paintings prints and stuff

   ABC for Lucy, illustrated book, Rough initial page layout - subject to many changes! I've been managing small amounts of time for more 'serious' painting - but the little bits of time here and there, while busy with other things,  I've been working on ideas for a book for Lucy who will be one at Christmas. I thought I'd make it a little dual purpose and appeal to Sam (age 4) as well as he'll be learning to read any time soon. Drawn in an A4 sketchpad, several of these to a page, done leaning on the steering wheel of the car while waiting when I was taxi for family to various appointments, so they are very rough and merely getting down thoughts and ideas of how it will go. I didn't have my list with me when sketching but here is what I've got so far: A - apple, angel, aardvark, apricot, anteater, ant,  auntie B - blue, butterfly, bed, ball, boat, bear, bee, banana, boy, big, bouncing, batman, books, buzzing C - crimson, cat, cot, carrot, camel, c...

a mother post-chemo and virtually bald, a lovely close family unit with her daughters  Very quick sketches of fidgeting, moving people in a waiting room.  Not great, but better than being bored : >)  and good practice.  Done with a Pentel brush pen in a tiny 5x4 inch sketch book that I've had for years and never finished off as I don't like working so small.   Working with the brush pen allows no corrections or erasing so here they are errrors and overworking-to-correct and all.   I do like the ability to use it to scrub in areas of tone to work with the more linear marks,   waiting alone, stoic and quiet with burka and skull cap, anxiously waiting

Autumn, watercolour and mixed media, 8.5 x 5 ins approx Looking from the field's edge, across the stubble left after the wheat was harvested,  towards the far trees.     This one is a study in a limited range of colours - warms vs cools.   I really like the bleached colours of the dried grasses and stubble at this time of year.   Autumn isn't actually quite this far advanced here but I wanted to use this limited colour range so moved the calendar on a bit :>) This was done in watercolour, with the addition of watercolour pencil drawn and scratched into wet washes and a little biro (ballpoint pen).

Birch trees in the snow in the early morning mist 16x20ins oil on canvas Nearly finished but I'll probably keep tweaking it for a bit! The earlier stages are here and here and other trees are here . ...   and one that just didn't work - using coloured pencils on a mid brownish pastel paper.   Not a mix to repeat, for me anyway. The colours are too dulled by the paper, the pencils simply didn't have the intensity to cover it. I've got a small piece of Fisher 400 to experiment with - a friend, Nicole Caulfield, uses it for all her portraits and loves it.   I think I have to give it a go with watercolour and coloured pencils together.  

I had thought that this sketch kit - my most minimal unless I simply take a mechanical pencil plus the tiny sketchbook - was small. A6 sketchbook, Jakar eraser, Rotring Art Pen, Pentel Brushpen, White Chinagraph Pencil, Mechanical Pencil, Tippex correction pen But take a look at this for packing an large amount of media into a tiny space!  amazing - and great sketches too The tiny sketchbook is an old diary, with a cover to pretty to throw away, refilled with heavy cartridge paper in a concertina fold..   It fits into the pencil case. I don't actually like working that small but sometimes it's all I am able to carry and at least I have it with me.  Often I'll take the pencil case plus bigger sketchbook. I'm hoping to continue with the birches today - life has been hectic with no daylight painting hours.