Every Day In May 25

*25-DRAW A GLASS


Busy day framing so only got around to this challenge around midnight ...Just my sketchbook and a carefree attitude for company!

Just The One

New Journal

I've started a new daily journal and this time I chose a small Venezia filled with Fabriano paper. I love these hard cover books with their decorative red tiled design. This size slips easily into my bag and should prove easier to use and fill as the weather draws colder.



Here's my first entry:

Day 23 - The Voice Of Lord Byron

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.

Lord Byron

More Grids

Noodlers and Lamy

On Thursday I spent the day with a couple of favourites of mine, Noodler's Red/Black ink and my bright yellow Lamy Safari fountain pen.

I love working with these tools, sketching randomly without a care in the world and a thought for error. I've been sketching in a contour style for a while now, with black waterproof ink adding watercolour washes and it was so good to leave that controlled style for the day and let rip!




Although we spent the day together my sketches were fast, grabbing at spare moments throughout my day and making the most of them by clearing my mind of expectation and simply enjoying the way the Lamy nib glided across the Canson paper in my journal.




I finished each by manipulating the soluble ink with a water brush, creating a feeling of dimension and values to bring them to life.

Aniseed Balls

click image to enlarge

I brought this gorgeous jar home from the gift shop at Burghley House for my Son Jake, he loves aniseed balls and has already crunched his way through half the jar since my sketch...Yes, crunched! He has much stronger teeth than his Mum.

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!

Friendly Friday Revisited

Arrived home from the most relaxing weekend at Joan's this afternoon and jumped straight into a pile of laundry and roast dinner preparations! Such is life!
Still, it's all good and with re-charged batteries it was all a doddle!

So, here I sit trying to scan and upload all the journal pages I filled this weekend. Here are the remainder of Friday's efforts once I had arrived in Coltishall.
The first page shows Joan sketching, the Egyptian ankh she gave me as part of my Christmas gift and, a new addition to her lounge since my last visit, a peace lily plant.


The page above shows the second of my Christmas gifts from Joan, a metal trinket box handmade in India and the all essential goodies that aided us through a long night of talking, sketching and laughter.

Sketcher's Block

Thursday started with the arrival of my dear friend Joan, just back from her 5 week visit to Africa. After much chatter and 'show and tell' we headed to the studio and while Joan painted I created another 10 minute self portrait from life in ink.

I sketched my way through seven pages of my Seawhite sketchbook and found each and every one a challenge. For the first time in a long time I felt I couldn't get a thing right!

I found it hard to decide what to sketch, what to use to sketch ...but I persisted and worked through it.

The results are pretty bland and in most cases I have been most unfair to the subject, albeit unintentional.

You know you have a true friend when you make them look like a fairground attraction with a beard and they don't care!

The day was saved by the company of two wonderful friends, conversation, laughter, snacks and plenty of wine.

Special Gifts

EDM challenge no. 97 was to sketch a present you have received and explain why it is special and I couldn't have chosen a better time to tackle this challenge.

Over the weekend my Mum appeared at my studio door with a handful of beautiful flowers from her garden, her very first crop of sweet peas this year mixed with a few lavender sprigs and she had picked them just for me.

Such a delicate little bunch of colour required an equally beautiful water container and I immediately reached for the tiny, blue, frosted vase my friend Joannie gifted me last year. The two look fantastic together and sit on the small table in my studio tempting me to capture them on paper...Tonight I gave into temptation and made a quick sketch using pen and inktense pencils.

Below is the dry version, before adding water.

EDM Challenges 25 and 69

Micron pens

I managed to complete two more EDM challenges along with my Burghley study yesterday; no.25 - sketch a drinking glass and no. 69 - Sketch a beverage.


Pigment liner and watercolour washes

All of the sketches are in my A6 Winsor Newton 'Little book of challenges'

EDM Challenge 78

After stocking up at the supermarket and loading the washing machine with the final load from my Disneyland Paris trip, I finally found time to sketch something this afternoon. Flicking through my little book of challenges I came across EDM challenge no. 78 - to sketch a souvenir - PERFECT!

I quickly set about unwrapping the tiny Mickey Mouse vase I purchased in one of the many shops in Disneyland, grabbed my scissors and took a few clippings from some shrubs and plants in the garden to fill it with before making my sketch.

My Little Book of Challenges

When the sun greets you and dances upon your face as it did mine this morning you have two choices - sunbathe or sketch? So...I did both!
You may have seen me mention the yahoo group called 'EverDayMatters'. I joined them recently and have managed to create a few sketches to meet their weekly challenges where a new subject is set each week for members to sketch/journal about. Their list has been running far longer than my membership with them and has now reached week 114. The few sketches I have managed to complete for this list have been mixed among my journal pages in my small moleskin and today I decided to organise...Oh yes, I am way too good at that!
I like things in order it rewards me with a sense of control and eases my mind and I love a challenge, so it was only a matter of time before I decided to start at number one on the huge list and begin a separate book just for this purpose. It's how I am, I have given up the fight!

