Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
Another colourised dip into the envelope of my negatives from 1964 and this one is a mystery. As I develop the other photographs I’ll get a better clue to the locations that I visited during that year. I still have a Letts’ Schoolboy’s Diary from that year which should give me some clues.
I took this photograph of Horbury St Peter’s Church in 1964. That’s Ingham’s upholstery workshop and hardware store on the left. The advertisement was for Royal hardboard. I’ve colourised this photograph and the yellow and blue are as I remember them (but possibly not as they actually were).
I was using an Ilford Sprite 127mm camera and developing my own film at the time. This proved to be such a disaster that it’s only now, sixty years later, that, using my scanner and Adobe Photoshop, I can salvage images from the scratched, uneven home-developing disaster.
Dipping into the envelope of negatives is like opening a time capsule. Some of the locations I’m having difficulty recognising.
Not this one though which is Horbury Town Hall, which still looks very much like this today.
Sycamores, bus passengers, limestone pavement and a glacial overflow channel at Newtondale, all drawn on a trip to Leeds (but two were from photographic murals in hospital waiting rooms, a change from drawing chairs for me).
Newtondale
Limestone pavement
Bus folk
Happy birthday to Rombold’s Moor Rambler Roger.
Happy birthday to Wordle genius and veggie chef par exellence (which might explain her inspired guesswork) Liz.
Testing out my new field guide, Britain’s Insects by Paul D. Brock. I got a good look at the click beetle, which was flying slowly past me, wing cases outspread. I caught it in the palm of my hand and after a few seconds lying on its back it performed its click, springing up from my hand and landing, right side up this time on the ground.
For the small hoverfly I’m going to have to refer to the companion field guide to Britain’s Hoverflies.
We’ve been trying to meet up with Kathleen, my now 93 year-old cousin, since before the pandemic but at last we got to see her today at Bragazzi’s, on Abbeydale Road, a part of Sheffield where my mum grew up. Her local cinema, the 1,560-seater Abbeydale ‘Picture Palace’, built in 1920, is currently being restored.
Ground ivy, growing at on the grassy verge of a path near the river.
I’ve been reading a list of ‘Five Essential Tips for Beginners’ in digital art and number one is: ‘Use a light touch when drawing on your tablet of device. This will help prevent unwanted pressure marks and smudging’.
That’s good advice. Having got through two PenTips 2 soft tips for my Apple Pencil in just a couple of weeks, I’m pleased that I’ve done better with the last remaining one.
I’m hoping that the lighter touch that I’m learning to use will transfer to my regular drawing with a pen on paper.
Another problem that I had with my way of drawing was that I was inadvertently changing the colour of my brush by resting a finger on the screen and invoking the eye-dropper tool. I’ve changed that in preferences so I can access the eye-dropper with a different shortcut.
I’m working on my July issue of my Wild Yorkshire nature diary for The Dalesman using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop to fit everything in.
Being pressed for space I’ve tried to fit the swarming bees into the margin and, to add to the drama, instead of my usual smiling mugshot, I’ve tried a cartoon of Barbara and I on bee alert, blocking holes with steel wool and masking tape. This might not make it into the final cut, but I like to experiment.
