Sketches from the last couple of days when the snow was fresh and powdery, perfect for sledging on the nearby golf course. The roads and schools and shops were shut and an unofficial hillside frost-fair appeared! I did these in between my own downhill runs on three separate trips to the course, using mostly ink-brush and some pencil, hanging onto the sketchbook in the high winds; exhilarating fun and great figure drawing practise, everyone silhouetted against the white…
Sketches over time (three years?) of the same pedestrianised street seen from above. All were sketched from the same cafe, which has changed hands during this period, but still offers the clearest view of a long busy street in Bath. I love the challenge of capturing the busy-ness, the mix of group and individual shapes and gestures, and the scene receding down the gentle hill. The first is drawn using two fude ink-pens, one is in bamboo dip-pen, the rest in ink-brush. (The final one is from the same cafe but looking out a different window onto a different street.)
More from the small pocket-sized notebook, tiny landscapes this time, with a fair few from early morning dog-walking, featuring clouds that caught my eye, occasional goats and passers by.
A current theme, mostly driven by the weather, is cafe sketching. The busier the cafe the better, partly to give me more subjects to draw, but also to make my large sketchbook/bamboo dip-pen set-up slightly less conspicuous… All are in Bath, incorporating varying degrees of ‘natural/wonky perspective’, and almost all are in dip-pen. Then 16 other fairly recent cafe/pub sketches.
Sketches from a recent visit to Tate Modern; visitors encountering ‘Babel 2001’, taking a break in the cafe, viewing Karl Blossfeldt photos, and waiting at Paddington for the train home.
A commitment to daily drawing from life (six years so far…) often means relying on late night selfies. Here’s the latest collection of around fifty (!), with the usual apology for the severe/odd/blank expressions. The first batch were all done in my small Muji book, and almost all in grey Document ink using a Sailor fude pen, spot the one drawn ‘blind’. The second batch were done in a bigger book using all sorts.
And as a special festive bonus these are followed by 100 previous attempts from the past few years. There’s probably a very dull animation lurking in all these frames…
Daily sketches of our six months old/young Schnoodle puppy Mo; it took a while to be able to see the key contour lines of her body within the fluffy coat! Here she’s mostly dozing, with additional horses, camels, loyal servants, passers-by and a vulture for variety… All sketched in a small Muji book, using grey Document ink in a Sailor 40 degree fude pen.
Four recent urban sketches, all in Bath, all in bamboo dip-pen, and all from the big square sketchbook; George Street in the rain, double-page spread in the Forum cafe, Remembrance day in Victoria Park, and Christmas shoppers in Milsom Street. Then a fude pen portrait of our neighbour Denis, done at his request for his wife who’s recently moved into a care home.
Sorry for the absence… Here are some sketches from a trip to Southern France in various media with watercolour washes. A sunny morning at Girona airport (drawn in brush-pen), pure watercolour studies of a mountain in the Eastern Pyrenees, looking towards Canigou over the rooftops of Perpignan (more brush-pen drawing), a VeloSolex 800 in Sharpie, and a baking hot afternoon in Collioure (bamboo dip-pen). And now back in soggy grey Bath (more dip-pen)….
I love using the big square wood-bound sketch-book with bamboo dip-pen, but it doesn’t work for an everyday carry. So I’ve been carrying a much much smaller notebook (£1 from Muji) for daily sketches. It’s shirt-pocket sized and works really well with a fude pen and tiny watercolour kit. The paper buckles a bit with paint, but the drawings are looser as they’re so small and brief. It also allows me to sketch very discreetly, catching more of the passing human parade! Here’s a selection of recent gleanings from around town, including a hot-air balloon take-off, a baby on a bus and several sleepy commuters…
Mostly drawing 