A quick sunset demo in watercolour

A very quick sunset demo in watercolour

One of my students was painting a sunset and had started with the dark clouds, planning to add the colour later.   This was a really quick demo to show her how it is better to get in the luminous colours first, so that they then shine through thin layers of cloud - just as it works in life.

So ....  messy and rushed!  but hopefully it showed what I meant, with the underlying glow shining through the clouds.   If elements have to be luminous and full of light then I try to get them down first whenever possible, whether it's sky or leaves against the light.

This was done in the S&B Zeta sketchbook.

Spring at last! Spring landscape in watercolour and mixed media

Spring at Hartshill Hayes, watercolour and mixed media in Stillman & Birn A4 Beta Hardback sketchbook

The family went off walking through the bluebell woods. which are looking absolutely gorgeous at the moment,   I sat at the top of the steep hill sketching.   Spring - a month late - is finally here and we had a few beautiful days.  It was warm and a bank holiday, bringing out lots of walkers, picknickers and those just wanting to sit in the sunshine - I left them out as it's the landscape that interests me.

I used watercolour, coloured pencil, conte pencil, Derwent sienna drawing pencil, white Daler Rowney acrylic ink, touch of gouache .......and the kitchen sink!

I have a few bottles of the FW acrylic ink and really like it but hadn't bought the white.   I asked one of my students how opaq.ue it is - I think he has the full set - and he said very.  So I ordered one - and it is :>)/   Just what I needed.  Even white gouache often isn't quite opaque enough to cover as I want and this is.

It was so nice to be out in the fresh air sketching after the long long winter this year.  Now I need to get out with my oils - so much quicker!

What medium do you prefer for sketchiing plein air?

Trees and Moon at Dusk, winter, Grey ink and XL tinted charcoal in the S&B Zeta sketchbook

Dusk, winter, Grey ink and XL tinted charcoal in the S&B Zeta sketchbook

An experiment across 2 pages of the new Zeta sketchbook with Grey ink and bamboo pen and Derwent's new XL tinted charcoal blocks.  Their new willow charcoal sticks are very nice too, really velvety unlike some that can be irritatingly scratchy.

The charcoal is luscious and so are the tinted graphite blocks - well worth trying if you like to work larger and more freely.

The Zeta sketchbook has very very smooth paper for those who use pen a lot and don't like texture.  It's also extremely heavy weight and can take a lot of pushing around, lifting out, washes etc

The S&B sketchbooks are now available in the UK via Amazon and soon through Jackson's for anyone interested, I know a few people asked me for information.

It's fun trying out new products :>)

Now the weather is improving at long last I may manage to get out a little more to sketch.

For those near the Cotswolds there is a great exhibition ending - Kurt Jackson at the Campden Gallery in Chipping Campden - don't miss it if you are near, it was great.

And another good one coming up at the John Davies gallery in Moreton in Marsh - David Prentice.  I have to go and see that one as well.

They are both top of my shopping list when I win the lottery!

Using the new Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook and it is now available in the UK!

Mixed media, edge of the woods in A4 S&B Zeta sketchbook

The paper in the new Zeta sketchbook is very very smooth and very heavy.  I was able to splash wet washes about, draw with a bamboo pen and pigment, and layer colours without them going muddy or dead.   The pen glided over the surface freely.  This is a hardback as I really like them, but you can also get a ring bound version for those who prefer them.  A lovely paper to work on :>)

S&B books are now available from Amazon UK I notice, for anyone wanting to try them out..  I'm really enjoying using them as the paper is such a lovely quality and the sizing means that colours retain their glow.   The pages in the hardbacks don't curl and lie flat for working across  a double page spread. 

The Beta is on my packing list for my next trip to the coast.

So has anyone tried them yet in the UK?

The edge of the wood: sketch using Derwent's new XL range of graphite and charcoal with mixed media

Derwent have brought out some new, very chunky sticks of tinted graphite and tinted charcoal. Both are water soluble, rich and expressive. I have only just begun to find out what I can do with them, they have loads of potential for interesting marks.

This is a sketch done, mixing them with some ink drawing with a bamboo pen, a little touch of red and yellow watercolour and a little white gouache. The sky and all those earthy colours are the XL graphite with a little of the tinted charcoal.

I'm thinking they will be great for life drawing and working plein air on a large scale.

Click to see the whole image.

Has anyone else tried them yet?

Tinted charcoal sketch of my youngest grandchild

A quick sketch of my grandson in tinted charcoal ... Pencils not the XL blocks, though I have plans for them.

Across the bay, approaching rain: graphite sticks and watercolour

Across the bay, approaching rain, graphite stick and watercolour in Stillman and Birn Beta hardback sketchbook.

The weather has been what the Scots call dreich - grey. rain, sleet, cold wind, grim - and it seems to have crept into this work!

