I’m an Urban Sketcher…
Instagram
Categories
Archives
Blog Stats
- 348,448 hits
Gallery
Tags
- bamboo dip pen
- bamboo dip pen sketches
- Bath
- Bath Abbey
- Bath sketching
- brush-pen sketching
- brush pen
- cafe sketching
- city
- coloured paper
- De Atramentis inks
- dip pen
- every day matters
- fountain pen
- fountain pen sketch
- fountain pen sketches
- fountain pen sketching
- ink brush sketches
- ink brush sketching
- Istanbul
- Kuretake #8
- Lexington grey
- Lexington grey ink
- Manchester Symposium
- marker pen
- monochrome
- noodlers inks
- objects
- people
- sketching in Bath
- sketching people
- Stockholm
- Talking Heads
- The Clash
- The Kinks
- urban sketching
- urban sketching kit
- urban sketching technique
- Venice
- white gelly roll pen
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: grisaille
Wiry views
Drawn at dusk, sat on the bottom steps of The Shrubbery (previously), looking down Harley Street in Bath. My eye was caught by the telephone wires and chimneys silhouetted against the winter sky. I was sorry that I didn’t get … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, buildings, cars, coloured ink, from life, grisaille, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, sky, street scene, urban, vehicles, waterbrush
Tagged Bath sketch, Bath street, chimney silhouettes, drawing cars, fountain pen sketch, Japanese cabling, overhead wires, rooftops sketch, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, sketching in ink, street scene sketch, telephone cables overhead, telephone wires, urban sketching, winter sky
3 Comments
Moving picture
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
Topkapi #2
Water-brush, dilute Lexington grey ink, watercolour, gouache, A5 – 30 minutes Back in the Harem section of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, this time looking through to the Black Eunuch’s Courtyard, with direct sun on the columns beyond. One of … Continue reading
Posted in buildings, coloured paper, from life, grisaille, inks, Istanbul, Lexington grey, museum, people, sketching, travel, urban
Tagged Andy Williams and Pearl Bailey, Black Eunuchs courtyard, decorative tiles, gateway, gold gouache, grey ink, Lexington grey ink, passers by, portraits, Topkapi
Leave a comment
Hyacinth revisitted
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
Sketching fuel
My sketching’s mostly fuelled by Lexington grey, a wonderful ink made by Noodlers in the USA. I use it in almost every sketch I do as it’s rapidly waterproof, but also safe for fountain pens. It works well with water-colour washes, and you … Continue reading
Posted in from life, grisaille, inks, kit, Lexington grey, monochrome, objects
Tagged Fatboy Slim, fountain pen, grey ink, Ink bottles, Lexington, Noodlers, teapot, Ugg boots, waterbrushes
Leave a comment
Toy museum
A couple of sketches from the wonderful and surprisingly large Toy Museum in Sintra, Portugal. The museum houses the personal collection of João Arbués Moreira, who was there on the day we visited, keen to chat about his favourite exhibits and … Continue reading
Posted in airplane, collections, exhibitions, from life, grisaille, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, objects, Portugal, sketching
Tagged doll's heads, dolls, Edwin Starr, heads, model plane, Sintra, staircase
3 Comments
Bog Island
Bath Abbey appearing over the rooftops on a bright and breezy day, sketched while leaning on a lamp-post (sincere apologies). I was on Bog Island, named after the public toilets, or ‘bogs’, which used to be there and that were converted … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, from life, grisaille, urban, waterbrush, watercolour sketch
Tagged architecture, Bath Abbey, Bog Island, city, George Formby, Google Streetview, under-painting, water brush
Leave a comment
Ink brushes
I’ve been filling water-brushes with dilute inks, creating another portable limited palette of colours that I can blend on the page. I’m using Windsor and Newton inks which are transparent and quickly become waterproof, enabling me to layer colours, building up tints, tone, … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, brush pen, grisaille, inks, kit, Lexington grey, Stantonbury, waterbrush
Tagged Bath, brush pen, colour and shape, grisaille, inks, Lexington grey, Stantonbury, water brush, waterbrush
1 Comment