Ending a sketchbook

Finished my Windsor and Newton sketchbook, where there was a remaining bloggable unblogged sketch (as opposed to the unbloggable unblogged ones, the really duff ones!). Here it is. 

Brush marker on gouache wash in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Cuddle

Brush markers and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.


Possum adores my friend Fátima (also a doggy person), who came to visit from Lisbon. It was dog on lap and ton sur ton of sunkissed hair on sunkissed fur. I messed up the scrawly sketch of Fátima's face, so got a bit of help from the camera!

Calm roses

Looks like another gritty day ahead. Drawing the beautiful bunch of roses my friend Debbie brought has a mildly appeasing and calming effect. 

Brush markers in Windsor and Newton sketchbook. 

"Breezy Angels" and Albertine

Ink pen, brush marker, Indian ink and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Ink pen and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Brush markers in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

My wonderful rambling Albertine roses from observation, the heaven sent friends from a couple of photographs I took when they came last week bringing (with the lightest touch and the best cheer) lunch, which we had under the awnings on the deck. Title courtesy Sid!

Digger

The surface of our drive has been bending and buckling for some unknown reason, and after very annoying procrastination, the man who did the ground works for our house arrived with his digger and his fantastic young labrador companion, who, of course, answers to the name of Digger. We met him last time there was a problem with our drains and drive. Digger went absolutely crazy in the garden. As ever, you have to work really quickly to capture a being in full motion, so my rendition of canine anatomy is not quite perfect (and that's an excuse - I couldn't get it perfectly correct anyhow!)

Brush markers and ink pen in Windsor and Newton sketchbook, and in the last drawing, ink wash as well.

Beans Coffee Stop

Brush markers and ink in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

I added the ink wash at home - the other day, while looking for the black ink in my studio, I discovered this old jar of lovely brown ink (looks like it might not be permanent) that now seems to be creeping into all my drawings!

Blot on the landscape

Indian ink and brush marker in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.


The plums are just beginning to form, green with a slight blush. Possum under the tree looked like a blot, so I thought I'd render her in indian ink. It had dried up a bit in my aquaflo brush pen, so I made a mess of the tree, but the dog looks, um, like a blot!

Waiting, tea

Sketching makes it easier not to focus on how time slows down when one waits. 

Brush marker in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Bloomsday

Brush markers and a touch of red pencil crayon in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.


16 June is Bloom's Day, if anyone's forgotten. Celebrating Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. If I'd have remembered on time, I'd have made a Dubliny, Joyce-y drawing today. Mind you, it's also the anniversary of the Soweto riots, which I remember well because I was still living in Johannesburg in 1976. But no... I choose to draw Possum resting on a huge bean bag. And other dogs and people seen in town while out shopping this morning. 

Rather pageantry than soccer

Ink pen, pencil and pencil crayon in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Scribbling while watching tv last night. Yup. It's true. No soccer. We started as we mean to continue!

Birthday charms

Ink pen and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

Ink pen and brush marker in small Moleskine sketchbook.

Bracelet in same position, same viewing angle, different sketchbook. I think I've made A. look too old... 

Adaptation

Brush markers and pencil in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

rearranged for a photo ... and then 

Brush markers in small Moleskine sketchbook.


I was always a city person, and I could never keep a pot plant alive, hated the darn things. But I'm a changed, and fully adapted humanoid. Now not only do I love living in the countryside, I also can't stop going into – and drawing – the garden. It's village fêtes next, I tremble to think. This morning it rained hard and I drew the cut flowers in the vases around the house... but the drawings look too coy. When the weather cleared up for a while, I went out, everything glistening with drops, the heady smell of wet soil. The small Moleskine sketchbook is fantastic because so light to hold, and I just love the way the brush markers glide over the beautiful vellumy pages. 

Early morning, nodding rose

Pencil, pencil crayon and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Rough experiment

Pond

Rose and flowering chestnut

Acrylic paint and brush markers in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Following on yesterday's accidental experiment with gouache, I painted two sketchbook spreads with acrylic, the green one opaque, the sand-coloured one watery, but a little more substantial than a wash. The acrylic seals off the layer and makes it a bit resistant to the brush markers, which are anyhow a pretty rough tool. Makes for boldness rather than accuracy or delicacy. 

One thing after another

Brush markers and gouache in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

I spilt some gouache on the page in my studio and tried to turn it to my advantage by roughly colouring the whole page and then drawing on top of this ground. There is always something disinhibiting about a ground that is already messy, where the pristine page can sometimes be daunting.

I am always intrigued, in looking at other people's sketchbooks, at signs of continuity or discontinuity, how one page follows another. Often, there will be something akin to an evolution, where a certain approach or material is used for a stretch of time and produces certain stylistic and technical results, then giving way to another. My sketchbooks never seem to record a continuous line of progress. I find myself chopping and changing a lot. If I've been working with brush markers for a few days, I want to go back to ink pen or to pencil crayon, or pencil and watercolour; more careful, delicate drawings follow rougher, more expressionistic or scribbly ones. For me, the sketchbook is as much about material experimentation as it is about observational drawing. 

Lunch with friends

Pencil, pencil crayon and brush markers in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

Today it's just a doodle

Ink pen, pencil, watercolour and brush markers in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

Not in the mood for much more than some desultory scribbles through the day. 

Red Robin and Baggesen's Gold

OK. It's happened. I missed a day. In fact, I had to let it happen or my obsessive personality would go into overdrive. Yesterday I was busy all day writing a catalogue text, and then I had chores and more chores to do. I didn't want drawing in my sketchbook and posting on the blog to become one of those chores. I've been thinking that blogging is a bit like standing on a hilltop and shouting that you're going on diet, or giving up smoking. Then everyone knows, and you can't go back on your word. But I've broken the spell, so now I feel a bit freer. I went back into the garden with my drawing gear this morning. 

Brush markers and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

Lilac and sambucus on the deck

Ink pen and brush marker and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

The smell of the lilac is heavenly. The lonicera at the back, though fragrantissima, is, like the lacy sambucus, still only stretching and yawning. (Yes, I know the Jewish response: "what, now you're a gardener?")

Bottom of the garden

Brush markers and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.