I’m an Urban Sketcher…

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Blogroll
- Antonia Santolaya/Enrique Flores A chance to browse through 26 travel sketchbooks. Lots of fresh watercolour, ink and pencil location pictures.
- Buttnekkiddoodles Don Colley’s blog, sharing fabulous brush-pen drawings of people and much else. He’s a big fan of Pitt Artist brush pens.
- Danny Gregory His book ‘The Creative License’ got me sketching, and his other books have helped to keep me going. He has a wonderfully loose style, using dip-pens, saturated colour inks etc.
- Handprint Exceptionally comprehensive information on watercolour paints and equipment. Exhaustive details on pigments, translucency, comparing brands etc. Essential viewing for the true obsessive.
- James Gurney A mine of information on ‘plein air’ painting and sketching from the author of ‘Dinotopia’. Daily posts, always interesting.
- Nina Johansson Stockholm based urban sketching, with lovely clarity and glowing colours. Lots of useful information on sketching kit that helped to get me started.
- Russel Stutler Lots of very useful information on brush pens, palettes, sketching techniques. Based in Japan.
- Steven Reddy Great use of pen drawing and grey ink washes, sometimes combined with clear colour on top.
- The Sketching Forum Informal sharing of ideas, techniques, pictures and general chat about sketching. Set up by Russ Stutler.
- Urban Sketchers A constant parade of individual responses to the challenge of urban sketching. Always good for some inspiration, a new approach to try…
Category Archives: brush pen
Daily Sketch-kit updated…
There are a few changes since the last update (pencils!), all explained on this page here. One of the key aspects of sketching is having a range of simple and familiar resources, always accessible. My daily carry is pocket-sized, but has … Continue reading
Posted in brush pen, coloured paper, inks, kit, Lexington grey, marker pen, pencil, sketching, technique, watercolour sketch, white pen
Tagged daily sketch kit, every day carry sketching, home-made palette, inks for urban sketching, Muji card-case palette, pens for sketching, portable urban sketching kit, tiny water-colour palette, water-brush filled with ink
2 Comments
Ink brush sketching
Here’s another collection of people in town, this time a monochrome set, done with a water-brush filled with dilute ink for speed. They were sketched one afternoon while sat outside a cafe in early Spring, hence the scarves and big coats. The last of the … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, body, brush pen, clothing, Feet, figures, inks, Lexington grey, monochrome, people, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching, waterbrush
Tagged brush pen urban sketching, drawing walking feet, sketches from a cafe, sketches of people passing by, sketching in Bath, sketching people on the move, The Monochrome Set, urban sketching people, water-brush filled with ink
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68 feet
Commenting on my recent cafe sketches Chris said “How about a focus on feet and shoes for your next post? They drive me mad, and can make or break a quick sketch.” Be careful what you wish for… Here are all the … Continue reading
Posted in brush pen, cafe, coloured paper, Feet, from life, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, objects, sculpture, sketching, urban
Tagged cafe sketching, collection of feet, drawing feet, fountain pen sketch, Hokusai manga, ink sketches, Michelangelo's David, Ride, sketching sculpture, sketching shoes, urban sketching
10 Comments
55 passers by
I’ve added a new page to the blog, sharing books that are currently inspiring my sketching; the first is Hokusai’s Manga (‘manga’ originally meant ‘light drawings or sketches’). After copying some of his very simple but individual faces (bottom of post) I sat … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, brush pen, figures, from life, inks, Lexington grey, monochrome, people, sketching, street scene, urban, waterbrush
Tagged Bath streets, brush pen drawing, brush pen sketches, Hokusai manga, inspired by Hokusai, lexington grey sketch, quick face sketches, simple face drawings, sketching passers by, street sketching, urban sketching, Van Morrison
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New year, new page
The most popular posts and pages on this blog are generally concerned with kit and resources, as are most of the questions that I’m asked through comments and emails. This is great as I set up the blog after realising … Continue reading
Him off the Teevee
TV is always a good source of faces to sketch, press pause and they’ll happily pose for as long as you need; I like the way the drawings tend towards caricature. There’s sometimes a bit of lens/screen distortion on archive clips, and I … Continue reading
Posted in brush pen, coloured paper, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, people, sketching, television
Tagged Chef Oberoi, Dr Sam Willis, faces on tv, fast sketches of faces, fountain pen sketches, noodlers inks, Otis Redding, Peter Sarstedt, Sammy Davis Jr, sketching from the tv
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On the beach #3
A final batch of monochromes from Tenby’s beaches. First the tractor that pulls a mobile jetty up and down the beach in time with the tides (here’s a similar beach-tractor in Aberporth), with sight-seers returning from a boat trip to Caldey Island. … Continue reading
Posted in beach, boats, brush pen, clouds, coloured ink, coloured paper, from life, holiday, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, sea, Tenby, vehicles, Wales
Tagged beach tractor, beach-combing, Caldey Island, eroded rocks, mobile jetty, monochrome sketches, piddocks, Primal Scream, seaside sketching, Tenby harbour, tractor, urban sketching
4 Comments
Remembrance
It’s the 11th day of the 11th month, so here’s a bas-relief memorial tablet in Salisbury Cathedral, placed in memory of Edward Tennant, a young officer and poet killed on the Somme in 1916. It includes touching testimonies to his life and times; “when things … Continue reading
Posted in brush pen, coloured ink, death, inks, line drawing, monochrome, monument, sculpture
Tagged 1st World War memorial, Armistice Day, bas relief memorial, Edward Tennant, John Singer Sargent, Officer died on the Somme, Remembrance, Salisbury Cathedral, sketch of a sculpture, Talking Heads, young officer
2 Comments
Tokyo commuters
I spent last week on a study trip to Japan, a great opportunity generously supported by the Japan Foundation. The schedule was hectic and very full, but it helped to hone my speed-sketching skills, straight to ink using a simple fountain-pen and water-brush kit. So … Continue reading
Posted in brush pen, collections, coloured ink, from life, inks, Japan, kit, line drawing, monochrome, people, trains, travel, urban
Tagged coloured ink sketch, Japan Foundation, Japanese priest, John Gregory Orchestra, Noodlers Brown 41 ink, sketching commuters, sketching with fountain pen, straight to ink, Tokyo, Tokyo commuters, urban sketch of commuters, waterbrush sketch
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One lump or two?
Pencil, fountain pen and water-brush with Lexington grey, wine stain, A6 – 20 minutes Water-brush with Lexington grey, A5 – 10 minutes A new favourite toy model animal, the familiar but strange Dromedary (the one-humped camel of Africa, Arabia etc). It has the strong curves … Continue reading
Posted in animal, brush pen, hatching, inks, monochrome, toys
Tagged Bactrian camel, camels, contre jour, cross-hatching, dromedary, shadows, Super Furry Animals, toy model animal
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