It's done from memory of watching the rain approaching across the bay, making the sea and headland almost disappear.   The foreground will soon disappear as well as the rain arrives but for the moment shows more clearly.

I put a few pale washes of watercolour down and then worked over it with a graphite stick from Derwent, something I haven't used in ages.   I really enjoyed the veils of tone and drawing back into it with an eraser.  

I don't know if you can read the elements in it?  (Sky, headland, sea, waves, beach)

The new XL tinted graphite sticks would be great for this, I can't wait to get them .  Has anyone tried them yet?

Derwent XL tinted charcoal sticks: winter dusk across the files

A sketch of dusk across the fields, done with the new chunky XL tinted charcoal sticks from Derwent.

I've only got a few testers i earth colours and look forward to having the full set. They are really lush to use and I know I'm going to find them a very useful medium. Charcoal has always been one of my favourites when drawing. More work in these to follow :)

I had liked the tinted charcoal pencils and these combine with them beautifully but allow broader marks and big washes of colour/tone, ideal for working this size (A4) or on a much larger scale. Using the edges it's possible to get quite fine marks but the pencils can add even finer detail as required. Being able to put down large marks keeps the spontaneity in drawings.

Have you tried them yet?

15C packhorse bridge, winter sketch in watercolour and mixed media

This is somewhere I've sketched before as part of the waterways/Leicestershire project. It's an old packhorse bridge over flood meadows where the river Biam meets the river Soar. It used to be 200 yards long but only 50 survive. A lot was demolished when the canal and railway were built through the site. The buttresses sticking out are cut waters, protecting the bridge from the pressure of floods, keeping it standing for 600 years.

Nearby is a field still showing the ridges of medieval strip farming, the canal and a railway track that is now a path for strollers and cyclists. It makes a route that cuts right across the city, joining with the canal towpath, through these meadows, industrial areas, through parks, the backs of houses, by my old university, finally reaching water meadows on the other side of town.

This started with watercolour and continued with ballpoint pen, art bars, graphitints and gouache ... The kitchen sink may be in there somewhere.  Watercolour alone wasn't getting the solidity, weight and texture of the massive stones

Take a look in the comments, where Colin Griffiths has left links to his blog with historical background to this under the Leicestershire tab.  Lots of other interesting local history and great photos.

Winter light: Fields, watercolour and mixed media

Winter fields. watercolour and mixed media in A4 Stillman and Birn Beta hardback sketchbook

details:

The snow has gone and I wanted to catch that cool winter light, with the faintest hint of the sap rising and the colour starting to appear in the twigs at the tips of the branches.  Soon they will develop that luminious, almost apricot glow they get in early spring.

Done with watercolour, tinted charcoal and a little pastel pencil - Winsor and Newton paints and Derwent pencils.  Derwent have some lovely chunky tinted charcoal blocks out, that I haven't been able to talk about before their launch.   I used them here and in in some of the branches in the last sketches of the hedges, alongside the tinted charcoal pencils.  They are absolutely gorgeous!   More work in them will follow :>)

I am absolutely loving the S&B hardback Beta sketchbook.   The paper is incredibly robust and takes any medium I've thrown at it brilliantly .... and keeps colour brilliant too because of the sizing.  It is going to be available in the UK from April, so anyone interested in trying one, watch this space :>)   I'll let you know when it is here.

a flock of birds rises over winter fields, first snow: watercolour and mixed media painting in a moleskine folio watercolour sketchbook

a flock of birds rise:  watercolour and mixed media, detail

This is another look at the wonderful late afternoon light over the first snowfall of the year.  Getting the intense glow of the sun wasn't easy - until I treated myself to a tube of opera rose from Winsor and Newton.   It is intense!  mixed with transparent yellow it glows.  Thank you to my friend Robyn Sinclair for introducing me to this colour - another friend  Liz Steele also bought it on her recommendation and has fallen in love with it too!

The whole painting:

It isn't easy to see the glazes and subtle colour changes in this so, further details below:

 

This was done in the big A3 moleskine watercolour folio sketchbook.   A lovely size to use.   Unlike the S&B sketchbook though, I had problems with the page buckling, meaning a lot of moving the book to prevent gulleys of deeper colour settling - not good (it did dry flat).  The same wet wash in the S&B caused no buckling at all.

This one is mostly watercolour but there is some Derwent tinted charcoal pencil and pastel pencil in there as well.  

The clouds are a little more subtle, a  little  less purple, than it appears in the whole image here - but to get the glow of the sky and reflections on the snow I had to settle for this reproduction.  The cropped details show it better.

The flock of birds was far bigger - but for the sake of the painting I've limited the number.  There must have been 100.   Rooks???  they were silhouetted and it was impossible to tell for sure, but too big for starlings.

