paintings prints and stuff

Charlie's Ark, on a full size sheet of watercolour paper using a mix of Derwent Artbars, Caran d'Ache Neocolor II, Inktense and Derwent watercolour pencils, with a little pen and ink. Another Christmas present virtually finished.    (Thank you to Picasso for that dove)  :>)  Some last bits to tweak maybe but almost done.

A muddy lane in February, one for the postcard exchange , roughly A5 This was my February postcard for our exchange - now posted on our group blog . It ws done with a loose underpainting in watercolour and Caran d'Ache Neocolor II, then some coloured pencil, more of the Caran d' applied without water and a little oil pastel and gouache. At the beginning of spring the hawthorn hedges briefly have a pink glow as the sap rises and the tiny leaf buds swell a little. It was very cold still. As soon as the leaves grow a little more, the pink is gone. Dried grasses made calligraphic marks against spiky hedges and the slight mistiness made the far trees a bluish haze. It was wet and squelchy and there were deep puddles in the tracks along the lane. My March card was posted a couple of days ago and I'm looking forward to receiving my next one :>) I've no idea which member it will be from. I've received 2 gorgeous cards so far :>)

detail I worked a bit more into this one - I like using coloured pencils but sometimes the effect can be a little flat to someone who likes marks - so this one has more loose marks with the Caran d'Ache than the purely Polychromos coloured pencil one done earlier. Here are some details to show the scribbliness. Is that a word? :>) further detail current progress The A3 page in the moleskine as it currently stands - I think I'm going to add a purplish border - you can see the tentative start of it on the left of the page. What do you think? another detail James Gurney has an interesting article about the contents of his sketching bag today - interesting to see it's not too minimal! (as one who takes too much) Billie I did harden some lines you'll notice :>) thanks

Experimenting with Caran d'ache Neocolor II in the A3 moleskine sketchbook - the paper tolerated me using water with these in the underlayers.

Vivien's Time and Tide series in the FPP sketchbook exchange - Nina's book, theme: Local Colour Nina's book is now with Ronell so I can show the pages I did - Nina's pages were bathed in golden sunlight and Glen had continued with large red poppies. My first thought was to do some extreme close ups of poppies but I decided to cool things down instead and do the English coast in changing weathers and times. These were done in a variety of media including watercolour, Inktense, Caran d'Ache Neocolor II, watercolour pencils and mix of them all. I've now received the next 2 moleskine exchanges from Gesa - no pressure there then! and am off to enjoy browsing them and have a think about what to do next before sending them on their way. Gesa has done some lovely sketches of wild island landscape - I'm hoping she'll do some in my book!

Canson watercolour sketchbook - first page A few weeks ago I went to an artists talk where he showed his sketchbooks - I love sketchbooks as you may have noticed :>) He often used Canson watercolour sketchbooks 12ins wide x 9in high and I really liked them and the proportion/size of the book (his work was interesting too!) . I ordered one from Great Art and it came yesterday, it's lovely, a smart red fabric cover with black trim, smooth watercolour paper and lots of pages. To break that First Page thing of feeling that whatever you do first needs to be a 'good' one to start off well .......... or don't you worry like that? I decided to try out watercolour, neocolor II, Inktense, watercolours pencils, normal coloured pencils and mix of any or all to see how they behave. I like it :>) it worked well with all of them. It's only a 'play' but it now has a page with work on and so I'll feel happy to carry on working in it at the coast now. Do you ...

Ros, June 08, sketching along the canal at Aylestone. conte pencil. Vivien Blackburn On Monday I went sketching along the canal at Aylestone with Ros - sketch of her above, working hard. It was lovely to be out and a friendly little robin shared our lunches and spent the afternoon virtually on our feet and perched on the bench I was sitting on :>) .... and of course I didn't have my camera. It was a lovely warm, still afternoon and everything was lush and green. Along the bank in front of us the seed heads on the grasses were a pinky mauve colour and there were white clover flowers. We were near a lock and boats occasionally arrived to tie up while they operated the lock gates and went on their way and occasional walkers passed by. The robin stayed throughout :>) The canal at Aylestone, the curves and ridges of medieval strip farming are still visible in the field on the other side. Plein air Pencil sketch. Vivien Blackburn This was the first sketch I did us...

I wish I could find my tin of Caran d'Ache - I was reminded of them recently when I was looking through some sketchbooks. I'd like to dig them out and use them again but simply can't think where I've 'safely' put them . I was out sketching trees with a friend and did these of some birch tree trunks - I think the eyes are created when a branch is broken off or eaten by the deer? rabbits? - these particular trees were really quite spooky as the more you drew the more you were aware of these eyes all over them - watching! I haven't exaggerated them - this is really how they are. At first sight I thought the Caran d'Ache would be a bit bright and unsubtle - but they are really lovely to use and you can get subtle colour mixes and washes. They are water soluble and look at first sight like childrens wax crayons, chunky and suitable for working on a large scale. This sketch book was an A4 - about 11x8.5 inches or something close to that. I want to find them t...