Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
Rohrer’s, Winsor & Newton, Pelikan, Noodler’s, Universal stamp pad, FW Acrylic inks (plus Tipp-Ex and Rowney Soluble Matt Varnish . . . drawn with my Lamy AL-star filled with De Atramentis Document Ink, which dries waterproof so that I could add White Nights watercolour with a Daler Aquafine Sable Round.
I open the patio windows and step out barefoot to pick up the bird bath, which is supported by a circle of those broken bricks. I stick to the afternoon shadow from the house but the last step out into the sun on the concrete flags is uncomfortably hot.
It’s too warm to sit in the sun this afternoon so these iPad drawings were made in the studio which I’ve managed to keep a little below 90℉.
I have to admit that I’ve cheated, these iPad drawings are both of my left hand but I flipped the hand holding the pen horizontally in Photoshop.
Drawn with an Apple Pencil in Clip Studio Paint using the ‘Textured pen’ and ‘Watery ink’ brush. I had the iPad fixed on my Sketchboard Pro drawing board.
Kittiwakes nesting and a juvenile herring gull at Bridlington Harbour; a quiet corner of Bondville Model Village; harebells at North Landing, Flamborough and ring-tailed lemur and Humboldt’s penguins at Sewerby Hall.
A couple of weeks ago I got to return to Pickering Castle for the first time since a school trip there in the 1960s. It hasn’t changed much but an improvement is that the grass on the steep slopes of the motte is now cut only once every three years its now a steeply sloping meadow with marjoram, lady’s bedstraw, knapweed and dog daisy.
Enchanter’s nightshade grows by the ‘secret’ emergency exit from the castle, the postern gate. This was built on the verbal instructions of Edward II when he visited the castle (which were later confirmed in writing). Edward had seized the castle from rebel leader Thomas Earl of Lancaster after the Battle of Boroughbridge.
“Do you draw people?” the editor asked me as she looked through my sketchbooks.
If I could draw gorillas surely it would be obvious that I’d be able to draw people too? But I decided to make a special effort.
I enrolled on a weekly life drawing evening, which I kept up for years and I set off to the local market and, over the period of several weeks, filled it with drawings of people. Wakefield had a large open market and a market hall and you got a full range of different people shopping or just browsing there.
It’s forecast to be the warmest day of the week but sitting in the shade at the foot of a woodland slope at Newmillerdam it’s like having air conditioning as I draw the hogweed.
Ossett is a Viking place name, which might mean ‘Osla’s seat’ or ‘ridge camp’.
I’m transferring my 1998 booklet Around Old Ossett from the Microsoft Publisher version on my now defunct PC to Adobe InDesign on my iMac and taking the opportunity to spruce up my cartoons of local place names in Adobe Illustrator.
In my original booklets I wanted the blackest of blacks possible so I went for bit map format where each pixel is either black or white – never grey but this gives a slightly pixelated image. In Illustrator I can use the ‘Image Trace’ function set to ‘Black and White Logo’ to get a smoother effect.
Amongst the ripening sloes on the blackthorn are a few pocket plum galls. Pocket plum, also known as bladder plum gall, Taphrina pruni, is caused by a fungus.
There were plenty of ringlet butterflies weaving about at grass-top height in this meadow between Cawthorne and Cannon Hall Park. We thought that we spotted a single meadow brown and a skipper too.
Settling more often than the ringlets were a few fresh-looking commas. I say fresh-looking but they look like a ragged-edge dead leaf when the wings are folded shut.
Sitting outside at a table at Hillary’s cafe in Cawthorne village, I couldn’t resist drawing this chimney on a cottage across the road. It includes chimney pots of various vintages, stone, cement, brick and lead with some textured rendering on the stack plus on a tuft or two of grass and a television aerial as a final touch.
