Tag: sketching

London sketches

These two sketches were both done on the soft covered vegan Italian made Cass Art sketchbook. It has recycled paper inside which doesn’t look like or behave like recycled paper.

I sketched this in 3-4 minutes while sitting in the Phoenix Community Garden in London, and then took a lot of reference photos with my phone.

Later on I added watercolour to the sketch:

This is a 5-7 minute sketch of the stalls in Spitalfield market done with a sepia Faber Castell Pitt pen on the same Cass Art notebook.

I bought this sketchbook on a complete whim, because it was relatively inexpensive and I liked the look of it. I liked it so much I returned later on and bought a second sketchbook with a different cover colour.

What surprising and unexpectedly good products have you found lately?

Quick Greenwich Sketch

Still travelling. This one is a 10 minute sketch of the herb garden in Greenwich park, London. Paper is a Cass Art notebook with non watercolour paper that held up surprisingly well.

One Week 100 People 2024 Day 8 (Final Day)

So I was sick, which made sketching impossible for a few days. I’m still sick but I’m slightly better, so I sat down and powered through the rest of the missing sketches.

As I mentioned last time 61-68 were draw from life, the rest from earthsworld. This site is so much better for reference photos than the flickr gallery I used in previous years that it affected both my speed and my sketching quality. Also, I had a lot more fun sketching these portraits this year. The Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemian Twilight fine nibbed fountain pen was the perfect sketching companion, and Diamine fireside snug performed well on the Stillman and Birn Alpha paper. The larger landscape format also helped make these a joy.
Here are the previous days’ sketches: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7.

This sketching challenge is always great to do, as it really pushes me outside my comfort zone. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend giving it a try.

And as usual, which one is your favourite?

One Week 100 People 2024 Day 7

Had a packed day today so only a few minutes to sketch, but all of today’s sketches were done from live subjects.

I apologise for the potato quality photo

One Week 100 People 2024 Day 6

A long tiring day with two vet visits meant that I had precious little time to sketch. Got up to 60, and sort of them came out surprisingly well.

As expected, with my injury and the way this week is shaping up I likely will finish my sketches only on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I like the results so I’m not in a rush.

Which one is your favourite in this batch?

One Week 100 People 2024 Day 5

I really didn’t feel like sketching today, as I discovered that my cat has a large lump on his hind leg so I need to take him to the vet tomorrow. I’m worried about him and so considered skipping today entirely, but ended up sketching some people to distract myself. Same setup as yesterday – Leonardo Momento Zero fountain pen, Diamine Fireside Snug ink, Stillman and Birn Alpha.

41-42 added here

One Week 100 People Day 4

Three things happened today:

  1. My shoulder is feeling better.
  2. I have more time.
  3. I found the wonderful Earthworld thanks to Tina from Fuelled by Clouds and Coffee and started using it for reference photos.

The result is sketches 12 to 40 (yes, I got that many done in a single sitting). The fact that I have much better reference photos made such a huge difference, as I didn’t have to waste time digging through urban landscape photos in search for half decent portraits. Also, the Earthworld photographs feature People with a capital P – frumpy, old, ugly, real and incredibly beautiful to sketch. The great Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemia Twilight fountain pen with its fine nib and Diamine Fireside Snug also added to the fun – I love this pen and ink combo so much I’m likely going to use it for the rest of the 60 sketches.

Number 12 was added to this page
I love 14, 17, 18, 20 and 21
I picked up speed with these as I warmed up
Number 36 and 37 really came out well, I think

So, now which one is your favourite? I have too many to choose from.

One Week 100 People Day 3

I had a busy day yesterday, so I only got three sketches in and didn’t have time to post them. Numbers 9-11 were what I added, with number 9 being sketched with a vintage Parker Vacumatic filled with Diamine Ash and numbers 10 and 11 being sketched with a Franklin Christoph 45L and Diamine Eau de Nil. I loved the lines that the Parker Vacumatic produced, but it’s an extra fine nibbed fountain pen and it really struggled on the tooth of the Stillman and Birn Alpha. These were the last batch sketched from the Street Photography group on Flickr. I found a better source for photos thanks to a great tip from Tina from the wonderful Fuelled by Clouds and Coffee blog.

One week 100 people day 2

I almost didn’t post today as I wasn’t up to sketching and I got only three sketches in, none of them great. But I like it when creators show their failures so I’m doing it myself today: my lack of shoulder mobility coupled with a lack of sleep and the difficulty of the subject made for a bad sketching day.

Parker 51 with Montblanc The Beatles Psychedelic Purple on a Stillman and Birn Alpha. Sketched 6-8 were done today. As usual the goal for me is to get to 100 even if it takes more than a week.

Celebrate your failures.