December Sketches

Ready For Tea
7 December 2014
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

My December sketches started and finished with an emphasis on accuracy.

On 1 December, I spent an hour trying to draw the outline of a fork. You can see the result in the middle of the next spread. I spent the whole hour measuring with an outstretched pencil in an attempt to get the proportions and curves right - I just couldn't do it.

Good Fork, Bad Fork, Elaine
1,2, 3 December 2014
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
29.7cm x 21.0cm (11.75" x 8.25")

The experience was so frustrating; I decided to forego accuracy for a few days in favour of enjoying myself with modelling and tonal values.

On 3 December I drew the fork in the top right-hand corner of the page. I started with a quick gestural sketch that looked about right. I drew a box (in perspective) around the fork with a centre line and made some adjustments based on this. Then I started modelling and shading. I spent less than 15 minutes on the sketch. The experience and the resulting drawing were both more satisfying.

Spaghetti Server
4 December 2014
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
29.7cm x 21.0cm (11.75" x 8.25")

I spent most of the rest of the month using a similar approach with a variety of subjects - mainly kitchen utensils.

Fish Slice
6 December 2014
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
29.7cm x 21.0cm (11.75" x 8.25")

And Christmas decorations and treats,

Christmas Treats
20 December 2014
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

I changed tack slightly after starting to read Sketching (from square one ….To Trafalgar Square) by Richard E. Scott (See http://www.sketchingfromsquareone.com/index.html) - a present from Elaine. The importance of accuracy is one of the central themes of the book.

Battered Dictionary
30 December 2014
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

Richard suggests drawing outlines of simple objects as an exercise for improving accuracy. This became my focus for the last few days in December.

Small Glass Jug
31 December 2014
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

One of my goals for 2015 is to sketch for at least 15 minutes each day, I will let you know how I get on. I am not going to post all the sketches to this blog, but I may put them on Flickr or Tumblr.

Old Mill Creek

Old Mill Creek
Watercolour on Paper
24cm x 34cm (9.5" x 13.5)

Old Mill Creek is about a mile upriver from Dartmouth. Elaine and I walk past it on the way to Dittisham. It seems very pleasant and peaceful from the shore, but this is not the case from the water. When Adrian, Sarah, Joe and Alice canoed up it, they found it was covered in an unpleasant layer of oil.

This is the painting I started at the end of October (see It's All About Preparation). I eventually found time to finish it in this quiet time after Christmas.

Best Wishes for the New Year

Happy Christmas 2014

Christmas Trees
Watercolour and Pastel on Paper
10cm x 14.5cm (4" x 5.75")

Peace and Happiness for Christmas and the New Year

November Sketches

Holly Branch
24 November 2014
Gouache on Paper
12cm x 18cm (5" x 7")

November has been a productive month for sketching. I've already posted some of the sketches (see Portland and the Chesil Beach and Practicing Linear Perspective) and there were more to select from for this post.

Holly Leaves
17 November 2014
Watercolour on Paper
18cm x 12cm (7" x 5")

Elaine’s friend Nicola kindly gave us some holly and this has been the subject for many of the drawings. Holly leaves are challenging; their gnarled spiky shapes are difficult to model convincingly. I've wanted to draw some more since I sketched some in September (see September Sketches).

Young Holly Leaf
27 November 2014
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

The younger leaves make easier subjects. The twisted spiky side of their personality seems to be something that develops as they get older.

Bananas
13 November 2014
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
29.7cm x 21.0cm (11.75" x 8.25")

The picture at the top of the post is another go at Nathan Fowkes Poor Man's Impressionism - which I experimented with in October (see October Sketches). This time I used gouache instead of watercolour.

Sweatshirt and Chair
12 November 2014
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
21.0cm x 29.7cm (8.25" x 11.75")

The sweatshirt and chair are a favourite subject. They are the same sweatshirt and chair I drew for Exercise 6E from Keys to Drawing (see Keys to Drawing - Chapter 6). Until recently, I tried to avoid drawing the same subject twice. I now realise it is unavoidable, enjoyable and good practice to make multiple studies of the same subject. It is Elaine's sweatshirt. I  think I drew it first about 5 years ago - I wonder if Elaine realises how old it is?

Portland and the Chesil Beach

Bright Sea on a Grey Day - Abbotsbury Hill
23 November 2014
Watercolour on Paper
18cm x 12cm (7" x 5")

The view of Portland and the Chesil Beach from Abbotsbury Hill is one of my favourite scenes. I love the ancient landscape, the strangeness of the Chesil Beach and the Fleet and the graceful curve from Portland into the straightness of the beach.

Portland and the Chesil Beach

I drew these sketches and took the photograph last Sunday on a cold grey morning. I have limited experience of drawing landscapes from life and found this view to be particularly challenging. When I got home, I added some more contrast to the sketch. Next time I will focus more on the tonal differences while I am sketching.

Portland and the Chesil Beach
23 November 2014
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

One of my ambitions it is to become less reliant on painting from photographs. I would rather paint from sketches or from life.

Portland and the Chesil Beach - Gesture Drawing
23 November 2014
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A5 Graduate Sketchbook
210mm x 149mm (8.3" x 5.9")

Practicing Linear Perspective

Bookcases and Birthday Cards
5, 6 and 9 November 2014
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
21.0cm x 29.7cm (8.25" x 11.75")

This week it was time to practice some linear perspective.

The evenings are too dark (and cold and wet) to look for a suitable subject outside, so I fell back on the old favourite - a corner of a room.

The last time I tried this type of scene was almost exactly a year ago (see Keys to Drawing - Chapter 5).

The perspective on the bookshelves was more complex than I anticipated. It was tempting to use one-point perspective, but making the shelves believable relies on two-point perspective. You have to see the tops of some shelves and the bottom of others, so there is no escaping two-point perspective. Both the vanishing points are off the page and it was a challenge to make the numerous parallel lines look as though they are converging to the same place.

My goal was to make the perspective sufficiently accurate so an not to offend the eye without resorting to a ruler and without making the drawing look too much like an exercise in linear perspective - even though it was.

October Sketches

Rosebuds
30 October 2014
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 18cm (5" x 7")

These are my favourite sketches from October.

The sketch at the top of the page was inspired by a post called Poor Man's Impressionism by Nathan Fowkes.

Rosehip
5 October 2014
Watercolour on Paper
18cm x 12cm (7" x 5")

I foraged the rosehip on a Sunday morning walk with Elaine. The beginning of October seems a long time ago - the weather is much damper now and there are lots of wet leaves on the ground.

On the Sofa
27 October 2014
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A4 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
29.7cm x 21.0cm (11.75" x 8.25")

This last sketch is of one of Elaine’s favourite poses for me to draw. It is one of the few poses that is comfortable for 30 minutes and she can watch TV while I am scribbling. We used a similar pose for some of the exercises in Keys to Drawing - Chapter 3.