Category Archives: botany

Can’t see the wood

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Ed Mostly

A break from Cordoba with some recent tree sketches, rural and urban. The first two are of an old mossy oak in a wood of mostly Scots Pine, done a couple of months apart. Then a tree in Queen’s Square in … Continue reading →

Posted in Bath, botany, coloured ink, coloured paper, inks, landscape, trees, urban | Tagged Burton woods, drawing trees, fountain pen sketches, old mossy tree, Queen's Square Bath, sketching in the woods, sketching trees, St Etienne, tree in a clearing, urban sketching | 6 Comments

One bad apple

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Another go at mostly painting, just using pencil lines for the overall shape and some pens for the lettering on the sticker. I usually add water-colour at the end of a sketch, after establishing line and shade with ink. Here it … Continue reading →

Posted in botany, food, from life, fruit, objects, pencil, sketching, technique, watercolour sketch, white pen | Tagged braeburn apple, Broken Bells, observational panting of apple, painting fruit, rotting apple, sketch of an apple, sketching fruit, watercolour sketch | Leave a comment

Honeysuckles

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Several attempts to sketch highly fragrant Honeysuckle from the last two years. I enjoyed working out the refractive effects of water and glass as much as drawing the very fiddly flowers… Brown/blue/green Pigma pens, fountain pens with Carbon and Lexington grey ink, water brush … Continue reading →

Posted in botany, flowers, from life, line drawing, sketching, watercolour sketch | Tagged fountain pen sketching, glass of water, Honeysuckle, Lexington grey waterbrush, refractive effects, sketching flowers, sketching water refraction, Stephane Grappelli, Yehudi Menuhin | Leave a comment

Snails

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Ed Mostly

White Gelly Roll pen, Lexington grey fountain pen and water-brush,watercolour, A6 – 30 minutes Heavy day-time rain drew the garden snails out, so I collected a few and sketched them as they moved across a table. For a creature that’s proverbially slow (1 … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, botany, from life, garden, seasonal, white pen | Tagged garden snails, Lexington grey fountain pen, shells, snails, spiral, tentacles, The Go! Team, white gelly roll pen | 2 Comments

Spring has sprung

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Pencil, Lexington grey water-brush and fountain pen, watercolour, white Gelly Roll pen, blue Uni Posca brush pen, A5 – various times A double page spread from last weekend, when the weather was fine, the clocks went forward and everyone was out … Continue reading →

Posted in Bath, botany, buildings, coloured paper, flowers, from life, park, people, seasonal, sketching, Spring, urban, waiting | Tagged Botanical Gardens, magnolia flower, Mother's day, North Parade Buildings, old couples, park bench, Spring, Uni Posca brush pen, walking sticks, white gelly roll pen | Leave a comment

Hyacinth’s decline

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Bamboo dip-pen pen with dilute Lexington grey ink, water-brush with acrylic ink, A4 – two hours This is probably the last drawing there’ll be of the hyacinth that I’ve been documenting since Christmas. Although the leaves have now collapsed under their own weight and … Continue reading →

Posted in botany, death, dip pen, flowers, from life, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome | Tagged bamboo dip pen, Beatles, brown acrylic ink, decline, dying flower, hyacinth, leaf shadows, Lexington grey ink, long leaves | Leave a comment

Moving picture

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Bamboo dip pen and water-brush with dilute Lexington grey ink, watercolour, A5 – 20 minutes per stage More evidence of Jim’s cleverness. He’s combined scans showing three stages of a sketch into one animated Gif image, creating a clear way to see the … Continue reading →

Posted in botany, flowers, from life, grisaille, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, sequential, sketching | Tagged animated Gif image, animated sketch, Gif picture sequence, hyacinth, line and form, sketch process, Talking Heads | 3 Comments

Hyacinth revisitted

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Bamboo dip-pen pen and water-brush, dilute Lexington grey ink, watercolour, A4 – 20 minutes each Once the hyacinth that I drew a few weeks ago was in full bloom the fragrance/smell became too much, so it went outside. It survived the recent … Continue reading →

Posted in botany, dip pen, flowers, from life, grisaille, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome | Tagged bamboo dip pen, blue flower, Dick van Dyke, flowering bulb, grey ink, hyacinth, Lexington grey ink, long green leaves | 1 Comment

Hyacinth bulb flowering

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Ed Mostly

I was given a Hyacinth bulb, potted in a tiny bucket with moss, before Christmas (thanks Daisy!) and started sketching it. I eventually captured two weeks growth in four pictures, a very primitive time-lapse sequence. In the last sketch the flowers … Continue reading →

Posted in botany, coloured paper, flowers, from life, gouache, sequential | Tagged bucket, bulb, hyacinth, moss, Neil Young, plant growth, sequential sketches, time-lapse | 4 Comments

3 lemons, 2 bowls and a bug

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Ed Mostly

A slightly tired lemon from the fridge, with some zest sliced off for a cake. Note the tiny red bug accidentally squashed between the pages. Blue and brown Pigma pens, water-brush with Lexington grey water-brush, watercolour, A6 – 20 minutes … Continue reading →