Shape...when you are drawing anything, look at it carefully and decide what that shape is.  Keep in mind that some things are just one shape, but some are a combination of shapes put together.  

Remember the kids toys when you put a triangle brick into the triangle gap, etc...think about those when you look at your subject.   For instance when I'm drawing William, I had initially asked myself what shapes I saw.  From my example, you can see I've broken it down to basics.....

The Gribble seat

Have you ever heard of a Gribble....well you have now - plus it's actually a seat in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight

And this is the actual seat...

Unusual for sure!

Fungi sketches

From my previous post, I have now sketched some of the fungi....I enjoyed this first sketch the most

as it gave me a chance to use opaque and transparent watercolours in layers.  Yes, I used both on one

piece of work, it worked for me and gave the look I wanted to achieve....whether this breaks 'the

rules of watercolouring' I don't know, I just go on instinct most of the time ....

Fungi

Plural I guess is the same as singular.....Fungi 

I have no idea what these are actually called as individual species, does it really matter, probably not unless you are a fungi expert, but by heck they are pretty.....

This was the largest, about 5 inches across....

I think my next job will be to sketch them, that will be another post though.

Have a great weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

Clovelly

We took our friends Lynn and her husband over to Clovelly. This quaint little village sits on a very steep hill.....another one!   We love our hills here in Devon.

Lynn and I kept stopping to take photos, so the lads had to keep waiting for us...

The cobbled street was quite difficult to walk on, especially as it was so steep.  Going back up proved to be much easier.

I loved the carved design on this building...

 

at this point, Lynn and I opted to sit on this bench and do some sketching.  We left the lads to walk the rest of the way down to the harbour....

There was something nice about looking down onto the rooftops...

which I sketched, but added the paint later.....

We had such a good day with Lynn and her husband Fred

and it was lovely to take them around our

area to show them some of the sights.

Lynn and I got so much fun out of sketching together.