Mostly drawing

Swanage

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Ed Mostly

‘The Voyager’ by Tessa Farmer, one of several sculptures temporarily in Bath Abbey. This one’s in a small side chapel, with a collection of ants, wasps and tiny winged figures riding on its back. It’s also carrying a dead mouse on its feet. The pencil drawing took about 30 minutes so I got to see many other visitors’ reactions, ranging from fascination to disgust, via confusion and amusement.

Another enjoyable experience with pencil, where the potential for soft lines suited the subject. After a while I found it hard to darken the shadows as the paper wouldn’t take any more graphite. I added the blue background wash at home.

2H pencil, Windsor and Newton ink, A4

Posted in animals, Bath, Birds, from life, pencil, sculpture | Tagged ants, Bath Abbey, bird in flight, swan, T-Rex | 2 Comments

Now in glorious Technicolor, or not

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Ed Mostly

A view from the Accademia Bridge in Venice, sketched quickly using a thick marker pen before my family got too bored.

Marker pen with carbon ink, A4

As an experiment I used a photo taken at the same time to add colour with ink washes. And finally removed the colour altogether, reducing it to tonal values.

Less is more? Or less is less?

Posted in from life, inks, kit, marker pen, monochrome, sketching, urban, Venice | Tagged Academia Bridge, city, fade to grey, Grand Canal, ink washes, monochrome, tonal values, Venice | 3 Comments

Barefootin’

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Ed Mostly

feet_0002

Barefootin’ in the garden, so Spring must have arrived. While I sketched my feet resting on a stool, Sally sketched me sketching my feet (below). Late afternoon sun was coming from the right, and reflecting softly off a wall on the left. I’m learning to love pencil, helped by a move from smudgy 2B to crisp 2H, and the ability to rub out lines is a strange new experience after 2 years of indelible ink!

Pencil, watercolour, A6

feet_0001 Kuretake ‘Fudegokochi’ pen , A4

Posted in body, from life, garden, home, pencil, people, seasonal, self-portrait, weather | Tagged Barefoot, coloured paper, Feet, people, sketching sketchers, Spring, sunlight | 5 Comments

Mum and Dad

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Ed Mostly

My mother and father walking up a hill ahead of me after a good lunch at the Pump Rooms in Bath. Dad is keen to point out that it is a very steep hill, and Mum wants you to know that she is wearing trousers and does not have fat legs. I drew this in about a minute while I was walking and I think this ‘multi-tasking’ helped to keep the sketch fresh.

1mm Pigma pen , A6

Posted in Bath, from life, monochrome, parents, people, urban | Tagged Bath, mum and dad, people, pump rooms, walking | 6 Comments

Many hands

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ed Mostly

My left hand yet again. The sketch is tiny, cartoon-like. (Pigma pen, watercolour, A6)

Some of this reliable model’s previous appearances on the blog…

Posted in from life, hands, people, watercolour sketch | Tagged from life, hands, illustration, lefty | 2 Comments

Serpent

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Ed Mostly

A serpent hung on the wall amongst many other instruments at Snowshill Manor, an eclectic and wonderful collection of all-sorts in the Cotswolds.

Fountain pen with Lexington grey ink, watercolour, A6

Posted in collections, from life, museum, musical instrument, objects | Tagged collections, Cotswolds, musical instrument, objects, serpent, Snowshill | Leave a comment

Spring gouache

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Ed Mostly

A shaggy tree on a fresh Spring morning, with South Bath in the distance beyond. I’ve been exploring gouache paints, enjoying the way their intensity suits the new season’s colours and light. Here I’ve used coloured paper which helped to give the picture some additional zing.

The most striking difference between gouache and the translucent watercolours I usually use is the ability to paint strong colours on top of each other. This allows a more direct approach, with little planning, and it’s more forgiving if you make a mistake. But there are also strong similarities between the two, and I’m trying to use a similar 6 colour palette, with titanium white instead of one of the yellows.

The best online gouache resources I found are at Roz Stendahl’s website and I’m now trying to work out how to create a portable gouache palette…

Winsor and Newton gouache, water-brush, Canson Mi Teintes paper, A5

Posted in Bath, clouds, from life, gouache, sky, urban | Tagged Bath, blue sky, botany, gouache, Spring, tree | 1 Comment

Night time

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Ed Mostly

A fast sketch on a cold night on the way back from The Star, an exceptionally fine pub in Bath.

Pigma 1mm pen, water-brushes filled with dilute Diamine grey and Chinese sumi ink, A6

Posted in Bath, brush pen, monochrome, night, urban | Tagged Bath, brush pen, city, monochrome, pub, The Star Inn | Leave a comment

No knead

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Ed Mostly

bread

A crusty loaf baked using the very tolerant and adaptable no knead bread recipe, developed by Jim Lahey. This became a lesson in landscape painting, with miniature valleys, hills and peaks, all looking slightly volcanic…

I was interested to see how rich and intense I could get the colours and contrast by building up multiple glazes of ink. I ended up using a hairdryer to dry the ink between layers, so I could finish the picture before we ate the loaf for lunch!

(The white line down the centre is the wonky dental floss stitching I use to bind my sketchbooks.)

Water-brushes with dilute Windsor and Newton and Lexington grey inks, Jelly Roll white rollerball, Pilot V7 with lexington grey, hair-dryer, A4

Posted in food, from life, home, inks, sketching, waterbrush | Tagged bread, ink, Lexington grey, no-knead | Leave a comment

Crow’s feet

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Ed Mostly

Another late evening sketch, using a mirror to sketch my left eye. I held a gleeful grin for several minutes, strongly top-lit by a daylight bulb, to capture my periorbital lines, or ‘crows feet’ in full detail; it felt like contour mapping part of a familiar landscape.

(I was going to add a link to more information on ‘periorbital lines’, but the only sites I could find were about their ‘treatment’, ‘correction’ or ‘removal’, presenting ‘the signs of ageing’ as illness, error or mistake…)

Water-brush and fountain pen with Lexington grey ink, watercolour, A6