More brown ink brush-pen selfies. My face has gone through a catastrophic Christmas slump by the last sketch!
Kuretake #8 and #40 filled with the usual 3 inks, Lexington grey water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 20/30 mins each
Midwinter twilights in Bath; low light, muted colours, an occasionally dramatic big sky, silhouetted rooftops and chimneys, hazy views, and cold fingers while sketching… Happy New Year!
Kuretake #40 and water brush with Lexington grey, pencil, watercolour, A5 – various times
First twenty-nine drivers, sketched from the passenger seat while overtaking on the motorway. Their faces were only glimpsed in passing, so I had to quickly memorise the key lines, but they were always in full profile which helped simplify things!
Then nineteen pedestrian bargain-hunters, seen while I sat outside a cafe in Bath. With these faces I usually had the luxury of several seconds as they walked past, so one or two even look like their subject… For both collections the key lines were drawn with the inevitable brush-pen (this time the #40 with longer sable tip), with shading and colour added later. I’ve learnt that noses often just need the shadow below them, and that I need to tone down the lower lip shadows that appear on all the faces, they’ve become a habit!
Lexington grey in Kuretake #40 brush-pen and water-brush, water-colour, A5 – about 1 minute per face?
Shoes, bananas, glasses and bottles; all drawn in November when daylight was short and indoor evening sketching the only option. Now the days have started getting longer, two or three minutes every day, so more outdoor sketching is just over the horizon…
Lexington grey in Kuretake #8 brush-pen and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 20-30 mins each
Bath’s Christmas shoppers filling the wet streets (a festive carousel in the far distance), battling the wind and rain, pacing the pavements, queuing for the bus home, and generally milling around town. All sketched using my new best friend, the Kuretake #8 brush-pen, filled with lovely Lexington grey. Sketching the top one was as hypnotic as sketching waves; trying to find patterns and individual subjects amongst the continual movement… Have a peaceful holiday!
Lexington grey in Kuretake #8 ink-brush, and diluted in a water-brush, watercolour, A5 – The one at the top took about an hour, the rest various times
Mid-winter tired eyes sketched on four consecutive evenings before going to bed. I think they improved, with the last one being the best? I definitely became more familiar with the key shapes and lines, ‘zooming in’ on the subject, making accuracy and details easier. The brush-pen loaded with Noodlers Brown 41 worked well, broad strokes at first for eyebrows, pupils etc, then very fine lines for eyelashes, veins, wrinkles, eye-bags… Time for an early night!
Lexington grey and Noodlers Brown 41 in Kuretake #8 brush-pen and water-brush, water-colour A5 – about 20 mins each
More wrestling with ellipses, reflections, distortions and translucency. Coloured paper and white water-colour’s a great combination for these late night studies.
Lexington grey in Kuretake #8 ink-brush and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – a range of times, but fairly fast as it was late and I wanted to get to bed!
The last few Summer sketches from Tenby. This time people-watching around the town, moving from fountain-pen to ink-brush for the key lines. I was using a fairly ‘blunt’ brush then (a well-worn detailer water-brush) filled with dilute ink, so the pictures weren’t as crisp as the ones done with pen, but I began to see benefits from the change – more expression in the lines, and speed, so I could start to draw people who aren’t sat down!
Lexington grey in fountain-pen and water-brush, water-colour, A5 – a couple of minutes per figure?
Another five illustrations for Barry’s book, all from life, illustrating various anecdotes and reflections. The holidays are approaching so there’s a fair chance I’ll get more done soon…
Lexington grey in fountain-pen and water-brush, watercolour, A4 – about 1 hour each
Two more Summer seaside views, when I was moving from pen to ink-brush for the key elements of a sketch. The first is from a ledge at the top of the North Cliffs, looking across the bay to Tenby old-town, with tree-tops below me and the life-boat launch jetties on the left. Then the opposite view, looking from Castle Hill back across the bay to the North Cliffs (on the left), done that evening in almost complete darkness, a life-boat jetty below me, some lights on the boats and more along the very distant coastline.
Dilute lexington grey in water brush, watercolour, A5 – One hour for the first, and twenty minutes the second
Mostly drawing 