I’m an Urban Sketcher…
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Two days sunshine, heatwave!A couple of wisterias; Chinese on the left, Japanese on the right? Spot the foolish mosquito that interrupted my sketching... #mostlydrawing #bathurbansketchers #botanicalillustration #urbansketcher #urbansketchersSame tree (magnolia ‘umbrella tree’ in Bath Botanical Garden) but different media: ink on left, carbon pencil on right. #mostlydrawing #urbansketching #bathurbansketchers #botanicalillustrationStarted this on one dog walk, returned another day to finish it! Bosky tree in Vicky Park.100+ people sketched this week, mostly in Bath, mostly fude pen dipped in grey/black ink, all funThe first eleven for this year’s challenge to sketch 100 people in one week. #oneweek100people2020 #usk #bathurbansketchers #mostlydrawingCategories
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- bamboo dip pen
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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: sketching
It’s been a while…
Sorry for the lack of posts, mostly due to end of school year busy-ness and the ease of using Facebook instead; apologies! So here are a few recent sketches, all exploring the fun you can have with the mother/daddy of … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, Duke Confucius, opaque watercolour, park, people watching, sketching, street scene, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Duke Confucius fude sketch, sketch of Bath Abbey, sketch of crowds, sketch of ice-cream van, sketch of world cup watchers, sketching in Bath, street scene sketch, The Small Faces, urban sketching
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 Amerigo Gazaway, gouache and ink drawing, gouache sketches, Maru Godas, Schmincke gouache, sketching palette, urban sketching, white sketching pens
10 Comments
Seven year sketch
In March 2011 I read my wife’s copy of Danny Gregory’s ‘Creative License’ and started doing a drawing from life every day; this was one of my better decisions… Some days the drawings are tiny brief scraps, my hand on … Continue reading
Favourite books about sketching?
I’m giving a lecture on the history of books about sketching (not sketch-books!) at the USk Manchester Symposium in July. I’ll be looking at some early examples from the UK, and comparing them with some of the many available today. I … Continue reading
Ink-brush buildings #2
Another sketch of the rear windows of the Circus (older versions below), this time using the Kuretake #40 ink-brush. Ink-brushes are wonderfully suited to drawing soft, curved and organic subjects (people, clothing, foliage, landscapes etc) so I’m seeing how they work with … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, brush pen, buildings, comparisons, drawing buildings, ink brush, Lexington grey, sketching, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Bath urban sketching, brush pen urban sketching, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Kings Circus Bath, Kuretake #40 #8, Kuretake ink brush, urban sketching, urban sketching technique
4 Comments
Analogue selfies
Um, here goes… thirty self-portraits done over the last few years, usually late evening when I can’t find anything else to sketch to keep up the daily habit… I’m really quite a cheery soul, but the combination of staring into a mirror, and … Continue reading
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
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Edding 30 marker pen
I’ve used marker pens before, reloaded with different inks, with some mixed results. I tried a new one when I went to London last week. The bold lines were great for very fast sketches, and the ink is water-based (so doesn’t ‘bleed through’ the page), fast drying and … Continue reading
Posted in figures, from life, inks, kit, line drawing, London, marker pen, musicians, people, sketching, technique, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Edding 30, Great Western Railway Paddington Band, James Hobbs, London sketches, marker pen sketches, sketch of crows, sketch of police, sketch of sketcher, sketch of tube travellers, The Clash, urban sketching
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Two wheelers
Enough of cars, here are some scooters, motorbikes and bikes seen around Bath. The curvy scooters are a real joy to sketch, toy-like with tiny tyres and complicated engine parts discretely covered (but the tilted oblique wheels are tricky…). The floating blue bike on the … Continue reading
Pulteney Bridge
Sketches of Pulteney Bridge and weir in the centre of Bath. In the first one a river trip’s about to set off, and a red sight-seeing bus has just crossed the bridge; the tourist season is waking up. The close-up of the weir is from 2013 when I … Continue reading