Tag: Sketches

Recent sketches.

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When you are out for lunch, or going for a day trip its good to ditch the camera sometimes and just sketch the view. It might end up a bit skewiff but that doesn’t matter, you are making personal memories, things to remember, like the way my friends hat dominated our table at a local restaurant Amore, in Newcastle-under-lyme or the fact I always seem to eat lunch before I think about recording what it looked like. We had a huge meal at the New Inn at Dyserth. Then drawing a view of a landmark, trying to catch its character and the sunlight hitting the tree trunk just at the right angle to cast its shadow on the huge stone walls behind it. Drawing the oddly angled steps that are made to bend round protruding rocks and the stone wall at Dyserth Falls…oh I cram a lot in on day trips!

 

Potteries Morris Minor owners club – sketch.

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I went to a model train show last year and while my partner was looking at the model trains I decided to draw a Morris Minor that was parked outside. There were a few of them there and I had a chat with one of the owners. It turned out the people were from  the Potteries Morris Minor owners club. They love their cars and the Morris I drew was beautifully presented.

I decided to do the sketch before I realised I had not got anything to sketch with, I had a tiny sketch pad but no pencils… so I used what came to hand which was a black biro. The drawing was going well, but the biro ran out. Thats why part of it is blue. I could pretend it was reflected sky, but that is a lucky result if running out of ink!

Morris Minor cars are iconic. Thet are beautiful. They are classic cars, their shape is streamlined in that old fashioned way. They came in different shapes, my favourite is the Morris traveller. It looks different because it has wooden spacers between the metal panels. I wish I knew more about them!

More from the north west

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After our first night at Morecambe we could not resist a drive up to South Lakeland. Part of the Lake district. It only took a short while to get there.

The first place we visited was the lakeland motor museum. Situated near Haverthwaite in the south part of the Lake district, the museum is just off  the main road. There is a large selection of motor cars, from the oldest cars and getting younger as you wind your way through the collection. Interspersed with shop window fronts full of museum exhibits, the cars are very interesting. I decided to draw part of a blue Bentley that was owned by Donald Campbell. He lost his life trying to beat the water speed record on Coniston lake. The colour of the car is not authentic because the car was restored in the past. However it was a beautiful example of the workmanship of car makers. There are also bicycles and planes on display in the museum.

Then it’s a few meters down the road to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite railway. I sat and drew the bridge over the train tracks while we waited for the steam train to arrive. The train was pulled by an engine called Repulse. I’m not sure but I think it was a Bagnall engine. They also have the only two Fairburn steam engines still in existence. (The rest were broken up by British rail when diesels were introduced to the railways).

We took the train up to Lakeside and then travelled on the Tern, an old converted steam ship which is now powered by a diesel engine. Tern took us to Bowness about half way up the Lake. The mist and rain was falling off the hills and from the sky. After several weeks of summer heat it was actually quite pleasant to feel the cool damp air. We did not have time to carry on up to the top of the lake to Ambleside because we were running out of time. So a short break at a Lakeside cafe and we came back on another, smaller boat. Back to the train and back to our starting point at Haverthwaite station.

Back in time for a quiet meal in a Chinese restaurant in Morecambe……

 

Eye dont know!

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Playing with apps,                                                                                  dreaming in naps,                                                                                   I see your eyes…                                                                                                                                  ,,                       what a surprise!

I see your lips                                                                                          like pomegranate pips……..

I see your nose                                                                                                                                      ,,                   the beauty it shows!

I see a face, hidden in lace                                                                   historical place,                                                                                                                                  ,,                   wonderful Grace.

 

Just playing with rhyme,                                                                       enjoying this time .

 

Sketches at Dorothy Clive Garden

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I like taking a small sketchbook with me when I visit interesting places, its easy to snap a few photos on my phone, but much more challenging to sit for 20 to 30 minutes sketching the view.

Dorothy Clive Garden is beautiful. Even at this time of year when there are mainly spring flowers and the perrenials are not out yet you can see the towering trees, Bluebells, Magnolia’s and Rhododendrons.

We walked up to the tearoom and sat and drank coffee and ate icecream while the Sun (unusually for a Bank holiday weekend) shone down. It was so hot Richard bought me a wide brimmed hat from the gift shop.

I drew the view over the lawn to a low hedge where you can see evergreen trees and branches of deciduous trees just coming into leaf. In the distance was the misty blue grey hills of Shropshire. Over the ridge is a little village called Loggerheads.

Then we walked into the quarry garden. The blackbirds and robins were singing loudly. If you follow the sound of flowing water along the paths edged with Camellia, Rhododendron, Bluebells and other flowers which are just starting to open in the spring sunlight, you round a corner and see a tree that has been cut down to a stump that is still about 15 foot tall.

The stump has had the outline of a woodpecker carved into it, and apparently has had a greater spotted woodpecker (not sure if that’s the right name) living in a hole in it for the last two years.

Follow the sound further and you find the waterfall that runs from the back of the quarry down into its bowl. It is a man made feature but still lovely. I sat and sketched it, getting lost in how to represent the vegetation against the darkened rocks.

