Category: Watercolour

watercolour, pen and wash

Sketching in Shetland, 2018

In Shetland I was learning to paint clouds. Here’s one of the pictures I like best, also the simplest.

Shetland 2018 drawing

Sometimes the clouds are lighter than the rest of the sky:

Shetland 2018 drawing

Sometimes very dark:

Shetland 2018 drawing

Sometimes rather complicated:

Shetland 2018 drawing

Below is a picture drawn in the rain. I was using a sketchbook which had very heavily sized pages. In light Shetland rain, the pages became damp, and were absorbent.

The water is brighter than the sky: a Shetland phenomenon.

Shetland 2018 drawing

See how this heavily sized paper lets me put layers of colour on.

Here’s another picture in the same sketchbook. See the colours in the sea.

Shetland 2018 drawing

This was a sketchbook from the Vintage Paper Company, based, appropriately enough, in Orkney. The paper is described on their website:IMG_5323

“The paper was made in the 1950s in Somerset, England. It’s a 180gsm, 90lb rough surfaced paper ideal for drawing, ink and of course, watercolour. Made from cotton rag and gelatine sized, it’s a dream to paint on. “

It took a bit of getting used to.

I found it didn’t take the paint very well, until it was damp. Here’s an early attempt. See how I struggled to get the paint to adhere to the paper.

Shetland 2018 drawing

This was painted in a strong wind from the edge of a hill. At first I thought this picture was a total failure. But later, it seemed to have captured something. perhaps you can see the rocks, the dry grass, the shifting sky and sea?

 

Later pictures were a bit better, especially if I kept things simple:Shetland 2018 drawing

IMG_5324The other sketchbook I used was a Khadi cotton paper, much more absorbent. Below is a picture of the roads of West Mainland. The roads are calligraphic strokes on the landscapes. Shetland 2018 drawing

Here’s anther picture of the roads:

Shetland 2018 drawing

I also drew birds:

Redshank
Herring Gull

On a day it was raining outside, I drew my boots:

Shetland 2018 drawing

Below is a picture of Burrastow Cottage, where I was staying. I swam in that bay. Despite the blue sky, the water was cold. I rate it somewhere between “refreshing” and “challenging”. That is, probably about 12 degrees Celsius.

Shetland 2018 drawing

I had a wonderful time.Shetland 2018 drawing

1 Finsbury Circus, across the Crossrail site

Here is the building 1 Finsbury Circus, called “Britannia House”:

“Fronting the northwest quadrant of the oval, with fronts on roads entering the Circus from the west stands Edwin Lutyens’s massive Britannic House (1921–25, listed Grade II), designed for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which became BP; its free-standing architectural sculptures are by Francis Derwent Wood. It was built on the site of the last remaining original houses, and is now home to international law firm Stephenson Harwood.” (Wikipedia)

Behind it, buildings under construction on Bishopsgate, and the Gherkin on the right.

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I enjoyed the contrast between the careful detail on the Lutyens building (1920s), and the more brutal façades of the 21st century buildings. The totally functional windows of the temporary construction buildings are in front.

The black thing on the left is some sort of storage tank.

Drawn from the Barbican podium, looking East across the Moorgate Crossrail site.

About 1 hour.

Here is another drawing of the Crossrail site I did a while back, showing the bridge across New Union Street:

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This bridge is due to be removed:

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CityAM 22nd January 2019

 

Sainte-Croix, Vaud

I’m just back from another visit to Sainte-Croix in Vaud, Switzerland. Mostly I was working, but I managed to do a few sketches.

I started sketching at the airport. The flight was full.

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Here’s one of the outside of the hotel, done in 1 hour and 50 minutes, sitting on the pavement in the sun.

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In between work on the computer and discussions, I made small quick sketches of what was in front of me. I experimented with watercolour sticks, which are very messy, but deliver strong bright colour.

Breakfast: Ovomaltine container and cup, done with watercolour sticks.
Tea tray
Experimental study of breakfast items, using watercolour sticks.
Flags on the outside of the hotel.

Here’s another experiment with the watercolour sticks. I was walking back from the swimming pool, and saw this sweep of land and the farmhouse sheltered by trees.  I was shortly due back at the hotel, so I made this sketch in about 10 minutes, sitting on the road. The watercolour sticks throw the colour on very quickly, and don’t allow me to fuss.

