Inktober 2022 week 5

Turtle

Hi there, how are you?

Inktober 2022 week 5. by the time you read this Inktober will probably be finished but I’m not quite there yet, still a little more to do.

1. turtle (above). I quite like this one, there’s only a tiny amount of pink in some of the shading so more monochrome than the others, I think it fits the subject though.

2. teapot. Not sure what to call this really, bits of things? It makes a nice composition though.

3. cockerel. I wondered if I painted a cockerel (rooster) with two colours how it would look.

Interesting.

4. magpie. This time of year everyone draws crows, magpies are corvids too don’t you know hehehe. It looks cool standing on a pumpkin.

magpie on a pumpkin — Magpie on a pumpkin

5. bird. This is actually based on a blue tit. It’s interesting the difference the colours makes.

6. ginkgo. I saw a ginkgo tree on a walk the leaves an autumn gold, very inspiring. These turned out a little graphic, fun to draw.

I still have a couple more left to do as I’d missed some hopefully I’ll get them sone soon.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. till next time, have fun

Inktober 2022 Week 2

05 bleach blossom 2

Hi there, how are you?

Here’s week two of Inktober 2022.

We were away for a few days towards the end of the week but I managed all of the days even if some were a bit scrappy.

1. Cherry blossom 2, (above); this was the second attempt at a technique using bleach the first attempt is in last weeks post.

2. bunny, trying to make it fluffy was not as easy as it seemed.

3. squirrel, using salt and splattering to make some texture. The salt almost worked maybe it was too dry, it looks interesting though.

4. fuchsia, a quick stylised version as we were away from home. Trying to keep the momentum going.

5. frog, another quick one, the colours ran together in places to make some interesting merges. If I’d been at home I probably would have started again but there a few good bits I like so I’ll call it done.

Nine down twenty two to go, hopefully I’ll make to the end this year.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. till next time, have fun

Shades Of Grey: Drawing With Brush Pens

a few garden flowers — A few garden flowers

Hi there, how are you?

Sometimes there isn’t a lot of time for drawing so I try to sit for fifteen or so minutes with my two favourite brush pens and a sketch book, it gives me time to slow down and reset for the rest of the day.

Above a fuchsia, strawberry and aquilegia flower all drawn on different days with a grey brush pen with outlines and details in black.

It’s interesting just how much detail you can make with two colours.

Below, blue bells, forget-me-nots and viola flowers. There’s lots of lovely flowers around at this time of year.

more garden flowers — More garden flowers

I keep these two pens in my sketch kit for sketching out and about, they’re easier to use and less messy than watercolours and I can get the idea down quicker.

Crab-apple blossom are amazing this year and I couldn’t wait to draw them at the local gardens. They are a lovely dark pink colour that fades gradually as they age. I took many photos so no doubt I’ll be painting them soon.

Sometimes I use brush pens for doodling, I have a few minutes to kill so I make a quick sketch in the sketch book.

These mushrooms were drawn in two sessions along the bottom of a page, the little snail half drawn one day, the dragonfly drawn the next. I like the way they fit together on the page.

I don’t draw every day but if I can fit some into a small pocket of time I will, got to keep practising.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. till next time, have fun.

Sketching At The Botanical Gardens

Hi there, how are you?

Had a trip to the local botanical gardens this week; I usually use a camera and take lots of photos. This week I decided to take a little stool and my sketching gear. Comprising of a small tin of watercolour, and a pouch just big enough to contain a pencil, water brush, two brush pens (one grey, one black) and a fountain pen. The sketch book is 6”x4” home-made from scraps of 250 gsm cartridge paper.

The weather was dull and overcast so it was reasonably quiet and I stayed on the quieter pathways as drawing in public makes me nervous.

I knew there was a crab-apple tree at the back that had lovely pink blossoms so that was the first place I headed.

They are just starting to blossom so I took out my sketchbook and drew some little sprigs. The colours aren’t quite right but it gives me a general idea of what things look like.

