Saturday 26 September 2009

Green valley


After so much rain everything looks fresher and green. The dusty lane is more mud than dust. After many storms the river behind the trees in the sketch burst its banks, flooding the valley. Luckily we are higher up, but we were isolated for the day as the road couldn't be seen under the mud and water.

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Storms and heavy rain


Bad weather coming in over the hills. Black heavy clouds waiting to burst. Eventually the rain was so dense and the clouds so low I couldn't see the buildings opposite any more.
Big storms here all week, summer's over...... at least I don't have to water the garden!
This one was done with Derwent soluble sketching pencils and Graphitone. A bit of colour added with Derwent drawing pencils. This took about 20 mins to draw and another 15 to wet with a paintbrush. Good fun pushing that graphite about!

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Water soluble graphite pencils



In between thunder storms I sketched some trees at the back of our house. Not actually black..but nearly. I used Derwent water soluble sketching pencils and graphitone 2b pencil. Quite similar results, but I think the graphitone has the edge for me.

The best bit is wetting the drawing and seeing it transform . The graphitone can be dipped in water to add extra texture, I'm not sure that would do the wood much good on the sketching pencils.

I will definately be buying some more graphitone pencils, no problem about leads breaking either!

Sunday 6 September 2009

New from old





This a work in progress. I'm covering a very ugly cement bench with mosaic, made out of broken tiles. The bench was originally built by the previous owners of my house, the tiles were also found hidden in and old outhouse. Some of them look to be from the 70's. Its time consuming, but I'm pleased with the results, having never done anything like this before. I also like the re-cycling aspect. There are lots of tiles left, so who knows what I will mosaic next!?