Last weekend we got away on a short campervan trip to Forfar. I did lots of sketching outdoors as the weather was so nice. I liked the fact the Daffodils were set against a dark background. This was a 15min sketch.
What wonderful weather we are having just now. I took the opportunity to work outdoors on some colour block studies. This is good for improving observational skills when it comes to colours. I did one study in overcast light and one in sunshine. The garden is coming alive with fresh buds on the plants. Birds were chirping away as I worked, who needs music when you are in the great outdoors! (or even your back garden!)
I was at a Ploughing match in Dunino Fife and these two beautiful horses stole the show for me. I did a sketch to capture the gesture of the pose and the tonal value of the painting. I then got out my pastels and had fun. The day was quite damp and misty however that made for an interesting setting for the painting.
This is a 2 minute gesture drawing. I started with just scribbles working from the centre out searching for the main shapes. This is one of my better self portrait sketches as I enjoyed the fun of it. I didn’t have time to get too intense while concentrating.
This pastel painting was started with a watercolour undercoat in strong complimentary colours. I love the various shadows you see in sand dunes at different times of the day.
I have just finished this studio painting. This was inspired from sketches I did in Pittenweem on a really sunny and windy day. I chose this compostition from the previous oil studies I posted.
I set up this still life in the studio. I used a box on its side with a window cut out to allow the light to filter through on that side. This gave an interesting play of light on my subject. The paper I worked on was a pale yellow Sennelier pastel card. This has a nice rough texture to grab the pastel. The middle picture shows the still life in progress.
I did these three tonal studies after a visit to Pittenweem. I referred to my sketch book to capture the feeling of the place. It was after a storm hence the large waves. I used black and white oil paint and two other tones mixed from the black and white. I have to decide which ones to work on for a larger painting. I can’t decide.
Our central heating packed in on Saturday. This morning was very cold and frosty. While it was being fixed I took the opportunity of showing my appreciation for our woodburning stove by sketching it. What you don’t see in this drawing is that I have the kettle heating on top of the stove to make a cuppa. Our cat Xena is snoring in the other chair on the right. On my feet I am wearing my new cosy slippers.
The first image is my study of the Wave. I started the painting using a discarded piece of cardboard. I prepared it with a layer of gesso, this enables the pastel to adhere to the surface. My idea was to be less precious about the painting. I enjoyed it so much that the painting started to work out. I then went in search of more archival quality support and progressed onto the much larger second painting.