My Weekly Post...

It seems that way lately. I am so tied down with university assignments and study at the moment with the last week bogged down with assignments that I have little interest in, I was able to pick up a pencil last night and sketch these pictures. I am doing some research for a new piece, well not new at all but an ongoing work that has been in my mind for quite some time. It involves a logged forest and here are some sketches that may or may not be incorporated into the new piece of work.

Drawn with 6B pencil - I really needed to draw!













Today I went to a workshop with our local art group. These workshops are held approximately monthly and we have tutors from all over the state and occasionally interstate as well.

Today we looked at composition and design and perspective. We worked on a small piece taken from one of our own photos that we could manipulate for composition.

Here is my thumbnail sketch (unfinished) for my picture. The scene is taken from a photo I took at the Sandringham Woodlands Walk in Norfolk England. The thumbnail is drawn in 8B pencil and I didn't alter the composition because I liked it as it is here.


And here is the almost finished pastel drawing. I still want to tidy up a few loose ends on this but it is coming along nicely. It is drawn with pastels and it is a long time since I have used pastels so I was very tentative at the beginning but gradually gained a little more confidence as I worked on with the drawing.

I need to do more with this medium. Oh for more time to pursue my art!!

A busy weekend...

drawing! Today a friend and I took the step of drawing in public. We went to Big Rig Park in Roma - it is probably the prettiest place in Roma and the only place with moving water and nice grass so we enjoyed it. There were lots of people coming and going to feed the ducks and geese but we both found it very difficult to draw quickly enough to capture either the people or the ducks and geese.

So, I took the opportunity to draw some grasses growing beside the duck pond...





I then focussed on this interesting table. It is a reasonably flat piece of rock placed on top of several vertical concrete uprights that form the table legs. Of course, the interest is in the rock surface and it's beautiful lines and colours. At a later date I plan to do a pen and wash to show the colours but for today, here is my pencil drawing.


Later I came home and started to work on my next essay for uni, but managed to get myself a little distracted and ended up continuing to relive my trip through Europe once more.

Today we are in Cornwall at St Michaels Mount near Marazion. This is one of the little cottages on the island. It is a bit rickety according to my rendition but I intend to claim that it gives it more character! I am really enjoying reliving this holiday.

Another experiment

Continuing my attempts to use more colour in my visual diary practice work I took a risk tonight and drew some ducks in watercolour pencil. It is a medium that I am not familiar with at all, having used it only a few times over a number of years and, in my opinion, never successfully. But...the 'new me' knows that I will never learn if I don't try so here is my attempt at a watercolour pencil sketch.

This is before I attempted to wet the pencil. I really do not know what I am doing but I have had a go.

This picture is after I wet the brush and tried to see what would happen with wet pencil drawing.

These ducks were drawn from two photos that I took while on the beautiful island of Marken in The Netherlands. It is an extraordinarily beautiful community and I visited with a dear friend who lives in The Hague. Drawing these pictures of my European trip is bringing back the most wonderful memories. I can step right back there and even experience the conversations we had on the day!

The darker colour at the top is a very lame attempt at water and didn't work at all. I would love some suggestions as I don't have any idea about where to head with trying water with watercolour pencils again and would welcome any suggestions.

Having tried this and ended up with colours and not mud (well, not completely) I am prepared to have another try, so stay tuned!

Drawing practice

I've been going through my photo albums and finding things that inspire me to draw and practise, practise, practise. I am finding it interesting that as I draw more I am finding that there are interesting 'side effects'. One - I am not so scared to try different things. What I mean by this is that now I look at my photos and there are SO many things to draw. A year ago I would have been brave enough to try only the occasional thing. Maybe I am growing in confidence?

I've been so encouraged by the other members of the Everyday Matters group that I have even tried the impossible - drawing people as in this drawing of a street scene in Edinburgh. I have a lot to learn and have set myself some goals and I am going to watch myself improve.

Here is another sketch from my European photo album. This is the cottage from the Summer pastures high in the mountains in Norway. I love the buildings in Norway - their styles are so significant and it is possible to identify unique parts of the country by the way they have built their houses. Coming from a country where the major part of the year is spent in terrible heat I found it interesting to spend some time in a country that has so much cold weather.

Back to the drawing - there are some perspective issues here but I kind of like the roughness and the texture of the timber and the windows. The Edinburgh drawing was made with 2, 4,6 & 8B pencils and the Cottage with 0.3 unipin pen.