Russ Stutler's observations on the Waterbrush

I've just discovered Russ Stutler's excellent journal item with his observations on the waterbrush. To quote from the first paragraph

For those who don't know, a water brush or waterbrush (some makers use two words while others combine them into one) has a soft plastic barrel which contains water. When you squeeze the barrel, water enters the bristles, thus eliminating the need for a separate water container. It also makes cleaning the brush between colors a breeze. These are great for watercolor sketching on location. All you need is a waterbrush, a small set of half pan watercolors and a sketchbook, plus some tissue paper or a rag. No more water bottle and cup. If you use a small sketchbook, your entire set up will fit in a pocket.

It includes:

• a list of different makes of waterbrush
• comparisons of different makes - including how they vary in use and flow of water
• observations of things to watch out for when using them

I really enjoy my dry media when sketching but I also enjoy a spot of watercolour sketching from time to time. Having acquired a Pental waterbrush, I'm much more inclined to try using watercolours as the waterbrush eliminates th need to carry water around with you all the time.

Blooming Wisley

Wisley is a 240 acre garden in Surrey which is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society. This is the organisation which runs the Chelsea Flower Show as well as a number of other shows, large and small, over the course of the year.

We visited Wisley last Saturday on the way home from the anniversary celebration in Hampshire - and I went to their Annual Iris Show and also saw the Iris Trial Beds in their full glory - with (I think) Iris Society members pondering the latest blooms! I was especially pleased as I love irises and managed to take rather a lot of photographs of all the different coloured blooms both indoors at the show and outdoors at the trial beds. Overall, during the visit I managed to fill all of one memory card - pulled out my spare and filled that one too! But I now have lots of reference images of flowers I love. The day was very sunny and bright - and the importance of trying to get photographs while flowers are not in direct sunlight was really brought home to me. The two photos of single blooms were taken late afternoon in the Country Garden area - with the blooms completely out of direct light - and it makes such a difference to the quality of the image. All the ones taken in full sunlight suffer from all the normal problems of high contrast. However, you choose where to go but you can't always pick your weather!



I have an exceptionally boring 'plein air' sketch to show you - done over a cup of tea while "he who must not be bored while I sketch" continued to read Roy Hattersley's "The Edwardians". This sketch just goes to show why trying a double page spread in an A4 sketchbook when you've got 20 minutes to sketch is maybe not such a brilliant idea. It's a view of the people in the shade of the trees at one of the outdoor cafe areas where we were sat for our cup of tea (has anybody noticed how often tea gets a mention in this blog?) and it's unfinished. I did get some quite interesting optical mixes going and it did prove to be a fruitful study for the sorts of colours which might work for the trunks of very large pine trees! I never ever use grey or brown - all my grey and browns are always mixed from colours. The nearest I ever get to grey is greyed lavender!

I'm trying something new today which is a hyperlink to the Google Map which shows the garden near to the junction with the A3 Portsmouth Road - and right next to Wisley Common and Wisley Golf Club. You get a good impression of how big it is and a great view of all the different bits. The whitish bits are the glass houses and then below them is the area which is the trial beds. You can also get a better idea about the garden by visiting the map/tour section of the website for Wisley

We had a wonderful day and I came away with membership of the RHS and rather a lot of new botanical art books which is my current bedtime reading - reviews coming soon!

Technorati tags: art , drawing , coloured pencils , pencil , plein air , sketching , sketchbook

1000+ hits, 5 stars and 2 cat drawings

Well "Sketching for Real", my new sketching class seems to have got off to a good start yesterday. As I write this post, it's now had over 1,000 hits and has already been rated 5 stars and it's only 36 hours old!

What's really nice is that everybody is so enthusiastic and the class students are doing an amazing job with their 'quickie' sketches which is the first assignment.

I did a couple of quickies yesterday to show them the difference when drawing the same object between drawing using a contour line only and drawing the value shapes and tones. Polly obliged by having her afternoon nap!

Each of these was drawn in about 3-4 minutes using a Pilot GTec C4 pen in an A6 size black handback sketchbook by Daler Rowney.



Technorati tags: art , cats , cat drawings, catnapping , drawing , drawing cats , pen and ink , sketching , sketchbook

Under Cover: Artist's sketchbooks

For all those interested in seeing the contents of artists' sketchbooks, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University is planning an exhibition of artists' sketchbooks between August 1st and October 22nd.

The advance notice of the exhibition on the museum website states

Designed to be easily portable, a sketchbook is often kept in an artist's pocket and offers an unusually personal glimpse into the artist at work. Drawings and notes in sketchbooks vary from travel sketches and nature and figure studies to copies after the Old Masters, expense accounts, and lists of pictures. Some sketchbooks are self-conscious, with every page signed, while others are filled with seemingly random, hastily drawn sketches and doodles. Still others reveal the progression of an idea or are conceived as a whole.

This exhibition features a selection of the Fogg's important sketchbooks, including works by Jean-Honor Fragonard, Jacques-Louis David, Sanford Gifford, Edward Burne-Jones, John Singer Sargent, Reginald Marsh, George Grosz, and Christopher Wilmarth. The installation will also present pages from sketchbooks by John Constable, Edouard Manet, Henry Moore, Brice Marden, and others.

Other artists' sketchbooks can be viewed in the links posted yesterday.

Technorati tags: art , drawing , exhibition , sketching , sketchbooks

Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 31 May - 11 June

The Society of Women Artists is holding its Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London until Sunday 11th June. I'm probably going to try and get to see the exhibition on Friday - and will report back later on both that and the Summer Exhibition at the RA which I'm seeing the same day.

The categories of artwork accepted into the exhibition include paintings, pastels, etchings, pencil drawings, sculpture in all media, miniature work in all media, ceramics of a non-utiliatarian nature, engaving and lithography. You can see work by some of the member artists here. The prizes relating to the current exhibition are detailed here.

Admission to the Society is via a juried portfolio of six works submitted to the Annual Exhibition. I forgot to put the closing date for submissions (which was in April) in my diary and completely missed making a submission this year - but now have lots of time to plan for next year!

Technorati tags: art , drawing , exhibition , painting