Further on past one of the many ponds is the beginning of a bamboo wood. Lots of different bamboo species all planted is a small area.

The shape of a small bamboo soot interested me so I spend a few minutes just making the shapes with a brush pen then drew around it with a fountain pen.

I’m not sure what these yellow flowers are called, they grow around the shallow edges of one or two of the ponds. I spent a few happy moments sketching them.

On the other side of the park is a small wooded area. There are firs, camellias, rhododendrons all growing happily together. I was particularly taken by these plants. They are between eight or ten feet tall in small clusters of three or five. Usually there is one really tall one and some smaller younger bush like ones.

This is more of an impression of a plant because I like the shapes.

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip out this week, I have to admit I do find sitting out in nature very relaxing.

I’ll probably go back next week and take photos.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun

Inktober 2021 – Acrylic Ink Week 3

Hi there, how are you?

I’m a bit behind this week with everything and didn’t get a lot of arting done either, only managed four inktobers.

Not sure if I’ll catch up at the end, we’ll see how I feel when it’s time.

Crow – (above)I always love drawing crows and this was no exception. Since the inks are translucent I thought I’d try a spot of glazing. Didn’t go quite to plan as the black has a little more body to it. I like the effect though so I’m calling it a win.

Fish – I was attempting to mix a more muted colour with this one, I find the inks on their own are a little too vibrant. There are some nice washy things going on it the tail and fins, I’ll have to try and remember how I did it.

Cherry blossom – I wondered if I could dry brush with these inks. Chinese brush painting seemed a good way to test it. I didn’t use my best Chinese brushes for this technique as I didn’t want to ruin them with dry acrylic. It worked pretty well though I don’t think its something I’ll do too often.

Orchid – another little Chinese brush painting because I enjoyed the cherry blossom painting so much.

I didn’t manage to make art every day last week, a very nasty stomach bug has visited upon us and were all a little under the weather. Don’t panic we are recovering and will be fighting fit soon.

I have enjoyed the days I did make something, experimenting with acrylic ink is turning out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun

Drawing Flowers From A Sunny Spring Walk

Hi there, how are you?

One of my favourite things to do at the moment is to walk around the local area to enjoy the sunshine and check out all the lovely spring flowers growing in everyone’s gardens.

Sometimes I take a camera and snap one or two photos so I can draw them later.

Outside the church there are a few trees currently filled with blossom; the one that always takes my eye is the huge crab-apple tree with it’s gorgeous dark pink flowers.

I was quite happy with this sketch (above) I like the way it turned out but more importantly I learned how to mix the plummy purple for the leaves.

Using alizarin crimson and hookers green I managed to paint the very dark grey for the branches and using less green than alizarin crimson mixed the plummy purple, a colour I’ve tried to mix so many times and failed. The flowers were alizarin crimson in different dilutions so the whole thing was painted with just two colours.

The forsythia are filled with glorious sunny yellow flowers right now. A lot of people have these happy shrubs in gardens.

They’re a little difficult to draw as a whole shrub so I found a small sprig poking out of a hedge and brought it home to draw. It’s easier to study the flowers this way.

Each flower only has four long petals, the leaves grow in after the flowers then it becomes a mass of green as the flowers fall.

Magnolia trees are stunning at the moment. I managed to find a tree that was right on the edge of the garden so it was very easy to take photos with my ipod.

The flowers are white with a mauve stripe along the centre of each petal, very pretty.

These sketches are of the same flower taken from two directions. I painted a green background to make the flowers stand out and tried to paint the shadows with a pale grey.

magnolia flower sketch — Magnolia flower sketch

The lockdown is lifting slowly but you need to book a time for most places because everyone is trying to get out of the house and if they all turn up at the same time we’ll be right back where we started, nobody wants that again.

I’m sure I cam manage to entertain myself for just a little longer.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Inktober 2020 week 3

Hi there, how are you?

