Swithland Woods in June, sketch with inktense

 Swithland Woods, detail.  Inktense, coloured pencil and a little ink

 I sketched for a short while in Swithland Woods yesterday.   I'd taken my Inktense pencils - and lovely as they are I really really felt the need for oil paints to cope with dappled light and the ability to put back light over dark.  I'll have to get back there with my oils.

Swithland Woods, S&B Beta A4 sketchbook, unfinished

The sketch is unfinished because the background leaves got overworked and fussy as I tried to get the deep shade and brightly lit flashes of sunlit leaves - and the light changed dramatically, making the trees that had interesting light on them a few minutes before, simply silhouettes.  It would have spread further over onto the right hand page.   Woods are rather like seascapes though, where you have to work fast.  Oil paint would have let me do it in the time and with simple direct marks.  Pencil is so much slower even though this was a very quick sketch.

I could use a little gouache to simplify overworked areas but will leave it unfinished.   

I love the way that the dried leaves on the ground take on a peachy pink colour against all that green,

More details:





Older work in the same area:


A previous oil painting done a short distance away in the same woods, 11x12 inches


And a tiny digital image of the same woods

Further sketches and paintings in the area here

Comments

Making A Mark said…
I use my battery eraser for the highlights - when I remember to pack it!

Have you thought about having a Facebook Page and posting your blog posts to that? I find mine is great for getting a wider audience.
10:14 am
vivien said…
Yes I did use mine to regain highlights, but Inktense are what they say on the tin .... intense and staining. So only limited lifting is possible :-(. I used a mix of lifting out with water plus erasing. It leaves the paper muddy though so bright clean highlights aren't often possible to regain.

I really like them but not for this particular subject.

Loved your recent video :-)
7:36 am
vivien said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
7:36 am
annie said…
Fun to watch you work, Vivien. Like this but am interested to see how the oil will look when you try it.
12:10 pm
Cathy Gatland said…
You achieve a lot more with the Inktense than I ever have (perhaps I haven't kept at it long enough!) - lovely mark-making and textural effects as always.
12:17 pm
vivien said…
thank you Annie and Cathy :>)

I've played with a bit of gouache to simplify that background foliage - and there is a tiny bit of pastel as well. I'm just going to show that ......

off to do it .....
4:06 pm
vivien said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
4:06 pm
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