paintings prints and stuff

St Ives from Gwithian Towans. sketch in S&B Delta sketchbook, watercolour, mixed media Another plein air sketch from the recent trip down to Cornwall.   Moody days are so much more interesting to paint sometimes than blue skies. Done in the S&B sketchbook with watercolours and Derwent tinted charcoal pencil, which is water soluble. I wish I was there now!  There is a grass that grows on the clifftops that goes the most beautiful scarlet at this time of year, I'd so like to be sketching there. More to follow ......

 Swithland Woods, detail.  Inktense, coloured pencil and a little ink  I sketched for a short while in Swithland Woods yesterday.   I'd taken my Inktense pencils - and lovely as they are I really really felt the need for oil paints to cope with dappled light and the ability to put back light over dark.  I'll have to get back there with my oils. Swithland Woods, S&B Beta A4 sketchbook, unfinished The sketch is unfinished because the background leaves got overworked and fussy as I tried to get the deep shade and brightly lit flashes of sunlit leaves - and the light changed dramatically, making the trees that had interesting light on them a few minutes before, simply silhouettes.  It would have spread further over onto the right hand page.   Woods are rather like seascapes though, where you have to work fast .  Oil paint would have let me do it in the time and with simple direct marks.  Pencil is so much slower even ...

Alnmouth beach, a rainy morning, mixed media in S&B Delta A4 sketchbook Passing showers meant that I worked sitting in the car, from a car park with great views of the sweep of the beach and the gorgeous clouds. Again mixed media, with a lot of watercolour involved.  Because it was autumn, we were travelling to the north and weather was likely to be changeable, I made a decision on this trip to leave my oils at home,  They just aren't practical if it's necessary to work in the car.  I had some non-slip matting that meant my water pot, balanced on the dashboard,  didn't land on me - useful stuff though I don't know what it's called. I absolutely loved Northumberland, beaches, castles, hills .... so much drama.

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...

Tiny trainers in watercolour, coloured pencil, pencil and ballpoint pen in S&B Delta sketchbook Another sketch of my grandson's shoes. He's only 14 months so they are very little :>)    Done in my S&B Delta. A4 size.

  First shoes, coloured pencil and ballpoint pen in S&B Delta sketchbook A tiny size 3, my grandsons first trainers, sketched in coloured pencil and ballpoint pen.  I managed to catch time to sketch them while he had an afternoon sleep.

Porth Nanven, evening, Derwent charcoal in Stillman and Birn A4 hardback sketchbook  Another from Cornwall.  Attempting to catch the silvery dazzle of light on water.  A little stream tumbles down the Cot Valley to the beach below - Porth Nanven. The new Derwent charcoal sticks are luscious to use and there is a little of their charcoal pencil in there too.  The photo makes the horizon slope - the drawing doesn't . S&B sketchbooks are now available from Jacksons in the UK.   The Beta  paper is lovely , heavy and really well primed so that it takes any medium I choose. Epsilon and Zeta are smooth and beautiful for pen and ink work.  They will take watercolour but if you want to use a lot of  media and layers, then the others are more for you. Has anyone tried the new Derwent charcoals and graphites?  or the S&B sketchbooks?

A sketch done from our holiday cottage in watercolour/mixed media in an A4 S&B sketchboo We had wonderful views from the house, right left and front .... and even the steep hillside/cliff at the back had primroses and bluebells. This is looking sideways when the tide is high, past a row of terraced cottages that climb up the steep track.  That's 'our' garden ..... for a week anyway! I used watercolour with some pen and a few touches of coloured pencil - oh and a little FW white acrylic ink, a new favourite medium, used with a bamboo pen or brush.  It is really opaque and a clear clean white. so useful for surf etc when you've lost the white of the paper in places,   I work fastish, the painting evolves and I don't always retain all the lights so use this or white gouache to regain them.  I like mixing media, choosing whatever will create the marks I want.  I'm trying to catch a spirit of place and have no interest at all in rules about 'pur...

