paintings prints and stuff

  Cat carving and cardoon by lamplight, coloured pencil in A3 moleskine Still looking at the items on the shelf above the tv but moving them around on paper, rearranging and looking at pattern and colour.  They aren't in the positions I've drawn them in at all and I've simply used the colour of the vase, though lightening it, not wanting the vase itself explained.  The same with the wheat and hearts patterns.  Warm light from the lamp and the cool lavender shades are observed so that the whole thing hangs together. Below are the earlier stages as it evolved.  I only have a rough idea of the final piece when doing this, unlike a traditional set up, where everything is where it will be in the image.   It evolves as I go.  Major elements like the cat carving, cardoon, blue of the vase and the honesty are decided immediately - they are the skeleton that everything hangs on.   Decisions about depth of tone, lost edges, patterns...

Study for a larger work, coloured pencil in A4 moleskine, honesty It's cold, very very windy and raining cats and dogs.   I'm lucky that we aren't affected by the terrible floods affecting large areas of the county but I still don't want to go out in it!  So I'm continuing to look at still life, a subject that I rarely do as a finished painting, preferring to do occasional studies of things that interest me and concentrating mainly on landscape. The items on the shelf over the tv, lit by a table lamp caught my eye - a vase of honesty, wheat stalks and a large cardoon head, a carved wooden cat, some carved abstract birds on a tree, the lamp and a bright pottery cat.  So .... how to make a different arrangement of them? playing with colour and pattern, not simply doing them ' as is ', which didn't interest me. Switching the lamp on gave wonderful colour contrasts, the shadows having a positive lavender colour and the highlights a warm amber.  Lig...

Another drawing of my daughters cat, sleeping this time with her beautiful bushy whiskers curling, fur glowing in the sunlight. Again in the A4 moleskine folio sketchbook, done with a mix of Lyra and Polychromos pencils.  This one is much closer up, so the fluffy, overlapping texture of the fur shows much more with lots of drawing back in with the Jakar eraser for the pale over dark sections and the whiskers. I deliberately gave the background a mauve/blue haze of colour to cool down all those warm glowing colours and offset them. detail of details drawn back in with the Jakar eraser You can see the layers of colour in this detail and the lines drawn back in with the Jakar eraser, clean back to the cream moleskine paper.

 Details of the cat in the last post So how did I work? My little Jakar battery eraser was essential for drawing back through the colour for those whiskers, adding highlights to the eyes and creating light fur over shaded areas or darker stripes.  It's such a brilliant drawing tool.   Coloured pencil on moleskine paper erases really cleanly and I think is my favourite surface for using them alone, rather than in a mixed media piece.   I also like warm cream paper. I rarely erase as in correcting and didn't at all here - the first marks are faint, were in orange and were assimilated into the final result.    That gives plenty of time to move things a little before going in with more colour and more detail, knowing you are happy with where it's positioned. It's so important to understand the layers of the fur and the direction - the skeleton and muscles beneath the fur, causing those shapes and changes of fur direction.  The brow and ...

Coloured pencil in A4 moleskine sketchbook This one is a present for my daughter.   In memory of her much loved cat who sadly is no more. She was beautiful with eyes that appeared really blue against her fur, very unusual. It isn't quite finished - I don't know whether to include her collar or not - have I got enough information on how her fur falls round her neck to leave it out?  decisions decisions ........

A quick doodle of the view from the car park on the seafront in Penzance, as I waited for himself to nip to the shops at the top of the steep hill going off to the right.   It relieved the boredom of the wait :>) I need to get the larger oil and charcoal sketches photographed.

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.

The edge of Dartmoor, a stream tumbling down through a wooded valley, coloured pencil and Rotring Art Pen in Moleskine sketchbook We'd been exploring up on the bleak high moors, which I love, small herds of wild ponies and sheep, stunted trees and rocky crags, narrow roads and ancient stone bridges.   Now we were at the edge of the moor - lush wooded valleys, streams the colour of whisky tumbling over rocks on their way to the sea - equally lovely in a very very different way.   I stopped to catch the dappled sunlight on this old bridge and the warm amber glow of the peaty water. It was an incredible tangle of wildflowers and branches, great contrasts of light and dark and not at all easy!  so it maybe got a bit overworked.  This is the hotel we stayed at - just for a day on the way home - right on the borderline where the wild, bleak, high moor descends into lusher green fields and wooded valleys.  One side of the road is the high moor, the othe...

