Just practising

Thank you everyone who commented and shared their views on blogging on my last post. I am glad that there are still many of us out there, who value blogs and are continuing blogging.

I've been busy these past few weeks mainly practising in my sketchbook. As I've mentioned earlier, I'm exploring botanical art at the moment and I'm taking a class to learning more about it. At the moment, it's all about drawing and graphite. I enjoyed drawing the tone scales, I never really quite realised how much difference there is between different brands. I always sort of assumed that an HB pencil was an HB pencil. Well, it isn't. My favourite brand is the classic Faber Castell 9000. This is also the lightest of the ones I tried out and it gives a good variation of tone. Caran d'Ache Grafwood and Staedtler Mars Lumograph are nice too. The Derwent Graphic I didn't really like. They were almost impossible to sharpen. For botanical drawing, you need a super sharp point. Often this is achieved by sharpening your pencils using a craft knife to cut away the wood, and sand paper to get a really long and pointed point. Here I used a new sharpener by M+R, which sharpens the pencil to a concave point. It sharpened the Faber Castells to a lovely point, the Grafwood are too big for the sharpener, the Mars Lumographs were okay too. But with the Graphics, the leads just kept breaking off. It was okay for the 2H, H and F, but for the rest, it was pretty much impossible. I have a few of those pencils, and I'll use them for other drawings, but definitely not for botanical drawing. Taking the time to make these tonal strips is certainly a very good way to getting to know your pencils - and finding your favourites!

I'm also practicing leaf drawing. And I still have a lot of practising to do! i have to admit that I became a bit sloppy with this one and the result is a very irregular drwaing. But it will be useful as a measure for my progress. In traditional botanical darwing, the subjects are drawn in actual size, which can be rather tricky. It's amazing how much detail there is in a leaf! A magnifying glass is quite essential, not only for getting a closer look at the leaf, but also for drawing. Drawing through a magnifiying glass is actually quite amazing! Especially when you look at your drawing afterwards and see the even layers that you would have had difficulties to achieve with the naked eye.
I started a new leaf but only got as far as the outline. Which means I now have to start all over again. That's the problem with leafs. You have to work relatively quick, as they wilt, some faster than others. Or maybe that's the advantage of drawing leaves. Once you've started, you have to keep going. No room for procrastination.

I also started working through Sue Vize's book Botanical Drawing Using Graphite and Coloured Pencils. I love the good old pencil, and am discovering the potential of coloured pencils. I wasn't aware how much you can actually mix colours by layering them. The colour wheel was done using just three colours, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarin Blue and Alizarin Crimson.

There's lots of exercises in the book with both graphite and coloured pencils. They're a useful way to pracise your drawing skills as well as getting to know your tools. There are of course exercises in actual botanical art as well, I just haven't got so far yet.

Last weekend, there was a Medial Market here in Zürich, and my Mum and me went to have a look around. It was very nicely done, with a great mix of stalls selling hand made goods, food and entertainment, and wonderful costumes. It wasn't quite as hot as it is now yet, but I still wouldn't have wanted to wear some of those costumes, they look so hot!

The guards at the main entrance to the market - very popular with the Asian tourists...

The Medicus demonstrating is skills

The knights in their best plumes

Quackery and amber

Modern Middle Ages

The basket maker

The joy of layering graphite

I am exploring a style, or genre, that I have admired for a long time, but always felt too intimidated to really try myself - botanical art. I very much enjoy the loose and expressive styles of sketching and painting, but I actually also very much like to sit down and spend a few hours producing a (reasonably) precise and accurate drawing or painting.

I've worked through a course on Craftsy called Drawing Essentials: Inspired by Nature, taught by Kathleen McKeehan, this week, and it was just perfect. If you're interested in learning more about working this way, I can only recommend this course. It teaches you all the basics you need to get started: how to measure your subject, different transfer methods using tracing paper, how to light your subject, as well as different techniques for shading - using mainly an HB pencil, which, when putting several layers upon each other, can give you as dark a shade as a much darker pencil. With these three drawings, I was mainly interested in the shading techniques, so I just used the supplied photo references and drew them in my sketchbook without any measuring. I totally enjoyed sitting down for an hour or so and just put one layer of graphite over the other and seeing the subject emerge. These pencil drawings are also the perfect thing for me to do in the evenings, when I'm too tired to get the paints out. It's also rather relaxing, almost meditative.

The next steps will be working on actually seeing all those little details (this kind of drawing is also a very good exercise in observation), working from life, including all the measuring, as well as using watercolours, and maybe also coloured pencils - and of course lots and lots of practice. This course has also been the perfect preparation for a class I signed up for at the beginning of the year, and which is going to start soon. I can't wait to dive deeper into this fascinating way of drawing and painting!

