Category: Sky

Towards the End of the Afternoon

I’M AWARE that the predominate colour scheme of my sketchbooks is brown and green, but mainly brownish, whether I’m drawing shells, fossils or assorted birds and animals, so, looking out of the window this afternoon at 4.15, instead of starting with the trees, I started with a patch of blue and instead of starting with my current favourite brown pen, I just started laying on the colour, propping my sketchbook on my glasses’ case so that the watercolour wash ran down the page.

A vapour trail in the east above the wood was illuminated by the near to setting sun while grey clouds were approaching from the south, filling most of my view by the time I finished my second sketch.

Strips of Sky

strips of sky

cloud in pen and wash

“It’s a shame that I can’t turn my chair around and look out of the window.” says Betty when we visit her in her first floor ward in the old building at Pinderfields. Sitting at the end of the bed all I can see is a strip of sky framed by one end of the vertical blinds. Inevitably the sky changes continuously as I paint and having such a limited field of view means that I can’t follow a particular cloud as it moves – morphing as it goes – from west to east.

clouds, brown inkWith the tail end of a cold I’m not in the alert responsive mode that you need to keep track of changing colour and changing forms simultaneously, so I go for my ArtPen loaded with brown ArtPen ink, blotting the lines with my waterbrush for a rudimentary pen and wash effect.