Continuing my exploration with Lyra watersoluble graphite chunky pencils. Took me a little while to warm up. Should have done a few self-portrait warmups before starting!
Experimenting with Lyra watersoluble graphite sticks at the hairdressers. Loving how rich they are, even just the 2B! Strong darks done with 9B! I'm in an exploring-darks kind of mood.
An interesting part of town - Sean MacDermott Street. Not somewhere I normally hang out. But strength in numbers, plus we were on church grounds and somehow it seemed to help keep the scooter skangers away! It was 16 of September and first day that it felt colder sketching out, despite my puffer jacket.
Interesting explorations into inspirations and influences in Week 2 of Creative Shift 2026. It took me somewhere I didn't expect. From a random watercolour artist I had seen on Instagram (Naomi Tydeman) and put into my Google Keep collection, to The Apocalypse Variations, a collection by Marc Taro Holmes from 2019. I have the book and I had forgotten how much I love this work of his!
I don't know what it will do to the way I paint, but it's certainly something to explore on my creative journey.
Here is a short video capturing my notes and images.
Things are not coming as easy as they used to. I just have to trust in the process and persevere. I am pushing this landscape towards abstraction, but it's still a bit too much of a landscape maybe. I do like the pink lines (watercolour pencil) of my initial drawing showing through the paint, and how Grey of Grey pushes every other pigment out of the way. I also like some of the green lines in soft pastels.
Lovely Sunday afternoon on the campus of the university at Grangegorman. Very quiet on a Sunday, but I've grown to like the place in the few years we've been going there. It's handy for me, being on the Green Luas line (tram). I had prepared two spreads in my sketchbook, one with Japanese papers and one with acrylic. It's the theme for the month of September with Liz Steel's community on Patreon. She's always coming up with great ideas to push us beyond our comfort zone!
The house on the blue and white page got barely drawn and one side of acrylic marker on location. Added more acrylic marker when I got home. The tree was done fully on location. Someone commented that the dots on the tree reminded them of Yayoi Kusama. I was delighted some noticed!!
Next time we go to that area, I think I will focus around the area of the Barber's Bar. It's a lovely little junction with interesting houses. And the pub itself is very nice.
Not sure if On Track is the right word. But I have always done thumbnails. Sometimes they are postcard-sized. Sometimes they're A3 or A2. These are small little ones. I think they will help me discover the shapes that interest me in a landscape. Interested in shapes, line and value contrast, not colour, for a change.
