paintings prints and stuff

Across the Fields near Great Bowden A4 Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook, willow charcoal and Derwent charcoal pencil A charcoal sketch on a hazy but sunny morning with layers of spring growth.   First the long grass and cow parsley of the verge, some light against dark, some dark against light.  Then the hawthorn hedge - a complex mix of light and dark and gaps between twigs where the field could be seen through.  Then a field of growing wheat, a further hawthorn hedge, a bright yellow field of rape, a further hedge beyond which the land falls away to a valley -  and then the far hills, blue and hazy with a few distant fields outlined by more hedges and more yellow rape.  On the right a distant wood looking deeper blue.  Patern and tone. I had actually gone to sketch more sheep but they'd been moved to another field. Every year I mean to sketch the fields when these vivid areas of bright yellow are there and usually don't make it in time.  Soon the petals will fal

Quick sketches of sheep and lambs in the fields nearby using Derwent Graphitints, water soluble pencils Quick sketches  of a subject I don't think I've ever tackled before.  The Graphitints with the waterbrush are great for quick sketches like this.  I used cloud grey, aubergine and  chestnut pencils mainly, with just touches of others maybe.

Hazy light and glowing rapeseed, near Market Harborough The fields around the south of Leicestershire and into Northamptonshire are currently glowing vivid yellow as the rape is in flower.  When the skies are purple with storm clouds and the sun is still shining on the fields in becomes spectacular.  The day of the photo was hazy and not so dramatic but you can still see the intensity.   I need to get out with oil paints. I've been very busy with work committemnt, appointments and my youngest daughter moving house so no painting going on at the moment.   I will get out though.

Another sketch through a rainy windscreen whilst waiting for family appointment.   Graphite in Stillman and Birn sketchbook. This week is taken up with so many appointments for family and me too.   This is a quickie, done while my mother had her regular Warfarin blood test. The car this time is further away, so the raindrops distort more, as proportionally they are much larger than Friday's rainy window sketch.  It was interesting how long the arch of the limit of the windscreen wiper stayed and how little globs of water built up along the lower edge like bobbles on a Victorian curtain. The steering wheel size is too small, I added it later, often not a good idea - my mother came out too quickly for me to finish it there. I will continue the series of post on essential elements in drawing - but life at the moment is a little hectic.  And a link to a great article on Leonardo's anatomical studies.    Well worth a look - a man incredibly ahead of his time.