Category: Art

Sketchboard

sketchboard

I like to rest my hand on my sketchbook as I’m drawing, which I find awkward as I get near the edge of the page so, inspired by the Sketchboard Pro, which has a rebate that precisely fits my iPad Pro, I’ve made myself a board to snugly fit my A5 Pink Pig sketchbook, with a 4 inch surround, that I can use in either landscape or portrait format.

making the board

It’s built up from a corrugated cardboard, so it was useful having a guillotine to cut out the matching pieces. I left a rebate at either end of the slot to accommodate the spiral binding of the sketchbook. It’s not shown in this photo because I hadn’t realised until I tried it for size that I’d need one on the outer edge. I draw on both sides of the page, so I need to flip the sketchbook over to draw on the right-hand page.

I discovered that it was best to glue every layer, rather than rely on masking tape to hold it all together.

foamboard top layer

I had an offcut of foamboard that I used for the top layer.

Finally I covered the whole thing with the tail end of a roll of hessian wallpaper that I’d used back in the 1970s when making a noticeboard (later rejigged as a couple of hinged pairs of display boards for craft fairs).

Everything I used was recycled apart from a 250ml bottle of ArtStudio Matte Glue, £1.29 from The Range.

Now I need to get out and actually use it.

Classic Fit

jeans

The good news is that my new Rohan jeans which arrived today fit me perfectly . . . which wasn’t the case two months ago when I tried some on in the Rohan Harrogate shop and discovered that the next size up felt much more comfortable.

Forty years ago, when I was 34 years old, I remember I had a 34 inch waist and a 34 inch inside leg and I’ve been that ever since, so I decided that it was time for a bit of a challenge.

Goat Gap sketch of hills
The view from the Goat Gap cafe, Newby, this morning, our coffee stop on our return home from our short break in the Lake District.

The No-Scone Diet

I set out on a series of slightly more energetic walks than my usual pace – more of that in a later post – but also cut out on anything extra between meals so no:

  • cream scones or flapjack with our morning coffee
  • the odd handful of crisps
  • and no red wine at the weekend 😮

No one said that this would be easy!

However, it’s worked as I’m pleased to be back to my regular waist size and I’ve lost half a stone, that’s 7 pounds, around 3 kilograms.

Maybe I can now allow myself the occasional scone . . .

Green Matcha Scones at the Cafe Vie

scones and coffee

Green scones are a new one for me: scone of the day at Cafe Vie this morning was matcha and white chocolate.

Lamy pen

I’ve just started working through the ‘100 prompts for inspired sketching on the go’ in John Gillard’s Coffee Break Sketching. In prompt number 2, I find that I can’t work fast enough to complete onr quick observational sketch between each sip of coffee in a single break, so this morning I’m continuing where I left off from a few shaky sketches I made at the Hepworth last week.

My new favourite pen for everyday drawing is an old Lamy Nexx with a broad nib. The broad nib flows more freely than my fine and extra fine Lamys, which might explain why, unlike them, it hasn’t clogged up. The broader nib gives a bolder, varied line, perfect for a coffee break sketch.

It’s loaded with DeAtramentis Document Ink which is waterproof as soon as it dries, which is a good idea as several of my sketches were partly washed out after one of my sketchbooks got soaked around the edges in my haversack during a Lake District downpour on Tuesday.

I’ve occasionally picked up a sketchbook when my hands are wet, blotting any drawing I happen to touch.

Link

John Gillard on Instagram

Cafe Vie, Thompson’s Yard, Ossett, on Instagram

My wildyorkshire Instagram account

Kalanchoe

kalanchoe

Kalanchoe, a popular houseplant which is a member of the stonecrop family. Its succulent leaves are dark green, smooth and lustrous and, with a whitish layer sandwiched between the upper and lower surface, surprisingly stiffish, like leather. This variety has primrose yellow flowers.

Flowers of a rather leggy pink kalanchoe.
Published
Categorized as Drawing

Potatoes

While we’ve been harvesting our first early Maris Peers these two shop-bought potatoes have been sitting, neglected, in the veg rack at the back of the garage.

It might be worth planting them.

Tomatoes

So tempting to add the colour but I’m working on my line at the moment.

Bottles

Some unfortunate bottles lurk for years, if not decades, in the bottom lefthand corner of our Welsh dresser.

TWSBI Eco-T

I’ve rarely used my favourite pen for natural history subjects – a TWSBI ECO-T with an extra fine nib – over the past year so it’s not surprising that the filler piston has got stuck.

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never applied the silicone lubricant that was supplied with it for the piston the pen since I bought it in March 2018.

That’s over seven years ago. Oh dear.

I’ve also always used it with waterproof inks: first Noodler’s and in recent years De Atrementis. Perhaps a good soak will free it.

The pen back in 2018 on location at Charlotte’s Ice Cream Parlour (which sadly is no longer open).

Farringdon Road Bookstall, 1982

bookstall

I drew the bookstalls on Farringdon Road in August 1982 for a proposed book on London street markets, which sadly never got published. While drawing this I spotted Colin West, from my year in illustration at the RCA, in his natural habitat, browsing for a bargain.

Cowslip’s Warren

Cowlip's Warren

I drew the backgrounds for the Cowslip’s Warren sequence for Martin Rosen’s 1978 animated version of Watership Down. At that time I often drew with a dip pen with a fine Gillot 1950 nib using Pelikan Special Brown Indian ink and, as we wanted the feel of an oppressively sinister Victorian vicarage for this scene, we decided that would be an appropriate medium.

Cowslip's Warren

Because of the scale I worked at, my original drawing was photographed to be enlarged to production size and printed on matt finish photographic paper which was sepia tinted. The colour was added by another background artist (the one who wore headphones as he worked, but I’m afraid that I don’t remember his name, as he started work on the production after I left to complete my Sketchbook of the Natural History of the Country Round Wakefield . . . using my dip pen with the 1950 nib).

I’ve published some of my work on the film before but I don’t think that I included this drawing, which I’ve just come across in a box file of artwork from a 1980s folio which I was looking through in the attic.