Drawing my cat in sepia ink

Chloe sunbathing and sleeping on the yellow chair
August Bank Holiday 1994
Pilot G-Tec-C4 pen in sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook

31 years ago, I spent Bank Holiday Monday drawing my cat Chloe lazing on the back of my big creamy yellow armchair. It was especially favoured because it had feather and down cushions and hence a very comfortable squishy bed could be achieved by a cat dedicated to comfy sleeps.

This is drawn, by eyeballing sat 10 feet away, in pen and sepia ink in my Moleskine sketchbook. 

I now have a print of this pic in a frame sat right next to where she used to love sunbathing and sleeping.

I've always been in favour of staying home on Bank Holiday Mondays. There again I do live in central London, which necessitates a long slog in the traffic to get back home again if I go out when everybody else decides to go out!

Moreover, at the time I was working as a management consultant for one of the "Big Four" with lots of travel all around the country - with very early starts and very late returns home.

 Staying at home and not doing very much - except drawing my cat - was my idea of a proper "time out"!

I also used to get up early on Saturday mornings to draw using pastels and would aim to complete a large work by early afternoon....

My favourite subjects to draw and sketch

How do we identify the special subjects we like to sketch, draw or paint again and again?

Sometimes we don't realise for a very long time what they are until we've done enough to see a pattern.

Landscapes with extensive views

For me, it dawned on me after I first created my website for my artwork that it was landscapes with VERY BIG vistas! There were an awful lot of them....

Here's an example. This was a commission I did 11 years ago for the American wife of a cyclist who loved his time cycling up Mont Ventoux in Provence (YES! There really are people who commission paintings for their spouses!) 

Mont Ventoux from the Hotel Crillon Le Brave
12" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils on Arches HP 

The commission was triggered by a sketch on a blog post on the blog we created for a painting holiday in Provence 

Painting in Provence
This is the story of four women who were drawing, sketching and painting in Provence in June 2011.
We shared a house and held a painting party!
You are invited to share our preparations, our sketches and paintings, comings and goings and general conviviality!and the original sketch

This was the original blog post Sunday lunch and sketching at Hotel Crillon Le Brave and two of the original sketches. 

The view from the terrace of Mont Ventoux and Bedoin in the distance

Meals in restaurants

The second sketch is my lunch - also known as what I was eating while sketching! 

Also known as my second favourite subject for sketching: meals in restaurants and cafes

I've got absolutely masses from a number of different countries! I have pondered on doing some more research and maybe creating a book! ;)

I have a record of the meal on my main sketchblog The view of Mont Ventoux from Crillon Le Brave

• Soupe de Pöisson, Crouton et Aioli mediterranean fish soup, aioli and croutons;
• Thon à la Planche, Salade Fenoil, Tartibe de'Aioli tuna steak, shaved fennel salad and aioli tartine
• Floating Island in lavender

My three course lunch at the Hotel Crillon Le Brave:
mediterranean fish soup, aioli and croutons;
tuna steak, shaved fennel salad and aioli tartine and
a floating island in lavender

The sketches were all done in a large Moleskine Sketchbook using pen and ink and coloured pencils. 

I've always very much enjoyed eating out - and developed a rule while travelling of "If I'm eating in a new place I should really try to eat something I've never had before".   Very educational - travels broaden the mind - and sometimes the tum!

The big advantage of sketching food for me is that I had to be fast and eating enforced breaks from sketching - which helps a lot when trying to protect your hand from tenosynovitis / osteoarthritis through gripping pens and pencils for far too long! (See yesterday's blog post about Golden Oldie #3: Artists and Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI))

Now that I'm more mobile and steadier on my feet, I really ought to start taking a small sketchbook and a small pencil case out with me - and eat out more!

See the results of the Sketchoff

The 90 minute WHS / Derwent Pencils Sketchoff (spin off from The Big Painting Challenge) on Tuesday night is over.

some of the entries for the WH Smith / Derwent Pencils sketchoff.

You can see 

• who won the prize in this post on the WH Smith blog (the first three entries after the photo at the beginning of the slideshow are the winners)
• the entries on this page - and you can see a sample above

It's always  interesting to see how so many people can see and draw the same image differently!

The three winners of the prize on offer from Derwent Pencils were:

• Lynn Howarth - a pastel artist who lives in Glasgow
• Jimmy Edwards - a studio apprentice living in Morley
• Ellie Frost - lives in Cambridge and draws a lot

Here's my "fast" 20 minutes pen and ink version in my Moleskine sketchbook with a little bit of coloured pencil added in at the end.

my pen and ink sketch of Una Stubbs (8" x 5")
in my Moleskine Sketchbook

Moleskine sketchbooks have changed - or have they?

The new Moleskine Sketchbook wrapper

In a panic about whether Moleskine has changed its paper as well as the wrapper for its very popular sketchbooks - as reported - I ordered some.

