My studio

A good location to practise Edges, from the SketchingNow course. It was my studio, my office or the kitchen. The kitchen is not my domain. And the office is far too messy at the moment!!

First version - a 5-minute brush pen dynamic chaotic rendition

Second - it took a bit longer, but no more than half an hour I'd say (I do lose track of time when I'm drawing, though, so I'm not 100% sure). Done mostly in pen too, but this time I drew a few setup lines in pencil first, so the overall result is more in proportion (look at the curve of the desk). I tried to highlight the important edges with a thicker line. I probably could have been braver. And things on my desk have changed, as I was busy preparing Christmas cards.

And finally, a watercolour detail, drawn first with watercolour pencil, and with some pen lines added to the major elements that interested me. Someone asked me what the pink object and the red bottles were. Here is what I replied "The pink thing is a punch to cut out big circles (about 4 centimeters in diameter) – I use it with Gelli prints – they look lovely on cards. I was using it last week to make circles for this year’s Christmas cards!    The little orange jars are little plastic bottles of mango juice that I use to carry my water when I’m urban sketching – I bought them in a local supermarket in Porto. I had seen an urban sketcher (Suhita Shirodkar – check out her work – she’s amazing at capturing people!) using one at the Urban Sketchers Symposium and I thought they were the best little water containers, as their neck is quite wide and they are completely spill-proof. They came in a pack of three!   So that’s the significance of these items, and the reason why I used a heavier line to bring them forward!!"

PS: my studio is actually a tiny boxroom, and believe you me, it's hard to keep it tidy, but the two items shown in these sketches, the chest of drawer and the kitchen trolley, both from Ikea, help keep the clutter under control!