Europa

Dry watercolour pencil and ink

One of the items on this week's scavenger hunt list at Wet Canvas is to sketch a sculpture. This prompted me to sketch my figurine called Europa, made by the Enesco Gallery. I love everything about this beautiful piece, especially the fact that my boys gifted her to me.

Celebration Hunt

Managed a couple of pages for the 79th Scavenger Hunt over at Wet Canvas over the weekend.
I decided to stick the list into my journal before drawing the items over it on the first page because I always tend to loose it and have to print several throughout each hunt. So far, it's working a treat, even though my sketching has made it a little difficult to read in places.


Monday was my Son's 10th Birthday. We had a great day and the champers and the toys Harry purchased allowed me to tick another couple of items of the scavenger hunt list!

A Hunting We Shall Go

The art from life forum over at Wet Canvas run a weekly scavenger hunt.

Basically, a member creates a list of objects and challenges and you sketch from the list over the week with the aim of completing it.

It was these hunts that first started me keeping a sketchbook and I still find them very handy as a quick resource for inspiration when choosing a subject becomes a task.

I completed 6 of the items from this week's list in the grid format below, each box measures approx. 5 cms square.

My 7th entry covers the 'sketch a pile of something' item, I chose eggshells, watercolour, a large square brush and a slightly different approach to how I usually work.

HB 10

I'm rather pleased with this 10 minute self portrait for more than one reason, mostly the nose, symmetry and the fact that I am not frowning and don't look 103 years old.
Of course....that could all change tomorrow but today it seems my instincts cut me a break!

There is a reason behind my current time limits on self portraits and when Laura from Laurelines was kind enough to offer some constructive criticism on my Sunday self portrait, I tried to explain my plan to her:

"My aim is to be able to produce quick portraits like this regularly, then pick them to pieces, see my mistakes and hopefully improve so that I can train my hand to perfectly place features quickly. Hopefully leaving faults, working from instinct like this will give me plenty of references to look back over and detect habitual mistakes I am making so I can focus on them and improve. Speed isn't the important factor so much as hand-eye coordination - improving my vision and being able to reproduce that with ease. Working quickly just allows me to see how I work on instinct. It's a plan!"

I'd like to thank Laura for taking the time to offer her thoughts and suggestions to me in such a constructive and well mannered way. I whole heartedly welcome others to do the same, I believe constructive criticism to be truly beneficial and I know I would not have reached this stage of my abilities without such an honest, supportive start from the wonderful members at Wet Canvas and the constant chant of "DARKS" in the watercolour forum.
They encouraged me to walk one step in front of where I would have trodden alone.


Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.
Frank A Clark

New

A parcel arrived today, from Great Art, with an order of art materials. Part of the order was a box of Schmincke watercolour pans, my Son Jake is buying me for Christmas. Luckily he let me open them now and what a joy to unwrap they were...better than opening my favourite chocolates!

I decided to tackle one of this week's Wet Canvas Scavenger Hunt items with them...To sketch a fake flower.

The palette will take some getting used to simply because I have worked with the same Winsor Newton brand since I started my art journey in 2003. A couple of my favourite colours so far are Venetian Red and Prussian Blue...delicious!


Other items in my package include a very reasonably priced 230gsm Canson Watercolour Sketchbook and a 12 tin of Polychromo coloured pencils.






I also painted my freshly laid, wooden, porch floor today with clear satin varnish....and then got carried away and re-coated the whole of the kitchen and dining room while I was at it!

The porch is a new addition to our home and I have decided to re-house my PC there in the new year, it is currently housed inside a specially designed cupboard in my dining room and , although there is a window next to the cupboard, most of the time my head is stuck inside with no view. The porch has three windows all of which look out across the Fens for miles. I can hardly wait!

I ordered a rug from rugsellerUK this afternoon to bridge the walkway through the porch from the front door to the kitchen entrance, I just fell in love with the design and am sure it will look fabulous against my dark wood floor and pale smokey blue walls.

Monday Squares

Another 3 additions to my Seawhite square sketchbook started with a rather unflattering, speedy sketch of Harry playing an electronic game before school. The angle I sketched him from together with my composition on the paper and lack of caffeine has resulted in his head looking a little large for his body!



Midday, time for a sketch but not sure what to draw so I popped into the 'artwork from life' forum at Wet Canvas and checked out this week's scavenger hunt list for ideas.



Incidentally, this is my 200th post to this blog...Proof that I never shut up!

Reflecting

Charcoal sketch- 15 mins

I was disturbed and had to put this self portrait down but I am thrilled with how far I got in the time I had.
I could never have done this much, with decent accuracy, in 15 mins last year...Sketching regularly has proved so beneficial and I am so pleased I set it as my goal this summer and ignored everything else. I feel more confident too, able to change or add elements and experiment. The fact that 99% of my sketching has been 'from life' rather than image references has enriched my knowledge and understanding enormously and I can now draw with my eyes, putting onto paper what they really see and having the courage to persist even when it looks a little odd at first, which it often does which is why we usually 'correct it' to meet with the image in our memory bank and get it so wrong! I find the correct lines much quicker now and the fear of failure has long gone.

I look forward to my time in the studio this winter, taking with me all I have learned and achieved through my sketchbooks will no doubt be an exciting time for me.

I am full to the brim and ready to explode...Just saying that makes me giggle and gives me butterflies!
God I love what I do!!!

30 Day Foot Study

More feet!

Charcoal pencil was my chosen weapon for this group of sketches, quick and loose was the mood.
I love to use charcoal in any form, it some how enables me to be so free with my motion and I easily become lost in it's spell.