The sketchbooks arrived today - and it's interesting

My order included:

• a large A4 size sketchbook with the new wrapper (I've previously ordered the Folio Sketchbooks with the dark mauve wrapper) and
• a normal 'large' sketchbook  with the old lilac wrapper (with a double page spread of 8" x 10")

Comparison of the NEW and old wrappers for Moleskine sketchbooks

I then dug out an old Moleskine that had an empty page, my latest Moleskine and I photographed them all together - and this is what they looked like

Moleskine sketchbooks - the paper is different but not how I expected!

Moleskine Folio Sketchbook

It looks like the Folio Sketchbook has dropped the old dark mauve wrapper for a new lilac edged wrapper. They're still called Folio Sketchbooks on the Moleskine website

The Sketchbook A4 has 96 wide pages in high quality heavy paper, ideal for tempera colours. 160 g/m2 top quality acid free paper

The paper in this NEW version of the Folio Sketchbook is described thus

Back of new Moleskine sketchbook wrapper

• Size (inches): 8 1/4" x 11 3/4"
• Size (cm): 21x 29,7
• 96 pages
• 165 g/m2 (111 lb acid free paper)
• ISBN 13: 978-88-6293-193-9

Interestingly the back of the wrapper describes the paper as now having better absorbing paper.

Now since this is NOT the watercolour sketchbook this seems an odd description. I don't particularly want the paper to be absorbent. I use coloured pencils and much prefer hard sized paper because the colours remain far more vibrant if they don't sink into the paper. The old description was this

• A4 plain pages in high quality heavy paper.
• 160 g/m2.
• Dimensions: 21 x 29.7 cm - 12 x 8.5".

Back of old Moleskine Folio Sketchbook wrapper

On the face of it the NEW PAPER is lighter in colour and it feels as if it possibly be a little lighter in weight despite the assertion that it is in fact heavier 165g/m2 as opposed to the old 160 g/m2.

So far as I am concerned the weight and smoothness of the paper is everything. I wouldn't buy Moleskine sketchbooks at all if they lost either of these characteristics.  I also don't want a soft sized paper - I want a paper where the ink and coloured pencils I use sit on top of the paper and don't become absorbed by the paper and lose their 'edge'.

This is the link to the Folio A4 Sketchbook on the website

This is the link to the Folio A3 Sketchbook on the website (Not to be confused with the Moleskine Folio Plain book - with the old mauve wrapper - which only has 100 g/m2 acid free paper and is now listed as 'out of stock' by the Moleskine Store)

I found these first by putting sketchbook in the search window. I eventually found them through using the link to Creativity Notebooks and Albums

Using the top line menu I can get what's called the Art Plus collection (under Creativity). Just to confuse matters this seems to include a new size with an odd name called Art Plus Sketch Album - BUT note this only has 120 g/m2 paper not the 165 g/m2 paper of the Sketchbook.

So the moral of the story if you want the heavy weight paper is STAY AWAY from anything which is called

• Notebook - the paper is not suitable for sketching if you don't want marks to show through the paper
• Plain Book - 100 g/m2 acid free paper
• Sketch Album - 120 g/m2 paper
• Red Notebooks - this is flimsy paper that I use for my notes of exhibitions (however note that there is a Red Sketchbook which has a cover which claims 165 g/m2 paper)

I haven't tested the paper yet - watch this space!

[UPDATE: For those confused between the Folio sketchbook and the Folio book with plain paper this is how they were described when introduced in 2009.  

The Folio Collection will launch five new products, providing consumers with formats for both creating art and for professional use:

• Ruled book : 176 pages, available in the A4 format

• Plain book: 176 pages, available in the A4 and A3 formats

• Portfolio: an accordion-style tool featuring big pockets in cardboard and cloth, available in A4 and A3 formats

• Sketchbook: 96 large pages in high quality heavy paper, available in A4 and A3 formats

• Watercolour Album: 60 pages, heavy paper, 200 gsm, cold pressed, available in the A4 and A3 format

Note the Plain book does NOT say it uses the heavy weight paper.]

Moleskine Classic Large Sketchbook

As per the image on the right in the top photo, this has traditionally been described thus

• ISBN 13: 978-88-8370-115-3
• Size (inches): 5” x 8 ¼”
• Size (cm): 13X21
• Pages: 104
• Collection: Notebooks and Journals
• Model: Hard black cover notebooks
• Cover: Hard Cover
• Colour: Black
• Layout: Sketchbook
• Format: Large

The new Large Sketchbook states

• 104 pages of top quality heavy weight acid-free paper
• Size (inches): 5" x 8 ¼"
• Size (cm): 13 x 21
• ISBN 13: 978-88-8370-115-3

What surprised me when I put the Large Sketchbooks together was the difference in the colour of the paper. I've not been using my current Moleskine much - and now I see why!  The colour is way different to normal and the brand new Sketchbook I that has just arrived is much more like the 2007 one. Seems as if somebody lost the plot on quality control.

