Sketches

I was lucky at Christmas and got two new pens.  The Lumos Pro and a Sailor Fude.

The Lumos is from a Dorset firm, www.tomsstudio.com  -  the pen has interchangeable nibs and is filled with ink using capillary action.  The reservoir can be washed out with water and refilled using another ink, very handy.

The Sailor Fude is one I’ve used over the years and needed a new one.  The design has improved too, with a longer barrel, that allows for a spare cartridge to be stored, what a great idea.  With its unusual nib, it makes very useful mark making and like the Lumos is good for sketching, which is exactly what I’ve been doing.  

So far I’ve done a couple of sketches and will get round to more next week.  

There you have it….

Call myself an Artist and I went and forgot my sketchbook!  - So when all else fails, find an alternative -  that happened to be a blank page from my diary, luckily I had a pen.

After I berated myself about the sketchbook, I settled down to a very pleasant few minutes sketching fellow patrons of Wetherspoons in Ilfracombe and enjoyed a coffee (with free fill up, whoop whoop). 

By the time I took this image ⤵️ said patrons had up and left, but I’m sure you get the idea.  Obviously like cars in a carpark, patrons in Wetherspoons move before you can blink! 

Quick sketch

With a sketchbook and pen in my bag, I sat and did a quick sketch whilst hubby was shopping.  Sitting in a supermarket car park was an ideal opportunity to sketch quickly.  Cars come and go at the shops, so there is no time for a slow carefully planned out drawing.  You have to get on with it.  

Continual line (also called Continuous line - not sure which is the correct phrase, it’s the same difference in my book….’sketchbook’ haha).

 I love how ‘wobbly’ the cars have come out.

Back to Sketching

As much as I love painting, mainly Oils, I do enjoy a relaxing session of sketching.  Simple is best, so I either try and have to hand a pencil with sketchbook, or a pen (be it fountain pen or other).   

Taking these items out and about, I can sketch anywhere, but recently I've found sitting in the evening is a good opportunity to find random photos online (there are websites, Facebook groups and the Sktchy app where you can find copyright free photos to use).

Enough waffle, here are some over the last week...

This next little character you may recognise,

‘Grand-dog’ Dottie

Dottie is always a delight to sketch, but some of her poses are questionable,

especially when her pose is more

Naughty Bottom than sensible pup!

A much needed break

 With a last minute holiday booking, a deal we couldn’t say no to, we jetted off to Lanzarote. 

Okay, we happened to choose the very week the UK had a heatwave itself, but I have to say, blissfully the hotel we stayed at was excellent and better still had air conditioning…..ahhhh the relief.

Of course I took my sketchbook and gouache paints with me.  Over the week, I actually only sketched 3 scenes, but so nice to be painting something and somewhere different. 

View from the esplanade in Papagayo, this shows a small part of the hotel

View from our hotel room….we were so lucky, large balcony too.

We drove up the coast one day and stopped to look around shops, and Yes, the beach had to get a sketch.

I had intended to do more sketching, but it was a holiday for relaxing, so we enjoyed the swimming pools at the hotel.

🏖⛱⛱🏖

Speedy painting

Unusually, I'm adding this sketch here rather than on my other blog (see link for that in sidebar)

After much ado in trying to set up the camera, hopefully I captured the drawing process okay, but used it on time-lapse, so it is really really quick, so don't blink - however, I did repeat the clip for the video.  

As ever, click the image below ...

I still sketch

Although I'm very into Oil painting these days, I do still Sketch.  The other day I picked up the dip-pen and bottle of ink and basically doodled...then the Kelpies appeared

I've sketched these before (you may remember them)

but there is just something about the Lines and Shapes that is so tempting to draw.

Here's a link about the Kelpies ⬅️

Sketching in Fuerteventura

Wow!  that was fun....My first holiday abroad in YEARS all made possible because our daughter was able to look after William

(he had a lovely time with her and little Hamish)

Husband and I went to Fuerteventura 🔗 in the Canary Islands and, of course, I took some painting supplies with me...

Can't tell you how wonderful it was to be standing looking at this view

and actually painting it there and then ❤️ 🎨

 The scene is on the west coast of the island at a place called

El Cotillo 🔗

This next painting was at 

Corralejo 🔗

Fuerteventura, being created from volcanic activity over 20 million years ago, the terrain is very arid.

I was amazed at how the hills - mountains and general rocky surfaces held so much colour.  I kept seeing greens, even though there were very few areas of grass or trees, then discovered it was lichen. 