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?

 Detail  I have always liked the calligraphic tangle of the hedges when they are sihouetted against the sky.   Recent snowfall meant even more opportunities with amazing light and the landscape simplified and hidden by the snow, throwing hedges into relief. Above is a detail of a double page sketch in the lovely Stillman and Birn Beta A4 hardback sketchbook.  This paper is so forgiving and the watercolour works beautifully with it.  It allowed me to work through wet washes with charcoal pencil - something that tears many papers, leaving holes.  Some of the hedge is paint, some tinted charcoal. First snow, more on the way, winter light: silhouetted hedges in watercolour and Derwent tinted charcoal in a Stillman and Birn A4 beta hardback sketchbook The earlier warm golden glow of the low sun is covered by clouds, threatening more snow to come.   The spiky calligraphic marks of the hedge and the underlying form of the bank, w...

Little courtyard off the waiting room, people waiting to be seen by the doctor; Rotring pen, water soluble felt pen with waterbrush and Parker jotter in Stillman and Birn Gamma Sketchbook I'm seeing rather too much of hospital waiting rooms at the moment - but the weather was nice so we waited in a little courtyard garden, just off the waiting room, for our appointment - which of course was running late.   Sketching people out in the fresh air relieved the boredom considerably :>) Not great sketches - my excuse is that the models kept twitching and moving and crocheting and suchlike, making it impossible to do the woman's hands for instance  - for me anyway. I just can't enjoy sketching like this with my Rotring pen - I find nibs too scratchy.  :>(    (man on the top right).   I binned my Lamy pen because no matter what I did or how I cleaned it,  it refused to let the ink flow freely - not one I'd ever buy again - unless Lamy...

Evening Light, Winsor and Newton Gouache and Derwent Artbars in the A4 Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook. Further experimenting with gouache, Derwent Artbars and Stillman and Birn sketchbooks. This was a demo to students about the benefits of working on a dark background when painting moody scenes.   I scribbled various deep colours with the Artbars and then washed them into a streaky deep background.   Then with gouache I worked over it - thin glazes and thicker paint - then worked back in with the Artbars in places.  Leaving parts of that dark background as tree trunk, far trees, some of the field, scratching through to the darkness below for fine lines and marks.  The pale flowers in the foreground were done with white gouache, flicked from a bristle brush to keep the marks random and free.  The combination of media worked well with lots of  variation in marks possible.

Quick sketches of sheep and lambs in the fields nearby using Derwent Graphitints, water soluble pencils Quick sketches  of a subject I don't think I've ever tackled before.  The Graphitints with the waterbrush are great for quick sketches like this.  I used cloud grey, aubergine and  chestnut pencils mainly, with just touches of others maybe.

Edge of Charnwood, Derwent Inktense and Artbars in the Stillman and Birn Gamma Sketchbook I do lots of quick demos of different mark making options with various media materials in my classes.   Some end up as finished pieces but others have elements I like though aren't complete in themselves.   This collage is made up from torn fragments with just a very little extra work - a few lines in copper oil pastel and artbar. The rocks were once a stormy evening sky in a quick Artbar demo. The Artbars and Inktense are lovely to use with their ability to create graphic marks as well as washes of colour and the S&B paper is thick enough to hold up to the collaged elements well.

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?

  Summer's End,   Derwent Artbars and Studio pencils in a Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook This one was done with Derwent's new Artbars in an A4, natural white, Alpha series S&B sketchbook.   This one has 100lb paper, which took the washes very well, it seems to take all sorts of media without complaint - though I do admit a deeper love of the lusciousness of the heavy 180lb Beta and Delta series!   I have a 'thing' about nice paper :>) This was done from a digital image I showed some time back, moving on, not just copying but letting the language of marks of the media make changes.   I'm really liking the Artbars.   There is a little glazing and line from Derwent's Studio pencils in there too - but mostly Artbars used wet and dry. You can see a review of Artbars that I did here, with further work using them.