Mostly drawing

City life

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Ed Mostly

People about town; waiting for the lights to change so they can cross the road (excellent fast sketching opportunity, the tableau changes every couple of minutes…), watching a busker (the violin playing slack-rope walker I’ve sketched before, see below), dodging a heavy rain shower, and enjoying the current Grayson Perry exhibition. The brush-pen’s liberated me to do many more of these ‘on-the-go’ sketches, leaning against a wall, trying to catch the key shapes of life flowing past, great fun!

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Lexington grey in Kuretake #8 and water-brush, water-colour, A5 – various times

Posted in Bath, brush pen, buskers, figures, ink brush, Kuretake, Lexington grey, monochrome, people watching, shoppers, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged brush-pen sketching, Manchester Symposium, monochrome, Seu George, sketching in Bath, sketching people at gallery, sketching people in the rain, sketching street scenes, urban sketching | 2 Comments

Walking zoom

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Ed Mostly

A sequence of tiny sketches, starting half-a-mile away from Bristol’s St Mary’s Redcliffe church (which Queen Elizabeth I called “the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England”), passing the Thekla boat, and gradually zooming in on the beautiful and unusual moorish doorway and one of its C14th carvings. My favourite brush-pen was great for this, quickly capturing the lines and forms in 5 minute thumbnails. The sketches were done on the way back from the latest Bristol/South West Urban Sketchers meet-up, where I was too busy chatting to get much sketching done!

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Posted in Bristol, brush pen, buildings, church, ink brush, sequential, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Bristol sketching, brush-pen sketching, ink brush sketching, Kuretake #8, sequential sketches, sketch of church, St Mary's Redcliffe, The Byrds, Urban Sketchers Bristol/South West, urban sketching | Leave a comment

Bath Half

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Sunday was the annual Bath half-marathon, with great weather helping over twelve thousand runners pace the streets. It’s an amazing and moving spectacle, with a huge variety of people running for lots of different causes, some very personal and some very public. Many were in fancy dress (spot the large wig), including two taps, a squad of storm-troopers, a camel, a two person pantomime horse, and one was carrying a fridge full of beer. They were mostly moving too fast for me to sketch with a pen (see final picture), so I switched back to brush-pen, which gave me a better chance to catch the generic poses and shapes that were flowing past in a continuous stream for over an hour (must work on improving my visual memory). The spectators were much easier…

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bathhalf3 The usual inks, mostly in brush-pen, and a smattering of water-colour, A5 – 20 mins each?

Posted in Bath, brush pen, figures, ink brush, Lexington grey, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Bath half-marathon, brush-pen sketching, John Gregory, Kuretake #8, Lexington grey, sketch of marathon, sketching in Bath, sketching runners, urban sketching | Leave a comment

More illustrations

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Ed Mostly

An antique phone, a g-clamp, and nine leather jackets; all from life, and all illustrating a particular story in Barry’s book. It’s interesting to be using fountain-pen for these, as almost all my daily sketching is now done using brush-pens. Pen-lines have a clarity that I can’t match with the brush, yet. But that loss is more than compensated for by the speed and flexibility of the ink-brush. And at one hour each I can’t really call these sketches; shadow studies? Experiments in Lexington grey? (Previous illustrations for the book further below)

barry feb162 barrrry1 barry2 Lexington grey in fountain-pen and water-brush, water-colour, A4 – One hour

Posted in Barry's book, clothing, domestic, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, technique | Tagged Barry's book, domestic sketching, drawing of antique telephone, drawing of g-clamp, drawing of leather jackets, fountain pen sketches, ink drawing illustrations, Joe Loss, lexington grey shadows, monochrome | 2 Comments

Raptors and others

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Ed Mostly

“Birds of prey, also known as raptors, hunt and feed on other animals. These birds are characterised by keen vision that allows them to detect prey during flight and powerful talons and beaks.” I couldn’t fit the talons in, but here are the sharp beaks and keen eyes of an Osprey, a Honey Buzzard, a Goshawk and a Marsh Harrier, all in Bristol Museum, and all stuffed. Then some museum visitors, less keen-eyed, and mostly in thrall to their phones.

