Category Archives: pencil

It’s been a while…

Oh dear, nearly two years since my last post here, and it was getting fairly infrequent before then; apologies to anyone who is still there/here! I’ve kept up the daily drawing from life (thirteen years now!), and am still regularly … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, exhibitions, from life, pencil, self-portrait, Uncategorized, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Six-score selfies

A round up of recent(ish) selfies. First is my take on the ‘One week, One hundred people’ sketching challenge from earlier this year. One hundred mirror selfies in one week, all tiny and done with pencil and smudge stump. I … Continue reading

Posted in daily drawing, One week, One hundred people, pencil, pencil self-portraits, self-portrait | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

A mixed bag

This month I have been mostly using Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils, in ‘dark indigo’. They’re my new favourite mark-maker; soft and responsive on the paper, lots of pigment for rich lines, and barely any smudging. They combine well with watercolour, … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, benches, collections, figures, pencil, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Just a scratch

Quick sketches while being vaccinated over the last few months. The centre was very quiet, very calm, and oddly normal given the strangeness and relative novelty of what was going on.

Posted in Bath, pandemic, pencil, people, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Next door

(Apologies for the recent lack of posts. Lockdown etc has broken/changed/started many habits, including a drastic reduction in my use of social media, which is probably a Good Thing. The daily drawing from life continues in spite of it all) … Continue reading

Posted in faces, pencil, people, portrait | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Pocket drawing board

(I don’t think I’ve done a ‘sketching kit’ post for a while. They’re usually popular so here goes…) To keep up the daily ‘drawing from life’ habit (nearly ten years now) I make sure I’ve always got sketching materials on … Continue reading

Posted in airplane, clouds, figures, kit, pencil, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Wonky, skew-whiff, bockety, odd

Last week I accidentally wandered into cubism through blind-drawn continuous-line selfies… I recommend having a go, they only take a minute and the results are so strange that you can’t make any ‘mistakes’. Hold a pencil ready to draw on … Continue reading

Posted in blind drawing, daily drawing, faces, line drawing, pencil, self-portrait | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Wonky, skew-whiff, bockety, odd

Pencil selfies

The latest batch of quick late evening mirror selfies from my daily drawing habit. All done using the blackest and least smudgy pencil that I’ve found, the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black. It’s high carbon and low (no?) graphite so the … Continue reading

Posted in daily drawing, pencil, self-portrait | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Wet Welsh weekend

Instead of walking along the Mendips (sketched here, and here) last weekend we went walking in Crickhowell, South Wales, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Here’s a quick sketch from the ruined castle shortly after we arrived, rain threatening… … Continue reading

Posted in gouache, graveyard, journeys, pencil, trains, urban, urban sketching, Wales | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Back to front with gouache

Maru Godas’ work and the arrival of sunshine have inspired me to give gouache another chance. I’m enjoying exploring its flexible sketchy possibilities, love the physical presence that opaque colour has on the paper, and it’s speeded up some aspects of … Continue reading

Posted in coloured paper, drawing buildings, gouache, palettes, pencil, sketching, technique, urban, urban sketching, white marker pen | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments