Eduardo

Happy birthday Eduardo!  For his big birthday, Eduardo's wife asked his sketchbook buddies to send a page with a drawing to paste into a special birthday sketchbook - what a great idea! Here's my contribution. 

Ink pen, brush marker and watercolour on untitled sketchbook page, torn out and sent for Eduardo's birthday present.

Earlier this year, I was pleased to have been invited to write an essay for the publication of Eduardo's  sketchbook from the time he spent on Cape Verde. It's just seen the light of day in Lisbon :)

Watching TV

Quick sketches late at night. 

Brush markers, watercolour and (in the first spread) collage in untitled sketchbook.

News of the week

Brush markers and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

Dogs

On a walk in Stamford meadows...

Brush markers and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

Grey day, grey city.

Whereas our nearest town, Stamford (5 miles away) is beautiful and filled with green spaces and Georgian stone architecture, our nearest city - Peterborough - is quite grim and grey, filled with lots of shops and malls that lose their allure to me after about five minutes of enthusiasm at the possible benefits of shopping in a city. There's a wonderful cathedral, though, and I did these drawings at the point where the cathedral close meets the shopping precinct. 

Brush markers (and watercolour washes in the first two) in untitled sketchbook.

One more

from my photographs taken in Israel, Jaffa again. 

Brush marker and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

MOT test

This was about a three minute sketch (who's counting) done while I was waiting for my car to come through its MOT test. This mother was so serene and good natured, or am I fantasising?

Brush markers in Moleskine diary.

Speed

I've been in the mood for making really really quick sketches.

Brush marker in untitled sketchbook.

More from Israel

Brush markers in untitled sketchbook.

Prayer at the market

I've not had time to scan any more pages...

Brush markers in untitled sketchbook.

Hot, clear day in Jaffa

I still have so much material I'd like to use in my photographs from Israel, but will stop mining this source when I come to the end of this sketchbook...

Brush markers and watercolours in untitled sketchbook

Buildings in Tel Aviv

More drawings from my photographs.

Brush marker and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

Kato on a rug

Brush markers and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

Hot day

Brush markers and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

Bed swap

Some blue watercolour paint bled into the face from another page in the sketchbook...

Ink pen, brush marker and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

Remembrance Sunday

The quickest scribbles made watching the Remembrance Day parade at the Cenotaph on TV this morning, which I've watched every year since I came to England (there's a whole article in that, but I won't write it now). Elgar's Nimrod near the beginning is where I got undone, but the quivery lines are just because of how quickly the images on the tv change. I think.

Brush markers (with a touch of watercolour in two of them) in untitled sketchbook.

Luscious fruit

Still working from photographs of Israel. I think I had such a long period in England, watching the seasons change in my garden, the things of everyday life – the dog, friends coming and going, hospitals and vets – that I am now still drinking in and absorbing the chance to see different light, different streets, architecture, people. There is the added fascination of Israel being the country where I was born and spent the first eight years of my life, so everything is at once strange and filled with a complete familiarity. This one is from the many photos (and drawings) of Shuk HaCarmel in Tel Aviv.

Brush markers in untitled sketchbook.

More from Jerusalem

Brush markers in untitled sketchbook.

Bauhaus in Israel

Brush markers and watercolour in untitled sketchbook.

Not intentionally picturesque

These are still drawings from photographs I took in Israel. I really enjoy drawing things that are fairly haphazard and not intentionally picturesque. Drawing from photographs is very different from drawing from life as you're presented with something that is already a mediation, an abstraction. I suppose some purists would think of it as cheating, but I don't. But it often – though not always for me, I notice –  produces a different kind of drawing, a slightly more abstract line and maybe a bit less hairiness or wiriness in the mark making.

Brush markers and watercolours in untitled sketchbook.