I came across an A6 Winsor & Newton case bound sketchbook in my studio that came with a Cotman travel set purchased back in 2003 when I began this wonderful artistic journey that now fills my life. It isn't the W&N heavyweight paper I love so much but it handled watercolour and coloured pencil well today. I have marked each page in order (of course) with items from the list and my intention is to fill them randomly as the occasion allows. It will provide me with good illustrative practice and offer subjects for me to sketch at times when subjects elude me. Today was a fantastic day to start such a project, the hot sun spotlighting the patio gave me the perfect spot to set out my kit, stopping to soak in the rays and watch my Son bouncing on his trampoline between sketches.






EDM Challenge #1 - Shoe
EDM Challenge #2 - Lamp
EDM Challenge #3 - Bag
EDM Challenge #4 - Cup

Dailies - (w/e 9 Feb 07)

Here are this weeks dailies, each one is painted from life!

03 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7" panel

This was my first plein air oil painting.
An unusually sunny Saturday morning for February called for some unusual behaviour, so I popped my big boots on, flung open the French doors on the studio and took my table outside.
It was a fascinating experience and certainly one I hope to repeat often during the summer.












04 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7"












05 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7"

This weeks floral purchase was daffodils.
I managed 2 dailies today both included the daffodils







05 Feb 07 - watercolour

It's been a while since I painted with my watercolours, other than in my sketchbook. I enjoyed this time spent with my old friends!








06 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7"

I painted this one mostly with my finger.





Dailies - (w/e 2 Feb 07)

Dailies - (w/e 2 Feb 07)

As usual, time was a struggle this week but I managed a few more of my daily paintings from life I have nicknamed my Dailies









27 January 07 - Acrylic - 7x9"







31 January 07- Oil - 8x15"









01 February 07 - Oil - 6x11"







01 February 07 - Acrylic - 7x11"













02 February 07 - Oil - 5x7"





As you can see, I purchased a bunch of Iris this week and I actually managed to fit 2 paintings in on Thursday. The caramelised cashews were something I treated myself to over Christmas...They were delicious!

Salad, Heat & Medication

It's that time of year when every meal plate exhibits some form of salad. So it was relatively easy for me to grab a few things out of the fridge for the third scavenger hunt on the Wet Canvas website.

The aim of the hunt is to sketch all 26 items on the list and the first person to complete the list chooses the items for the next hunt.
I have enjoyed taking part and they couldn't have taken place at a better time for me, with my studio in full swing I am finding it difficult to concentrate for long spells, I am just too excited. These quick sketches demand just the right amount of my attention and they encourage subjects I would not normally have chosen myself. It is great practice as I haven't really sketched much at all since school and all of the work must be sketched "from life" rather than photographic references, which in itself presents many challenges. I am enjoying experimenting, trying to use a variety of mediums and putting together unusual compositions...It's been enlightening!



I managed to cross 3 items off the list with this still life: Glass & Vegetables & Dinner . It took around 30 minutes from composition to completion, is sketched with my inexpensive mechanical pencil from Woolworths and lives in my A5 Winsor & Newton sketchbook.


This piece is also in my W&N sketchbook and took around 25 minutes. I used a black Pitt superfine pen and watercolour washes to capture this scene in my home and managed to cross off 2 items on the list: Favourite place in your home & Mirror.




One of the items was Medicine so I chose a packet of painkillers and this time used a burnt ochre Karisma pencil and sketched them in my Fabriano Journal, allowing myself just 10 minutes to complete.
I chose the half empty pill packet because they looked difficult and, although the scavenger hunts have been great fun, I want to learn something from every sketch I create and constantly challenge myself. Setting myself a time allowance adds to the challenge and also encourages me to look harder, be bolder in my decisions and looser with my marks. I am in no hurry when I work but my subjects might be so it's useful to be able to capture the essence of something quite quickly, selecting just a short chapter that will portray the atmosphere and character without the detail of the whole book.

Thirsty

I have recently acquired a thirst that, to my surprise, not even my overindulgent caffeine addiction can quench!
The thirst exists not in my mouth but in my very soul, seeking a first hand knowledge of the world around me, driving me to see and log my visions as a constant growing archive within my new sketchbooks.

Starting the sketchbooks was a conscious decision but the infatuation that has arisen from their birth has been a surprise even to me. How ridiculous, that one can surprise oneself this way, surely, of all people, I would know my next thought, action, emotion before it consumed me?
Although their origins escape me, I remain grateful for surprises such as these and the knowledge they present to me about myself. Like an adventure they lay a path before me, an unknown destination. To turn away would be to deprive oneself of oneself and to pass through life never having ventured would surely dehydrate the mind, body and soul.

And so, like a sponge, I patiently await my next drink...I must be ready to absorb it when it comes and my eyes must be open so I may recognise it's arrival!


"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." - Forrest Gump