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Noodlers Lexington grey and Brown 41 in Kuretake #8 brush-pen and water-brush, water-colour, A5 – 10 mins per bird

Posted in animals, Birds, Bristol, brush pen, exhibitions, figures, ink brush, Manchester Symposium, museum, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Bristol museum sketch, brush-pen sketching, Flight of the Conchords, Kuretake #8 brush pen, museum sketching, sketch of stuffed birds, sketches of raptors, urban sketching | 2 Comments

…and one dog

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Quick brush-pen sketches of anyone who caught my eye while I sat outside Bath Abbey, waiting for the shops to open last Sunday morning. I got faster as I sketched, focussing on eye-line angles and getting head/torso relationships right (scarves make this easier!). Elbows seemed important, with lots of people carrying bags, holding hands, or with hands in pockets, but I mostly fudged walking legs as a tapering triangle. Spot two views of a man dressed as a Georgian, three photographers, a vicar greeting visitors, a backpacker, a lonely bench-sitter, a mysterious lady smoking, …and one dog.

(See further below for previous collections of Abbey visitors)

abbbbbey1 Lexington grey in Kuretake #8 brush-pen and water-brush, water-colour, A4 – 40 mins

Posted in Bath, brush pen, figures, ink brush, Kuretake, Lexington grey, Manchester Symposium, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Bath Abbey, brush-pen sketching, fast sketches of people, ink-brush urban sketching, Jonny Cash and Kris Kristofferson, Kuretake #8, quick street figure sketching, sketching in Bath, urban sketching | Leave a comment

Perfect View

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Read from top left to bottom right, six quick pencil and ink-wash sketches on grey paper (white sky and colour added at home) made while walking up Perfect View, dodging occasional passing cars and dog-walkers. The road looks rural, but is in Bath city, skirting round the side of one of the many steep hills. See below for the view looking down the same road, sketched three years ago when I was mostly using black felt-tip and starting to use grey ink-washes for shading. And further below for another ‘sequential’ sketch, in Tenby.

prefectgfa1 Grafwood 5B pencil, dilute lexington grey in water-brush, water-colour, A5 – 40 mins

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Posted in Bath, brush pen, comparisons, figures, journeys, Lexington grey, pencil, sequential, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged dilute ink wash shadows, ink brush sketching, James Newton Howard, Lexington grey, Perfect View Bath, sequential sketch, sketch of walking up raod, sketching in Bath, streetview, urban sketching | 4 Comments

Bosky

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Looking up a steep slope past an old yew tree, deep in the mossy/rocky woods below Bath University (Alex and Jim know the spot); followed by the boots that carried me there. The tree sketch line work was done on site, shade and colour were mostly added at home, and both sketches were drawn with Kuretake #8 brush pens, loaded with waterproof brown and grey inks. I used the Sakura white pen (used in the recent skull sketches) for the sky details behind the trees. Below are previous sketches of trees and boots.

bosky1 bosky2 Noodlers Lexington grey and Brown 41 in Kuretake #8 brush-pen, dilute Lexington in water-brush, Sakura white pen, water-colour, A5 – 40 and 30 mins each

Posted in Bath, boots, botany, brush pen, coloured ink, Lexington grey, rural, technique, trees, white pen | Tagged Kuretake #8 brush pen, Noodlers inks for sketching, Sakura white pen, sketch of boots, sketch of yew tree, sketching in Bath, sketching trees, The Suzan, woodland sketch | 7 Comments

Turn the other cheek

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Ed Mostly

Left and right profiles of the same model skull, sketched on two consecutive evenings using a thick white pen for initial lines, then dilute grey ink to add form/shadows, and water-colour for background. This skull’s been a favourite and familiar subject since I started sketching (see below for earlier attempts over the years), I bought it for £1 at a flea market when I was about ten! It’s always a challenge to draw, the many ridges, curves and cavities are as rich and varied as a landscape, and it’s great for exploring shade and form. Here’s a similar model if you fancy having a similarly patient life/death model to sketch.

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Kuretake white pen, dilute Lexington grey in detailer water-brush, water-colour, A5 – 30 mins

Posted in death, faces, Lexington grey, monochrome, skulls, white pen | Tagged Lexington grey, memento mori, memento vivere, model skull, Sakura white pen, shade and form, sketch of skull, The Clash, white pen sketch | 2 Comments

Busy-ness

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Ed Mostly

A busy double-page sketch of a busy view, from upstairs at Picnic Cafe, this time looking down Upper Borough Walls; a typical Saturday afternoon in Bath, shoppers strolling and checking phones, seagulls soaring and me sketching. (The red phone boxes have been converted into cash-points, and here’s the ground-level Streetview, with more seagulls raiding bin bags.) I’m using the cheap Kuretake #8 brush-pen more than the fancier #40 at the moment; the nylon brush tip’s shorter and firmer than the sable, so easier to control. It’s particularly good for quickly capturing the shapes of passers-by. Below are two earlier views from the same cafe.

Lexington grey in Kuretake #8 brush-pen and water brush, watercolour, A4 – one hour