paintings prints and stuff

The Crowns, Botallack, inktense and mixed media I wasn't happy with this and have worked on it a little more.   You can see the previous stage here .   I wanted to keep the sky as it sets the mood and adds scale and distance  - but for me the composition wasn't really working as it was.   One change was to darken the sky - it needed to be darker to balance the tone of the lower part of the painting.   I gave the horizon a slightly lost edge against the clouds on the right to get away from that hard horizon line.  I also wanted that sense of light coming through a gap in the clouds to light up the cliff tops and sea, with passing shadows so it was important to see the clouds.   I do love that sort of light. I lost the hard forward edges of the buildings where the ink lines were too heavy - watercolour mixed with white gouache helped me to lose them and allow edges to be softer and closer tonally to the sea in places. Then I warmed ...

I had a great surprise when I got home from work - this arrived in the post with a little note saying 'Congratulations   :) ' ?????  why?  what? I phoned the sender ... ......  I'd entered something in the Artists and Illustrators magazine and this was the second prize :>)  - what a surprise. They are oil based and will mix with my Polychromos = Now I'd better have a play with that luscious range of colours  ................

seagull weighing up whether or not I had any food to offer, a quick sketch with a Rotring Art Pen and coloured pencils in a moleskine sketchbook Just the sound of gulls instantly takes me back to my childhood in Cornwall.   They seem the essence of freedom, gliding on the the wind, light shining through feathers.

Feather in Coloured Pencil. Vivien Blackburn approx 5 ins square A friend gave me some beautiful feathers and I couldn't resist drawing one. This is in coloured pencil, a mix of Lyra and Polychromos. If you like it enough :>) I've just added it to my Etsy shop http://www.vivienb.etsy.com/ - as I enjoy drawing feathers I thought I'd do a series for the shop. A good idea do you think?

Night Beach, ACEO, watercolour pencils, 2.5x3.5ins Vivien Blackburn and a few more ACEOs. Winter Sunset, ACEO 2.5x3.5ins, watercolour, Vivien Blackburn Approaching Rain, ACEO, 2.5x3.5ins. watercolour and cp, Vivien Blackburn Night Beach, ACEO, watercolour pencils, Vivien Blackburn Please take a look at my Etsy shop if you haven't already - I'd welcome feedback :>) http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568 and if anyone has the time to explain to me how to do those shortened urls I'd be very grateful! .

An old tree stump, A4 size sketch in coloured pencil. Vivien Blackburn Another sketch done in between teaching - students are finishing off work and there are lulls where they need to feedback so I fetched this tree stump out of the art cupboard - it's about 12 inches high with multiple cut off branches and knobbly bits and a straight side where the saw cut through the major stem. Stem? trunk?? whatever! I actually got the PIF's posted yesterday Karen, Lyndsay and Jeanette - I either got asked to work extra and couldn't get to the post office before closing time - or when I could I forgot ! the attention span of a gnat I'm afraid :>( sorry it's been so long. The book can't progress yet due to work and a trip to London to some good exhibitions this coming weekend. I'll report back on them later. I'm going down with a friend and meeting up with Katherine Tyrrell and Tina Mammoser which should be great :>) Tina has done 2 impressive lo...

detail of mixed media painting using watercolour, collage and oil pastel. Vivien Blackburn During the talk I gave at the sketchclub on sketching and sketchbooks, we also talked about using mixed media. Some people beginning painting imagine that if they use for instance, watercolour, then they must use only watercolour - or at the most pen and wash. There is a perception that this is more 'pure'. In actual fact using a mix of media can mean far more exciting paintings. There isn't any particular merit in keeping a painting purely to one medium - though there's also no rule against it :>D I love the extra visual language possible by using another medium - the velvety texture of Unison pastels used with watercolour - the range of marks is so much more varied all those lovely things watercolour can do plus the direct bold marks of pastel :>) mixed media - from Beacon Hill, plein air sketch in watercolour, charcoal pencil and pastel. Vivien Blackburn This plein ai...

a sketch of a goat (?) skull from the art room cupboard, coloured pencils on rough pale grey paper. Vivien Blackburn Still teaching long hours at the moment and between that and family visits it's tough to find time to paint :>( Last night I'd been invited to talk to a sketchclub about using sketchbooks - after the recent posts here and by others that was easy! They are a nice group, I've talked to them before several times. This is a sketch I did of a goat skull (I think it must be a goat) from the art cupboard at work, done in between helping students. Not one of my 'best' but good practice anyway.

Pencil and coloured pencil sketch, Clovelly, going down the steep cobbled street to the harbour, North Devon, Vivien Blackburn Working in coloured pencil and graphite, planning a future painting. I don't normally like working from photos but I've wanted to do some paintings of Clovelly for some time. I took lots of photos when we were there on a misty day - it was very moody and atmospheric and it really suited the village which is built with rocks from the beach, the incredibly steep streets cobbled with smaller rocks. I liked the composition in which the stone walls frame the view of the harbour and its curving harbour wall made of more of the rocks - huge ones, wrapping around and framing the sand, sea and boats. You can see some photographs here http://sitekreator.com/vivien/coast.html Normally I wouldn't go for this 'every stone' approach but the stones are so chunky and so important to the image that I thought I would. Charcoal with coloured pencil for ano...