On our travels around the island I still sketched and here are some of my sketchbook drawings:

(Photos on one of our drives)

A quick sketch at the harbour in Corralejo

Stopped in the shade to sketch this church in the main town of

Puerto del Rosario 🔗

We even drove down to 

Caleta de Fuste 🔗

(not one of our favourite resorts, but it was on our drive around,

so thought we would stop and take a wander - at least I got a drawing out of it)

Not your usual 'holiday drawing subject' but since we were having a coffee under a large awning

I spied a subject...

All in all it was a

FANTASTIC HOLIDAY

I LOVED IT

💃💃💃

Painting on location

One of the great things about going away, is it inspires paintings.   I have to restrict what I choose, otherwise I would sketching and painting 24/7 -  our recent trip to Cornwall was, of course, FULL OF INSPIRATION.   I did a lot of little sketches here and there, but restricted myself to only a handful of  landscapes.  I used Gouache as my medium this trip and thoroughly enjoyed using it.

These make great little reminders of the time in Cornwall, but will be useful to work them into bigger paintings.  I may even use oils, I think it would suit them....we shall see, but I will be sure to let you all know.

Urban sketching in Cornwall

 ~ Cornwall ~

We've been there before and decided to take a few days again in Lostwithiel

Knowing I would be taking my sketching/painting gear with me, I put out the question to one of the Groups I belong to on Facebook - South Cornwall Sketchclubs

If you don't ask you don't find out and fortunately I wasn't disappointed.  

I've always thought there are people out there wanting to sketch in company, they only need to be asked.

As I wasn't totally familiar with places (indoors as it is January), I was reliant on suggestions and 

Suzannah Ford from the sketch group agreed that the Duchy of Cornwall Nursery & Garden Centre would be a good place.

It was definitely too cold for sketching outside and we were really lucky to get seating in front of the log fire in the restaurant.  

The staff were great, they came round to see if we needed anything and left us to happily sketch and draw for a couple of hours.

Suzannah's painting on the left - mine on the right

and the Carrot cake was delicious - beyond delicious in fact Yum!

Gouache in moleskine sketchbook 12" x 9"

I will definitely be asking sketch groups again when we are away - no doubt there will be fellow sketchers out there happy to join in.

footnote:   Suzannah - Really nice to have met you.

🎨🎨🎨

Sketching ideas for future paintings

The thing with sketchbooks, is you need good paper.  It really does make all the difference to a decent sketch.  So you can image how challenging a Khadi-paper  sketchbook can be.  Not only is the paper roughly textured, but it swallows up watercolour like there is no tomorrow!

However, there is always a Solution 

and for this sketchbook I prepared some pages with gesso.

This will enable me to use acrylics for sketching ideas.

Prep with grey gesso and below

white/burnt sienna mix

As the gesso dries permanent, this makes it an ideal surface for acrylic paints -

of course, you could also prepare the pages with White gesso, I just chose not to.

Not all pages are gessoed though.

I have also painted directly on the white pages with acrylics -

 rough 'blocking in' idea for a future painting.

They remind me where I want to go with a large canvas.

This sketchbook is proving to be worth its weight in gold.

(I'm also going to add this post to my Useful Painting Tips blog, it may be helpful to anyone wanting to draw on khadi paper - sorry if this is very repetitive for those of you following both blogs)

🎨🎨🎨

When all you have to hand is a pen and diary

On our recent trip to Dorset,

how is it possible one of our outings was WITHOUT my paints!

Hey....never mind

I had a biro and a diary

~ all part of the memory of a great trip ~

I'll be adding more blogposts about this visit to Dorset

so 

WATCH

THIS 

SPACE

👀

JULY and it's World Watercolor Month

#WorldWatercolorMonth Started  by Charlie O'Shields over at Doodlewash ....being that I like a challenge, I've signed up for the month long challenge of a drawing/painting or sketching each day for the entire month (what was I thinking)!  wish me luck...

The drawings are added to the Facebook Group titled: World Watercolor Month - July 2016 and all submissions, be they on the facebook group or elsewhere on the internet, will have the hashtag #WorldWatercolorMonth added (just saying in case you come across it out there and wonder what it is all about).....one week down and here are my submissions:



1/31:   Three Hens

 2/31:   Rabbit

 3/31: Horse

4/31: Pigeon

5/31: Piggy

6/31: Hamish

7/31: Squirrel

I seem to have an animal theme going here. Quite unintentionally to start with, but I'll keep it going a bit longer.