revisited tree and old sketches

I sketched the tree again, that I'd sketched at the very beginning of spring - Link:
Then it was very cold and the sun was setting, the tree only had tiny leaves beginning to show. Now it is in full leaf, fresh bright fierce spring greens and behind it - at midday - the fields of rapeseed glowed bright golden yellow with bluey muted hedgerows crossing in the distance. It was warm :>)

I may well look at this tree again from time to time as the seasons and weather change.

I'm not totally happy with the lights and darks in the branches that were waving in the breeze. It got a bit overworked :>(









Next is a page from an old sketchbook from 1993 shortly after I first started painting and sketching again in 1992.

I was really pleased with the sketch of our cat and disguised another disastrous attempt by covering it with the doodle on the left! - always disguise the mistakes! :>)

I really should get that ink out, I can't remember when I last used it.


Then these last 3 were done on a family holiday, with cheap coloured pencils - looking at them again after a long gap I can see the same issues in them as in my current work. I'm simply not interested in creating a photorealist image - I want to catch the wind in the hair/trees and the mood of the day, attitude and mood of the people or cat, I may or may not succeed but that's what I want. I wanted to catch moving figures. The frisbee players are my husband and one of my daughters running about in the sun, while I sat trying to draw them and the other people around us, the man with the paunch passing by and the gulls.

The man on the stool came over to look as his wife had noticed me drawing him - it doesn't worry me now but I found it much tougher then .............. 'it isn't very good' blush, mumble. blush ..........


To anyone hesitating about sketching plein air, especially drawing people, I'd say go out there and do it! There are things you see when working from life that no photograph can give you and the fact that you have to work so fast makes you refine an image down to its essentials, which really helps when doing more finished work.
A photograph often gives you too much information and you can lose the sense of movement in too much detail.

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