Monday 28 November 2011

Drawings: Fallen Tree on the Canal

Pencil on A5 Cartridge Paper

I created this drawing over the weekend while I was a way on a narrow boat, chugging along the Grand Union Canal. This fallen tree, extending over the side of the bank and dipping its branches in the canal, creating some delicate ripples caught my eye. I used a few different pencils to try and quickly capture it in my sketchbook before it passed.


Friday 25 November 2011

Sketchbook: Still Life Watercolour

Watercolour on A5 Cartridge Paper

This is the first Still life piece I have featured on this blog and the first that I have done for quite a while. I used a small branch and a sprig of something I discovered in my garden; trying to avoid a very cliché still life I arranged the two bits in a rather ugly plastic soft drinks bottle. Although I didn’t want it to look like a typical still life, I did want it to allude to one, which I think this has achieved.
I used watercolours on this piece as it was only intended as a quick study to begin with. I limited my palette to mostly cool colours, pairing the hues of blue and green in the bottle and the green sprig on the left. The only warm colours used were a touch of red brown and yellow ochre in the branch on the right.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Drawings: Blitzed Building

Pencil on Cartridge Paper
I created this drawing of a building, completely ruined after a World War Two air raid, from an old photograph recording the event. I thought it was interesting how although totally gutted and ruined inside, the defining feature of it is not the burnt out remains but the tower and the entranceway that still stand proud and defiant. In the photograph I drew this from, there is no background, due to the smoke and dust from the collapsed building, leaving the building looking like it had been drawn onto a bare canvas, feeling lonely and forgotten.
I employed the use of several grades of pencil, specifically a 2H, HB, 2B and in just a few places a 6B. I concentrated most of the detailed drawing techniques on the tower and doorway, leaving the ruined part of the building a little bit more vague. I left the background almost totally blank, much like the photograph where all you could see was the dust, I think it captured the forsaken feel of the place quite well.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Sketchbook: Inky Trees

Indian Ink on A5 Cartridge Paper

This was a really quick sketchbook piece I created using some black Indian ink. I found a couple of skeletal looking trees completely bare of any leaves and sat down to draw.
I avoided using any brushes or pens in this piece, instead I simply used a folded strip of cartridge paper dipped in the ink and dragged this across the surface of the paper to form marks. I managed to attain some different levels of tone just by simply using different amounts of ink on the paper. I think this has worked especially well on the tree trunks where I made sure the paper was very dry before dragging it with a slight curve to give the impression of the curved shape and the roughness of the bark.
The branches seemed to weave in and out of each other, almost not knowing where to go without their leaves to cover them. To try and convey this in the piece I used a straw to blow some of the ink, so I wasn’t in complete control of where the ink would go, this helped to get the branches feeling busier and more natural looking.
P.S. Yay for it being my Tenth Post!

Friday 11 November 2011

Paintings: Remembrance

Acrylic on A3 Cartridge Paper

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


John McCrae.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Drawings: Elm Tree Sketch

Charcoal on A2 Cartridge Paper

I produced this piece at the same time as another charcoal drawing which I featured in an earlier post. I actually prefer this one as it just feels more gratifying, It may not be as polished in some places, maybe a bit rough around the edge but its feels less cultivated and more genuine and authentic somehow.
It is in the same location in Canterbury as the earlier piece was, but it is a different tree, this time an Elm, in this one I made the branches fill the page creeping into all the corners and spreading beyond the paper. I used a variety of different marks in the background, aiming to avoid creating anything too rigid or structured, instead opting for some more obscure and softer marks that give just the impression of the habitat in which this tree stands. I diffused some of the background imagery to make the focus move even more to the central subject of the Elm tree, standing defiantly, almost obtrusively straight down the middle of the page, cleaving the entire sketch in two halves.


Thursday 3 November 2011

Back Catalogue: Colourful Crumbling Church

Acrylic on Board 24"x20"

This was a piece that I created a while ago as part of a project at college, I decided to experiment and not hold back with the colour. As a result I ended up going slightly mad with it and this eventually culminated with the piece above.
The Subject is taken from a quick sketch I had done of a ruined church situated on the side of a hill, though to look at you would hardly recognise it as such if it were not for the tower still somewhat identifiable. The whole place is locked in a fierce battle against the elements that it unfortunately seems to be losing; however it is definitely going out with a bit of a bang, in the form of this dramatic ruin that staunchly refuses to go quietly.
As I said before, I didn’t hold back with the colour on this piece and just went for it, smearing it on in various hues with your bog standard brushes and few different palette knives for the larger areas. I think this has added a slightly eerie quality to the overall appearance, which I have decided that I quite enjoy, although I’m not a hundred percent sure why.