paintings prints and stuff

Ogwen Valley in the mist, charcoal, a bit bigger than A3 Ogwen valley in the mist, charcoal plein air We revisted the valley later in the week.  The clouds were low over the tops of the mountains and the distance melted into whiteness.  The little river Ogwen wound its way across the valley floor and the single track, switchback road disappeared off over the side of the mountain. All the recent rain meant the waterfalls were beautiful.  I did a watercolour/mixed media with one in the afternoon, while the group climbed up to a higher lake.  Next post ........

2 studies from the clifftop between Hells Mouth and Portreath in different light, watercolour/mixed media in S&B Delta sketchbook I do love the changing light and the different colours and moods.   I could paint along here again and again through the seasons and each image would be different.   Flowers, sea colour, skies always new. There was a massive cliff fall at Hells Mouth that I didn't know about until I got home - thankfully!   Video here - do watch, it gives an idea of the scale and drama.  I ended up mostly using my watercolours on this trip for some reason, though I had taken oils and used them  a little.  I made the decision early on to mainly work in the S&B sketchbook and fill it, which I did : >)  rather than try to complete larger works in changing light.   I can work from these sketches at home to produce the larger works, with time to consider format/medium etc at leisure. Already I'm ...

 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...

Heading back to Netherton across the moor, Simonside hills in the distance, last light, sun setting behind the hills.   Derwent XL Graphite sticks in an S&B Delta A4 sketchbook I had a few days in Northumbria sketching with a friend.  Both of us were suffering with racking coughs but managed to get lots done.  This one is from a drive back across the moors in the evening in the last light.   Done in Derwents XL graphite blocks and a little of their ti nted watersoluble graphite pencils as well.   They were perfect for the wild landscape and time of day.   There is just a touch of W&N watercolour for the reds in the sky , but everything else is done with the coloured graphite sticks ( very chunky and lush) and the graphitint pencils. I took my S&B Delta sketchbook and almost filled it : >) using a wide variety of media - watercolour, XL graphite and charcoal, willow charcoal, ballpoint pen, gouache, conte pencil...

   detail of drawing below More drawings on the ipad, using Omnisketch.   Isn't the blue/purple luscious against the firy reds and oranges? entire drawing using omnisketch I've shown details as the fine marks don't show otherwise. detail of above image Still loving it!   I have to work out how to get these directly from the ipad to the blog - if anyone wants to leave instructions in the comments I'd be delighted,  So far I've emailed them to myself and posted via the computer.

Drawing with an ipad detail showing the marks My Christmas present to me, from me, for having had a horrible year was an ipad.  Friends have given me masses of great advice on which apps to download for art (and others).   Any more advice on apps is welcome. This one is done with OmniSketch and it works on algorhythms, rather like the programme by Mr Doob that I've used here before.  It's lovely for creating rich patterns and this one was done using an option that creates the symmetry as you go.  Lines relate to each other, depending on nearness and the speed of your hand as you draw, creating fine spidery marks linking them.   There is a gallery of paintbrush, mark making options.  It's fun! I've got Brushes - as used by David Hockney - and Procreate, which I'm told is good but haven't seriously played with these yet.  I got hooked into the rich, decorative Christmassyness possible with Omnisketch. I have to say that the ip...

Another cardoon seedhead, gouache and tinted charcoal in a Stillman and Birn alpha sketchbook Another quick cardoon.   This one had shed all its scales, leaving just the fluffy 'fairies' that carry the seeds - one is next to it, so delicate against the large heavy seedhead - and the bristly dried flower petals. More of the NEC doodles to come .....

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....

Rocks and sea in Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook, with Derwent Artbars and Neocolor II I decided to try some collage in the Gamma sketchbook today while the class were working - tearing up old demo sketches,   The rocks in this one started life as undergrowth and tree trunks.   Marks in trees, rivulets in wet sand and the cracks in rocks can be so similar in pattern - turn them round and the subject changes.  :>) The grass, sea, far headland and a few strokes of vegetation were added with a mix of Derwent Artbars and Neocolor II. This book has the 100lb ivory paper, which held up to the washes extremely well.   I do rather like ivory or cream paper - it has character.   How about you?

 Cardoon, detail, coloured pencil What are the crucial , vital, key elements in drawing and painting?  There isn't a hard division between painting and drawing - they blur into each other - for instance, charcoal is extremely painterly and paintings need drawing elements (with paint). For me the key elements are: observation and underlying drawing skills even in very free or very sketchy work, it's what makes it hang together believably -  it doesn't need to result in a photorealist image, just one where proportions and perspective and form are shown.  The observation in a Degas sketch is amazing, with life and vitality,  but not photo like.  The sketches of David Hockney or Van Gogh are made up of pattern and marks - but the landscape reads, uphill down dale and the woods and hedgerows flow. . good use of tone , showing the full range observable - this may be limited as in a subtle Gwen John interior - but more often has a wide range of con...