I've yet to try the new Moleskine sketchbooks - but will report back when I have.  (Initial trials of hatchling in pen and ink on the back page suggests the paper seems pretty similar.)

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all regular readers of Making A Mark 
a Merry Christmas 

and Happy Sketching and Painting in the New Year

Christmas Skating Rink in front of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell 

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Kew Gardens in June

An Orangery Afternoon Tea

8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I can highly recommend Kew Gardens in June. Yesterday it was full of flowers associated with Georgia O'Keeffe - arum lilies, poppies and irises. Kew also has a great glasshouse which has wonderful orchids which are another favourite O'Keeffe flower.

It also had masses of flowers more commonly associated with English Gardens - peonies, roses - although both of course came from elsewhere originally.

It's so much easier getting good photos of flowers when they are in some sort of shade as you then get the shading associated with the structure of the flower as opposed to that associated with the direction of the sunlight.

The Waterlily House besides having wonderful varieties of waterlily is now host to lots and lots of different varieties of chillis! Kew has apparently decided it's having a Mediterranean summer. This seems to be focusing on the different sorts of plants that it's now possible to grow given the extent of climate change to date. You can even listen to a podcast if you visit the website! I've included a link below to a society dedicated to water gardening.

We had 'interesting clouds' yesterday which ran the whole gamut of colours between violet and deep purple - but fortunately the rain held off. The sketch at the top is my view of the terrace outside the Orangery where they have small orange and lemon trees growing in what look rather like zinc tubs

Visiting the shop at the end I was extremely pleased to find (and buy) Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collections (Hardcover) by Barbara Buhler Lynes (Author). This has been produced by the Georgia O'Keefe Museum as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations. More about this after I've had a read. My reading on the way down to Kew was Arthur Wesley Dow's book!

I've also found the sort of book I'm after - but I definitely can't afford this one - "One Hundred Flowers by Georgia O'Keeffe" edited by Nicholas Calloway!

You can see the range of botanical books produced and sold online by Kew at Kewbooks [www.kewbooks.com]

Links:

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Mediterranean summer at Kew
• The Waterlily House
• Kew Books - online sales of publications by the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew
  
• International Waterlilly and Water Gardening Society
  

Readers' Questions: Should I sketch back to back in my sketchbook?

Valeria's Palm, Baga Beach (1993)
8.5" x 11.5", coloured pencil in Daler Rowney Sketch Book
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I get asked a lot whether or not I sketch on the reverse of sketches already completed. The following is the latest example.

I see lots of sketchbooks in art books and websites (including yours) where they sketch across the binding of the sketchbook to fill two pages. But since I have not actually seen the sketchbook, I always wondered if they sketch back to back throughout the whole book or do you leave two pages blank and then do another set of two? Because if you draw or paint on the back of a painted on page, then it could bleed and ruin the artwork behind it.

The answer is "Yes" - I sketch on the back of sketches. Let me explain why - but do remember that I tend to sketch with pencils, coloured pencils and pen and ink and very rarely use watercolour these days. Another caveat is that those who have watched me work say I apparently have an incredibly light touch so what works for me might not work for others.

Let's start with the issue of what a sketch and a sketchbook is about. This is the definition I gave in the Drawing Class on Sketching that I led in the Wet Canvas Drawing and Sketching Forum last year.

A sketch, in art terms can be

• a way of practising and refining your skills in drawing and mark marking
• an exploratory drawing – exploring how something works/might work
• a quick drawing – e.g. sketching in public tends to be time-limited rather than open-ended
• a rough description – it’s OK if they lack detail; don’t fill the page or are not even completed
• a record of something you’ve seen
• a record of one or more aspects of something you want to develop into a painting e.g. a colour study
• a preliminary study – for a later painting (done before you start to check how your painting will work rather than as an underdrawing on your final support)

In other words, the aim when sketching is not to make a finished work of art - although your sketch might be a stage in the process of producing one. So since it's very unlikely that you'll be hanging anything in your sketchbook on the wall my feelings are that there is no need to be bothered about what's on the other side of the page - unless a 'ghost' of it can be seen.

I don't take my sketchbooks apart at all. When I work from my sketches I use them as they are in the sketchbook. So my only concern when starting a new drawing is whether or not the previous sketch shows through the paper enough to distract me. If it does then I'll keep a double page spread blank and start on the next but one.

In practice, if I'm using my Moleskine Sketchbook I never have any worries at all. All my double page spreads in my USA travel sketchbooks are back to back. The reason for this concerns the quality of the paper which is good quality 250gsm and . This means that it feels like a standard piece of hot press watercolour paper (but this is not the watercolour Moleskine - which has different paper!). If I draw on it the only reason I'm going to be concerned is if I indent the surface - and that's not at all easy as it's a very robust and very smooth paper which can take an awful lot of working with coloured pencils.