Inspired by the Dorset countryside

I spent a lovely 10 day holiday in Dorset at the beginning of the month. Almost 10 days of sun and blue sky, and often not even a single cloud in the sky. At one time, we were actually saying that it was almost too much sun for taking photos... We took lots of little trips to some favourite places, like Charmouth beach, Brownsea Island, Kingston Maurward, West Bay (probably better know these days as 'Broadchurch'). I dutifully carried my sketchbook and pencil case on each and every one of these outings - and yet again, didn't get a single sketch done. Ah well, the intention was there. And one day, I'll get there...

West Bay with East Cliff

But our strolls around the Dorchester and Dorset countryside and coast has given me lots of inspiration. And of course I had my camera with me. I used photographs for reference and inspiration for the drawings below, done in pencil, after I got home.

The drawing in turn became an inspiration for a little oil painting. It's still a work in progress, and by the weekend it will hopefully be dry enough for a next layer. I still haven't really got a clue what I'm doing with these oil paints, but I'm enjoying it anyway. And I feel quite drawn to landscapes at the moment. It is probably all those lush greens out there right now, the gorgeous blossoms, the colours in the fields everywhere.

A beautiful day out, and some drawings

After my week in Scotland, I spent another 10 days in beautiful Dorset. We didn't do much, we were both tired and wanted to just simply relax and take it easy.

We did go on one long day out, though, to one of our most favourite places - Brownsea Island.

 Like last time we went, it was a glorious day, and there are many places, where you feel that you are somewhere completely different, somewhere in the Mediterranean instead of the English Channel.

Brownsea Island is the only place in Britain, apart from Scotland, where there are red squirrels, and they are one of the main attractions for people to visit.

It's easy to understand why, as they are such adorable little creatures.

We didn't see as many as last time, but we still got a few good shots.

The two that came to say hello were very obliging, and remained sitting on the branch and eating nuts long enough for us to take photos.

There are also lots of peacocks on the island, and they were very friendly too. A mum and her young even followed us all across a big meadow when they realised that we were having a picnic on the other side, to keep us company, and even followed us for a while when we finally wandered off.

The pheasant we saw later in the afternoon seemed a lot shier. He kept walking away and hiding when I tried to snap a photo. Until N, who was a about 50 meters away, got out a bag of nuts - and suddenly all shyness forgotten, the pheasant ran across the grass towards him, and even picked N's treats right out of his hand!

There are lots of chicken too. I was busy picking up feathers all day, and when I got my plastic bag out to put some more away, I suddenly found myself surrounded but dozens of chickens and peacock, running from all directions toward me, expecting a treat.

When leaving the island, instead of going straight back, the the boat takes a little longer tour all around Brownsea and between islands and back to Pool harbour. Another special treat after a great day on the island. Especially with an evening sky like this.

I haven't really gotten back into my studio since I got home from my holiday. I'm in a tidying up and getting rid of stuff mood at the moment, rearranging and reorganising things. Things tend to accumulate far too easily over the years and I find that it gets in the way of using what I actually want to use, and can end up not doing much at all. So the stuff that I don't use anymore has to go so that the materials I do use and want to use are ready and at hand. Some creatives work well in a chaotic studio, but personally, I prefer it if it's reasonably tidy. Which more often than not mine isn't. But I'm working on it...

I have done some drawing, though, and after the art week in Scotland, I'm especially drawn to the good old pencil again. I just love pencils - and I have far too many of them. Although, can one really have too many pencils?

Silent Night White Christmas cards and bulb growing

For years and years, I've been wanting to make my own Christmas cards to send to friends and family, but apart from the odd card, I've usually ended up sending bought ones in the last moment. But this year, I was determined to make them myself, from start to finish. As the easiest way to get the same motif on a number of cards is by stamping it, I had to make a stamp first. I haven't really carved a whole stamp before, so I decided to go with a simple design. A bit rustic, reminding of an old wood carving.

And here's the pile of finished cards, all coloured in. Now comes the hardest bit. Writing them. I'm not good at all at writing cards. It always makes me happy to get beautifully written Birthday and Christmas cards, and I always marvel at the eloquence of the writers, wishing I could do it too. But I can't. I'm just rubbish at it. I never know what to write. So I hope that this year, the cards will make up for the writing. And then I just hope that the recipients will enjoy the receiving the cards as much as I enjoyed making them.

I've also caught the bulb bug. A few weeks ago I read about the different bulbs you can use to grow lovely flowers for you home in winter in a magazine, and decided to try it out myself. Now of course, amaryllis bulbs aren't anything new at all. But I think I had one once, years and decades ago, and I can't even remember if anything ever came out of it. So I thought I'd give it a try this year. I bought one called Aphrodite, a white one with pale pink around the edges, that came ready planted in a pot. I'm totally enjoying watching it grow from one little green tip just visible, and I've been drawing the stages in my sketchbook every week. And they grow so quickly! And there's definitely a flower pod beginning to appear. Can't wait until it starts blooming! I bought another, smaller, white one, too, and I'm thinking about getting a couple of crocus bulbs too.

