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Showing posts with the label pencil

Tiny trainers in watercolour, coloured pencil, pencil and ballpoint pen

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Tiny trainers in watercolour, coloured pencil, pencil and ballpoint pen in S&B Delta sketchbook Another sketch of my grandson's shoes. He's only 14 months so they are very little :>)    Done in my S&B Delta. A4 size.

Sketchbooks comparison, what are the best sketchbooks?

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What are your favourite sketchbooks?  Obviously this will vary enormously depending on what you want from your sketchbooks and the media used. For me the quality of the paper is crucial.   I really dislike working on flimsy paper or paper that buckles with water media.  Sketchbooks are an important part of my work, for research, plein air work, thinking around ideas and keeping notes, jotting down interesting information and simply observing and practising.  They need to cope with anything from simple pencil to watercolours, oils, charcoal, pen, pastel, collage, eyeshadow .... anything !  Some sketchbooks are 'general' and can contain a mix of subjects.  Others are themed, like books I take on trips or that work around an idea.  On the whole I prefer larger sketchbooks. A4+, but do also find smaller ones handy for keeping in the car, taking to hospital appointments etc So these are ones that I have chosen to comment on - favourites - and a one big moleskine let dow

New arrival, sketch of newborn baby

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New born: very quick sketch of Charlie at 15 hours old, pencil in Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook This is one of the reasons I've been absent - new arrival Charlie, my youngest daughter's first child :>) Other hospital stuff also going on with more sketches to follow and hopefully I'll catch up with the series I was writing.

abc for lucy - illustrated book another layout sketch

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Another very very rough sketch for Lucy's book Another very rough sketch. Lots of words added to the list of possibilities but any ideas welcome as nothing is fixed yet - everything is a the very fluid, sketching out and thinking through stage, With other books that I did for Sam they were around a theme - him on holiday or playing football etc - this one is a bit different and so I'm needing to plan how I put it together a little more.

minimal sketch kits

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I had thought that this sketch kit - my most minimal unless I simply take a mechanical pencil plus the tiny sketchbook - was small. A6 sketchbook, Jakar eraser, Rotring Art Pen, Pentel Brushpen, White Chinagraph Pencil, Mechanical Pencil, Tippex correction pen But take a look at this for packing an large amount of media into a tiny space!  amazing - and great sketches too The tiny sketchbook is an old diary, with a cover to pretty to throw away, refilled with heavy cartridge paper in a concertina fold..   It fits into the pencil case. I don't actually like working that small but sometimes it's all I am able to carry and at least I have it with me.  Often I'll take the pencil case plus bigger sketchbook. I'm hoping to continue with the birches today - life has been hectic with no daylight painting hours.

sketches of moving people from life

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More quick sketches of moving people - moving far too much! These two were done with a Rotring art pen and a a little water to smudge and create areas of tone. They are in a moleskine sketchbook - hence the bubbly effect on the washes, which were rubbed into the paper - the waxy paper moleskines don't like water much! and the next 2 with a mechanical pencil with a B lead They were all absorbed in what they were doing and moving a LOT, not making life easy! but it was good practice even if the results aren't great :>)

A 'style' of your own?

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A collage of paintings of Cornwall, mostly done plein air Katherine over at Making a Mark has done 2 good posts on having your own voice , your own ideas behind your sketches and paintings, not being over derivative; although it's impossible of course not to be influenced by others, the important thing is to develop your own way forward. I did a previous post on 'style' here saying some very similar things so needless to say - I agree with her. This montage is a variety of sketches, drawings and paintings I've done in Cornwall and I think they reveal what interests me - the light - the way it catches the water or wet sand, casts shadows in some areas leaving others brightly lit, the particular colours of the sea and sky - a sense of movement, of passing weather, wind, rain or sun, the way the waves roll in - the season - warm/cold/early/late - a sense of place and what it feels like to me. I've attempted in these to catch the way that the waves rolled in at dif

sketching moving people plein air or out and about

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pub terrace in Runswick Bay, watersoluble ink Sometimes, when sketching landscape, people catch my interest and in the midst of something else I'll draw them. These are a random selection from various sketchbooks. All very very fast attempts to catch people moving, absorbed in what they are doing. That interests me more than doing a posed portrait. At the National Gallery , biro and Lyra pencils I worked in biro watching the crowds and added the colour later at home, keeping to a limited palette of warm and cool browns. They were absorbed in looking at the paintings, some wearing the headphones with commentary, one little old lady in an obviously very expensive suit with incredibly wide padded shoulders from the '80s. Ros at Hartshill Hayes and passing dog walkers , pencil Ros sketching along the canal , Wolff carbon pencil Glen sketching , coloured pencil Sue and Pauline on the beach - evening, getting cold, windy , water soluble ink smudged with fingers Here 3 of

how to unblock mechanical pencils?

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doodles Does anyone else have problems with mechanical pencils? Mine seem to have such a short life :>( One of them is at the top of this doodle. I love them because you don't have to sharpen them and the eraser is part of the pencil and so they are ideal for minimal equipment sketching. They always always seem to eventually get clogged or the mechanism fails. How to unclog them? a really fine needle isn't fine enough or strong enough it seems. Is there something I could soak them in ? like oil or something? These doodle were done with a Kuretake pen - which I find a bit scratchy somehow. I'm not sure how much I like the feel of it in use.

That skull again - pencil sketch

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Sheep skull, graphite sketch on A4 paper Another sketch of that skull. The shapes are so involved and complicated that it's fascinating to draw. This was another demo for a class, trying to make them continue observing and refining after they thought their drawing was finished. They continued working on their own projects and just kept popping back to check on progress from time to time and discuss the why's and wherefore's of what I was doing. I'm doing a workshop (as a student) on kiln fused glass this weekend which hopefully is going to be interesting - if anything at all works I'll photograph it :>)

Cardoons, sketch in Folio Moleskine

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Cardoon seedheads, lifesize sketch in Folio Moleskine Sketchbook, pencil and coloured pencil details: These are last years seedheads and one is splitting and the fluffy centre is spilling out, contrasting beautifully with the spiky scales of the outside. So interesting to draw :>)

Porth Nanven, graphite drawing in moleskine A4 sketchbook

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Light on the sea at Porth Nanven, graphite in A4 moleskine This one is a simple pencil sketch, looking at the light on the sea and the little stream that tumbles down the valley and comes out onto the beach here. The rocks offshore are The Brisons. I rarely do a landscape in pencil alone so it was an interesting challenge. Next I'll show you a watercolour of the same beach but from slightly higher up the valley and a panoramic view.

Holly Cottage, Loddington, Leicestershire, sketching in pencil and mixed media

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Holly Cottage, Loddington. mixed media. Vivien Blackburn Yesterday I went with 2 friends to sketch in the garden of one of their friends who recently bought this gorgeous cottage. I decided early on that whereas my friends concentrated on eliminating the scaffolding, (up for the re-thatching) and re-inventing what was underneath, that I'd draw it as-was. I just did sketches (having lugged all but the kitchen sink ' just in case!' - oils, watercolours. charcoal, coloured pencils, several sizes of sketchbook ........) In the end I only used pencil, watercolour and a very little coloured pencil. I don't often 'do' architecture, simply because I love freer, more flowing landscape so it was a challenge. The cottage was built in 1673 with stone and brick from the earlier village nearby, wiped out by the Black Death. The houses were then burnt down, I suppose to stop the spread of the disease? The date is carved into the beam above the fireplace. It was last r

Paint or Sketch trees from life challenge: links to the fabulous work by participants

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Willow by the canal, Frog Island. Charcoal sketch in A3 sketchbook, Vivien Blackburn OK - it's time to post the links to people who joined in the trees-from-life challenge :>) - and there is some lovely work. Just follow the links below to see a wide variety of media, ways of looking, different geographical areas and types of tree and ways of looking. I'm not going to comment on them individually as there is too much to say! - just leave you to enjoy a series of really beautiful images without any waffling words, just those of the artists themselves :>) I'm really happy with how many people joined in, and how they feel they got a lot out of it, including some members of the new-ish Plein Air Forum. the links, in no particular order, just added as they arrived: Harry Bell Jeanette Jeanette 2 Jeanette3 Jeanette 4 Jeanette 5 Robyn Robyn Ronelle Jean Pat Cathy Lindsay Lindsay 2 Charlene Maree EH Katherine Plein Air group blog trees challenge Maris Maris2 Kathryn Clark 1

Painting and Drawing Trees: observation

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Sketching Trees in the Park. Rotring fountain pen in A4 sketchbook. Vivien Blackburn This is an old sketch done in a local park. I was trying to describe the different types of trees and their distinctive shapes, character and foliage with just pen lines. Looking back at it I like the positive/negative changes with light trunks against shadowed foliage and dark trunks against light, changing back and forth. That poor Rotring pen hasn't been used in a long time, maybe I should dig it out. I really prefer less scratchy media. I like trees - not quite as much as water but nearly! Trees can have very distinct character, rather like people and I really dislike the generic woolly trees in some 'how to' books. I've dug out some of the trees I've done over time - some, like this (done in '93) done some time ago and some more recent. They are in pen, pencil, charcoal, watercolour, oils, digital imagery, coloured pencil, ink, mixed media, acrylic, pastel, don

