Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
After a busy day it’s relaxing to sit down, listen to a few episodes of Plants; from Roots to Riches, and draw just for fun. I have a habit of clearing my desk prior to starting any project. Sometimes it makes a change to enjoy the accumulated clutter.
Of all the vintage pen nibs that I tried recently I didn’t come across a bad one for drawing. This was drawn with the last one I tried, the Tower Pen, and it’s as good as any. It’s a lot easier to draw without a camera fixed above my sketchbook!
AFTER THREE WEEKENDS away and another catching up, I’m finally getting back to ordinary life. I’ve just sent my latest article off so it’s time to clear my desk and get started on the backlog of drawing and writing that I’ve got in mind to do. But first, to draw a line in the sand after all that frantic activity, I decide to draw my cluttered desktop.
I feel that random compositions are often the best so I don’t rearrange a thing before starting. As a change from fountain pen I decide to give myself the challenge of working with a dip pen and Indian ink, starting again from scratch as it were, and this nib certainly gives a scratchy effect compared with the rounded nib of my fountain pen.
I’m amazed how badly I flounder on proportions and positioning with a captive subject like this. My struggles are most obvious on the one of the few diagonals in the drawing, the handle of the tripod, but books and magazines also get out of proportion, probably because I’m not allowing enough for the effects of perspective which are an important factor when you’re so close to a subject, about four feet from the nearest pile of papers in this case.
Also I’m happily listening to Radio 3 as I work so I might have been better giving my full attention to my drawing.
But at least I’ve made the attempt and I’m hoping that now we’ve settled down I’ll be able to take the odd hour off to draw again.