Sunflower Matters

I bought some sunflowers last week with the idea of painting them. Finally threw caution to the wind today and threw some watercolour paint about in a haphazard kind of way - not sure of the result. It started out well but I lost it somewhat when it got to the petals because I really didn't know how I could get the effect that I wanted. Practice, practice, practice!

Street Matters

Mixed media of watercolour pencil, watercolour, pencil and pen.

Frankfurt is really not one of the most beautiful cities of the world. But there are little corners that are quirky and interesting. I'm going to aim to get out to sketch once a week - in theory anyway!

I'm having trouble with my sketchbook. I've been using the basic Moleskines but really don't like the way the watercolour treats the paper and have found that it can bleed through to previous/next pages. After doing some research and not being able to get the sketchbook I wanted outside of the UK (why do Canson only sell that type in the UK?) I asked some very knowledgeable sketchbook artists and have been recommended to try the Moleskine watercolour book (which I see now comes in a larger size) and their Japanese sketchbook which has accordion pages which sounds like a wonderful format. So I am going to order one of each to test drive.

Preparation Matters

So we are preparing to head off on holiday this weekend - Sunday. Heading south to Garmisch Partenkirchen in Bavaria for a week. Packing up my pencils, pens, some watercolours and hoping to get some serious sketching in. Mind you looking at the weather forecast I think this might be wishful thinking. Rain, rain and more rain - and this is after positively months of only having the occasional dribble. How can that possibly be? Oh I know, it's Murphy's law!



I am going to take with me a couple of new books in case we never get to leave the hotel. And of course camera and lenses for those amazing panoramic views I hope to see of the Bavarian Alps.

Head, foot , whole body matters

Played with more heads today - getting to grips with proportions. And played with a foot before doing some timed 5 mintue head sketches of him-indoors, who hates to pose for me (but as he has done nothing but complain about my not doing any art for months he could hardly say no). Sweetheart! Went on to do a half-hour sketch. Having played all day today at not going out to sketch in the beautiful spring weather, I do feel that I made up for it this evening.


One thing that I did do this afternoon was sort out my art materials and found that I owned about a dozen watercolour pencils (right had page) and rediscovered the Derwent Graphitint (left hand page) pencils that I bought years ago and have never used. Interesting to see the difference between them. The Graphititints have a very muted colour when dry that just explodes into colour when wet, whereas the watercolour pencils have good colour dry and wet. I must play with them a bit as I think these would be wonderful to take out on sketching trips - when I find the courage to venture out!