Drawing found memories

I'm really enjoying drawing at the moment, trying out different materials and techniques. I always loved pencils, but watersoluble pencils are quite new to me. But they're great and a nice way to add some body, layers and texture, and all you need is a pencil, a brush and some water, so they might make perfect travel companions. I have taken out my art journal again, which I haven't used in quite a while, but which I should do more often. Such a perfect place to play and experiment.

I've been collecting feathers for quite a while now. Or maybe collecting is the wrong word. I tend to just pick them up when I see a nice one, when I'm leisurely strolling around. Which I usually only do when I'm on holiday, which in turn means that almost all of my feathers are from England. Mostly from Hartfordshire and surroundings and Dorset, while walking around towns and villages, National Trust parks or the beach. I kept them all in plastic bags, hidden away in some stash boxes, when I finally got them all out and together in one place a few days ago. Lots of pigeon feathers, of course, but also a couple of beautiful duck feathers, crow feathers, swan feathers and a few that I have no idea what bird they come from.

Charmouth beach stones - more drawing

This week, I spent two nights drawing for almost two hours. I'm trying to get (back) into a habit of drawing regularly, and spending more time in my studio. Especially in the evenings, when you're tired from work, it can be hard to motivate yourself to get off the sofa and pick up some pencils. Even if you actually like it, and know that it will make you feel so much better than just spending the entire evening in front of the tv. Why can it sometimes be so hard to shake off such bad and irrational habits? 

I've also been thinking a lot about style and techniques. How so often our inner critic/perfectionist puts those images of how your drawing or painting should look like before you even got the first brush stroke or pencil line down. How difficult it can be to put those expectations aside and just follow the flow. I know exactly how I would like to be able to paint or draw. And it doesn't always work. So I'm trying hard now to ignore that voice, and to approach my canvas or sketchbook without expectations (I even taped a reminder up on my easel), and just let it flow. To find out what comes naturally, and then take it from there. I had something else in mind when I started drawing the first stone, something that didn't involve blending and making it all smooth. But then I couldn't help picking up my blending stick, and I spent two evenings happily layering and blending and getting lost in details.

During our holiday, we went to Charmouth beach. One side of the beach is sand, the other side is stones, quite big ones, that make it quite difficult to walk (but is very popular with fossil hunters). I loved the beautiful big smothes stones with their white veins running through them, that were lying in between the other stones, and I took some photos of the them so that I could draw them later.

A wonderful holiday, and some hand drawings

I'm back from my holiday, and what a wonderful time we had! When I left two weeks ago, I expected it to be wet and miserable, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Almost two weeks of not a rain drop in sight, and more often than not, not a single cloud in the sky either. What a pleasant surprise. We made the best of it, exploring new places along the Dorset coast, re-visiting some old favourites, and even went up to London for a day. I was able to completely switch off and forget about everything. So much so, that I actually had to call my Mum to ask her to go to my home and look up the pin code for my banc card, as I couldn't for the life of me remember it. Completely gone. Unfortunately, after having returned back home on Tuesday, and back to work on Wednesday, the whole relaxing holiday feeling has already disappeared completely, and all the daily negative stuff, that I so successfully managed to forget about, has swept back in one single big wave.

But anyway. I took a sketchbook and some drawing materials with me (and visited the local art shop more than once). I took my sketchbook and pens with me a couple of times, but it was either too windy or we were too busy exploring for any sketching to be done. But I managed to do a few drawings some of the evenings, when I wasn't too exhausted (and a couple of watercolour sketches, which turned out so bad that no one will ever see them. Except N, who has already seen them, and wasn't impressed with them either). I've been wanting to practice some hand drawing, and with not much else on hand, that's what I did.

Of course I took loads of photos with my DSLR, and even some with my Polaroid SX-70, and I still have to go through them all. I'll probably post a few photo posts soon, but here's just a couple of shots, one from Brownsea Island, where we met some lovely red squirrels, and one from Charmouth, where I just couldn't get enough of the reflections in the low tide water on the beach.

Red Squirrel, Brownsea Island, Dorset

Charmouth Beach, West Dorset

As my happy holiday feeling quickly disappeared already the day after I got back from my holiday, I decided to keep the memories alive and fresh by posting the Polaroids I took over the next days. I have 30 photos, so it's going to be 30 days of happy holiday memories. I'll post them on Instagram and Twitter, and maybe Facebook too. Follow me, if you like (my new Twitter account is looking very sorry follower-wise, and I'm still waiting to finally reach the 100 likes milestone on my Facebook page). #30daysofholidaymemories.

I'm linking up again to the lovely Paint Party Friday. I'm afraid I posted my last post while I was already on holiday, and as I wasn't used to N's notebook/laptop with no mouse, I had to give up trying to visit and comment. But I hope to be better again this week.