Category: Art

Haversack

haversack

After my practice at cross-hatching using a dip pen on a tilted drawing board, I looked around for an object to draw and went for this Lowe Alpine haversack.

the boathouse, Newmillerdam

The wind has just changed from mild, from the mid-Atlantic, to cold from the north-east, so I sat with a latte to warm me up as I started this drawing at the Boathouse Cafe at Newmillerdam this morning. I used my Lamy nexx fountain pen but I think, now I’ve scanned them both in ‘text’ mode, pure black and white, that it would be hard to spot the difference between this and the dip pen in the haversack drawing.

The black areas were brushed in later from a photograph I’d taken on my phone, outlined with a Rotring Tikky Graphic pigmented ink pen and filled with a number 10 Prolene series 101 synthetic brush using the Rohrer’s india ink which I used with the dip pen.

Drawing Board

drawing board

In Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden recommend drawing with your board angled at approximately 60 degrees. My old cast iron letterpress gives me just the right angle to prop the board against, which I’m resting on my knees. My parallel motion drafting board can’t be manoeuvred to that angle.

cross hatching

They also recommend always drawing with arm movements when you’re working in pen, so definitely not my the finger movements that I always go for in my detailed work. I’m going to try some of the exercises they suggest for getting used to working with a dip pen.

drawing at the drawing board

It’s going to take a lot of getting used to but I like the feeling of making marks on what feels to me like a near-vertical surface. Bristol board, also recommended in Abel & Madden’s book, doesn’t tear as I scratch away with my dip pen and it gives a crisp line with no bleeding into the fibres of the paper surface.

writing on the drawing board

Link

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures website

Duck-feeders

man on park bench

I stuck to black and white at Newmillerdam this morning – a B-nib Lamy filled with De Atramentis ink and a Pentel brush pen.

When people are wearing bright yellow or blue, it’s tempting to add that as a flat wash but I’m experimenting with black and white for my werewolf comic, to create an inky gothic atmosphere.

Also as an experiment, I scanned these at 600 dpi (dots per inch) in ‘1 bit B/W’, reducing everything to either pure black or white.

Peasants from Flagey

peasants, after Courbet

For my werewolves project I need one or two French peasants who claim to have encountered a loup garou, so I’ve taken a look at Courbet’s Peasants from Flagey.

For the werewolf itself, I thought that the lean look of this wolf sculpture from Chatsworth might be the way to go.

Felix Natalis

hedge trimmer cartoon

Rumours soon spread that ‘The PhantTOM Topiarist’, a.k.a. ‘The Latin Banksy’ was one of the masters at the local Academy.

hedgetrimmer advert from Gtech
Pixelated image of the alleged ‘Phantom Topiarist’.

Happy birthday to Richard.

On the Bonnie Banks of Loch Bogle

camping cartoon

Birthday card for an outdoor enthusiast.

animals cartoon

Hope he’ll feel just as enthusiastic bright and early the next morning.

African animals

Meanwhile, on the plains of the Serengeti, a biodiverse gathering for another recent birthday.

Published
Categorized as cartoon

Laburnum Stump

laburnum stump

This morning I drew what remains of the old laburnum behind the aviaries at the top end of the Fish Pond (now more likely to be referred to as the Duck Pond) at Thornes Park.

There was more of the tree left when I drew it for my ‘Thornes Park’ booklet over twenty years ago, and it was still hanging onto a few living branches. The aviary has had a major revamp since then.

Chestnut Stump

chestnut

This sweet chestnut stump by the Lower Lake in the Pleasure Grounds at Nostell had been cut so that it created a Tolkeinesque throne.

Starting at the top of the drawing, I drew in pen then inked in the dark crevices using a Chinese brush but as I got onto the main trunk, I brushed in the darker areas first, then added the line.

Old Ossett Wall

old wall

There’s an old sandstone wall, a possibly reused beam, some handmade bricks and modern brick: this old outbuilding on Station Road, South Ossett, evidently has quite a history. Part of it was formerly a small stable, later a garage.

The old fashioned toilet roll holder still fixed to the modernish brick wall on the left is another clue.

ducks
Ducks at Newmillerdam this morning.

Ash Roots

ash roots

Ash roots grow over an old quarry face near the ice house at The Menagerie at Nostell.