Sinfonia Pastorale

All are black Pitt pen and watercolour in big sketchbook.

The sky is perfectly clear, blue and luminous, the lawnmowers are humming, all the blossoms are out, all the local dogs and doing walkies, running and swimming in the nearby river; lambing has happened in all the fields around us. How much more bucolic can it get? This continues to be life in the fast lane!

More shoes around the house

Both drawings: ink pen and watercolours in Windsor and Newton sketchbook. 

Camera

Ink pen, brush marker and watercolour in Moleskine sketchbook.

I take hundreds of photos, but only yesterday did I think of drawing my camera. Yesterday's drawing didn't come out very well - I liked the marks, but then the camera looked crumpled and curved, like it was hunching its shoulders (in shyness, someone said!) so this is a second attempt.  The angles are still a bit wrong, but let's say it's expressive!

Renal diet

Pencil and pencil crayon in big sketchbook.

Possum and her twin brother Tushy, who lives in Portugal, now have to be on a special diet. As senior citizens, they're forgiven for having slowed down a bit. As they're not allowed protein based treats, it's fortunate that they both love carrots. 

Day in Cambridge

Black and sanguine Pitt pens, pencil crayon and watercolour in Moleskine sketchbook

Pencil and pencil crayon in Moleskine sketchbook. 

Black and sanguine Pitt pens and pencil crayon in Moleskine sketchbook.

Pencil and pencil crayon in Moleskine sketchbook.

I spent the day in Cambridge yesterday, doing some reading at the University Library, taking photographs, drawing, several cups of tea and coffee and a salad at Pret, an excellent film. Forget travel: this constitutes a great escape!
I find pencils the easiest drawing implement to use. The permanence of ink is scarier and consequently, my line gets even scratchier. I find the possibility of correcting with a rubber (ie eraser!) a great comfort...

Lost and found

Black ink pen and watercolour in big sketchbook.

Black ink pen, watercolour and pencil crayon in big sketchbook. 

I'm always misplacing things like bags and phones and keys and sunglasses. Sound familiar anyone? The paper's buckled because I've used watercolour and the paper's a bit too thin for that.

Visitor

Pencil, pencil crayon and watercolour crayon in big sketchbook.

Black ink pen and watercolour in big sketchbook.

Pencil and pencil crayon in big sketchbook.

While Possum greets any human being into the house with the doggie equivalent of open arms (ie a hop, skip and jump with big tail waggle and extreme requests for attention), canine visitors do not receive the same welcome. Kato is with us for a few days. He's an occasional visitor and Possum thinks he deserves no hospitality. Mostly, she is very worried that he might eat her food. He used to be ingratiating to her, but now he's learnt to ignore her subterranean (and, it has to be said, innocuous) growl. Pity about the hand in the second drawing. Oh well.

Getting started

Graphite pencil and pencil crayon in Moleskine sketchbook.

First thing early this morning.

Shoes around the house

Ink pen and watercolours in Windsor and Newton A5 sketchbook.

Ink pen, watercolours and Tria manga brush markers in big sketchbook.

I've always liked drawing shoes - I love their fabricated thingness, the intricate or chunky nature of them, and also the way they so readily stand in for, and suggest, a wearer, a person. Like chairs, shoes make good portrait subjects! In the second drawing, the left page is actually the verso side of the right page: I like the way manga pens and markers show through on the other side. In photoshopping the two pages together, I've inadvertently made it look as though the one on the left has blotted the excess ink of the one on the right.