More Sketchbook Skool and Sketchy

More of my newly discovered love of sketching and all things Sketchbook Skool and Sketchy

This was my attempt at sketching Danny Gregory, joint founder of Sketchbook Skool and first teacher in my Exploring course. I tried hatching again as that was the theme of his klass

This was my first watercolour attempt for Nina Johansson who was my teacher for the second klass. All a bit of a mess but really enjoyed using my new Daniel Smith watercolours.

This is another Sketchy portrait. I love this lady's happy face!

un-named flower

I can't think of its name! It's been on the tip of my tongue for a couple of days but I just can't remember. Grrr!

umbellifer

Tried my hand at a little botanical study! I had no idea what this was when I picked it at the edge of a field planted with rape but when I got home and consulted my wild flower guide I found it's a Thorow-wax. Strange name but fascinating plant. It's an umbellifer which is part of the carrot family.

Still trying to get the hang of writing in my journal with the dip pen!

tomatoes

M. Graham watercolours, pen and ink. I did the writing with a dip pen which takes a bit of getting used to as it makes blots all over the place. I don't mind that though. Pity I had trouble spelling 'choice' - I tried to cover my mistake but it didn't work!

garlic

I really enjoyed doing this page. It's part of the Sketch Book Skool course and this week it's Jane LaFazio whose work I absolutely love. This was all to do with composition - where to put each element on the page to make a balanced whole.

I loved the challenge of painting the garlic which was quite detailed and fiddly but it really made me look at the subjects more fully than I'm apt to normally!

abandoned station in yorkshire

We stayed in a holiday cottage just the other side of the now grassed-over track from this ex railway station. A little further down there were some old railway carriages that are now holiday lets. The people who lived in the old station house kept chickens which used to walk along the platform and annoy Rosie who couldn't get to them! Thank goodness!!

dead sunflower head

This is from a photo I took last year. I don't like sunflowers but I love dead sunflowers - they are so much more interesting and have a soft beauty that the live ones don't have.

Sketching again

I don't know why I don't make a pact with myself to sketch something at least once a day. I really love doing it and am sure practice will improve me. So I did two sketches today - one which was just a copy of a photograph and the other was my Valentine's Day present which, if I'd left it much longer, would not still be there! Yummy...

I've signed up for Danny Gregory's Sketchbook Skool which starts early April and am hopping from foot to foot with excitement. Hope I don't mess up!

Sloe Berries

The sloe bushes at the bottom of the field are absolutely laden with berries this year. The first time I walked past I thought I must take a bag and collect some before someone else does! But the next day I had a closer look and they're nowhere near ripe enough to pick yet so I just picked a small branch so I could draw them. It's said the best time to pick the sloes is just after the first frost so I'll be lurking with my carrier bag in the wee small hours one day soon.

From the Fields

I collected a couple of bits & pieces from the field where I walked Rosie today. This one looks like an Oak Apple but I'm sure it isn't because it's too late in the year. The leaf is certainly oak-like but the acorns are growing now so this can't be oak.

This one is definitely a meadow thistle - so delicate and pretty. Both sketched on Khadi paper which loves water and is quite happy to be stitched into which I may decide to do. I'll post the results here if I do.

Oil & Vinegar

This is sherry vinegar, not rice wine vinegar as my notes say. But either are great vinegars to use in dressings. The rice wine vinegar is a little softer than red or white wine vinegars and the sherry vinegar packs a bit of a punch but nothing like balsamic.

La Mer

My husband reckons this looks like a croissant! I have a tiny, sneaky little feeling he may be right :-)

Falling Leaves

This was inspired by a silver pendant I have and love dearly. I also have a feather pendant so who knows - maybe I'll sketch that too.

3D SHAPES

This is one of the exercises I've done for my Sketchbook Delight online course with Alisa Burke. I love her courses - there's no pressure but lots of inspiration which I need at the moment until I find my muse.

I threw the whole lot at this - watercolour pencils, watercolour paint, Zig Art Pens, and ink!

STARTED SKETCHING AGAIN

I've picked up my sketchbook again with a promise to myself to try to keep it up for a bit. Good tip to start with if you can't think of any inspiration - paint your tools!

roll on 16th july

I broke my wrist at the beginning of June. Didn't realize it was a break; thought it was just sprained so carried on the best I could. When the swelling didn't go down I was nagged into going to the doctor who arranged an x-ray and I've been in plaster ever since! SO frustrating! I can't do half the things I want to do. I was just starting on a sampler tapestry weaving but can't work the fingers of my hand well enough to carry on with it. Still - only 12 days to go now!

I did manage to do a quick pen, ink & wash sketch of a rather good bottle of Shiraz before opening it. It's history now...

bamboo

A few days ago, before winter returned (!), I sat in the garden with a cup of coffee and sketched the bamboo. I'm not sure what type of bamboo it is but mine grows in a pot and at this time of year the colour of the leaves ranges from golden brown to palest green and it has tiny red fruits.

Painted with my lovely M. Graham watercolours (one of the ingredients is honey so I may try them on toast later :-)

Visual Chinese Whispers 2

Aha - look what I made from Justine's eggs! I knew I had this somewhere :-)

Salad Days

This is a bowlful of my last remaining salad leaves from the garden. We've been eating home-grown salad for about three months now and there is something deeply satisfying about walking outside with a salad bowl and picking the leaves straight into it. We're totally organic so don't have to wash the leaves - just straight from garden to mouth!

I still have tomatoes growing - they've been much better this year as it's been such a dry year. I don't have a greenhouse so they have to be outside and in past years they've got so wet that they've begun rotting on the vine before ripening and I've had to rush out and rescue them in their under-ripe state. Great for green tomato chutney but no good in a salad. There are some plants (the ones with the bigger variety of fruit) that don't seem to be getting past the green stage still, so there may well be a chutney making session looming.

The leaves in the bowl include 'Cocarde', 'Lollo Biondi' and 'Red Salad Bowl'. There is also some wild Rocket in there and I'm still picking this despite the fact that it's flowered.

Zuni Fetishes

These are mountain lion and bear, my Zuni fetishes. And believe me, they're not bright orange and yellow really! I love them and really want to add wolf but haven't been able to find one yet.

This was a classic case of fiddling. I started out on a blank page and decided, instead of using pen and ink and then painting, I'd draw the little sculptures in watercolour pencils and have no outline. Well, that didn't work because I still had an outline which I couldn't get rid of even after using water over the pencils. And they also looked really dull colour-wise! That's fine in the flesh but no good for a drawing I decided. So I went over the watercolour pencil with some liquid watercolours I have. That's where the bright got in there! Then I thought I'd outline them with pen & ink. Then I decided they needed shadows which ended up looking a little clunky. And then (!!) I recalled reading in a book on art journals about making a background on a page by sponging acrylic paint through plastic tapestry canvas. SO I DID THAT TOO!

There can't be many people who put in the background after the foreground surely? Anyway, I left it on my desk for a while and visited it every now and then to have another look and then I decided, to hell with it - I'll post it. It's been too many days since I had something to post and I've been feeling a little out of sorts about that.

So here it is folks. Another PC mess! Or maybe I'll call it 'quirky' which is probably the same thing.

PS. As I'm writing this I'm listening to the most fabulous operatic compilation CD - truly inspiring.