My Daler Rowney black hardback sketchbook which I also use a lot has perforated sheets of acid free Ivory Cartridge paper 85g/m - like a bond type paper. I have to be a bit more careful with this sketchbook. If a sketch is going to have very dark colours or any heavy working then it can show through and it is best to skip a double page spread before starting a new sketch. However if the next sketch you're doing just needs a single page then I only skip the reverse side of the right hand side of the double page spread. If you see what I mean!

Contemplating Baga Beach (1993)
8.5" x 11.5", coloured pencil in Daler Rowney Sketch Book
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However, having said that, the two examples of sketches I did in Goa in India in 1993 (at the top and bottom of this post) were done back to back in an A5 size Daler Rowney black sketchbook! There's a slight indication of the palm fronds on the right hand page of the above sketch and after this I started to be a bit more careful about the impact on previous sketches. I now place a piece of card underneath the page when scanning sketches from on paper under 100gsm to avoid picking up the two sides of the next double page spread! I also have to be careful when I use pen and ink. Lots of hatching to produce a dark tone definitely has an impact on the reverse of the page.

MY ADVICE: Remember what a sketchbook is about and use your common sense. Experiment and find a sketchbook which works well for you and your style and type of sketching and then stick to it and sketch back to back whenever possible.

Links:

• Moleskine
  
• Daler Rowney
• Wet Canvas Drawing and Sketching Forum - Basic 102: Class 3 - Sketching
• Pastels and Pencils: Travels with a Sketchbook - in the USA (2006)
  
• Pastels and Pencils: Travels with a Sketchbook - in Goa, India (1993)

Technorati tags: colored pencils, coloured pencils, drawing,plein air, sketch, sketchbook

Amazon and Moleskine Books have a Clearance Sale - or do they?

It's not often you see a Moleskine for less than the normal retail price - so to see prices really slashed causes jaw dropping on a grand scale!

Check out the clearance prices on amazon.com site for sketchbooks. I'm looking at the price for a large sketchbook which is suggesting a 40% reduction from the normal retail rate. They're quoting $24.99 as the normal retail price (and $19.95 as the normal Amazon rate) and then $14.95 as the clearance sale price - making a saving of just over $10 on the normal retail price.

Now when my jaw drops I start looking at why something is such a good bargain. In this instance the supplier is not Amazon - goods ship from and are sold by Moleskine Books - so watch out for shipping rates in case the reduction is not as good in reality as it seems. It appears that the base rate is $5.99 per shipment plus $0.99 per item. Which seems to me takes the cost to the customer of a single Moleskine back up to $21.93 - which is not looking so cheap to me. Buy a large quantity with friends and maybe you've got a good deal? Bottom line - make sure you do the calculations and are happy with the TOTAL cost before placing any order.

Potential buyers should note this extract about shipping costs from the 'about us' section of the moleskine.cc website.

BARGAIN-PRICED ITEMS
From time to time, Moleskine Books has chosen to make a range of items available to our customers at very low prices. In most cases, these listings represent a fraction of the original cost of the item to us. However, the total amount for these orders which our customers pay includes a reasonable shipping fee, as specified in our shipping policies. This amount does not vary for any of our items. Bargain-priced items incur the same shipping charges as our regularly-priced retail merchandise, and sometimes this is surprising for our customers. We cannot make adjustments to our shipping policies with regard to our bargain-priced listings.

Please see our FAQ pages for further information regarding our bargain-priced items.

I was looking for more information about the company as I couldn't work out who this company - "Moleskine Books" - was. Also bear in mind the lack of data about the background to this company on their website. There are a number of websites on the internet which 'appear' to be the company behind Moleskine notebooks - but they aren't - they just exist to try and sell them.

My large Moleskine sketchbook is one of the two brands of sketchbook which I use when travelling with a sketchbook. You can see how they work with pencil, pen and ink and coloured pencil in my sketches in Travels with a Sketchbook in....... and in particular in those threads associated with Travels with a Sketchbook in the USA.

I'm always interested in a bargain to do with buying Moleskines. If you think you've found a bargain do let me know!

Links:

• Amazon.com
• Moleskine Books - Amazon shopfront
• Moleskine Books
  

Technorati tags: drawing, moleskine, sketch, sketchbook

Knole House in Kent

Knole House, Sevenoaks, Kent

8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

On Easter Sunday we visited Knole House near Sevenoaks in Kent. We went for a stroll in the ancient parkland which is one of the few deer parks to survive over the last 500 years and the only one in Kent. Then we both sat on a fallen tree trunk in the parkland on the hill overlooking the house while "He who must not be bored while I sketch" read the Sunday Times and I sketched Knole House - in pen and ink finished with coloured pencil.

A longer post detailing something of the history of the house and its association with archbishops, kings, queens, the Sackville family, the novel 'Orlando' by Virginia Woolf and the Raphael cartoons in the Victoria and Albert Museum and relevant links can be found on my "Travels with a sketchbook" blog here. I also describe a really excellent cream tea!