  Across the bay, blue afternoon, coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook pale pearly dawn across the bay, coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook  Two more colour/light studies of the view across the bay.   A vivid blue afternoon and a pale pale morning (which was almost impossible to scan because it really is very pale).

Another in the series that looks at the changing colours and light across the bay at different times. This one is very early in the morning looking north west ish.   At that time the sun is slightly to the right and the cliffs are silhouetted, colours pearly pale, clouds burning off in the risen sun and the promise of another lovely day.

Colours of Cornwall. Afternoon light Sennen Cove.  Coloured pencil in moleskine sketch book Just back from a week in Cornwall - with family, but some painting :>) This is one of a series of colour studies of the bay at different times of day, recording the changing colours.  This was the afternoon light - sunny, bringing out the intense turquoise/viridian/prussian blue in the water.  More to follow ..........

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 :>)

The resident tiger, coloured pencil in A3 folio moleskine A drawing of the resident tiger, looking down at her, done when himself was hogging the tv because golf was on, . She refused to pose, saying she had better things to do, so I'm afraid it's done from a photograph. details to show the scribbling that makes the fur and the 'drawing' back in with an electric eraser for the light over dark sections: As usual there are some subtle tones that aren't being picked up, bleached out by the scanner. The viewpoint is looking down a little at her and she's sitting slewed with her head at an angle and her body slightly twisted - thinking of moving off. more sketches of cats here

Autumn, Vivien Blackburn, coloured pencil I had my class of beginners working on autumn leaves this week - they did some really good work :>) and this is one of my demos. I need to get hold of some sycamore leaves before they lose their colour - they are such a lovely shape.

Landscape in a flint, watersoluble pen and coloured pencil Another in the landscape from forms - this was from a flint stone. The dark areas and dips and planes all relate to marks and pits in the stone. There was no preliminary drawing of the flint 'as is' with this one. I just went straight in with a sketch moorland landscape using its features.

Cardoon seedheads, lifesize sketch in Folio Moleskine Sketchbook, pencil and coloured pencil details: These are last years seedheads and one is splitting and the fluffy centre is spilling out, contrasting beautifully with the spiky scales of the outside. So interesting to draw :>)

Light on the sea at Porth Nanven, graphite in A4 moleskine This one is a simple pencil sketch, looking at the light on the sea and the little stream that tumbles down the valley and comes out onto the beach here. The rocks offshore are The Brisons. I rarely do a landscape in pencil alone so it was an interesting challenge. Next I'll show you a watercolour of the same beach but from slightly higher up the valley and a panoramic view.

Sketch of the farmhouse kitchen window - the walls are about 30 inches deep - coloured pencil, mainly polychromos and Lyra, in moleskine sketchbook - 'large' size. I did this sketch of the window in the kitchen at the farmhouse early one morning. The stone walls are very very thick so the windowsill is about 30 inches deep. The warm light, shown by the yellow, is a little more subtle in the original - the scanner exagarates it. I love these old stone buildings and the way they nestle into the landscape - but realise that for living in, I actually want large windows and light flooding in. And stone walls make for a very cool house! temperature that is .... not fashion. :>) Much as I loved the farm, I realised how much I missed waking up to the sea view of other properties we've stayed in - links below. views from window of the house we rented a previous year Next visit I'll perhaps move back to this view - it's fantastic to open the curtains in the morning,...

Small cardoon flower 1 , coloured pencil and biro in moleskine sketchbook, Vivien Blackburn One of my students (thank you Gill :>) ) kindly brought these cardoons in for me to draw. There is something really interesting about thistles/cardoons/artichokes to draw - the contrasting textures and fascinating shapes. The sketch above is biro with coloured pencil and the one below simply coloured pencil. Mostly the pencils are Polychromos and Lyra. I really like the way that cp's work on the paper in a moleskine. It's very limited paper in the materials I can use on it - ink, which I only use occasionally or pencil/coloured pencil. I wish it was possible to buy the paper in larger sheets though. Does anyone know if the new Folio moleskine is the same paper? that strange sort of waxy finish? If it is I'd like one, if it isn't then I wouldn't bother as I've got nice A3 cartridge paper sketchbooks already. Small cardoon flower 2, coloured pencil in moleskine s...

Braeburn apple, coloured pencil, moleskine sketchbook, Vivien Blackburn and another sketch for Jeanettes challenge :>) This one is lighter, more luminous because the sun was shining on it - the first one was done when the light was gloomier, earlier on. Both on the same spot on my desk. now which one works best?