Schmincke watercolour palette

I got myself a new watercolour set - a Schmincke pan set.  Can't wait to start using it!

I can never take a good photograph of colours, and the watercolour book was too bulky to place in my scanner - but believe me some of the colours are gorgeous. I'm particularly fond of the chrome orange, cerulean blue tone, helio turquoise, may green and naples yellow.

Of the set, I'm only disappointed with two colours: cobalt green dark and manganese violet - they don't look so bad in this photo, but they are a bit dull in reality.

There were two colours I wanted in the set, vanadium yellow and ruby red (PV19), and the girl in the shop kindly offered to swap (she then worked out the difference in price - some colours are more expensive than others). I got rid of a cadmium orange (which I can easily mix) and an olive green of some sort (the kind of dull colour that's easy to mix by accident). But when I checked all the colours in the set, I realised that permanent carmine is also PV19. Ah well.  You can never have enough PV19!

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Sea at Killiney II

This one doesn't have quite the same energy as the first print. Too many layers maybe?

13 to go

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Sea at Killiney I

So, I was on a roll, and I decided to print landscapes that I know and love. A while back, I did a series of photographs of Killiney beach in stunning light. I had always intended to do something with these, but never got around to it. The beauty of Pinterest is that you can store inspiration, and retrieve it easily when you need it!

I didn't see this while I was working on this print, but BB pointed out to me that these rocks look just like the dark rocks that peep out of the sea at low tide, and the water between them and the shore is like glass. Looks nothing like any of the reference photos, but that's ok, isn't it?

Another 14 to go!

Landscape mono prints

I saw a picture recently of a gelli printing class on landscapes. It inspired me to try it out. Here is my first attempt:

More Trees

Well, this is certainly keeping me focused on drawing! Here are a few more trees:

Trees

I had originally done this one with blue skies and green grass, but it looked dull. I wanted to evoke warm weather and sunshine. So easy to do with Paper.

Happy Birthday, Timber

Trees

Plenty more tree shapes to learn.

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Drawing

Now with car and tree!

Drawing

I tried to draw a few trees in this one but it didn't work out so I erased them. Trees are in the next chapter! I need to be patient.

Here is the resulting drawing

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Drawing

BB is determined to get me drawing again.  For Christmas he got me a few books on the subject.

The one I'm currently reading and experimenting with is called Freehand Drawing & Discovery. It's really aimed at architects and urban space designers. But it's full of practical information for people like me all the same, people who would like to draw more, but who are not too sure where to start. 

First useful tip that I've put into practice below:

Draw a horizon line and draw stick people's heads on the line - whether they are standing right in front of you or way way in the distance. Draw their bodies and legs in proportion to how far they stand. Add arms. Basically, it's circle for the head, rectangle for the body, 2 flippers for the legs and sticks for the arms. Add detail to the people standing the closest to you. Add shadow. Done!

The first one below was done on a post-it at the end of my busy workday today. (And yes, it has one person whose head is not on the horizon line, but it's a child so that's why he stands lower than his mummy, but his feet are on the same level as hers). The second one was  done with Paper on my iPad last night. I'd be glad if I did one of these a day! But February is looking as bad as January for New Year resolutions. There's always March!