Technorati tags: national trust, sketchbook,

Travels with a sketchbook in London: a summary

The Palm House, Kew Gardens
pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've created a summary of my all my sketches of places in London which are now posted on my Travels with a Sketchbook blog.

I'm adding blogposts and sketches slowly to my sketchbook blog and they're by no means all included as yet however there are now a goodly number - hence this summary. I intend to update the summary on a regular basis - probably at the end of every month if I've posted sketches relating to London in that month. A link to this summary is also now included in the 'trip summary' bit of the links to my websites section in the right hand column of both blogs.

Sketches are grouped according to which area of London they belong to and then ordered according to the date they were done rather than the date they were posted as transfers to my other blog are still being done.

A link to the latest sketches last Friday - of the Palm House at Kew Gardens and another view of Syon Reach can be found at the end of the list below.

Central London

• St Paul's Cathedral from Tate Modern - this includes a view of the Millenium foot Bridge over the River Thames
  
• 10th International Sketchcrawl - the results a fish stall in Borough Market, London Bridge looking east towards the Tower of London and and Tower Bridge, outside Southwark Cathedral, Wright Brothers, an Oyster and Ale House, Southwark Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral
  
• Sketching at night by the Thames - St Paul's Cathedral at night and the Thames Bridges at night
• From Bankside to the City of London: the view from Tate Modern - a view of St Paul's Cathedral, the 'old' Nat West Tower and 'the Gherkin' from rooms in Tate Modern - the national gallery of international modern art.
  

Pool of London / East London / Greenwich

• The Green Bridge - the Millenium bridge (a bridge with a park and trees on top) built over one of the main road into London from Essex
• Sketching Victoria Park and the Hertford Union - scenes from the first recreational park in the East End and an adjacent canal.
• Victoria Park: the Tea Pavilion - a sketch from a hot June morning in Victoria Park
  
• Canary Wharf Sky 31st January 2007 - the view from next to the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park - looking down of the Old Royal Naval College and the National maritime Museum and over to the Isle of Dogs and the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf.
  
• 13th International Sketchcrawl: Sketches of the Pool of London
• Rotherhithe: the Mayflower and Brunel - historic locations in a short stretch of riverside in south London
  
• Wapping: the Pier Head and Old Custom House - the old entrance to the old London Docks
  
• Shad Thames, Tower Bridge and the Pool of London - a view from Wapping of what was once the busiest area on the River Thames.
  

West London and Kew Gardens

• Good Friday at Kew Gardens - sketches of the Palm House and Syon Reach

Reference Books - Book Reviews

• Byfield and Binney: London Sketchbook

Technorati tags: book review, colored pencil, coloured pencils, drawing, London, pencil, River Thames, sketch, sketchbook, travel sketchbook

Reloading a Moleskine

Reloading? You may well ask.

Some people like the size and shape of a Moleskine - but not the paper. For those who'd like to replace the paper with paper of their own choosing, Martha from Trumpetvine Travels has developed a simply wonderful set of instructions for reloading your Moleskine. Rarely have I seen such dedication to providing a really clear set of instructions - with pics for the difficult bits!

I've not tried to do this myself as I use coloured pencils rather than watercolour and love the Moleskine sketchbook paper so have no need to change it. However, I do know that artists using watercolour in Moleskines have been less than ecstatic even when the new watercolour sketchbook was brought out. However read the comments from the people who have tried this process and judge for yourself.

Also take a look at the Trumpetvine setup - there's an introduction in my first blogpost about Trumpetvine Travels below.

Links:

• Making a Mark 26.04.06. - Trumpetvine Travels
• Trumpetvine Travels - main site
  
• Trumpetvine Sketchblog
  
• Trumpetvine Travels - Moleskine Reloaded

Technorati tags: art, drawing, Moleskine, sketchbook, sketching

Sketching at the National Gallery: "Manet to Picasso"

Copy of Edgar Degas's "After the Bath" at the National Gallery
pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine notebook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The National Gallery has displayed afresh its series of paintings by modern Masters in the basement gallery of the Sainsbury Wing in its exhibition "From Manet to Picasso". It's well worth seeing if you are fortunate to be in London before the end of May. It offers the opportunity to follow the sequence of changes in painting in Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth century; see important paintings alongside ones associated with them which are normally in private collections plus the chance to see the working methods of Manet. For more about these paintings and the exhibition generally click here and here. The website also has National Gallery's Introduction to The Impressionists.

While waiting to get into the Velaquez exhibition yesterday (timed tickets only) I took the opportunity to go and revisit these works - and this time to sketch in colour (Regular readers may remember this "Drawing Monet" post from last year - which describes my technique for sketching works being viewed by others). Those who have my plan for this year know that I intend to study and draw the works of artists I find influential in order to understand both them and their works better. Today it was the turn of Monet and Degas. For more sketches done yesterday in the Velaquez exhibition see the previous post.