Midnight, High Tide. 11-12 ins square, acrylic and coloured pencil painting. Vivien Blackburn So far all the paintings I've done of this subject have been daytime or evening - I wanted to catch a nightime view and also do a painting with the tide high. I underpainted in a mix of ultramarine and raw umber and white. Ultramarine or indigo and burnt umber are what Paynes Gray is made up with - so that's a colour you really don't need to buy. If you mix your own you can tip it slightly bluer or slightly browner and have a little variety, which I think is more interesting than a flat colour. I then added touches of colour on the cliffs, in the clouds and the sea in purple, blues, green, ochre and brown coloured pencils. The underlying acrylics create a unity of colour and help with the night time feeling. The long thin drawing I did earlier I decided I wasn't happy with - I've cropped a square out of the middle. which I like better: Evening beach: charcoal and c...

Across the beach, late afternoon, cool day, charcoal and coloured pencil, 18 ins sq. Vivien Blackburn Another experiment with the charcoal and coloured pencil combination on grey paper - this time I did something I rarely do and included figures and a dog - it helps give the scale of those cliffs and rocks - the figures should actually be slightly smaller but the pencils wouldn't cooperate any smaller than this :>) Done using willow charcoal, polychromos and Lyra coloured pencils and a battery operated eraser on grey rough paper (which eats the pencils). The curve in the horizon is the paper not lying flat - not me tipping the sea up! detail enlarged - on the drawing this is less than half an inch high the figures are just very loosely suggested, with their dog playing in the water. detail from dark reflection - there are lots of hazy subtle colour changes in these that don't show up well onscreen :>( I ended up working all day and evening yesterday, covering for ano...

Across the Beach. Hazy Sunshine. coloured pencil. 10 x 6.5 inches. Vivien Blackburn A busy day and no time to concentrate on the canvasses so I did a bit of drawing with coloured pencils on grey card - one of those sunny days with thin translucent white clouds veiling the sky. You may be getting bored with this view :>) - sorry - but it's interesting to me to try to capture it in all the weathers and lights I saw. I do love the light and the way it changes colours. Also to experiment with different media as the effects are so different. .

Approaching Rain. mixed media. about 10 ins square. Vivien Blackburn One day I sat looking out across the beach watching approaching rain clouds - the rain started out to sea and I watched as it came sweeping in creating a misty silver haze in front of the sea, then in front of the cliffs, bleaching out colour, and finally it hit our windows. This sketch is an attempt to catch that day - with a nod to Hiroshige :>). http://static.artinaclick.com/titles/o/oha/ohashibridgeintherain/ Teaching and Learning: I've had recent discussions with friends about teaching styles - how we teach or are taught - the styles that we responded best to as students ourselves, tutors who really motivated us and the teaching methods that taught us most. I'm going to do a series of posts about teaching and learning styles and the way I teach. During my teacher training the psychologist who clicked for me was Maslow - his hierarchy of needs with its emphasis on the physical and emotional comfort of ...

Evening Light across the Beach. Vivien Blackburn. Charcoal and coloured pencil This is the charcoal drawing on grey paper that I showed you unfinished here: http://vivienb.blogspot.com/2008/02/seascapes-update-february.html (scan down past the painting to it) I said that I was mulling over whether to simply use white pastel for highlights and keep it monochrome or add colour - and if colour what medium??? I decided to try coloured pencils over the charcoal and see how they worked - they worked! I wanted to keep the colours very muted, this kind of evening light softens and dulls colours and the cliff was deeply shadowed and backlit. I worked in multiple glazes of colours to softly build white, blues, mauve, umber, sienna, peach, orange, ochres and a little green on the cliff top which doesn't show much onscreen as it's only a little. The peachy colours are a little less orangey and more peach than they appear here. The clouds have blues and browns in them. The light blues in ...

Today I went back to Union Wharf to look again at the tangle of boats, shining water and expensive loft apartments. This is a photograph of the sketchbook - the scanner (image below) didn't pick up quite all of the image but shows the colour, composition and marks better. The book was too small (11 inches square) to fit in the whole of the tangle of boats - there were lots just below that lamp that I couldn't fit in. I need to go back with more time and a larger sketchbook. There was a colder wind blowing today but I was sheltered from it and it was positively hot in the sun. I had thought it would be a nice place to live but after sitting there on a weekday with a car alarm going off, another car parking with a loud radio playing and children passing on a walk with their parents from time to time and shouting to each other ..... maybe not . At weekends I bet it can be pretty noisy. I like peace. I'd like to get out into the countryside now and look at the river with the fr...

I should be doing lots of things instead but I wanted to draw - so I did :) ... and now I have to face the dirty dishes, pile of washing and tidying up :( I did this from a combination of the sketches I did on the beach at sunset and memory. I've done a series of works from those sketches - in oil, pastel and digital images. It was interesting to see just how intense and dark it's possible to go with coloured pencils. I think they hold up well in comparison with other media. I'm speeding up with them and can now imagine sketching more with them plein air. I think they'll feature more often in my sketchbooks in the future. It was done with a mix of Polychromos, Lyra and cheapo Tescos coloured pencils and one Derwent. I like the heavier waxier Polychromos and Lyra - in future I'll know which to go for. Luckily I took the advice of expert CP users and bought quite a few polychromos - the Derwent is an old one, though it's good I don't like it...

The first one I've shown before,it was done with a carbon pencil the second is a quick sketch of paintbrushes done with coloured pencils from a Portrait set by Lyra. I really like Lyra pencils to use. These belonged to the college but I think I may invest in a set - they'd be interesting sketching in the landscape - just working tonally but with lovely warms and cools to play with.