Category Archives: brush pen

More selfies

Another batch of late night selfies, including some deliberate attempts to avoid the usual self-portrait surly stare; I’m not sure that they’re any less alarming! All but one were done with my new favourite sketching tool, Kuretake brush-pens, either number 8 (plastic … Continue reading

Posted in brush pen, collections, faces, Lexington grey, monochrome, self-portrait | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Bird’s eye view

Three sketches from the Urban Sketchers Bristol/South West group visit to Bath last weekend. We spent an hour in the Abbey tower and on the roof, enjoying wonderful views over the city centre, and after lunch sketched in the adjacent square. … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, buildings, buskers, church, drawing buildings, figures, ink brush, monochrome, people, rooftops, sketchcrawl, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Shifting focus

A couple of attempts to simulate depth of field by using pen for the foreground and ink-brush (and lighter ink) for the background. A partial success? I think the first one’s more effective, partly because the key subject (the mug) is … Continue reading

Posted in brush pen, domestic, ink brush, interiors, Lexington grey, objects, technique | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

End of the line?

I love a good memento mori, and this is the most striking one I’ve sketched so far. It’s a decommissioned crematorium oven (!) in the museum at Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol, found while on a sketchcrawl there with the Bristol/South … Continue reading

Posted in Bristol, brush pen, cemetery, death, figures, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Harbour life #1

Four sketches of low tide at Tenby Harbour Beach this Summer. First some boats moored to the harbour wall (white Gelly Roll pen invaluable for the ropes), then small dinghies being taken out for a day’s sailing. The third one is from Castle … Continue reading

Posted in beach, boats, brush pen, buildings, comparisons, holiday, ink brush, nautical, urban, urban sketching, Wales | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

54 people, mostly seated, and 2 dogs

During the Summer holidays I binged on sketching the general public in Bath, my default approach to ‘urban sketching’. I enjoy the seasonal differences: sunglasses, shady hats and bare arms in Summer; compared to high collars, long coats and wooly hats in Winter! … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, clothing, comparisons, figures, ink brush, Lexington grey, monochrome, people watching, seasonal, sketchcrawl, technique, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ink-brush buildings

Following on from my experiments in sketching with an ink-filled water-brush I dug out an old Platinum fude brush pen. The nylon brush-tip’s a bit shredded so it’s not very detailed, but the ink flow is hugely better than the very popular Pentel … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, buildings, drawing buildings, ink brush, Lexington grey, street scene, urban, urban sketching, vehicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Regency Parade

Quick ink-brush sketches of yesterday’s ‘Grand Regency Costumed Parade’, part of the annual Jane Austen festival held in Bath. The parade ended appropriately in Parade Gardens, where some of the 500 participants stood still long enough to be drawn.  On the right is … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, clothing, figures, parades, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Outdoor museum

The Weald and Downland Museum is a collection of old buildings that have been saved from dereliction and demolition and given a new home. It’s like a much smaller, rural English version of Skansen, the wonderful original ‘open air museum’ in … Continue reading

Posted in brush pen, buildings, drawing buildings, ink brush, monochrome, museum, rural, technique | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Tenby in ink

The view from Castle Hill, and Tim’s corner barber-shop (“Quality haircuts at fair prices”). I used the acetate grid to mark some key lines in pencil, and then started in the middle with the ink-brush and worked my way out. They’re … Continue reading

Posted in brush pen, buildings, church, grisaille, inks, Lexington grey, monochrome, rooftops, street scene, Tenby, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments