Virtual Sketch date - January

'Clementine 1'

21cm x 16cm

Watercolour and Coloured Pencil on Paper

Bit of a tough cookie this month's VSD, or so I thought anyway. This is actually version two, the first I messed the background up but liked the clementine itself. I'm still not really happy with this one but it's ok. There are some really great versions done by the other artists participating, definitely worth checking out, on the VSD blog page (where you can also see the original ref photo by Jeanette Jobson). There's also a Flickr page too.

I had a short lived abstract moment, which was fun and the result is quite attractive I think. I used masking fluid and watercolour. Abstract art doesn't really float my boat but I think it's worth doing something completely different occasionally.

'Clementine 2'

15cm x 12cm

Watercolour on Paper

Virtual Sketch Date - December

watercolour

30cm x 14cm

It's that time again. I always look forward to the Virtual Sketch Date, and this month was no exception. When I saw the reference picture I was a bit clueless, I thought "What am I going to do with this?" and really had no ideas. I started to play with various crops and started to enjoy it, and ended up doing two versions again. I think some (all) of my perspective on the buildings is a bit off but I've tried to disguise it! The really good thing about these monthly VSDs is they can move you out of your comfort zone, and I was well out of it on this one but ended up enjoying it. Thanks to all at Virtual Sketch Date, for posting the reference and doing the 'admin' stuff...

watercolour and pen & ink

27cm x 11.5 cm

Winter Tree

'Winter Tree'

22.5cm x 16.5cm

Watercolour on Paper

The weekend has been really cold here, but bright and sunny also with a great clear blue sky. I saw this tree in a park and snapped a quick photo so I could work on it when I got home. I think I'm still getting the last 'Virtual Sketch Date' out of my system, but I'm finding I really like drawing and painting these wintry trees. This was done in watercolour which I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable with, on Arches Aquarelle watercolour paper.

Virtual Sketch Date - November

I'm a bit early posting this but it's ready so here goes...

'Trunk and Branch' 1 and 2
16cm x 13cm
Pen and Ink on Paper
(plus coloured pencil on no.2)

I really enjoyed doing these, I haven't drawn trees for ages, or used pen and ink for that matter. Pretty much unplanned, with just a quick pencil guide then started with the pen and paper and went with it. For the second version I added some coloured pencil to a copy of the original, as I wasn't too sure how it would look. I'm quite happy with both versions, for a change.

'In The Trees'

23cm x 16cm

Watercolour on Paper

It's another great reference this time, with plenty to work from. This is another section of the photograph, done in watercolour.

Trio

Leaf 1 - 2.5" x 3.5" Water soluble Pencil & Graphite Pencil on Paper
Leaf 2 - 2.5" x 3.5" Watercolour on Paper
Leaf 3 - 2.5" x 3.5" Coloured Pencil on Brown Paper

Just playing around with different media today, and size too. I've never worked on this small scale but I quite liked it.

(Thankfully the heating is back on, but there is now a big hole in my savings too.)

Virtual Sketch Date - October

Time for another Virtual Sketch Date, and I have to say I've really enjoyed the ones I've done so far. Of course one of the best bits is seeing what other artists have done. Here's my first version (one just never seems enough...)

'3 Pears'

23cm x 15cmm

Graphite & Carbon Pencil on Paper

Every time I see the work of Marsha Robinett on 'The Extraordinary Pencil' I'm impressed so I wanted to try her style, particularly with the use of carbon pencil. The blackness you can achieve is impressive but not without effort, the rest of this is goood old fashioned graphite. I think I'll be using carbon pencil again. If you've not see Marsha's work it's brilliant and inspiring, go see it!

For my next effort at this reference I went to watercolour. I quite liked the result but when I scanned the piece it went very yellow so I've took a photograph too to comapare but it came out really dull looking, as you can see.

'3 Pears'

21cm x 15cm

Watercolour on Paper (scanned image)

(photographed image)

Neither of them really captures the colours in the original. This is the first time I've noticed such a marked difference between the original and the scan - I've always scanned before. And yet the photograph looks very dull, but then I'm not a photographer. Anyone else have this problem?

Four Toms

'Four Toms'

25cm x 17cm

Watercolour & Coloured Pencil on Paper

This has been sitting in the "sin bin" for a couple of days. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, I'm still not sure. I've heard that some people let their pictures 'rest' for a couple of days then go back to them so that's what I've done. I think it's the brown paper bag the tomatoes are sitting on, it looks a bit too yellow to me now and isn't very recognisable as a paper bag at all...

Virtual Sketch Date - September

'Peony'

28.5cm x 20cm

Watercolour and Coloured pencil on Paper

So here's my entry for September's VSD. I used watercolour plus a bit of tweaking with coloured pencil on Fabriano watercolour paper. I'm starting to enjoy watercolour a bit more, although I still find it a bit unpredictable at times. This was a great image to work from with a number of challenges - I did a version before this one with a black background but it felt too harsh so I used a dark purple here with a bit of blue pencil on the left, also the vase was tricky, especially the top and I still haven't got that right but I can live with it. The flower itself was enjoyable to do, to get some colour and some delicacy. I decided to have another go, and used soft pastels - in my head I was going for a Georgia O'Keefe look, but that was just in my head of course...

'Peony 2'

16 cm x 16cm

Soft Pastels on Paper

Summer Flower

Summer Flower

15cm x 10cm

Watercolour and Coloured Pencil on Paper

It's been raining almost non-stop for the past two days so it's given me a good opportunity to do some drawing, as I've really done very little this week. This was from a reference photograph I took in a friends garden earlier this Summer, on one of the few days we had some sunshine. I have no idea what the flower is by the way. First I made a watercolour underpainting then worked over it with coloured pencils, using a mixture of Derwent Coloursoft and Faber Castell Polychromos on Arches Aquarelle watercolour paper.

Onions

'Onions'

24cm x 17cm

Watercolour and Coloured Pencil on Paper

Tried something a bit different for this one. I used a very loose watercolour underpainting on the onions, I think its helped with the density of the colour.

I'm still doing a lot of experimenting with different techniques and products. I'm using Derwent Artist coloured pencils at the moment but I'm still not sure how much I like them, they feel a bit hard and scratchy sometimes. What I'm after is a soft coloured pencil. I've also just bought some Derwent Pastel Pencils so I'll be trying them out fairly soon, and some water soluble graphite sketching pencils. Used them yesterday and will post the results later...