paintings prints and stuff

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.

Hazy light and glowing rapeseed, near Market Harborough The fields around the south of Leicestershire and into Northamptonshire are currently glowing vivid yellow as the rape is in flower.  When the skies are purple with storm clouds and the sun is still shining on the fields in becomes spectacular.  The day of the photo was hazy and not so dramatic but you can still see the intensity.   I need to get out with oil paints. I've been very busy with work committemnt, appointments and my youngest daughter moving house so no painting going on at the moment.   I will get out though.

Another sketch through a rainy windscreen whilst waiting for family appointment.   Graphite in Stillman and Birn sketchbook. This week is taken up with so many appointments for family and me too.   This is a quickie, done while my mother had her regular Warfarin blood test. The car this time is further away, so the raindrops distort more, as proportionally they are much larger than Friday's rainy window sketch.  It was interesting how long the arch of the limit of the windscreen wiper stayed and how little globs of water built up along the lower edge like bobbles on a Victorian curtain. The steering wheel size is too small, I added it later, often not a good idea - my mother came out too quickly for me to finish it there. I will continue the series of post on essential elements in drawing - but life at the moment is a little hectic.  And a link to a great article on Leonardo's anatomical studies.    Well worth a look - a man incredi...

Rainy Day, waiting.   Mechanical Pencil sketch in Stillman and Birn Epsilon sketchbook Life is busy at the moment with not much time for sketching.   This one was done waiting while my mother went to a dentists appointment.  A day of heavy rain. I thought it might be interesting to try to catch the distortions and reflections through the wet windscreen. If I'd worked from a photograph it would have been a very different piece - clarity -  a frozen moment.   This, done from life, is very different, it's about the blur, the distortion, the wavering lines seen through slithering splashes on the windscreen, against the clear but shadowed shapes inside the car. An interesting exercise.

Hospital waiting room, quick sketch with mechanical pencil in Stillman and Birn Epsilon sketchbook A couple of hours, nearly, in a hospital waiting room can be so boring - unless you use it as an opportunity to sketch.   The waiting patients don't sit still, they constantly look around but do return to the same position so it's just a waiting game.   This one didn't move his body at all but gazed here and there, so while his face was out of position for my drawing, I simply went back to sketching in the body.   The minute he turned his head again I'd go back to add more to that. Funny hats Despair or tired?   He smiled when called in to the doctor, so maybe just tired  (that's the top of his balding head with the hood of his coat behind, you couldn't see his face at all)    resigned  surfing or texting So instea\d of a couple of hours of boredom, it was figure drawing practice :>)  and I...

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?