And an updated photo of the hedge

which shows it a little better

details:

 write up is here

Other snowy images are here  and here

Word recognition:  Sadly I was getting so much spam that I've had to reset the word check thing on comments - sorry as I find it annoying as well but it was getting ridiculous how much garbage I was getting :>(   Please do leave me comments, I like hearing feedback.

Hedges silhouetted agains the snow, winter light: watercolour and Derwent tinted charcoal pencils in Stillmand and Birn Beta Hardback sketchbook

 Detail 

I have always liked the calligraphic tangle of the hedges when they are sihouetted against the sky.   Recent snowfall meant even more opportunities with amazing light and the landscape simplified and hidden by the snow, throwing hedges into relief.

Above is a detail of a double page sketch in the lovely Stillman and Birn Beta A4 hardback sketchbook.  This paper is so forgiving and the watercolour works beautifully with it.  It allowed me to work through wet washes with charcoal pencil - something that tears many papers, leaving holes.  Some of the hedge is paint, some tinted charcoal.

First snow, more on the way, winter light: silhouetted hedges in watercolour and Derwent tinted charcoal in a Stillman and Birn A4 beta hardback sketchbook

The earlier warm golden glow of the low sun is covered by clouds, threatening more snow to come.   The spiky calligraphic marks of the hedge and the underlying form of the bank, with some of the taller dried grasses showing through, interested me. Colours are more muted.  The mix of watercolour and Derwent tinted pastel pencils were ideal to get the subtle colours that now showed.  Most of the white is the paper but there is a little white gouache to regain some of the negative spaces in the hedge - I'm a messy worker so of course smudged my charcoal a bit.

Further details

detail

 I was also experimenting with some new tube colours I'd bought - Winsor and Newton opera rose (wow!) transparent yellow (a replacement I think for Aureolin?), brown madder ( lush colour) and a Daniel Smith Blue Apatite.   The jury is still out on Daniel Smith paints - they are very expensive and so far I'm not overwhelmed by them.  Nice but not superb, not so far, justifying that price.  I only have a couple of tubes but am hesitant to buy more.

I used the ochre, black and brown tinted charcoal pencils by Derwent - I absolutely love these for this sort of scene and light, the colours are just perfect.  They combine well with watercolour too, allowing me to add drawn marks that gel with the paint because charcoal is an innately painterly medium.  Sometimes I drew through a wet wash, making a darker mark, sometimes over dry paper and sometimes brushed the charcoal out a little with water to make a wash.

This may be done as a large canvas in mixed media.

One friend asked 'are you going to do any more to it?'   - and I'm not.   Would you?

Painting snow in late afternoon light, watercolour and tinted charcoal

Late afternoon light on snowy fields, a flock of birds suddenly took to the sky, watercolour and mixed media in Stillman and Birn Beta Hardback sketchbook

Another in the series trying to capture the fleeting dramatic light on fresh snow and to get to grips with the sheer amount of liquid my new brush holds!

This one is difficult to photograph as the photos tend to lose the subtle colours on the hillside and darken the sky just a fraction too much.

This involved Derwent tinted charcoal pencils used with watercolour and a tiny touch of oil pastel in a Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook with its lovely heavy paper.

I'm not sure what the birds were - starlings or pigeons?

And a watercolour version of the hedge:

 

Again it is done with watercolour plus tinted  charcoal pencils.

More paintings of snow: Watercolour and mixed media

Winter snow and frozen puddles, watercolour and mixed media

I just treated myself to a wickedly expensive brush and I'm busy test driving it.   It holds so much water!  that's something to adapt to.  It's a size 18 filbert that comes to a nice point.

There is also a little Tombow pen drawing in there in a cool grey and a little of the ochre tinted charcoal from Derwent in the hedges.

I did a couple of others that I'll show another day.

What is your favourite watercolour brush?

Tinted Charcoal pencils and ipastel

Hedge silhoutted against the snow, late afternoon.  Charcoal and pastel

This one started with a sketch in Derwent's tinted charcoal pencils (lovely subtle colours).  See the original sketch below.

On the other side of the road was this wonderful early sunset that I'd done an iPastel sketch of on the iPad.  I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked with what was actuall a pale grey sky on the opposite side of the road, where the hedge was- so on the ipad I borrowed the sky from the ipad work and combined it with the sketch - this may well turn into a larger painting where I can play with those tangled twigs and branches :>) .  It was done in an A4 Stillman and Birn, hardback Beta book with lovely lovely heavy paper, that takes anything I throw at it.  I would love to get my hands on some A2/A1 sheets of this paper.

The tinted charcoal pencils are gorgeous to use, with subtle natural colours and were perfect for the hedge and undergrowth.  I used a little white gouache to regain gaps in the hedge that had become a bit smudged.

Derwent tinted charcoal pencils, Hawthorn hedge in the snow

Have you tried the tinted charcoal pencils?