Mostly drawing

Urban jungle

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Following the weeds, here are some more urban plants around Bath… Monochrome foliage on a Japanese Maple, ‘sticky weed’ amongst nettles (including initial line drawing), and a couple of attempts at ivy (the last one using a dried up marker pen and tea).

Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, A5 – 30 mins line, 30 mins shading

Pigma 1mm pen, Lexington grey in water-brush, A5 – 40 mins

Noodlers Brown 41 in fountain pen and water-brush, dilute Namiki blue ink in water-brush, A5 – 30 mins

fgfg03 Marker pen, black tea, A5 – 20 mins

Posted in Bath, botany, from life, garden, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, urban, urban sketching | Tagged drawing plants, monochrome plant sketches, sketch of nettles, sketches of ivy, sketching urban foliage, sketching weeds, The Kinks, urban jungle, urban plants, urban sketching | Leave a comment

Inside the Mezquita

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Back in Cordoba, this time inside the Mezquita. The first sketch is an attempt to describe the famous forest of columns, mostly inhabited by tourists; as the columns recede in all directions it feels slightly like being in an Escher drawing or a hall of mirrors. Then there’s a collection of carved stone faces on a tomb. And finally some very fast drawings of visitors photographing the lofty nave (incongruously inserted into the mosque in the C16th); they’d walk in, point a device, shoot, and leave, all in about 30 seconds, job done!

Pigma brown/sepia pen, Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, Noodlers Brown 41 in water-brush, watercolour, all A5 – 20-30 mins each

Posted in buildings, collections, coloured ink, Cordoba, faces, monochrome, monument, people, travel, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Cordoba sketches, Escher, faces on tomb, inside the Mezquita, Kasabian, sketches of people taking photos, stone faces, tourists taking photos, urban sketching | 3 Comments

Two wheelers

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Ed Mostly

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 left of the last sketch was removed before I could draw the wheels!

All the usual inks and pens, water-colour, some pencil, mostly A5 – various times

Posted in Bath, bikes, coloured ink, from life, sketching, street scene, urban, urban sketching, vehicles | Tagged Bath sketches, drawing bikes, Hannah Peel, parked bikes, scooters, sketch of motor-bike, sketching scooters, street scene sketch, urban sketching | 5 Comments

More cars

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Ed Mostly

More sketches of street-parking in Bath, ignoring the buildings, just strings of cars snaking up, down and around the contours (previously). Cars are ubiquitous, a familiar part of urban scenes, so I’ve been trying to get them right; the angle of the wheel arches seems key, and it’s important to make the shadows underneath the cars strong to help ground them. Reflections on the windows and shiny body-work next!

Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, Platinum Blue and Noodlers Brown 41 in water-brush, white gouache, A5 – 40 mins each

Posted in Bath, cars, street scene, technique, urban, urban sketching, vehicles | Tagged drawing cars, fountain pen sketches, lines of cars, Red Hot Chili Peppers, sketching Bath streets, sketching cars, street parking, urban sketching, urban sketching techniques | 5 Comments

Weedy

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Spring, sunshine and showers, and months of neglect, so weeds are flourishing in our garden. Each week a different one appears, competing with the others for light and space, and ripe for drawing… First a mostly monochrome sketch of some wild strawberry flowers amongst dandelions and other weeds, followed by the initial line drawing. Then just dandelions; growing in the ground, another initial line drawing, and laid out after weeding.

Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 40 minutes

Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 20 minutes

L exington grey in fountain pen, A5 – 10 minutes

weedier03 Pencil and watercolour, A5 – 20 minutes

Posted in botany, flowers, garden, grisaille, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, seasonal | Tagged back garden sketching, dandelions, drawing of dandelion, garden sketches, initial line drawings, line drawing of weeds, sketches of weeds, strawberry flowers, The Stairs | 8 Comments

Pulteney Bridge

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Ed Mostly

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 was first discovering dilute grey ink, building up layers of tone. And the last sketch is from 2012, when I’d been sketching for a year, and was just using black ink and watercolour.

Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – various times

Carbon black ink in fountain pen, watercolour, A5 – 20 mins

Posted in Bath, buildings, Lexington grey, river, River Avon, sketching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Bath sketching, city bridge sketch, fountain pen sketches, Pulteney Bridge, sketches of a weir, The Foundations, urban sketching | 4 Comments

Bristol docks, horizontal and vertical

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Two sketches from Sunday’s inaugural sketchcrawl for the new ‘Urban Sketchers Bristol/South West’ group. It was chilly down by the water’s edge, but good company and absorption in sketching kept the cold at bay. Thanks to Jules and Charlotte for setting it all up. Bottom left in the second sketch, beyond the tugs and cranes, you can see Jean sketching in the sheltered sunny spot she found!

Both done with Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, water-colour, white Gelly Roll pen, A4 – 1 hour each

Posted in boats, Bristol, buildings, Lexington grey, monochrome, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Bristol docks, fountain pen sketches, Otis Redding, sketch of seagull and boat, sketchcrawl, sketches of boats, sketches of dockside cranes, Urban Sketchers Bristol South West, urban sketching | 2 Comments

A room with a view

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Ed Mostly

A rooftop view of Cordoba’s Mezquita from our room, and a Moorish gateway in the street outside. The old town streets are narrow, with lovely strong shadows on the white walls and angled patches of sky above. These sketches are mostly grey/grisaille, with a touch of colour at the very end. Steven Reddy describes the approach as “black and white does the work, colour gets the credit”!

PS: This Sunday 26th April there’s a sketchcrawl in Bristol, meeting at 11.30am outside the Arnolfini. Weather now looks dry… Hope to see you there!

All 3 Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 20 – 40 mins

Posted in buildings, Cordoba, grisaille, holiday, Lexington grey, street scene, technique, travel, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Cordoba street sketches, CSS, fountain pen sketches, grisaille sketching, Instant Streetview, Mezquita roof sketch, Moorish archway, rooftop view, rooftops view sketch, Steven Reddy, urban sketching | 2 Comments

Roman bridge

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Looking across Cordoba’s Roman bridge to the old town from the top of the Calahorra Tower, a paraglider buzzing overhead, and the river running low. I drew one side of the bridge before the other and failed to notice that the projecting stone buttresses needed to match up as they’re the bridge’s arches…

Lexington grey in water-brush and fountain pen, watercolour, A4 – 40 minutes

As well as great views from the top, the tower has a small museum including a room full of beautiful models of life in Moorish Cordoba; here’s a close up sketch, peeping into one of them (the figures are about 3 inches high).

Lexington grey in water-brush and fountain pen, watercolour, A5 – 20 minutes

Posted in buildings, coloured paper, Cordoba, figures, holiday, Lexington grey, monument, museum, travel, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Calahorra Tower, Cordoba Roman bridge, fountain pen sketches, model of Moorish life, sketch of bridge over a river, sketch of people on bridge, sketches of Cordoba, The Cure, urban sketching, view from Calahorra Tower | Leave a comment

En route

Posted on April 18, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Fellow passengers on the way to Cordoba; waiting at the airport, sleeping on the plane, and passing time on the train. Pencil works well for larger and more detailed portraits, it can be hard for a face to recover from a poorly placed ink-line…

(My previous post got twice the usual amount of views; we’re interested in other sketcher’s work, but really interested in their drawing kit and techniques, the practical details that help us get out and sketch!)

Pencil, Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, white gelly Roll pen, A5 – various times, fairly fast