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

Very quick again: a walk in the countryside

Pencil and pencil crayon in large sketchbook.

Ink pen, pencil and watercolour in big sketchbook

Pencil and pencil crayon in big sketchbook.

And because I can't capture the beauty of it... the blossom of the flowering chestnut tree (for Ea!)

Quick morning cuddle

Pencil in big sketchbook.

I think there won't be any more time to be at the computer today, we've got some friends coming from London for the rest of the bank holiday weekend. So a real quickie today.

On the glass table

Brush marker and pencil crayon, with a touch of black ink pen in Moleskine sketchbook.

These four shells and the telephone were among the clutter on my glass desktop. I started the drawing using a black contour liner for the phone, and then decided that wasn't what I wanted to use after all, so it's a bit of a mish-mash.

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. 

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

Brush markers in small Moleskine sketchbook

I'm beginning to feel like her... the Edwardian lady, Edith Holden. Except not as good. I can't stop with the garden already. The top two drawings done from photographs I was filing away today. Really messed one page up so stuck some Japanese craft paper on it and carried on drawing. The bottom two done quickly in the garden. 

Fresh: his and hers

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook

You've got to be really quick sketching the ready meal if you want to eat it hot. I scribbled in the pattern of the plate (looks like sloppy crochet) and the place mat afterwards. In this house, rule of thumb is: if one of us likes an item of food, the other doesn't. Makes for good communal eating.

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