Lollies and hats

Having a sketch book is a liberating experience in my opinion. You can sketch anything without having to worry about spoiling expensive papers. In the next 2 sketches I have attempted to create portraits of Sam and my mum at Woodcote steam rally.

 

The final sketch with all the finished detail. From the initial painting below I have looked to create impact by strengthening the light and dark passages.i have added darker tones next to the highlights and added detail to the shadow areas. This helps to enhance the contrast an drake the image appear to have depth.

Initial washes to establish main colours and tones.

While this sketch is not an accurate representation of my mum it has given me some valuable information that I can use to create a painting in the future.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Pimms at Woodcote Steam Rally

What's better than a pimms on a hot summer day? A pimms served from a converted mini van.

Initial wash of watercolour.

The original pen sketch.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Little and large

Sketched from a photo this is the first stage of a painting I may attempt in the future. I find it is always worthwhile making quick sketches (this one took 10minutes) so that when I'm in the mood to paint a watercolour I have something to paint. Too many times in the past I have been in the mood to paint but I have wasted time looking for inspiration.

The original photo was taken on Ryde beach on the isle of wight and when I use photos I generally only use pictures I have taken of places I have been. That way I can try and capture something of the mood when the picture was taken.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Buckets of water

Using my three experimental colours (quinacridone red and gold plus Windsor violet), I aimed to find the lights and darks in my sketch of Samuel on the beach at Ryde. The nice thing about these colours is, they are all transparent and rarely, for me, produce muddy colours. I used a layering technique to get the darks and the final colour I layered in was q.gold to add brightness around the image - particularly on the back of Sams jacket to enrich the orange.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Glass Oilers

Part of the May Painting a day challenge

I liked this image because of the reflection of light coming through the dirty oilers. It was a great excuse to lay down a light was of yellow ochre before building up the darker shapes at the front of the painting. When the light is golden like this at about 4 in the afternoon the edge of objects show up as thin strips.

This picture was created at Breamore House Nr Fordingbridge in Dorset. The setting for a model steam rally for about 10 years.

Clovelly Nets

I love the seaside and especially fisherman’s clutter that can be found lying around. In Clovelly I was inspired by the lobster pots and the colours that shone through the netting material. I tried to work out if I was painting the netting or the holes. The rough cobbles created a regular pattern to help draw the eye into the picture.

 

While I was painting this picture I read an article in the artist and illustrators magazine about gouache resist. So I thought I would give it a try. Using a piece of mount board I drew my image and then proceeded to paint gouache in the areas I wanted to keep white. When this was dry I painted over the whole image with Indian ink.

Then after a night of drying I washed the image under a cold tap to release the gouache paint. Then I added some watercolour to the image…

I have read other versions of this technique and I might come back and explore them one day…Stay Tuned.

Clovelly fishing pots image from my sketch book.

Ice and a Slice

Ice and a Slice Video

Okay so the make a sketch a day in May is going really well, but I haven’t posted all the pictures yet.

This is a sketch in video format of a glass of lemonade I drank in the Fire Station Restaurant beneath Waterloo Station in London. The restaurant beats eating in McDonalds or Burger King within the station.

Enjoy!

Ode to a good cup of coffee served in a good cup of coffee cup

Royal Brompton incarceration sketch tour – A decent cup of coffee (3 of 5)

The ‘coffee/tea, please’ people come around the hospital about 4 times a day. Like a good pub after about 3 days in hospital they get to know your drinks order – coffee, white, 2 sugars in my case. Ironically for the Royal Brompton hospital that prides itself on award winning food – Maxwell house is the blend of choice for the NHS and not my particular cup of tea. I think this is because it comes in paper cups and cuts out a lot of the faffing around with tea spoons.

My favourite cup of coffee usually arrived just after breakfast at about 9:15. Three hours later than I am used to – I was an unusual patient as I was up, showered and dressed by 8. This took the attention of 1 doctor who took asked me on one occasion why I got up so early as the rest of his patients were asleep. I explained when you have a 18 month old baby there are two 6 o’clocks in every day… – Anyway my favourite cup of coffee arrived in an orange china cup complete with saucer.

Ironically I can’t draw ellipses and so this post about a decent cup of coffee relies on some dodgy drawings of NHS cutlery.

 

Initial Sketch completed in hospital.

Charcoal sketch to help create a finished painting.

 

Finished watercolour of the NHS orange cup of coffee.

 

Paper cup of Maxwell house designed to leave you wanting more…

Finally I have been experimenting with ipad sketching.

Green VW Camper Van Sketch

Continuing with my obsessional VW Camper Van sketching - this is a green one.

What is the fascination with VW Camper Vans? What drives a man to spend his hard earned cash on a car that needs constant attention and coaxing into life in the morning? Is it the idea of freedom? Could I be a secret surfer dude? Probably not as I can surf. Or swim. Is it the nomadic life style or maybe the hippie in me trying to escape? Maybe I like to think of myself as a wananbe cook…

On a much simpler level I think I need to build up my arm muscles in a car with no power steering and tighten my leg muscles on unassisted brakes. And I actually like the shape and style of a vehicle that was produced not to be aerodynamic but was designed using the convenience of an existing car and its production line.

 

Other sketches in this series…

Blue Bucket at Sizewell

I visited Sizewell in the 1990’s when I was at a steam fair held in Bressingham Steam gardens. There is an unerringly quiet beach which appears devoid of wildlife and this is where the boats were along with some old sheds. The day according to my diary was clam and overcast but was overshadowed by the looming monster of Sizewell itself (whatever that means). Why did we go there? Because we had been to the Garrett Steam Museum and felt compelled to go after seeing a scale model of the area! We also had some time to kill.

I started this sketch using a blue pencil to outline the shapes and then blocked in the main areas of colour. Finally I added the details like the blades of grass by darkening the shadow and negative space areas. There are too many strong verticals in this image and I think I should have broken up the picture by rotating the propeller to push the eye round the scene.

Below are my initial sketches and the photo that i took on the day.

 

See other sketches from Norfolk.