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).

The Old Mill on Kneeton Road

The Old Mill on Kneeton Road

Mixed Media on Paper

26cm x 18cm (10" x 7") 

This view of the mill is based on a sketch I drew in December (see December 2015 Sketches). Before starting the picture I drew some thumbnail sketches to explore possible compositions.

The Old Mill on Kneeton Road
Thumbnail Sketches

The colour scheme and approach were influenced by the first demonstration on Chris Forsey's Pushing the Boundaries of Watercolour.

March 2016 Sketches

Wine Delivery
2 March 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

Elaine and I were teetotal for most of March, so we sensibly organised for a case of wine to be delivered on our second day of abstinence.

Top of the Lane
12 March 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Daler Rowney A6 Ebony Sketchbook
14.9cm x 10.5cm (5.9 x 4.1")

The weather has improved sufficiently for me to get back into the habit of drawing 5 minute sketches while Elaine and I are out walking. I usually add paint to one or two of them when we get home.

TV Corner
4 March 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Daler Rowney A6 Ebony Sketchbook
10.5cm x 14.9cm (4.1" x 5.9")

I’ve tried a few quick sketches inside as well, but without imposing a strict 5 minute limit. I want to be able to sketch more quickly because sometimes you don’t have much time for a drawing and sometimes quick sketches look more spontaneous and engaging.

In the Bathroom
22 March 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

This sketch of male grooming paraphernalia was an experiment in painting darks. I find darks in watercolour very difficult to get right. It is too easy to create a thick drab paste that just looks horrible and sucks the life out of a painting. In this picture I deliberately kept the darks relatively light and intensified the variations in colour.

A Friend for Nelson
27 March 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

At the end of the month, Elaine was pleased to become the proud owner of a second Joanne Cooke sculpture, but she hasn’t named it yet. We will have to adopt a real dog at some point.

St Agnes Lighthouse

St Agnes Lighthouse
Mixed Media on Paper
28cm x 18cm (11" x 7") 

The lighthouse on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly no longer contains a light, but is still the most prominent landmark on the island. St Agnes is a wonderful place to spend an evening. Elaine and I have twice celebrated my birthday in Hight Tide Seafood Restaurant. The food, wine and views are excellent, but it has to compete against the Turks Head - which is a great pub. What a choice - you just have to spend two evenings on the island.

I started the picture using oil pastel to add some colour and to resist the watercolour - as suggested by Chris Forsey in his DVDs. The scribble in the centre of the picture is a bit unnecessary, but the blue flowers in the left foreground have worked well.

The painting also makes use of a technique I am learning from regular sketching in watercolour – don’t fiddle or correct. It’s a difficult lesson to learn, but I'm finally beginning to realise that you rarely improve a watercolour painting by trying to correct things. You are best to leave your original marks because they at least look spontaneous and heartfelt.

February 2016 Sketches

Honeybuns
25 February 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

Elaine gave me a selection of cakes from Honeybuns as a Valentine’s Day gift. Amazingly, eleven days later there were still a few left to draw, but we (mainly me) finished them the next day.

Red Tulip

7 February 2016

Ink and Watercolour

Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

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

February has not been my most prolific month for sketching, but I still managed a few.

The sketches on this post all employ the same basic approach - adapted from The Urban Sketcher by Marc Taro Holmes (Citizen Sketcher). It starts with a scribbled drawing in pencil, followed by an ink drawing on top and then a few passes of watercolour - starting with a fairly watery mix becoming progressively thicker in each pass
.

White Rose
26 February 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

The picture of Ducky was slightly more hurried than the other three - this was a pencil sketch, with an ink drawing on top, then more ink applied with a brush pen and then a single pass of watercolour.

Ducky's Perch
11 February 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Daler Rowney A6 Ebony Sketchbook
10.5cm x 14.9cm (4.1" x 5.9")

I'm trying to include watercolour in most sketches because it is good practice, but I plan to do some pencil sketches in March and to brave the great outdoors.

Symmetry

Symmetry is the last of the five principles of composition identified by Arthur Wesley Dow in Chapter 3 of Composition.

The other principles are:

• Opposition
• Transition
• Subordination
• Repetition

Dow defines symmetry as:

The most common and obvious way of satisfying the desire for order is to place two equal lines or shapes in exact balance, as in a gable, windows each side of a door, or objects on a shelf.

He goes on to damn symmetry with faint praise by saying:

Symmetry, like Repetition has come to be used in cheap and mean design when no regard is paid to beauty of form.

He also says:

Japanese art, when influenced by Zen philosophy, as Okakura Kakuzo tells us in “The Book of Tea”, avoids symmetry as an interesting.

He then adds insult to injury by failing to provide any exercises and suggesting:

Exercises can be easily devised following the steps suggested under other principles.

I started by creating exercises based upon my drawings from repetition, but I got bogged down in trying to achieve perfection.

I eventually realised repeatedly retracing the same illustrations was self-defeating. I was trying to create expressive lines, but my drawings were becoming more and more stilted. I read ahead to the next chapter in which Dow’s advice is:

Avoid hard wiry lines and all that savors of rule and compass or laborious pains-taking. 

I finally realised it was time to stop, move on and embrace my imperfections.

January 2016 Sketches

Tree near Springdale Lane
10 January 2016
Ink
Daler Rowney A6 Ebony Sketchbook
10.5cm x 14.9cm (4.1" x 5.9")

In 2016, I plan to spend more time drawing and painting outside. So far the weather has not been sympathetic to this goal. The tree sketch is my only completed outdoor sketch of 2016 – I've had a couple of false starts when I've given up due to wind, rain or cold or some combination of the three.

The tree is one of my favourites and it has appeared on this blog before in its summer finery (see August 2015 Sketches). Unfortunately, I don’t know what type of tree it is. I suspect it is some kind of oak, but my handbook of British trees relies on leaves to give a definitive identification and so far I've not been close enough to collect one.

New Crockery
18 January 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

These are Elaine’s new plates and bowls - shortly after she excitedly unwrapped them and put them away for the first time. They are a mixture of patterns from Emma Bridgewater. I suppose they’re our new plates and bowls, but I didn't have much to do with their selection or purchase.

Reed Diffuser
25 January 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

The reed diffuser is also courtesy of Emma Bridgewater. I'm not sure whether it arrived in the same box as the crockery, but it was about the same time.

Buddha's Head
28 January 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Winsor & Newton A6 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
14.8cm x 21.0cm (5.9" x 8.25" )

This Buddha’s head is one of my recurring challenges. The face is difficult enough, but the headdress adds an extra dimension. It has appeared twice before (see Outlines and Blind Contour Drawings and Another Modelled Drawing in Ink) and I'm surprised it has not appeared more often.