Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
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.
My previous Twitter post got 83 views, yesterday’s Tweet has had 5,135. Thank you Scott McCloud, who re-tweeted it to his 327 thousand followers.
And I love his comment on my comic strip workings-out:
A *noble* failure, at least!”
Scott McCloud
That like J K Rowling noticing a short story I’d written and saying ‘Not bad for a Muggle!’ or Raymond Blanc tasting my speciality, cheese on toast, and saying ‘Pas mal pour un cuisinier anglais!’
I’m just ready to start a new book, so I think that it’s time to read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics trilogy again 🙂
In Scott McCloud’s theory of comics, a ‘non-sequitur’ is a transition between panels where there’s no link whatsoever. These are random doodles in Procreate but I definitely haven’t managed a non-sequitur between the last two panels because they’re plainly taking place on a dark and stormy night in some gothic thriller. And I can believe that the feisty chicken is giving the man some pause for thought.
Happy birthday to Huddersfield Town Supporter John (you can tell it’s him by the Terriers scarf).
I did consider taking acrylics and a canvas to today’s painting workshop at RHS Harlow Carr run by their current artist in residence, Hilary Burnett Cooper, but I stuck with my regular pen and watercolour and it was a chance to try my larger watercolour box on location. I recently updated it so that there are fewer strident greenish blues and earthy browns, replacing those with colours that would be more useful for flower painting.
Hilary Burnett Cooper Landscape, scenic and figurative artist
From the Mighty Aegir . . .
. . . to Ada Lovelace. Happy birthday last weekend to two Notts superstars, Connie and Annabel.