paintings prints and stuff

Dusk, winter, Grey ink and XL tinted charcoal in the S&B Zeta sketchbook An experiment across 2 pages of the new Zeta sketchbook with Grey ink and bamboo pen and Derwent's new XL tinted charcoal blocks.  Their new willow charcoal sticks are very nice too, really velvety unlike some that can be irritatingly scratchy. The charcoal is luscious and so are the tinted graphite blocks - well worth trying if you like to work larger and more freely. The Zeta sketchbook has very very smooth paper for those who use pen a lot and don't like texture.  It's also extremely heavy weight and can take a lot of pushing around, lifting out, washes etc The S&B sketchbooks are now available in the UK via Amazon and soon through Jackson's for anyone interested, I know a few people asked me for information. It's fun trying out new products :>) Now the weather is improving at long last I may manage to get out a little more to sketch. For those near the Cotswol...

Mixed media, edge of the woods in A4 S&B Zeta sketchbook The paper in the new Zeta sketchbook is very very smooth and very heavy.  I was able to splash wet washes about, draw with a bamboo pen and pigment, and layer colours without them going muddy or dead.   The pen glided over the surface freely.  This is a hardback as I really like them, but you can also get a ring bound version for those who prefer them.  A lovely paper to work on :>) S&B books a re now available from Amazon UK I notice, for anyone wanting to try them out..  I'm really enjoying using them as the paper is such a lovely quality and the sizing means that colours retain their glow.   The pages in the hardbacks don't curl and lie flat for working across  a double page spread.  The Beta is on my packing list for my next trip to the coast. So has anyone tried them yet in the UK?

Derwent have brought out some new, very chunky sticks of tinted graphite and tinted charcoal. Both are water soluble, rich and expressive. I have only just begun to find out what I can do with them, they have loads of potential for interesting marks. This is a sketch done, mixing them with some ink drawing with a bamboo pen, a little touch of red and yellow watercolour and a little white gouache. The sky and all those earthy colours are the XL graphite with a little of the tinted charcoal. I'm thinking they will be great for life drawing and working plein air on a large scale. Click to see the whole image. Has anyone else tried them yet?

A quick sketch of my grandson in tinted charcoal ... Pencils not the XL blocks, though I have plans for them.

Across the bay, approaching rain, graphite stick and watercolour in Stillman and Birn Beta hardback sketchbook. The weather has been what the Scots call dreich - grey. rain, sleet, cold wind, grim - and it seems to have crept into this work! It's done from memory of watching the rain approaching across the bay, making the sea and headland almost disappear.   The foreground will soon disappear as well as the rain arrives but for the moment shows more clearly. I put a few pale washes of watercolour down and then worked over it with a graphite stick from Derwent, something I haven't used in ages.   I really enjoyed the veils of tone and drawing back into it with an eraser.   I don't know if you can read the elements in it?  (Sky, headland, sea, waves, beach) The new XL tinted graphite sticks would be great for this, I can't wait to get them .  Has anyone tried them yet?

A sketch of dusk across the fields, done with the new chunky XL tinted charcoal sticks from Derwent. I've only got a few testers i earth colours and look forward to having the full set. They are really lush to use and I know I'm going to find them a very useful medium. Charcoal has always been one of my favourites when drawing. More work in these to follow :) I had liked the tinted charcoal pencils and these combine with them beautifully but allow broader marks and big washes of colour/tone, ideal for working this size (A4) or on a much larger scale. Using the edges it's possible to get quite fine marks but the pencils can add even finer detail as required. Being able to put down large marks keeps the spontaneity in drawings. Have you tried them yet?

This is somewhere I've sketched before as part of the waterways/Leicestershire project. It's an old packhorse bridge over flood meadows where the river Biam meets the river Soar. It used to be 200 yards long but only 50 survive. A lot was demolished when the canal and railway were built through the site. The buttresses sticking out are cut waters, protecting the bridge from the pressure of floods, keeping it standing for 600 years. Nearby is a field still showing the ridges of medieval strip farming, the canal and a railway track that is now a path for strollers and cyclists. It makes a route that cuts right across the city, joining with the canal towpath, through these meadows, industrial areas, through parks, the backs of houses, by my old university, finally reaching water meadows on the other side of town. This started with watercolour and continued with ballpoint pen, art bars, graphitints and gouache ... The kitchen sink may be in there somewhere.  Watercolour a...