Category Archives: inks

Shrubbery steps

Bath is full of steep footpaths, and I’ve sketched this one several times before, always looking down.  Here I’m looking up for a change, on an overcast afternoon.  1mm Pigma pen, water-brush with dilute Lexington grey and Windsor and Newton inks, … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, coloured paper, from life, inks, Lexington grey, sketching, urban | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Green Park Station

Saturday morning sketching with Louise and Mark at the farmer’s market in Green Park Station, Bath. (The last train left the station in 1962, part of the notorious Beeching cuts.) The line drawing took about 30 minutes, with another 20 … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, buildings, from life, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, panorama, people, sketching, urban | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

A toad, a giraffe, two elephants and a Gorgonite

Toy figures are well-behaved models, holding their poses indefinitely. They also give the opportunity to sketch rarely seen creatures, and from unusual angles. Broad dip pen with Carbon black ink, water brush with dilute Carbon black ink, A5 White Uni … Continue reading

Posted in animals, collections, dip pen, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, marker pen, monochrome, objects, toys | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Shrubbery

Looking down The Shrubbery, a steep path near our home in Bath. You have to squint a bit for it to work, and that’s a conservatory half-way up the house on the left, built on a balcony. (I blended dilute Winsor … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, buildings, from life, inks, kit, monument, urban, waterbrush | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘Fail better’

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett A good description of  learning to sketch, amongst other things, and my frequent attempts at drawing my left hand are an excellent example! So here’s the latest batch … Continue reading

Posted in body, from life, hands, inks, pencil, sketching, watercolour sketch | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Looser lines

An early Spring Saturday with Jim in Bath Abbey Courtyard, where we tried to sketch with minimal looking down at the paper, ‘blind contour drawing’. We didn’t manage the recommended “90% looking at subject, 10% checking the picture’s progress” proportions, but … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, from life, inks, people, urban | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Now in glorious Technicolor, or not

A view from the Accademia Bridge in Venice, sketched quickly using a thick marker pen before my family got too bored. Marker pen with carbon ink, A4 As an experiment I used a photo taken at the same time to … Continue reading

Posted in from life, inks, kit, marker pen, monochrome, sketching, urban, Venice | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

No knead

A crusty loaf baked using the very tolerant and adaptable no knead bread recipe, developed by Jim Lahey. This became a lesson in landscape painting, with miniature valleys, hills and peaks, all looking slightly volcanic… I was interested to see how rich and … Continue reading

Posted in food, from life, home, inks, sketching, waterbrush | Tagged , , , | 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 , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment