Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
After a year, our zonal pelargonium is beginning to look a bit leggy.
Drawn in Procreate on the iPad using the Tinderbox virtual pen from the Inking section. Having got through all three of my PenTips 2 soft Apple Pencil tips, I’m now back to a plain Apple Pencil tip but the canvas texture of the PenTips Magnetic Matte Screenprotector is working well for me, an improvement on drawing on the iPad’s glass screen.
I struggled to identify this flower, photographed with my iPhone as we walked around Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s Idle Valley reserve a couple of weeks ago. I think what’s happened is that greater stitchwort flowers are growing up amongst the foliage of some kind of cranesbill.
It was drawn in Procreate on the iPad but if I’d been drawing from the actual plant in my sketchbook I might have realised that they’d got mixed up.
Unless you can suggest the identity of a plant with stitchwort-type flowers and cranesbill-style leaves?
With snow on the ground today it’s been good to think about May time for a my next Dalesman nature diary.
Barbara’s brother John has seen the outside world just once in the last month on a brief wheelchair tour of the Hospice grounds so he asked us to photograph some of the spring flowers that are currently coming up in our garden.
The rest of the garden is ready for a bit of a spring clean but the crocus, daffodils, irises, winter aconite and pulmonaria give a welcome burst of colours.
Flamingo flower (Arum family) and New Zealand Cabbage-tree Palm (Asparagus family, so not a ‘true palm’ of the Arecaceae family) at the Hospice.
Drifts of snowdrops, winter aconites and a variety of hellebores at Brodsworth Hall this morning.
There are a few bright spots of colour beginning to appear on the raised bed behind the pond.
With the afternoon light starting to fade I went for the easier option of photographing them and drawing from my iPad.
This is my first drawing with my refreshed Winsor and Newton watercolour box which I’ve filled with botanical subjects in mind and so far it seems to be working.
Some of the colours in my original Winsor & Newton watercolour box have been worn away to shrivelled husks so I’ve revamped the box with some replacements and some substitutions.
My aim is to make this a palette suitable for painting wild flowers, so, in addition to my regular cool and warm versions of red, yellow and blue, I’ve gone for a warm and cool violet along with Permanent Magenta.
There are probably slightly too many earthy brownish colours, so as I start to use the box I might put some of those on the substitute list and think about an olive green, an indigo or perhaps another yellow, either a gold or an acid yellow.
We’ve never needed to sow marigold seeds over the past few years as they seed themselves in the flower border and around the veg beds.
I’ve drawn one of the seed heads from different angles seen in close up through my magnifier desk lamp.
Drawn with my TWSBI Eco-T pen filled with De Atramentis sepia brown ink.
Seed heads of tansy, from a rough verge in Ossett and yarrow from a grassy area at Newmillerdam.
On Monday morning wisps of thin vapour blew over the surface of the ice. There was a hollow clacking as a child three chunks of ice and rock onto the frozen surface of the lake.
One of a family of four swans touching down at the far side of the overshot the landing site and went skimming along the watery surface of the ice. A drake mallard landing on ice near the open area by the war memorial did something similar but managed to do an about turn and slid back towards the other ducks he’d landed with.
