Ladram Rocks

Ladram Rocks

Mixed Media on Paper

26cm x 18cm (10" x 7") 

Ladram Bay and its fabulous sea stacks are about halfway along the coastal path between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton.

Elaine and I encountered them last summer when we spent a week in Sidmouth . You can walk all the way between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton on the coastal path, but we turned inland at Ladram Bay to have lunch at Otterton Mill and then completed the journey walking by the side of the river Otter. It’s an interesting and walk and not too taxing. The walk in the other direction from Sidmouth to Beer is more strenuous and tiring.

Ladram Rocks

Thumbnail Sketches

Before starting the painting I drew a few thumbnail sketches to experiment with the composition. They might not mean a lot to anyone else, but they helped me to make decisions about positioning the rocks and tonal values for the painting.

April 2016 Sketches

Peace Lilly
5 April 2016
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Ebony Sketchbook
14.9cm x 21.0cm (5.9" x 8.3")

My sketching took a change in direction this month. I have started to follow Liz Steel’s on-line sketching class - Sketching Now. The course covers a number of skills that I want to work on and improve.

Lesson one was about making friends with your equipment and drawing good lines - lines with a definite beginning, a definite end and that are drawn in a continuous movement without any hesitant stopping and starting.

Brushes in my Sketching Kit
17 April 2016
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

The first exercise involved drawing your sketching equipment in ink, using good lines and without too much focus on accuracy.

Lesson two was about edges. The first exercise was blind contour drawing:

Look at the subject and imagine the pencil is touching it, slowly moving along its edges and contours - your eyes follow the pencil on its imaginary journey and you draw the object without looking at the paper.

Point to Point Contour Drawing
19 April 2016
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

The second exercise was point-to-point contour drawing. In this exercise you look at the subject (not the paper) while you are actually drawing, but re-orientate yourself on the paper at every major change in direction. This is similar to the contour drawing exercise in The Natural Way to Draw (see Contour Drawing).

Point to Point Contour Drawing

25 April 2016

Ink

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

I find it difficult not to cheat. Once I let myself look at the page, I keep taking sneaky peeks. I really want to develop the ability to draw without looking at the paper, so this time I am interpreting the rules very strictly and will repeat this exercise even after I have moved on to other lessons.

Point to Point Contour Drawing

24 April 2016

Ink

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

These roffs have appeared on a previous post, I drew them in the dark on Christmas Eve (see December 2015 Sketches).