In preparation for our Wednesday drawing workshops at Skyeworks, Alistair and I set up the easels to try out the space (it feels like it’s going to work very well as a studio), then posed for one another. Mindful that our first tutored lesson will be on line drawing, I worked with pencil line only, reminding myself about “quality of line”, to avoid making every line the same weight and width.
2B pencil on A3 paper.
I’m also working on some small sheep paintings, on hand-size canvasses (6×8 inches). On this one I’m trying out an idea of sheep standing under a starry night sky. They’re underpainted with cadmium red, and at one stage in their creation the faces were pink. Made them look embarrassed, so I eliminated that.
Work-in-Progress. Acrylic on 8×6″ canvas.
I’ve stopped painting on this for the moment while I decide which of the ideas bouncing around my head I will implement. Winning at the moment is adding some dark, rain-laden clouds, but a close second is some shadowy sheep in dark blue behind these three. The way a herd can stare at you with that “what do you want?” attitude…
Work in Progress. Acrylic on 18×24″ canvas.
The tangible results of a workshop are the paintings and drawings. The intangible results are buzzing around my brain, energizing and motivating. Can’t wait to be back in my studio to get some of the new ideas out! To sit and talk to the in-house art critic about it all.
This is the painting that developed from my tall tree sketching yesterday. My camera hasn’t dealt well with the bright light from a roof window falling on the painting; the photo’s bleached out on the light yellow and light blue highlights on the trees.
It’s an idea I’ll like to have a go at on a large scale, an sofa arm’s-length canvas so that when you’re looking at the painting it fills your field of vision completely. I’m not entirely convinced I’ve got the tone in the background working satisfactorily; I want to try it with both lighter and darker.
Acrylic and ink on watercolour paper. Size: about A3.
The Lake District does, of course, have spectacular oak trees, a few of which also made it into my sketchbook. This was done with watersoluble graphite (4B), watercolour and a waterbrush.
During yesterday’s location sketching trip I found myself enjoying the pattern in a stand of tall trees. The dark shadows, the light on the foreground trees, the slivers of sunlight on countryside visible through the trees.
What I was looking at:
Headed out on another location sketching trip as part of the Higham Hall landscape painting course I’m on, this time to Castlerigg stone circle. Afraid I didn’t find the stones themselves particularly inspiring; compared to those at Callanish they felt stunted and tame (and crowded). So I wandered down the tree-covered lane where this line of trees caught my eye; the juxtaposition with the stone wall, the dance of light and shadow. A good spot for taking a line for a walk.
Today was a studio-working day on the “Fusion of Pastel and Paint Express Landscape” workshop I’m doing at Higham Hall. Working from the drawing (top right of photo) and sketching done yesterday, plus visual memories, this what I’d produced by the end of the day.
I feel the colours are too intense, the tonal contrast lacking within the various elements (rather than considered overall), the composition missing middle distance or something to create more of a transition between the hill and the flat ground. I muddled my intentions as I painted, between abstraction and realism, rather than focusing on one path only. There are bits I find pleasing (such as the pine plantation in the top left of the composition, the graphic impact of the tree) and tomorrow I’ll build on what I learnt and felt creating these. The fun I had painting these has also recharged my creative batteries.
Left: A1 size. Right: A3. Acrylic, pastel, and Inktense pencil/blocks on paper.
This is the drawing that came out of the morning’s on-location sketching at St Bega’s. When I started, I found it hard to switching from my more usual painting mode into drawing, so first played with some Inktense sticks to get the colour itch out of my fingers (creating little more than a colourful mess), then swapped onto smooth drawing paper and a 2B pencil.
The lower half of the tree was, with my consent, overdrawn by tutor Patrick Oates (he always asks if he may, otherwise he’ll demo what he means on another piece), strengthening the lines, darkening the tone and contrast significantly, which gives tremendous life to a drawing. As he puts it: “Don’t play only on the middle keys of the piano”.
I know I hesitate from fear of being too heavy-handed with a pencil too early in a drawing, and also forget to vary the width of the lines I’m putting down. There are aspects of this drawing I like, but I probably won’t do any more on it. I’ll start another, using what I’ve learnt and been reminded of creating this one.
2B pencil. Smooth drawing paper. Size A3.