Finally we picked up some plants for the garden that we had bought earlier and walked down the slope to the pool at the bottom of the garden. This looks like it has recently been re-lined and the black liner is visible round the edges. Looking back up the hill various evergreen trees and bushes are visible, together with the new growth of Gunnera, which will grow massive over the summer. The pool is lacking its water lilies but they should be back soon. Halfway up the hill is a little wooden summer house or pavillion. The view is splendid from there.

3 drawings were enough. It was hot and I needed a drink. But I know I will go back again soon.

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Found…2011 sketchbook

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I’m having a clear out/spring clean, and I found this sketchbook underneath a foot stool that isn’t used very often.

I always have to look in to see what I was doing, this was an orange book with nice thick cartridge paper, spiral bound so you can flip the pages and not end up trying to draw into the crease between them.

So I saw pictures of landscapes and some portraits.

I had clearly dated them so I know they were done over a couple of weeks in June 2011. I dont remember my health then, but I must have taken the week off from work and gone up to Yorkshire and also North Wales….

While these are black and white pencil sketches, I think they give enough detail so that you can understand the views I saw. I dont think they are that accurate,  but I sometimes prefer drawing to photography. I have joined a group of urban sketchers, but I dont get out often enough these days.

The portraits are just about OK. I feel like they are all flawed in some way. Perhaps I had done them too rapidly ? I don’t think the fact that there is a drawing of a pint of beer in there is of too much importance. I must have been feeling in need of refreshment, the drawing by the river was at a pub in Saltaire and I think I drew the landscape while we stopped for lunch and a drink.

The sketch of the lighthouse is at Talacre beach in Wales. The figure at the top us actually a sculpture of a person. I dont think its safe to enter and in any case I think the door is locked.

I will keep this short. I dont want it to turn into one if those  “slides of landscapes I took on holiday” moments!

G’night Cat

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G’night cat                                                                                               my coffee’s getting cold,

I’m ready for bed,

And I’m feeling rather old….

G’night cat                                                                                               I must do as I’m told

Get your beauty sleep,

Drift off upon a cloud……

G’night cat                                                                                               but your purrs are getting loud

Well 10 minutes more

Til my dreams of you unfold……

Fork candles

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the confusion of words, such as The two Ronnies sketch: four candles or fork handles…..a poem.FB_IMG_1524173502338

Can you hear the difference?

Fork….or Four…Candles…or handles….

See the word, unheard, the difference.

Imagine a fork shaped candle?

Or four spade handles…

Words change, morph, but stay the same.

Homophones, it sounds like, confusion, illusion.

Playing games to gain our trust,  learn the difference, yes we must.

So four is not fork and candle is not handle but together they mangle talk (not tourque).

#digitallydoodling

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It’s time to show you some of my recent digital drawings posted to my instagram account…

 

While I usually draw and paint in traditional materials like paint on canvas, or ink and pencil on paper, I regularly draw on various apps aswell.

This started when I found a web site called Youdraw around 10 years ago. At that stage I did not have a drawing tablet so I went out and bought a small one with the pen attached by a wire. I was really pleased with what I could do, and I eventually progressed to a bigger tablet but still with a pen that was attached by a wire. I used it so much and did so many drawings I wore the knib of the pen down!

Then I was offered a second hand wacom tablet, it was a revelation. I had got a photoshop programme and I was learning about layering and cropping, basically all the little things that help you morph pictures. In the meantime I had found various drawing web sites, like 2draw and wetcanvas and floating ginko. I was using their apps, which were quite complicated, but the results were fun. I frequently got told off on one site for drawing too fast. I was not allowed to be an expert on it because I didnt take enough time!

It was then that I came across a site called sketchfu. (Now closed) this had the simplicity I was looking for, large, medium and small pens, an ability to change the opacity and a colour picker, but the way it worked meant that you could create really interesting drawings without all the finicky bits.

This site and its sister Muzy were closed by its owners a few years ago. I think they were getting too much traffic and not enough revenue.

I decided to do more drawing, I got a bamboo tablet, and for a short while posted on line on instagram and Facebook. But then I got another tablet, a computer…I downloaded a few apps like sketcher free, ArtRage oils, kaleidoscope, and others, all free. The only problem then is having to draw by finger. It’s not as smooth and clean as a tablet pen. I have used stylus pens, I think I will do that again.

Currently I have lots of art on instagram, and some if the digital art has the hashtag #digitallydoodling if you want to find it.

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Finding old sketchpads

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I recently found a couple of old sketchpads from the 90’s

I had forgotten about them, but I am trying to collect them all together. They may be a resource for IMG_20180402_163425_592IMG_20180402_170812_095IMG_20180402_171038_493IMG_20180402_163002_221IMG_20180402_163514_936ideas for paintings.

The drawings are a mixture of a figure in a landscape. Two drawings of views  in Derbyshire, an abstract pattern, and a caricature of a friend.

I do think it’s worth keeping old sketchpads even if you are not sure the art is something you will use. You never know.

I realise the pattern is very similar to what I now draw when creating digital patterns. The figure in the landscape will be turned into a painting, the two wide landscapes inspired me to do a drawing of a cafe in a wider format than I would do normally. I’m not sure if I’m a caricature artist, but the drawing does bring back fun memories .