  Winter  I'm still working my way through the lovely items that Derwent sent me to try out : > ) and have been adding things to the review I did of their lightweight, hardback sketchbook at the end of last year, as I've continued to doodle and see what things can do.    This first one is a view of the winter fields - the tin of tinted charcoal pencils was ideal for this and gave a lovely limited colour range of warm and cool that play against each other perfectly.   I can see me using these frequently for wintry days.  They are fast to work with which is a bonus in our current weather when plein air.  They would combine interestingly with other media.   Something I've yet to try out.  (edit:  I have now mixed them with inktense here   and will add more links as I try them with other media) Then I tried out their Academy Tame and Wild Set - also limited colours - whilst waiting for a family member visiting the GP....

More quick sketches of moving people - moving far too much! These two were done with a Rotring art pen and a a little water to smudge and create areas of tone. They are in a moleskine sketchbook - hence the bubbly effect on the washes, which were rubbed into the paper - the waxy paper moleskines don't like water much! and the next 2 with a mechanical pencil with a B lead They were all absorbed in what they were doing and moving a LOT, not making life easy! but it was good practice even if the results aren't great :>)

stage 3: Final image using scanner with adjustments in Photoshop I've been comparing scans and photographs of this little sketch of evening fields in coloured pencil in a moleskine sketchbook. I find coloured pencil can be difficult to reproduce. Scanners or cameras can pick up the top layers of colour too strongly (And I scumble lots of layers). With cream coloured paper they make it too white, using the cream for their white balance and that makes the whole image cooler. There may be better ways but this is the way I try to solve it: With the Scanner scan image into Photoshop or similar programme - I don't like to make the adjustments in the scanner if it isn't quite right, as photoshop has more options so I usually accept the scan as it is in Photoshop duplicate the layer look at options for the opacity of this laye r - this one needed 100% opacity but this is variable. This intensifies the colours without distorting them and doesn't usually darken the pa...

Bosworlas, watercolour, coloured pencil, pencil. Vivien Blackburn I didn't have chance to sketch the farmhouse from the valley below while we were there. so this one is done from a photo shown here , along with the photo below of the stream running through it. It's about 12 x9 inches. Yesterday's image was looking out through one of those windows I need some time to work on some larger works - pastel or oils - but I'm doing long hours again this week :>(

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.

Old, very deep, flooded slate quarry, Swithland Woods, carbon pencil on a rich cream paper, size A4, Vivien Blackburn The Charnwood Forest area of Leicestershire is very very ancient rock and the woods in this part are pitted with these old slate quarries - very deep and quite dangerous. I've meant to draw here for a long time and thought it would make a nice change from the canals and river in my waterways project with it's woods and steep hillside - the rocky side is hidden in shadow. I may try to get there at a different time of day when it's lit up. I also plan to visit other flooded quarries, bigger and deeper - though I do like this little one. I've mislaid my little battery operated eraser, which would have been perfect to draw those light branches back in through charcoal - so I had to carefully(ish) leave them unshaded. I think this might make it onto canvas as I like the composition - what do you think?

An A H Findlay print of King Richard's Bridge in Leicester near the spot where the body 0f Richard III was allegedly thrown into the river after the battle of Bosworth. Tradition also has it that the monks at Greyfriars, nearby, rescued the body and buried it secretly. Richard was much maligned by Shakespeare (writing for a Tudor king) - he didn't have a hump back and had actually nothing to gain by murdering the princes in the tower as his regentship would end with their deaths. Henry Tudor (the victor) did stand to gain and of course victors write the history don't they? My mother has been having a sort out and found an envelope with quite a few prints of Leicester scenes by A H Findlay. and was going to throw them out - so I rescued them! I can't find any information online on the artist. I've put a slide show of some of the waterways project work on our group watermarks blog if anyone would like to take a look. I've put the aerial views in alongside ...

I've been really ill since Saturday (you don't want to know the icky details) so I've only just managed to pick up your emails and comments and links to the brushes and my day challenges. What a great surprise - several fun new ones to add - so don't forget to check back on the 'challenge' tag to see new additions - I add them as they arrive. Below is my friend Glen's version - she and her husband have a fishmongers (very good one too) and she has an incredibly busy life delivering to businesses like hotels and homes and working in the shop, visiting her elderly mum and finally managing a little bit of time to paint, often late at night. She doesn't have the time for a blog. You can see more of her work on http://sitekreator.com/glenheath/index.html , http://sitekreator.com/theassociationofleicestershireartists/glen_heath_1.html and http://www.leicestersocietyofartists.co.uk/artists_of_leicester_society_of_artist/lsa_members_template.php?LSAMembersCode...