Copies of National Gallery paintings from Claud Monet's "Poplars on the Epte" series
oil on canvas
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I started with two of my favourite paintings from Monet's Poplars on the Epte series. This time I got the audio guide and learned that:

• there are 24 paintings in the series depicting the poplars at different times of the day and in different weath
• Monet painted them from a flat bottomed boat borrowed from his friend Caillebotte which had been specially adpated so that it could take canvases of different sizes. ( The painting from a boat habit reminded me of John Singer Sargent who used to sketch in Venice while sat in a gondola - I'm beginning to think about devising a boating expedition!)
• He had to buy the land that the poplars stood on to avoid them being cut down before he had completed the series!

The one on the left does not compare well to the original due to lack of the right colours in my tiny pencil case. The one on the right worked rather better - but I could have done with my big sketchbook!

I then sketched the Degas pastel "After the Bath" and rather regretted not having a deep yellow with me - but have added that this morning, Interestingly when I looked at the reproduction on the website this seemed to be a much more washed out version which looked rather more yellow than the reality! However drawing in very subdued lighting might account for me thinking it's darker than it really is!

The Degas is interesting because it's actually done on five pieces of paper which have been mounted onto board. I also learned that Degas had his own recipe for fixative (he fixed between each layer and then worked again on top) which I now feel the urge to find out more about. His use of fixative makes some works - such as this one - look more like oil paintings than conventional pastels.

Tip: One of the ways I remember which colours need to be added in later if I don't have them with me is to actually work out and identify the precise colour by name. I find it's much easier to remember that way.

Have you ever sketched in a public gallery - as a child or as an adult - and , if you did, how did you find it?

Links:

• National Gallery: Manet to Picasso Exhibition (until May 2007)
• National Gallery - "Manet to Picasso" - Press Release
• National Gallery: Introduction to the Impressionists
  
• Making a Mark: Drawing Monet
• Making a Mark: Drawing Heads: Velaquez and the Prince's Drawing School
  

Technorati tags: art, colored pencils, coloured pencils, Degas, drawing, Monet, pencil, sketching, sketchbook

Starting to sketch with coloured pencils

Nauset Light, Cape Cod
8" x 0" pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I get lots of comments and enquiries from people asking me about sketching and how to learn how to sketch. If you're one of those people, you may be pleased to hear that I'm getting a bit more organised! As part of my plan for 2007, (this is January after all!) I've started to assemble my written advice on sketching on my website as a preliminary to more sharing of information and developing this further (workshops etc).

So - for those interested in learning more about how to sketch - you might want to take a peek at the new page on my website ( www.pastelsandpencils.com ) called Advice on Sketching. I'm going to use this as a place to put read-only Word files (.doc extension) for

• any of my articles on sketching that are published on the internet
  
• any on-line classes on sketching that I tutor - which start with guidance written by me.

There's not a lot new under the sun and the principles about how go about sketching don't belong to anybody. However my approach and my words belong to me and the files are copyright protected. This means that you can download under the "fair use" educational provisions of copyright law for your private use only. What you can't do is download them and then sell them or use them as part of a course for which you're getting a fee. (In other words they should not be used by other tutors as part of their materials. I've no objection to tutors providing a link to my website in their course materials though). I'm working on the principle that people won't abuse this facility - if they do I may need to rethink my approach.

The first article to be loaded on to the website is called "Starting to sketch with coloured pencils". It's an article which was published in the July edition of "From My Perspective" Ann Kullberg's e-zine for coloured pencil artists last year. It's To be honest, when I started to put this article together I decided that teaching people how to use coloured pencils as well as how to sketch was pretty much impossible in one article - so the article is firmly focused on learning how to sketch as a first step. However it is also illustrated with my coloured pencil sketches and explanations of how I went about them.

Do let me know what you think about it. Also do make suggestions about what else you think I should focus on as I shall be developing more articles in the future - all of which will find their way on to the website after initial publication.

Also, for those interested, you might want keep an eye on this new page on the website as I'm currently in the process of loading another item on to it. I'll be highlighting it on this blog when it's published.

The sketch at the top of the page is of Nauset Light on Cape Cod and you can read the associated blog post on my travel sketchbook blog here.

Links:

• Pastels and Pencils: Advice on Sketching
• Travels with my sketchbook in.......
  

Technorati tags: art , sketching , sketchbook

Skating and sketching in London

Skating at the Natural History Museum 4th January 6pm
10" x 8" (pen and ink and coloured pencil in large Moleskine sketchbook)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Yesterday I was at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington with Shirley from Paper and Threads and members of the Society of Graphic Fine Art on one of the SGFA Drawing days (of which more later). These are the sketches I did before and after the visit plus one from Boxing Day.

I like to sketch on the tube when travelling to draw somewhere - it's like a warm-up exercise and helps with the hand-eye co-ordination.

