Category Archives: inks

Monochrome flames

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Ed Mostly

A couple of mid-winter sketches, trying to capture the dancing shapes of a log fire. I drew ‘blind’, watching the flames to catch their individual fluid shapes, feeling out the lines with a pencil, and occasionally looking down at the page to get their location about right. They reminded me … Continue reading →

Posted in blind drawing, coloured paper, fire, from life, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, night, pencil, sketching, watching | Tagged blind drawing, David Bowie, drawing flames, monochrome flames, natural forms, sketch of a log fire, sketching fire, sketching the evanescent | 2 Comments

55 passers by

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Ed Mostly

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 | Leave a comment

The life of stuff

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Ed Mostly

I’m looking forward to more outdoor sketching in Spring, but in the meantime here are some well worn shoes (previously), a phone recharging, utensils hanging in the kitchen, and a bag waiting by the door… Everyday domestic scenes, the stuff of … Continue reading →

Posted in coloured ink, coloured paper, domestic, every day matters, from life, home, inks, kitchen, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, objects, waterbrush | Tagged domestic sketches, fountain pen sketching, ink in water-brush, James Booker, kitchen sketch, monochrome sketches, sketch of phone charging, sketch of shoes, sketch of shopping bag, sketching with Noodlers inks, waterproof inks | 1 Comment

New year, new page

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Ed Mostly

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 →

Posted in brush pen, coloured ink, coloured paper, inks, kit, technique, urban, waterbrush | Tagged inks for sketching, mini water-colour palette, pens to use for sketching, portable sketch kit, sketching kit, The Hollies, urban sketching kit, water-brush sketching | Leave a comment

Happy New Year

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Welcome to 2015! This blog started two years ago and now gets about 50 visitors a day, so many thanks for your ongoing interest in my hobby. After sketching every day for almost four years I’ve settled to a particular set of resources, mostly fountain … Continue reading →

Posted in body, coloured ink, from life, hands, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing | Tagged drawing of a hand writing, fountain pen, fountain pen sketch, noodlers inks, self-portrait of hand, sketch of Lamy Safari, sketch of right hand, sketching with coloured inks, Wave Machines | 6 Comments

In Memoriam…

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Tombs, memorials and statues are another great source of patient models for sketching, so here are seven monochrome examples spanning three thousand years to finish 2014. ‘Memento Mori’ or ‘Memento Vivere’ depending on your mood in the run up to the … Continue reading →

Posted in body, collections, coloured ink, coloured paper, death, inks, line drawing, monochrome, monument, sculpture, skeleton, urban | Tagged Bath Abbey, Bronze age skull, dog at feet of knight, drawing of skull, Edwin Starr, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, memorials, Prince Albert, Robert Recorde, sketching in churches, sketching statues, St Mary's Tenby, statue of dog, tombs, urban sketching | 1 Comment

My left hands…

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Ed Mostly

…eleven of them this time, in a range of media. It’s a very reliable model, always there when I’m stuck for something to draw at the end of a long (Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and Jones!) day, increasingly familiar, but with a fairly … Continue reading →

Posted in body, collections, coloured ink, coloured paper, every day matters, from life, hands, inks, line drawing, monochrome, self-portrait, sketching | Tagged Crosby Stills Nash and Young, drawing own hand, fountain pen sketching, left hand, my left hand, noodlers inks, sketching hands, sketching with coloured inks, Tom Jones | 3 Comments

Him off the Teevee

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Ed Mostly

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 | 1 Comment

On the beach #2

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Another couple of coastal sketches from Tenby. First a collection of people on the beach (both in full technicolor and the original on location line-drawing), followed by the same beach seen from a cliff-top bench, with nautical railings obscuring the view. Beaches are … Continue reading →

Posted in beach, coloured ink, every day matters, from life, holiday, inks, line drawing, people, sketching, watching | Tagged beach, cliff-top view, collections of people, Dinosaur Jr, drawing distant figures, fountain pen sketching, noodlers inks, people on a beach, people watching, railings, sketching on the beach, Tenby | 4 Comments

Sketching cars #2

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Ed Mostly

A second collection of car sketches. First a very cute Corvette I saw near our home; lots of beautiful details in this car, all the way down to the sting in the tail of the ‘G’ in the logo. Next there’s a full-size wire-frame model of … Continue reading →