Barnstaple and the Sketchbook Project

As you will see I have travelled from South Molton up to Barnstaple in my little Sketchbook.

Barnstaple is the largest town in North Devon and used to be spelt

Barnstable  - you'll note it is spelt with a p instead of a b these days -

although it is still pronounced with a b. 

I still have a few pages to go and hope to get this little Sketchbook completed soon.

A seaside shell in watercolour

Inspiration comes so simply sometimes.  This one was of a lovely shell we found on Saunton Sands beach a few days ago. ..   (also mentioned on Williams blog here).

I started out with a very fine pencil outline, just a guide really.  Then a simple wash of colour using

Yellow Ochre - which I also spread around for eventual background

and whilst wet dropped in a little Burnt Umber on the parts I knew would eventually need more shading

when this had dried I then added more Burnt Umber with a little Raw Umber here and there -
this is where more detail is also brought in to show the patterns on the shell -
I also lifted a little colour on the top of the shell with just clear water and a tissue for the highlights

and a mix of Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Sienna mixed together for the base shadow - using clear water to fade it out slightly.  I then used a spattering technique for texture.....

and there you have it

A loose impressionist style Shell

Happy Painting everyone!

 

Dartmoor view

Sometimes painting out of your comfort zone is good for you -  I have been working on an acrylic landscape which, although not quite finished, I thought I would add to this blog.  It has taken me away from my usual paintings - a change is as good as a rest as they say.

On this occasion I have used Atelier Interactive paints and a moody view of Dartmoor

Well, I did warn you it was out of my comfort zone.  I'll add a little bit more to it, possibly put some people walking.  Overall, I am quite pleased with it and I do intend to use these Interactive paints again....one day!

Warwickshire

On our recent trip up to Warwickshire we stayed in the gorgeous Bosworth Hall Hotel

 Set in 11 acres of parkland we got to see the glory of Autumn at its best

and discovered what looks like an Oak leaf (it has acorns afterall) but the leaves aren't your usual oak leaves...or at least not the ones I have ever seen before - so if anyone out there can assist with the identification I would love to know what it is called and where it originates....

as I said, the Hotel has extensive grounds which included a Swimming Pool and Spa area

and yes, those people are playing croquet on the lawn!

here's my rendition in my sketchbook

I also got to have a day out at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.  They were holding an Art Materials Live Show over 4 days.  Wow....loads of art stuff and demos all under one roof, it was utter bliss....

but I still couldn't just watch, I had to sketch as well

The whole trip was well worth the effort of travelling that far.

Playtime with paint

I have set some time aside just to 'play with paint' and for that I used a simple picture of berries, roughly based on this photo.

I started by doing a pencil outline and moved on to some other versions just to see how they developed.

Top left is obviously pencil and bottom left was Rotring Artpen with brown ink.  Bottom right was an Edding55.

Parts of this I added extra paint to whilst the first layer was still wet, but I also waited for some to completely dry. Then went in with fresh colour - it certainly showed you can build up the layers easily that way.

I love wetting the paper and dropping paint in and watching to see what happens, so I've added a very short video

first I just put clear water on the paper

Hopefully you can see the wetted area - and I left a gap near the middle for the highlight

(please note this is the first time you will have actually seen me doing painting on video - don't get too excited now, it's really short)

When it dried this was the result

as I said, this was 'playtime with paint' and since it looked like an expression, I added some extras to it then submitted it to this month's  

The Sketchbook Challenge on Flickr   

Challenge title : Imaginary Animals 

  'Don't get smart with me son!'

There you have it : Playtime with paint!


 

Bonfire night

Last night was bonfire night here....I took a photo of the preparations this year and for some reason the bonfire itself was in the style of a ship...no idea why but I'm sure the organisers had a good reason for it

the bonfire is lit first and burns quite a way down before the fireworks are lit

(Health and Safety look away now)

and a couple of photos of fireworks...

This week's Challenges...

TWENTY MINUTE CHALLENGE

Using Gouche - my new pan set of Caran D'Ache

which activates quicker than watercolours and so far I

am quite pleased with them

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THE SKETCHBOOK CHALLENGE 

 Not wishing to waste paper, I used the back of an old envelope for this

painting.  It worked for the tone of the painting so really I was half

way there before I even began!

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Faringdon Countryside View

This View is from my Travel Sketchbook and done 'en plein air' - Faringdon near Oxford which, apart from being a lovely city to visit, also has wonderful countryside surrounding it.

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Field Sketch - View

A local scene, captured before the lone tree loses its leaves this Autumn.

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Reflection in the Sand - View

Taken from a photograph of William on the beach. The sand was still very wet and his reflection showed up like a mirror. As I like doing, I loaded my brush and did the whole picture with one load of paint but limited myself to doing it in one minute....


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ARTISTIC SENTIMENTS

Sir Crow

Watercolour 8" x 7"