Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
The flat colour that I like for my figures and cartoon animals doesn’t suit the straightforward natural history I’m including in the comic, so I’ve gone for gentler watercolour effect in Clip Studio Paint. As the colour is on a separate layer from the line drawing it’s easy to start again with a fresh layer to try alternatives.
This Sketchboard Pro, which arrived this afternoon, is a big improvement on the drawing board propped up on an offcut of decking that I’ve been using.
To test it out, I drew one of the frames for my Bilberry Wood comic. It holds the drawing board at just the angle I like and it’s so robust that it doesn’t slip around slightly, like my previous makeshift arrangement.
I’m enjoying adding the colour, and I think the flat colours are going to work. The Ruskin panel will be just 7 cm (2.75 inches) across, so, as I said yesterday, it shouldn’t be too fussy.
Darwin’s fossiliferous strata in this panel remind me of when I worked on Yorkshire Rock, and make me think about tackling something in similar style.
After so much drawing on the iPad, it’s a good feeling to go back to pen on paper in my pocket-sized sketchbook.
Low winter sun and a sprinkling of snow bring out the colours of the winter walk at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens.
The red and orange stems of dogwood glow against the dark of the conifers.
But perhaps because it was so cold, I couldn’t pick up any scent from the spidery red blossoms of a wych hazel.
There’s a lot to learn about importing and transforming images in Clip Studio Paint, so I thought that I’d make a start with a photograph from Newmillerdam this morning.
More experiments drawing on the iPad in Adobe Fresco (above) and Clip Studio Paint.
After thinking it over for several years, I’ve finally got around to adding a Paperlike screen protector to my iPad Pro.
As you can see from my before and after photographs, the matt finish film hasn’t made my Clip Studio Paint app any less clear but I find the surface more sympathetic for drawing with my Apple Pencil on than the glass screen of the iPad.
Here’s my first Procreate sketch, drawn with one of Paperlike’s free brushes for Procreate from a collection designed by Filip Zywica.
After drawing so many cartoons, I wanted to draw from life for a change, so I picked up a few dry leaves which had blown into the corner by the front door.
As Ralph has his birthday on the run-up to Christmas, I’ve gone for a combined advent/birthday card this year.
Surprises include, in box no. 4, my copy of a Beano-inspired portrait of Ralph’s mum, Abby, drawn by his sister Ivy.
The traditional Selfridges hamper was a Christmas box from work for Ralph’s dad, James. Since the family moved a year ago, Ralph has developed a habit of trying out boxes for size, a human jack-in-a-box.
Drawn at Diana’s this afternoon, sadly P.C. the black cat is no longer with us, as I usually drew him when we visited.