Mostly drawing

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

Posted in airplane, airport, coloured paper, faces, from life, holiday, journeys, monochrome, pencil, people, trains, travel | Tagged airport sketch, drawing of people waiting, Fellow passengers, Leonard Nimoy, sketching on planes, sleeping passengers, travel sketches, urban sketching | Leave a comment

Daily sketch kit update

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Ed Mostly

3 months late, but here’s an update to my daily sketch-kit page…

Posted in coloured ink, inks, kit, television, urban sketching | Tagged clips for sketchbook, daily sketch kit, fountain pen sketching, portable sketch kit, simple sketching resources, sketching with water-brushes, urban sketching kit | 2 Comments

Can’t see the wood

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Ed Mostly

A break from Cordoba with some recent tree sketches, rural and urban. The first two are of an old mossy oak in a wood of mostly Scots Pine, done a couple of months apart. Then a tree in Queen’s Square in Bath. It’s hard to know where to stop with trees, the branches keep on branching, smaller and smaller…

PS: On Sunday 26th April there’s a sketchcrawl in Bristol, meeting at 11.30am outside the Arnolfini. Details in the PDF below. Hope to see you there!

Urban sketch-2

Brown Pigma pen, Lexington grey and Noodlers Brown 41 in water-brush, watercolour, A4/A5 – one hour each

Noodlers Brown 41 in fountain pen and water-brush, dilute Lexington grey in water-brush, A5 – 30 minutes

Posted in Bath, botany, coloured ink, coloured paper, inks, landscape, trees, urban | Tagged Burton woods, drawing trees, fountain pen sketches, old mossy tree, Queen's Square Bath, sketching in the woods, sketching trees, St Etienne, tree in a clearing, urban sketching | 6 Comments

Holy Week in Cordoba

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Six Semana Santa processions in Cordoba, great practise for drawing spectators! Each one was subtly different, reflecting the brotherhood they represented; the colours of the pointed hoods, the scenes depicted on the floats, the specific music played. But all shared the thick clouds of incense, the huge crowds watching and photographing, and the wonderful marching bands.

easter07 easter02

They slowly processed through the narrow streets of the old town, the Court of Oranges and the Mezquita.

easter14 easter05

I sketched the crowds while we were waiting, estimating the possible position of the floats, and then drew very fast to catch them as they went by. I managed line drawings on the spot, and added the shade and colour once the procession had passed…

Children rushed out to collect dripping wax from the long candles carried by the ‘Nazarenes/penitents’. The pointed hoods are hard to see out of, hence the hand held up to the face, pushing the fabric back.

Pencil, ink, paint, A5 – various times

Posted in coloured paper, Cordoba, figures, from life, holiday, journeys, parades, people, street scene, travel, urban, watching | Tagged Cordoba sketches, drawing crowds, Easter week parades, Jesus carrying cross, Moby, Pointed hoods, Semana Santa sketches, sketch of Holy Week procession, Sketching crowds watching parades, urban sketching | 5 Comments

Sunshine

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Ed Mostly

Back to the silvery grey light of England after a week of golden sunshine in Cordoba, Spain. I’ll scan and post the sketches over the next few weeks, including many attempts to capture the Holy Week parades (tall pointy hats, huge religious floats, big marching bands, massive crowds…). In the meantime here’s mid afternoon in the shade of the Court of Oranges, and evening sun on the minaret/bell tower of the Mezquita, the mosque/cathedral in the centre of Cordoba.

Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 45 minutes