#9, #10, #11/30 - Charcoal pencil

30 Day Eye Study

Charcoal - 10 mins

Below is the perfect example of laziness. My new Derwent coloured charcoal pencils needed sharpening and I do not get good results with any of my sharpeners so I guess they'll need a knife...Trouble is, my knife was in my studio and I couldn't be bothered to get up, pause 'The Impressionists' DVD I was watching and get it so I worked with blunt pencils and the results are not crisp.
Serve me right!


Derwent coloured charcoal pencils - 5 mins

30 Day Foot Study

#8/30 Charcoal pencil - 15 mins

Two more foot studies for the current Wet Canvas challenge.

I've been feeling the need to use charcoal recently so tonight I popped into the studio and grabbed a charcoal pencil from a tin of 12 that cost me just 99pence and set about using them on a cheap sketchbook I picked up today that cost just £1...Bargain sketching!

#7/30 Lamy Pen & Noodler's Ink - 5 mins

30 Day Foot Study

#5 & #6 - Noodler's ink - W&N heavyweight sketchbook - 20 mins

Another of the 30 day foot studies, this time sketched with my Lamy fountain pen and Noodler's Lexington Gray ink.

30 Day Foot Study

#1,2 & 3 - Water soluble lead & watercolour wash - 20 mins

Another body part has been selected for the Wet Canvas 30 day challenge and this time Jeanne Grant chose the foot.

Feet are one of those subjects I struggled with when I attempted them at high school, along with animals, portraits & figures. Needless to say I tried them once failed miserably and never tried again!
Four years ago when I returned to art, I decided to conquer all my fears and look failure straight between the eyes with a brave 'Rocky' attitude. I now try to see items as subjects rather than specific items, looking at form, values and structure, hoping to draw what I see not what I think I see. This has worked and I no longer use the phrase 'I can't draw that'.

Feet are one of those fears I haven't had much need to practice in those four years so this challenge is most welcome.
I have my hoodie and boxing gloves on ready, please excuse me if I start to shout 'Adrian' in a slurred tone.

30 Day Eye Study

#14/30

Another of my eye studies for the Wet Canvas challenge. I sketched this one through my rear view mirror with my Lamy fountain pen and watercolour washes.

Scarlet Woman

You Are a Red Crayon

Your world is colored with bright, vivid, wild colors. You have a deep, complex personality - and you are always expressing something about yourself. Bold and dominant, you are a natural leader. You have an energy that is intense... and sometimes overwhelming. Your reaction to everything tends to be strong. You are the master of love-hate relationships. Your color wheel opposite is green. Green people are way too mellow to understand what drives your energy.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Found this quiz on Dave's Blog and discovered I am a scarlet woman, LOL! So, I decided to create my next two eye studies for the 30 day eye challenge in ink and red watercolour.

10 mins

10 mins

30 Day Eye Study

Another two ten minute eye studies, this time using my Lamy fountain pen filled with Noodler's ink and a brush pen filled with brown ink.

30 Day Eye Study

Continuing with the 30 eye study challenge I completed the above using a bathroom mirror, a Lamy fountain pen filled with Noodler's ink and W&N watercolours in my small watercolour moleskin sketchbook, the complete page can be seen below.

30 Day Eye Study

#4-Inktense - 10 mins

Continuing with the 30 day eye study challenge, here are another three sketches of my own eye in my W&N heavyweight sketchbook.


#5-Watercolour - 10 mins

It's quite difficult coming up with new positions when using your own eyes as the subject so I have tried to experiment with different mediums and include surrounding parts of the face for interest.


#6-Lamy fountain pen and Noodler's ink - 15 mins

30 Day Eye Study

You may remember I produced some hand studies, last month, for the Wet Canvas Hand-A-Day challenge, well, this month Lacey Bryant is running a 30 day Eye challenge. The idea is to sketch at least one eye, from life, everyday for 30 days...Practice makes perfect right?

I'm sure I won't be able to contribute everyday and I found the challenge a little late but yesterday saw me with a few moments spare so I grabbed a mirror and set about making a quick lead sketch with an HB pencil and 2 quick sketches with a 0.1 pigment liner in my W&N heavyweight sketchbook.

Hands #13, #14 and #15

More sketches for the Hand-A-Day challenge at Wet Canvas using the Lamy fountain pen filled with Noodler's ink.

Handy Inspiration

Inktense: Bark & Baked Earth - 20 mins

I'm feeling much better generally (Thank you for all the lovely well wishes) but my energy levels are still low and I'm finding it difficult to decide what to fill a page with subject wise. I'm mentally keen to be sketching but nothing seems to be happening physically, my rose coloured glasses have slipped making every subject seem uninteresting and unappealing. After being so productive recently, I have found this part of the virus the hardest to tolerate.

On Wednesday Bert Dodson helped inspire me and yesterday a necessary trip to Holbeach resulted in a quick sketch, nothing special but at least something got onto the paper and kept the momentum going. Today it rained constantly...AGAIN!...so no chance of seeking inspiration on location.

I decided to check into the 'Artwork from life' forum at Wet Canvas and managed to find my kick-start in the thread entitled 'Hand a day sketch thread' a challenge set by Wet Canvas member Lacey Bryant. The challenge invites you to sketch your hand (or a someone else's hand) everyday for a month and you can start whenever you like, so I started today!
I'm not sure if I'll be able to create an entry everyday, nor if I'll want to, but today this little challenge stifled my frustration and kept me from going mad and for that I am grateful!