Experimenting with inks and resist

 

drawing an interesting vessel (wine decanter??) with patterns indented on and drawings of various flora. using inks (dr martins) with resist to create a collagey piece. Worked on in photoshop to introduce variety of scale

End of summer visit to Eype, Dorset...

The visit to Eype was lovely!  The day after our bradford on avon outing, we all (this time dad and bran too) drove down to dorset.  Eype is a very pretty tiny village on dorset coast.  Pebble beach, quite high cliffs , and sitting there provided a brilliant view across the beach, sea and cliffs / heathland around us. Didn't do a lot of sketching.  Again - just pen then water colour, and like usual, quick, and not much looking at paper.  I find this less intimidating than a careful, slow, considered sketch, and for me it works better.  found a better pen this time - less bleeding.  its a uniball signo gel grip pen 0.7mm

Bradford on avon sketching

Having enjoyed (!) sketching on honeymoon, and regaining a little confidence, I happily agreed to mum's suggestion of taking our paints, pencils etc on our day out together.  We went to Bradford on Avon - a lovely characterful town outside Bath, with plenty of brilliant sketching potential
as its always full of people out and about, the river runs through it, as does the canal.  We pitched up by the river.  Giggling to ourselves (why is sketching funny?!) we had a little go at 'capturing' our surroundings - ie the view across the river.  The train route is just visable over the far side of the river bank, and every few minutes a train would whizz by - there were seconds to form an impression of shape and colour etc.  As so much in way of greenery, and little in the way of actual stand out landmarks, this view wasnt that easy to do... enough waffle.

sketch starts with black pen (roller ball i think , but bleeds a little too much..) and then filled in with water colour (its brilliantly portable with a small bottle of water, plastic cup, and small paints tin)

train whizzes by the river at bradford on avon, somerset

i like to sketch quickly, and look at the paper relatively little.

not much sketching actually occurred, but we managed to have another go at the pub - Cross Guns, Avoncliff.  Not really very keen on this one, but i'll put it on for the record (my record..)  NB the flowers on the left hand side were such a beautiful purple.  I just couldn't get the colour right!!

view from cross guns pub avoncliff

I wish i could put mums sketches on! she didn't like them, but i thought they had such appeal!!!

Marazion boat taxis and passenger

More drawing from the patio. Scale leaves a little to be desired. Need to get some decent paper again today. Will visit art shop at Porthleven. Watched the boat taxi so much again today. St Michaels mount is v popular. Later wen tide out the trail of people walking over was just as mesmerising.. They looked like little ants..

Funny feathers Jazz band at sand bar

Watched a fantastically characterful band playing in sand bar. A challenge to capture. A - because moving and B - coz i was so paranoid about people watching me!!! Doodled a fair bit first, to get to know shapes etc, then went for it. They were brill. If nothing more, I like this as a momento. The chap on right was such a dude.

Praa sands, Cornwall, sketch

Praa sands beach

Spent sunday at Praa sands beach. Sketching is a brilliant way of being a visual diary. Drawing the beach scene (from the cliff, then coloring whilst on beach itself) really makes you look and appreciate shapes, colour and life around you. It was a challenging scene as beach was very densely packed (pic not quite right) and my husband was waiting for me to hurry up! I'd love to have another go. Again, gel pen first then water colour.

Marazion sketch

We are spending a week in marazion honeymoon. Woooo. Perfect perfect place for sketching. Our terrace faces st Michaels mount. There's a boat taxi going back and forth constantly. I'm already addicted to wanting to sketch every little group of awaiting passengers. This is first sketch for ages. (months) Inspired by being back here. This is gel pen then water colour.

Edible Creativity

Inspired at Coffee break

Visited a local coffee / eating place in Larkhall - a really cute little place called Ma Cuisine - it was buzzing! Coffee was up to scratch (a rarity to find at the mo) and  the atmosphere was perfect - a little hub of busy activity and run by a french couple (singing chef and sunshine made for a v happy visit!!!) Bookcase aptly filled with french books - one of which caught my eye...

The illustrations in French Leave Favourites were so charming... and made me want to get my water colours out straight away (and also made me want to go back to France - NOW)

 The pencil illustrations - not pictured brilliantly here, were inspiring too - soft, textured, detailed..

 The feeling of sunshine and cafe culture is captured brilliantly i think! I must find out the artist.

Drawing day with Fiona from the fashion lab

This was the back to drawing day....  Lots of useful exercises used to break the ice again... drawing blind, drawing for 3 mins , drawing with wrong hand - etc etc. Fiona supplied some amazing props to inspire and lead our drawing - all along an oriental theme. Some amazing patterns, lots of floral next to geometric.  I was certainly rusty, but enjoyed revisiting drawing again.

Interesting using inks - never really got to grips with this medium. find it a lot easier to use the end of a paint brush (ie not bristles) . Some of ink was watered down. Used brush end too for filling in etc

 

The work we are doing with fiona is designing fabrics for childrens wear. Had a bit of fun on photoshop with some of the images I drew.  Used a mixture of pastels, inks and pens.