June 2016 Sketches

Mousehole Harbour
22 June 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

June has been another productive month for sketching. My focus was Liz Steel’s online sketching class - SketchingNow. I completed lessons 6 and 7 and started lesson 8.

• Lesson 6 is about drawing with minimal or no measuring of relative sizes and angles.
• Lesson 7 is the halfway point in the course. It is an opportunity to put the ideas from the previous 6 lessons into practice. It coincided very neatly with Elaine and my holiday in Cornwall.
• Lesson 8 is about exploring the balance between the amount of ink and colour in a sketch

The sketch at the top of this post is a view of Mousehole. The harbour was a pleasant place to sit and sketch.

A Handbag

1 June 2016

Watercolour and Watercolour Pencil

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

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

The sketch of the handbag is one of the minimal setup sketches from lesson 6. I drew a quick sketch in watercolour pencil and then added watercolour and more watercolour pencil to build up texture and tone. I don’t use watercolour pencils very much and I enjoyed this exercise, so I plan to use them more often.

Cottage Roofs

4 June 2016

Ink and Watercolour

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

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

These are the roofs of a row of cottages we can see from our back garden. The roofs on the foreground cottages look in need of repair, but they are not quite as wonky as the sketch suggests. This is another minimal setup exercise from lesson 6.

Another Pinecone

8 June 2016

Ink and Watercolour

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

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

The instructions for lesson 7 suggest sketching seasonal things. I’ve never associated pinecones with June, but there were a lot falling from the trees at the beginning of the month. This sketch was based on a quick gestural setup in watercolour pencil. I drew the pinecone in ink, painted in watercolour and built up the texture and shadows with more ink, more watercolour and more watercolour pencil.

A Coachman's Posy
23 June 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

This is a vase of flowers in the lovely cottage we rented in Marazion - Coachman’s Cottage.

My Brown Jacket

28 June 2016

Ink and Watercolour

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

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

This is a brown linen jacket with a fine blue pinstripe - which you can’t really see. I bought it for my sister Heather's wedding. The sketch is an experiment (from lesson 8) in using more ink line work than I normally do.  I’ve made the fabric look more like corduroy than linen, but I’m quite pleased with the result.

Nice Shorts

29 June 2016

Ink and Watercolour

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

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

These are my gaudiest swimming shorts. The sketch is an exercise (from lesson 8) in drawing and painting a complicated pattern. I started with the intention of drawing the pattern accurately, but this was beyond my attention span. The drawing represents the spirit of the pattern rather than the actuality.