W/C Pencil Landscape from photograph

This is another w/c pencil landscape using a reference photograph. I did it last week and it's interesting having left it for a few days and now seeing side by side with the photograph I can see areas I'd make darker / lighter. I wasn't so much interested as getting a faithful representation of the scene as getting a good range of values / colours and sense of space. I did do a quick thumbnail value sketch before I started - this is something I am trying to do now. Not sure it helps that much in terms of the final result but at least it gets me thinking about values at the start. I also took my time with this and dried each layer with a hair dryer in between so as to make it easier to work on. Everytime I use the pencils I learn something more!

Log basket

A classic example of how 20 minutes waiting for the news can be better spent than watching Neighbours.... I need to remember that you don't need hours of time to draw. Just one minute and then another and then another...

Flowering meadow exercise in watercolour pencils

I used a photograph as a starting point for this - partly because I wanted to do something similar to one of the exercises in Watercolour Pencil Magic so I could learn and be a bit more disciplined about the process. This time I dried each layer before moving on to the next. I like the way the flowers recede into the distance and I like the trees individually but they don't really work in this composition as they are too much 'garden cultivated' trees rather than wild. I have to confess I did deviate from the photograph and just got a bit carried away with trying out different ways to paint foliage. Still that's okay - it was meant to be a learning exercise not a piece of art (I have to keep telling myself to let go of the need for things to be perfect every time...) Looking at this now I don't think have got enough of a value range - I found it difficult to get the darks and if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated. I think perhaps I should have carried on layering?????

Cloud Studies in Watercolour Pencil

Stuck inside due to the strength of the winds and driving rain I decided just to play with the pencils and do some cloud studes. The clouds were quite dramatic and it was a struggle to get any sense of that without it looking heavy-handed. I was looking at some watercolours by Turner in a magazine this morning and the light he achieved was incredible. His colours are incredible - quite strong. So perhaps I'm being too prissy with it all and just need to keep on doing layers.... I liked doing the studies as there was no pressure to produce a 'picture'. It felt as if I was just experimenting and learning and that relaxed me much more I think. A bit like the grid does.

First Watercolour pencil landscape...

A few days off down in Cornwall finally gave me the chance to try out my new watercolour pencils - with the help of Cathy Johnson's Watercolour Pencil Magic (Thanks Kate!). So this view from the conservatory was my first attempt. I like the foreground with the fence but don't think the rest works quite so well. I didn't get the muted colours of the hills in the distance or the sense of light at all... still I enjoyed the feeling of drawing yet painting..,

Early morning views in Cafe Nero ... November

Grid View from No 27 Chalk Farm

Back in London starting a new job I found it hard to find time to fit in any drawing AND I was starting a new moleskin so was paralysed for several weeks with the NSS (new sketchbook syndrome). However EDM got me through it with the idea of grids and starting a few pages into the book. These were snatched sketches on top of the No.27 on my way to work. A very bumpy ride and often only fleeting glimpses of what I was drawing. I was sort of doing the EDM Challenge on signs.... Also it's easier to draw people from behind as they can't see you! the final one is just to confuse you. It's my mouse at my desk and bares no relation to the others.....

Ink Sketch of 12C Church Cambridge

Another first... I sat on a wall in Cambridge on a Saturday afternoon in August and drew this church. I love it - it's one of the earliest churches extant in the city and for the first time I used my sketchbook as an aide to composing the picture and getting the basic relationships right - or more or less right. I think the tower on the left is a bit thin in relationship to the rest. I did it in ink at the scene and then added the watercolour later - then I realised the ink wasn't waterproof - doh!

Architectural - August 06

These two are both pencil on a graphite ground. I was pleased with how I managed to get the perspective and the scale right by using a basic unit and measuring relationships. Felt a real 'first' for both.

Portraits

I'm ashamed to admit I haven't been keeping this up. Too many life events and everyday matters crowding it out but I have been drawing - just in fits and starts. Here are a couple of portraits I did in a class in August - father and daughter.... Both were done in pencil on a graphite ground. I did them at the same time - 20 minutes on one and then switching back and forth over the afternoon.