Here are my of Inktober drawings for Week 3.

I’m Still keeping up so far, very much liking the colour of the blue ink and having lots of fun experimenting.

Day11 – bird. (above) I had no ideas today so after a quick look through my sketchbook found something that might look good together. It’s nice when the sketchbook becomes useful for not only practising but generating ideas and too.

Day 12 – bat. A little bat fluttering around some bindweed although in some countries the internet says they are called moon flowers(though I’m not sure its the same plant?)

I drew the bat and flowers and thought it looked a bit disjointed so I put the black circle as an after thought. It seems to pull everything together better.

Day 13 – poppy. I love the colour of blue poppies (although you cant tell the colour from this drawing). I really enjoy drawing the curly petals.

Day 14 – blossom. A little bird sitting amongst the spring blossoms. This was drawn on watercolour paper, bockingford I think, and was a very different experience from the printer and cartridge papers I’ve been using.

Day 15 – Chameleon. Two baby chameleons sitting on hibiscus flowers also drawn on watercolour paper. I’m testing this ink on as may papers as I can. The texture of the paper really shows through on this one

Day 16 – butterfly. I’ve seen these flowers many times in the butterfly house at the zoo, I didn’t realise they were another type of hibiscus. (learning and growing hehehe) They look so beautiful and delicate; the butterflies are always fluttering around them.This one is sort of stylised as I’m still trying to work all the frilly petals out.

Day 17 – snail. I’m not a lover of the slimy hoards but they are fun to draw. The tiny mushrooms were drawn from a shaky photo I took at the zoo last year. This one turned out much better than I thought it would.

We are over half way through now, some were a little rushed but it was a fun week of drawing.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Inktober 2018 Week 2

inkktober day 14 swallows 2 — Inkktober day 14 swallows bonus illustration.

Hi there how are you?
I’m continuing on with my Chinese brush painting for Inktober week 2. Week 1 is here

Day 8 & 9 Chrysanthemums – two more to finish the trio from last week, adding more flower heads with each painting.

inktober chrysanthemum day 8 — Inktober chrysanthemum day 8

inktober chrysanthemum day 9 — Inktober chrysanthemum day 9

Day 10 – 12 Plum blossom – in the book some flower heads are more of an outline but these are the full petal blossoms. I had a lot more trouble painting the branches, it’s quite hard to paint them and make them look organic.

inkktober day 10 plum blossom — Inkktober day 10 plum blossom

inkktober day 11 plum blossom — Inkktober day 11 plum blossom

inkktober day 12 plum blossom — Inkktober day 12 plum blossom

This is the last of the four main exercises all made with either Indian ink or as for the last 5 images sumi-e ink. I’ll spend the rest of the month hopping about the various books doing the exercises that I like the look of and even add a little colour.

Day 13 Chrysanthemum painted in a different style to the others, slightly more realistic, taken from the book by Cheng Yan. Look at that lovely yellow, whoot!

inktober chrysanthemum day 13 — Inktober chrysanthemum day 13

Day 14 Sparrows – these sparrows are made out of a few basic strokes, once you get the hang of how to hold the brush they’re not too difficult and they’re loads of fun to paint. There are one or two more birdie positions in the book but I haven’t quite learned how to paint them yet. (Baby steps hehehe ). The bonus illustration at the top of the post is also of some sparrows.

inkktober day 14 swallows 1 — Inkktober day 14 swallows 1

Traditionally the colours used in Chinese brush painting are watercolours but since it’s inktober I’m sticking with ink. The colours I have are limited to black – (Indian or sumi-e ink), yellow, blue and red – (pergamano ink), I don’t really like the pergamano ink because it contains a lot of shellac, it stains and if it’s not washed off tools, brushes etc. its stuck there for ever! I need to use it up so that’s what I’m using.

It’s been an interesting week and I feel like I’m learning a lot.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today. Till next time, have fun x