Tag: sketching
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A bit of this and that
I took a photo of some of my recent things that are sitting around the studio room, as it looked kind of interesting together. I edited in a couple of pics of today’s sketchbook spreads as they’re more interesting than my art tables – my studio is not a curated, instagrammable space, and I had…
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Sketchbook Filled
I finished a sketchbook today. Woo hoo. I started it in March, so that’s not bad going. I had three spreads, or six pages left, and they are now painted. I played with the “ancient palette” again, and I can tell you that I don’t like it on a dusky pink ground, but that’s precisely…
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Dusting The Oil Pastels Off
I have a box of oil pastels that I never use. One reason for that is the fact they don’t dry, and up until recently I didn’t have fixative specific to oil pastels. That my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. Most of my oil pastels are the fairly ubiquitous inexpensive ones, with a small…
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Charcoal Pastel Gesso
Starting with some warm-up play in a sketchbook on a page that had some acrylic paint from a previous session as a ground, I played with this high-contrast reference and some charcoal powder. Having smudged in some basic shadow areas, I wanted a darker dark, so I mixed the charcoal powder with clear gesso, and…
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Photos and Street Sketch
A wee collage of photos from my day. We left the house at 5:40am and four different trains took us all the way to Thurso, with a couple of hours in Inverness to visit Leakey’s. I’m absolutely knackered, and the only art I have managed to do was a very quick sketch of some lovely…
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Reverse Process
I painted a lot today, and I was unthrilled with a number of pieces that are either going through an ugly stage, or being designated a hot mess. Some days are like that, and there’s a lot going on in the world that’s difficult to accept, so I’m fine with just painting shite, as long…
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New Sketchbook Started
A ten-minute warm-up sketch in my A4 sketchbook to start the day, followed by a portrait with the face showing. Late last night I was thinking about my hands and feet sketchbook, and how much I am enjoying it, and I had the thought that I should start another A3 book just focused on portraits.…
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Thoughts on Critic, Creativity plus Banksy
I spent a lot of time today journaling, and looking through my sketchbooks, and thinking about my creative process, and then I had a real struggle getting to painting. I listened to what was going on internally, and it was all very negative about how I had wasted my time, and failed to be creative…
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Limited Brushstrokes
Changing up the way I paint is good for my brain, especially my brain after a migraine, or, arguably, in late-stage migraine. For this exercise I decided to limit my brushstrokes and mark-making, and I was working quickly. I think this would be interesting to try at a slower pace too, and a totally different…
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Ink and Surprise Texture
Today was a migraine day, which was not fun. There was not much creativity, since my vision was twirly aura, and then I felt like rubbish. I did play with an ink that I haven’t done much with since I bought it, and I spread some acrylic ink on a canvas that I had done…
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A Face Is a Landscape
Me, my shitty brushes, a sketchbook, and I. Painting profiles are harder than I think, but I enjoyed the way I built this one in a probably unconventional way. More a jigsaw of shapes, starting with swirling mark-making for the hair, and extending from there, than a structured placement. One of my intentions with this…
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And Home Again
I’m home again after a day of mostly packing, travelling, unpacking, laundry and catching up with him indoors. I did squeeze in this portrait sketch, and was amused at the fact that when I have no time I always want to paint for hours, but when I do have hours, I often manage to fritter…
Thrummie Bizzum 