paintings prints and stuff

 Playing on the iphone, very fast coloured pencil sketch A quick sketch of my youngest grandson, constantly moving, playing with an iphone.  He disappeared to the play area of the cafe before I drew his arms.  Done with 2 brown coloured pencils  in a small Derwent journal.  (2 because he insisted on having the first one to do some drawing himself, so I had to find another). Drawing active children is so difficult! they just moved constantly.   The 2 below of my slightly older grandchildren were very messy!  I attempted to catch the huge brown eyes of elder grandson and the mop of fair hair my grandaughter was trying to see through to draw and the soft curls of the 2 boys. Below the oldest ones who were so wriggly and active that the drawings aren't successful - more practice needed obviously .... constantly looking up to talk to me, brushing her hair off her face, leaning forward to draw with hair entirely covering her face etc etc...

More playing with Sketch Club on the ipad.   A portrait of my grandson. I need a finer stylus for finer detail, like features.   There is a good comparison, i n 2 parts, on youtube .   I want that pen type with the circular clear disc.   The brush would be fun maybe, though not essential.  He also recommends the Bamboo stylus - but buyers on Amazon slated it for an ephemeral lifespan - has anyone any experience of this? This was sketched in a mix of the pen and brush tools in Sketch Club and then using the text tool just for fun. The drawing was done on one layer with the colour added on the layer beneath, varying the opacity and brush size so that colours were overlaid and blended. more to come ................

Sam on the beach, evening, high tide. Watercolour, mixed media This is another illustration for Sam's book. We were on the beach as the light faded - looking to the left the sea was bleached of colour a symphony of silvers and greys but to the right it was still aquamarine and viridian. The tide was high. Sam was playing with his much loved new yellow spade, which was luminous with the light shining through. The harbour wall a silhouett against the light in the distance. Shadows were long. A perfect evening.

Sketches of Sam playing football - from photos, he moves far too fast for me to attempt sketching this from life without a lot more practice! Biro in Moleskine sketchbook I definitely need more practice. We had a family get together in Bourton on the Water , in the Cotswolds. A beautiful place but very very busy. The men and Sam played football on the Green by the stream and I got loads of great photos but the movement was too fast for me to try sketching from life. I need a lot more practice. These started off a bit cartoony as I was thinking about making him a book about the day and I'm not quite sure where they ended up! Sketching children isn't in my comfort zone and as I had 2 daughters, sketching little boys is a new area - clearly needing more practice.

Sketch: Baby Sam in his wetsuit, ready for swimming, mechanical pencil in moleskine, Vivien Blackburn A sketch of Sam from a photo my daughter emailed. She had bought this little wetsuit so he can go swimming, he was trying it on and he looked so delighted with it. Those chubby, bendy little legs were funny to draw :>D The computer problems are hopefully solved - it took the online analyst (who was lovely) 3 hours though! lets hope the protection it gives is worth it. It's currently backing up my files for me and is taking forever - but I do have a zillion image files. I've just changed the banner - what do you think? .

Following some good advice I've lightened his nostrils from the last post - I think it's much better now. Do you think so? Sam, 5 months old, mechanical pencil in moleskine sketchbook, Vivien Blackburn Crit from friends with a clear fresh eye is so useful. .

Sam, 5 months old. Pencil sketch. Vivien Blackburn Drawing babies isn't the easiest thing to do - but now Sam is developing a distinct character and personality of his own it's getting easier. This is in my moleskine sketchbook - I do wish they would make a larger size of these because I like them for drawing in but even this 'large' size is in fact small. He was absolutely delighted with this stuffed toy that jingled and made noises and he's very sociable, loving the interaction with those around him. He has very dark eyes. It made a change from the beaches :>) .

Sam being held by my Dad copyright Vivien Blackburn A quick sketch of Sam snoozing, held by his great grandfather :)

Practising :) 4B pencil in moleskine sketchbook - one fault I find with the moleskine is that when you erase with a battery operater eraser, little bits tend to stick to the paper all over the place - I don't know if you find that? I use an eraser as a drawing tool quite a bit to take our lights and reduce contrast etc, particularly when drawing hair or fur. My daughter says she's put this on her Facebook page :) Hopefully the first of many :)