This sketch of a couple of people absorbed in their reading plus half of me was done while travelling to South Kensington on the tube. Click on the image for a bigger image. I used a pen and sepia ink and added some soft black coloured pencil to the background windows when I got home. I enjoy trying to do my reflection in the window of the tube while in the tunnel - it's nicely fuzzy and out of focus! ;)

The page in my Moleskine sketchbook also records the immortal words from a little boy a few seats away "Does Grandpa use his hearing aid as a pipe?" Admit it - nobody could have invented that one!

The sketch at the top and the one below are from the open air skating rinks which are open at various landmark buildings in London during December and January (see link below). The sketch at the top was done while sat in the warmth of the cafe next to the skating rink at the Natural History Museum. I'd learned my lesson on that one in Greenwich (see below). The nice thing about doing it at night is you get all the lights wound round the branches of the trees - plus a nice dark background! I should like to emphasise that everybody was moving - except the ones talking to friends at the edge. It's a great exercise for drawing people on the move and trying to work out what are the characteristics of people on the ice.

This is a very quick sketch (5 minutes?) which was done right next to the ice rink at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich on Boxing Day.

It was really cold and 'he who must not be bored while I sketch' was not very enamoured by having to walk round to keep warm so I took just a few minutes to work out how to draw people while skating and then we went home to a nice hot cup of tea! My conclusions about sketching skaters for what they are worth are as follows: overlap figures and make sure there is some perspective in the figure shapes; focus on the shoulders and what the arms are doing rather than the feet

If you'd like to see more sketches of London do visit Shirley's blog Paper and Threads as she's been recording all her visits to London while her daughter and family are here for a year.

If you'd like to know more about how to go skating in London click on this link which lists all the outdoor winter rinks with images, opening times plus how to get tickets. You don't need to buy on-line; tickets are available at each rink.

Links:

• Shirley - Paper and Threads
• Shirley - Visit to the V&A (to be added)
• Skating in London
• Natural History Museum
• Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
  

Technorati tags: art, coloured pencils, drawing, Moleskine, pen and ink, pencil, skating, sketchbook, sketching

Making a Mark in 2006

I’ve taken Alyson Stanfield’s framework as my starting point to review what I personally achieved in 2006. All links in this post are to how the item got covered in this blog.

First off, I placed a very heavy emphasis on learning and nourishment of my art over sales in 2006. My approach to art in a business sense takes a very long run approach and essentially is about creating a venture I am comfortable with (i.e. I run it rather than it running me). 2006 was about finding things out, building the necessary support framework and making connections.

What totally surprised me was the extent to which writing about art became a passion. So much so that I’ve been rethinking my whole approach to my art activities and I don’t anticipate that the writing and sharing will reduce in any way.

Nourishment

I continued with my cyberchums buddy group set up to support our artistic endeavours in 2005 - we are 8 artists living in four different countries and on 3 different continents. I managed to visit and draw with 4 of them during 2006 (see Fine Line Artists below) which was huge fun. This involved trips to Yorkshire, Crufts, the southwestern states of the USA and New England.

I took two pastel workshops in 2006 – both in the USA. One with Diana Ponting in San Clemente, California and the other with Sally Strand in Cape Cod. Both were excellent tutors and workshops which provided food for further thought and development of my art.

Living in London means that I can pursue the learning opportunities provided by the major galleries and museums. In 2006 this involved

• Attending lectures in the series “Drawing towards Enquiry, enquiry towards drawing” given by Professor Petherbridge at the National Gallery in early 2006. See “Playing with the Provisional”.
• Various classes linked to the major exhibitions at Victoria and Albert Museum concerning Da Vinci and Renaissance Italy
• a life drawing class using different renaissance drawing materials and focusing on proportion
• a renaissance master class on drawing and
• A two day workshop on on the use of egg tempera – which focused on the support and the drawing; the pigments and the grinding and then finally painting with egg tempera
  

I also continued with my regular drawing class – ‘Drawing the Head’ at the Princes Drawing School. You can see the results if you search for posts on ‘Drawing heads” in this blog

I visited several exhibitions:

• ‘Americans in Paris’ at the National Gallery in February.
• The (UK) Pastel Society Exhibition (and could have gone to the USA one in New York but opted for drawing New England instead!)
• Two exhibitions on portraiture at the National portrait gallery in March on “Icons and Idols – commissioning contemporary portraits” and “Portraits of Actors by Stuart Pearson” whose book I also bought
• The Society of Botanical Artists Exhibition in London.
• Artists Kew – at Kew Gardens
• The Colored Pencil Society of America Exhibition at their annual convention in Albuquerque New Mexico
• The Society of Feline Artists Annual Exhibition at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in central London
• “Under Cover” an exhibition of sketchbooks at the Fogg Museum in Boston, Massachusetts
• An exhibition of David Hockney’s portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
  
• The exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and drawings at the V&A
• At Home In Renaissance Italy at the V&A
  
• Holbein at Tate Britain (yesterday - link to be added when I've written the post)
  

I also submitted a portfolio of work by way of an application to join the Society of Graphic Fine Art as an Associate Member – and I was elected.