The Crowns at Botallack, sketches of the ruins of old tin mines on the cliffs in Cornwall, and blue blue seas

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Sketch of The Crowns, Botallack, Cornwall, engine houses of the old tin mines, and a blue blue sea. Moleskine sketchbook. Coloured pencil. Vivien Blackburn Around St Just and along the coast are dozens of ruins of old tin mines. These sketches are of the mine at Botallack. Nearby is a mining museum at Geevor, where you can see how the mining was done, how the tin was separated from the ore along with arsenic and other elements and you can go down a short section of mine and learn about working conditions and life expectancy, which was 28. Spoil was burnt in kilns and other elements extracted, including arsenic which settled on the inside of the chimneys. This was scraped off and bagged for sale by young children. The whole area around the mine was polluted by the mining and is only now recovering. Note the 2 engine houses low down on the cliff face in the distance in both sketches - and imagine walking down a slippery, narrow path in a gale to get to work there (steep drop to

Stormy seas, Sennen Cove - graphite and moleskine

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Stormy Seas, Sennen Cove, Graphite in moleskine sketchbook, Vivien Blackburn I'm back from a week at beautiful Sennen Cove with the family - 4 generations of us. I was determined to make some time to paint/sketch :>) We were staying right on the seafront and this was the view from our bedroom window yesterday. Huge waves rolling in and crashing on the rocky reef offshore and over the harbour wall - a wall of mist/rain meaning that the horizon was lost. Luckily it cleared up and turned into a lovely day, though still windy and wild. Waves repeat patterns of movement so it's crucial to watch, observe, see how they move, where they crash together, the changes of direction across the bay .... My little Jakar battery operated eraser is great for drawing back into areas of tone, pushing and pulling the shapes and tones and form until it hopefully does something like what I wanted :>) So .... about that sky challenge .... a few people have posted results and I'll be d

waterways projected revisited (at last) and playing with Neocolour II and Inktense

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Ros, June 08, sketching along the canal at Aylestone. conte pencil. Vivien Blackburn On Monday I went sketching along the canal at Aylestone with Ros - sketch of her above, working hard. It was lovely to be out and a friendly little robin shared our lunches and spent the afternoon virtually on our feet and perched on the bench I was sitting on :>) .... and of course I didn't have my camera. It was a lovely warm, still afternoon and everything was lush and green. Along the bank in front of us the seed heads on the grasses were a pinky mauve colour and there were white clover flowers. We were near a lock and boats occasionally arrived to tie up while they operated the lock gates and went on their way and occasional walkers passed by. The robin stayed throughout :>) The canal at Aylestone, the curves and ridges of medieval strip farming are still visible in the field on the other side. Plein air Pencil sketch. Vivien Blackburn This was the first sketch I did us

plan chests, old and new work - pastels still life and charcoal drawing of hands

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drawing hands in charcoal - over life size, A1 paper - also featuring my lovely plan chest! This shows part of my plan chest - the large sheet of paper - A1 - is lost in the large shallow drawers, they take huge A0 sheets :>) A1 is the size of 8 sheets of typing paper side by side. One of the fun things of starting to load work into the plan chest was in unrolling old drawings and finding stuff from the degree and pre-degree - not seen in years! This one was a uni challenge to draw our hands - here revealed are my horrible chubby paws :>o - We had to draw our left hand with our right and vice versa. Any guesses as to whether I'm right or left handed? a much older pastel drawing I came across - about 2ft 6in tall -ish. This was done at a weekend workshop. It doesn't show up well in the photo but that really does look like velvet on the seat in real life. It brought back happy memories of a friend who died last year and the fun we had on the course. Feathers an

watercolour seascape: sunset across the beach

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Sunset, Ebb Tide, watercolour, Vivien Blackburn Sunset, looking across the beach as the tide ebbs and the pools of water reflect the sky. I haven't used watercolour for a while and fancied playing with the way that the colours merge and flow and glazes of transparent colour create colours it's impossible to name - just like the sky in real life. There's a lot of aureolin yellow in there - a lovely transparent yellow when used thinly. There is also a very little watercolour pencil and a little pencil added at the end. I do like watercolours - I should remember to use them more often and get a bit more practice in! you can see some other work on Cornwall here http://vivienb.blogspot.com/search/label/Cornwall .