Meal

Brush marker and watercolour in Moleskine sketchbook

Train

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook.

The brush pen doesn't respond to pressure like a real brush, and doesn't produce the surprise and beauty of a real brush either - but also, hey, no blobs! And so transportable. Actually, it's a glorified marker, but a very seductive instrument because so smooth and easy to use, and I like the chunky lines  because my tendency is to a nervy line, and a thin point makes that too scratchy sometimes. But with a brush pen, you can't really get fine detail, should you want to. Great colours though. I love using various tones of the same colour, especially the shades of grey.

Sprung

Brush marker and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

This one was harder to scan than to do: the page here has a pink cast, which the original doesn't... and the blossoms in my drawing are a dustier pink - I'm not good enough at Photoshop to get the colours separately to match. 

Probably no post tomorrow as I'll be out of range of the computer... question: is a blog a promise?

Walk

Best dog in the world x 3, plus shadows.

Brush markers and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Brush markers, collage and pencil crayon in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Made a dog's breakfast of it, so redrew the one dog, and collaged and drew some more when back home. The first one also part fieldwork, part homework.

New sketchbook, more cows

Ink pen and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

I'll fess up, I drew these cows (and others that I really didn't like - my hand's a bit "out" today!) from some photographs I took while out on a walk a few days ago. Too much going on with herd and scared dog to stop and draw - except outside the fence, which I sometimes do! I think I've made the cow on the left look like a pig! 


The sketchbook has quite a grey-blue cast which is a bit strange, and the paper has a different absorbency from the previous Windsor and Newton sketchbook - not quite sure if I like it. (Oh - I'm also experimenting with the size of uploads onto this blog, so this drawing is a bit smaller than earlier ones.)
Here's another, in pencil crayon, from a spot of gardening early this morning, about which I know as close to nothing as is possible, but learning with a bit of common sense and a few tips from others. And now back to the studio!

Pencil and pencil crayon in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

End and new beginning

Finished my Windsor and Newton sketchbook, another one waiting in the wings. 

Sorting out seasonal kit

Both drawings Pitt pen and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

Some thoughts on drawing and on keeping a sketchbook

It's not surprising that so much has been written and said - and drawn - about drawing. In part, that's because drawing is a form of thinking with the hand, or seeing with the hand. In that sense, our drawings styles seem to us like our handwriting: inevitable. Whether practiced or rusty, we experience our way of making drawn marks as automatic, stemming from some uncontrolled instinctual resource. Yet our drawings change all the time, and we often sustain several drawing styles simultaneously. Even with observational drawing, the materials we have to hand, the ambient light, whether the object of our gaze is stationery or in motion, even the temperature and our mood can affect the way we make drawn marks...  to continue, follow the link:
Some thoughts on drawing and keeping a sketchbook

More shoes around the house

Ink pen and watercolours in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

I meant to jot down sketches during the pre-election debate two nights ago, meant to draw this or that, but I get fixated on the trivial stuff of the everyday. 

Still spring

Pencil, graphite pencil and pencil crayon in big sketchbook.

It's Shakespeare's birthday and Turner's birthday today and St George's day and I wanted to make a theme drawing, perhaps remembering Jez Butterworth's play about England, "Jerusalem." But the gentle outdoors beckoned this morning. Any day now, I'm going to start complaining about the warm weather, but for the moment, there's a crispness in the air and a fine breeze and it's breathtakingly exquisite, and everything - everything - out there is in bloom, and Possum is adoring our walks.