In addition to this I’ve lost count of the number of art books I’ve read and dipped into. I also subscribe to and/or read all the major American and UK art journals.

I enjoyed David Hockney’s sketchbook DVD and acquired the video about Lucien Freud’s work for viewing in a quiet moment – which is why I still haven’t viewed it!

Print and web profile

My web presence improved a lot in 2006. A number of initiatives contributed to this:

• Making A Mark made a terrific difference to my web profile. Visitors to my gallery website nearly doubled. Individual blog posts now rank high on the first page of lots of seaches and 25% of visits arrive via browser searches. It’s probably had well over 50,000 visits in 2006 (given I forgot track stats from Day 1!) and currently has 80 subscribers.
• Travels with a Sketchbook in....... was set up in July 2006 and also had quite a few devotees. In six months, despite being a blog where posts are intermittent, it has had over 10,000 visits.
  
• I’ve had lots of people reference the blog and it now has masses of links – although given the Technorati die-off after 6 months I haven’t been able to work out how many – probably somewhere between 400 and 500. Notable links in terms of generating traffic came from being referenced by About: Painting, BlogHer and SquidBlog and being a featured artist on Moleskinerie, for which many thanks. MAM has continued to hover just outside the top 30,000 of all blogs ever created for a very long time now. It’s also generated lots of traffic for my other sites.
• In May I delivered “Sketching for Real” an on-line sketching class for the Drawing and Sketching Forum of Wet Canvas. It was a terrific success and has had many more viewers since then. To date, it has generated 777 replies, 17,548 views and has been responsible for getting a number of people sketching from life and in public on a regular basis.
• My views, first expressed in this blog, were quoted in an article in Art Calendar which is a magazine read by a lot of artists.
• I had an article on ‘Sketching with coloured pencils’ published in the July edition of ‘From My Perspective’ – a very popular magazine available to subscription members only on Ann Kullberg’s site for coloured pencil artists. I also made the front cover of the April edition of FMP with one of my parrot tulip drawings.
• I created 6 squidoo lens and 2 squidoo groups around the theme of Resources for Artists. You can see all my art lenses in my Making a Mark Squidoo Group.
• I created the website for Fine Line Artists
• I commented on lots of blogs and participated in the Crackskull Bob self-portrait marathon
  
• .......and also participated in a number of different art forums,
  

Business

My investment in my art business was largely a background activity as this wasn’t a high profile activity for me in 2006. However what I did do included:

• Creation and development of a partially complete website for a new venture
• Visiting the Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham in March
• Read “The Tipping Point” and lots and lots of informative websites about operating in a web 2.0 world
• Researching different aspects of the art business and made a number of useful contacts. I published some of the more useful weblinks I found on the internet in my squidoo lens - art business: resources for artists
• Researching different ways to make production and distribution of my art simpler and more cost-effective. The bottom line was how to avoid making additional work for myself which cut into the ‘doing’ time unnecessarily.
• Exhibited in two central London galleries – with SOFA and SGFA – and the first group exhibition by Fine Line Artists in new Hampshire.
  

Habits

New habits included:

• Completing a sketchbook for each trip overseas
• Working much smaller than I have ever done before
• Practising the optical mixing of colours in a much more deliberate way
• Trying to write my blog post first thing each day – writing daily about some aspect if art helps to get my head around art for the rest of the day!
• Creating sketches and taking photos deliberately for publication on the blog or in articles
• Making sure I always had fully charged battery chargers for my camera before going out!
  

Old habits indulged included:

• Buying far more art books than I am ever going to be able to read in full!
• Buying far more guide books than necessary and persisting (as always) in trying to pack them too!
• Trying every new gizmo and pastel and coloured pencil and pen and paper and board that somebody tells me I will really really like!
• Neglecting housework for art - yay!

Sketching, drawing and producing finished artwork

I experimented with using a Moleskine sketchbook, drafting film, ampersand pastelbord, Stonehenge paper, Stratehmore Vellum, silverpoint and egg tempera.

I completed:

• Three and a half Moleskine sketchbooks – you can see the images from ones used for the two USA trips here
• 23 small works
  
• 23 larger works
• 17 large life drawings which were fit for publication
• sketchcrawled around London on the day England went out of the World Cup!
• Produced 4 self-portraits for Wally’s self-portrait marathon

And Alyson is right - you don't realise how much you've achieved until you write it all down! All in all I got a lot done – but I'm of the opinion that I I didn't get enough art done and I still have 3 commissions in progress! Plus I now have blogger’s bottom and am currently in no danger of wresting Julie’s shiny new brass plate off her created after she won the “Get off your blogging bottom and sketch” award next year.

Read on the next post for what I have planned for 2007.

Technorati tags: art, art blogs, art business, art marketing, art websites, art , drawing , exhibition, goals, portrait, self-portrait,