Testing Inktense pencils and Ecoline markers (and others)

I dug through my collection of old Inktense pencils and Ecoline markers (and a few other brands). And yes, a few colours are the new ones I bought that I mentioned previously, like the Iris Blue and the Pink Flamingo. I'm loving the intensity. And it's sometimes easier than deploying the watercolours, particularly if I'm standing. Although I'm adding more to my backpack, so a cull will be needed soon. I chose one yellow, two greens, a pink, a blue, a red and a sepia. Plus all the Arrtx acrylic markers I have swatched below. Definitely too much to carry. I will regret this!

Irishtown

We were sketching in Irishtown. So much to sketch there. But I wanted to draw the pub, the Merry Cobbler, and the alleyway to the side of it. I could sit within that 100m radius and find dozens of interesting things to sketch! The weather wasn't quite as warm as forecast. Maybe 16 degrees, but with a sea breeze, I was glad of my woolly hat (26 April). 

Liz Steel had set Frames as the theme for April in her Patreon, and I was really inspired after watching her video to wrap up the month. I'm particularly happy with my sketch of the alleyway, where a nothing-special view becomes interesting when framed! Also, I'm applying the theme from a previous month on Liz's Patreon, using neglected art supplies, in this case Inktense pencils and Ecoline markers. Though I have to admit I bought a few more Inktense pencils in new colours. I'm very fond of that Iris Blue that I used for the pub!

More pigeons

More pigeons from photos. I never thought I would say that, but they're growing on me, pigeons. 

Pigeons voyageurs

Actually, the pigeons were going nowhere, but I was on my way to Belgium, and for some reason, I don't feel like sketching on these trips, even in the airport. So, since I learned how to draw birds with Andrew James, I just make sure I have photos of birds on my phone and I draw them with the supplies I have. Also did a blind continuous line drawing at the gate, with people waiting for the previous flight, using 3 different pens. That's all I did over that 3-day trip. I'm glad I did these!

 

Fade Street

The sun was shining and the crowds were out. Yet, my first doesn't include a single person, or car or bicycle. So I had to make up for it in my second sketch. So much to sketch in this area of Dublin. It was crowded, but not too touristy. In my initial sketch, all done on location, it was hard to separate the buildings on the street across the way and the building to my right. So I added a darker layer (some marker, some inktense) to create a better separation using a darker value nearer to me. Not sure if I like it more, but it reads easier I think.

Someone told me a great story about Decwells. A long time ago, it was set on fire by an angry young man, who ended up in jail. While in jail, he met a playwright, who wrote a play about his story. When he got out of jail, he cleaned up his act, and became a well-known councilman representing his community in the inner-city. He also became a writer.

The crowd scene was done with a Pilot Parallel pen and watersoluble ink, to which I added a little water with a waterbrush to create the blue-grey tones.

 

Legit café on Meath Street with Nathalie

I love the area around Meath Street. It's still the real Dublin, it's not full of tourists. It still smells of the Guinness Brewery down the road. It's got some peaceful hidden corners, like the grotto at St Catherine's church, where you can sit in quiet contemplation, and then you can get back onto the busy street and go for a nice coffee or tea at Legit Coffee, and if you're lucky you will get the window seat and have a great view of the street. I spent a wonderful hour or so there with Nathalie from Belgium. We chatted and sketched and it felt good. And I love it that the graffiti on the Vets shutter reads SPUD. I love Dublin.

Using old art supplies, and buying more

This was always gonna happen. I was using some old Inktense pencils that I had neglected for years. And of course when I started using them, inspired by Liz Steel's Patreon, and then I had to go and buy some more! And when I see them on the same page where I swatched some Arrtx acrylic markers, I'm thinking, oooh, they would look nice together.

"Exchanged for other gold"

I'm continuing to explore the idea of a gold thread running through my landscape. I think there is plenty more to explore with this. This time, I worked in layers, glazing over existing pieces that I had created earlier in the week. They were lovely, but lacked something. I'm much happier with them now, except for one that was a total disaster! 5 out of 6 ain't bad. In one of them, the Ocean became a sky, another a bog. I might turn them around a little more and see what happens. They were all inspired by a video of the coast and mountains near Allihies on the Beara Peninsula. I have glued one to claybord, and applied some Dorland's wax medium to protect it. I really love how it turned out, the thread of gold colour, the rhythm of it all, the feeling of being on the edge of the Atlantic.

Here is what they looked like at the first layer

Pencils 4 Tea 16 April 2026

All the songs in this session were about 3 minutes long. I missed having a few longer songs in there, I have to say. It was hard, but so much fun!

 

Cherry Blossoms

15 April, at long last, mild enough and dry enough to sit outside for a bit without coat, woolly hats and mittens! Had to sketch the neighbours' cherry blossoms over the wall! Just playing with lots of art materials on thin cartridge paper.

 

Capel street journey

There is so much to discover on Capel Street. We are progressing with our slow journey. I could take twice as long and still find lots to sketch. It's an area that was neglected for many years, but now that it's partly pedestrianised (watch out for high-speed scooters though!), there is more space to notice the old buildings hidden behind ugly shopfronts. In a few years' time, it probably will be prettified and won't be half as interesting. And yes, the lunch sketch was a very basic drawing to start with!

  

Mark making

I repurposed that ethereal yellow and pink experiment I did last week. Adding elements from the landscape, but not tryint to make it into a "picture". My intention is to crop this and see where it goes. The trick with cropping is not to start with something I like too much. This one is in danger of falling into that category. And the one done in black in grey is probably too pretty too. I need to crop them before I think too much!!

Both are inspired by my walks on the Bolus peninsula during my residency at Cill Rialaig last year. Funny how it's just now that I'm coming back to that landscape!