IMG_4628 Farmhouses on the hill

Here is a sketch made in about 20 minutes, while waiting for a meeting to start. I was looking out of the window…..

IMG_4626 From the window of the Bistro

At the end of my visit I sat at a table on the terrace and looked across to the Mont de Baulmes.

IMG_4624 from the terrace

Pen and wash, 20 minutes plus 20 minutes later.

Here are the watercolour sticks in their new/old box. It’s an old cigarette box. I just discovered they all fit into it nicely.

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Here’s a drawing on location:

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With thanks to Marina and Rolf, proprietors of the Hôtel de France, 25 rue Centrale, Sainte-Croix, Vaud, Switzerland. www.hotelfrance.ch

I have sketched here before:

Oxford: Pitt Rivers annex and Merton Chapel

This little building to the right (South) of the Pitt Rivers Museum has often intrigued me. It has four chimneys. one in each corner.

After I’d drawn it, I went to try to find out what it is. It appears to be connected to the Pitt Rivers Museum, but has no special name itself, and its purpose was not stated.  Since I finished the drawing at about half past seven in the evening, the door was closed and locked and no-one was about. It is in the same style as the main Pitt Rivers Museum.

“The new Museum building was structurally completed in 1860, and is now considered a gem of middle Victorian neo-Gothic architecture”

says the museum’s website.* In the background you can see the roofs and pipework of the science site. On the right is the Radcliffe Science library.

The strange vehicle in the foreground trundled in while I was drawing. It looks like a garden shed on wheels. The registration number is: Q710 LBW.

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On my way home after the lecture I drew this quick sketch of Merton Chapel looking down the marvellously named “Magpie Lane” off the High Street.

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Pitt-Rivers Annex: 1 hour 40mins

Merton Chapel: 40 mins

Both in Jacksons Watercolour Sketchbook. Pen and wash.

I have drawn pictures in Oxford before:

Oxford, St Giles , 

Two sketches in Oxford,

Old Observatory, Oxford

 

*The Pitt Rivers Museum Website contains a document on its history (consulted July 1st 2018) http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/sma/index.php/articles/article-index/436-prehistory-of-the-pitt-rivers-museum.html

 

Grayson House

Grayson House is part of the Pleydell Estate.

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1 hr 40 mins from the small park called Radnor Street Gardens.

Grayson House on the left, and Gambier House in the background.

Next to me, for the entire duration of the drawing two men played ping-pong. The children came out of school at 4pm, and wanted to use the ping-pong table. But the men said no.

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I drew Gambier House from the same park, in March, on  a peregrination around City Road

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Later note:
I discover from the amazing “Streets with a story, The book of Islington” by Eric A Willats FLA, that “Grayson House (1961)” was ” named after Frederick George Grayson, a superintendent of Radnor Street Sunday Schools and Mission, formerly in Radnor Street.”

Mr Willats’ book lists streets and some buildings in Islington, including as he says “what has come to my notice up to the early summer of 1986.” It is in the Islington Museum.

Kessingland

 

Here are the roofs of a terrace of houses in Kessingland, near Lowestoft. The date on the terrace is 1860.

Each house, originally identical, has now its own idiosyncratic extensions and extra roofs. All the chimneys are different. Crows called all the time while I sketched.

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Here’s the view over the back gardens.

See all the washing lines, hauled up using nautical pulley systems. This picture was done in almost exactly the same position as the one of the roofs, but looking in a different direction.

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Both pictures, pen and wash in a Jacksons watercolour sketchbook.

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Suffolk Sketchbook, June 2018

I drew a picture from a bird hide, looking over the estuary of the River Blyth.

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Bird Hides make good places for watercoloring. Here is the view from a Bird Hide at Minsmere.

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I had a go at drawing birds too.

 

In the evening, kayakers made their way upriver against the tide.

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I watched the crabbers on the quay.

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All pictures in a Katazome Sketchbook with vintage paper, from the Vintage Paper Company, experimenting with loose watercolour technique.

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Katazome Watercolour sketchbook, from the Vintage Paper Company.

 

Greyhounds on the beach

Walking on Kessingland beach, the sun shone and the wind blew. The greyhounds ran about wildly, but, in the manner of greyhounds, were soon ready to go home.

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Watercolour on Vintage Handmade paper 150gsm, from the Vintage Paper Company.

St Alphege, London Wall

St Alphege (“Ælfheah”) was a Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury. He was captured by Viking raiders in 1011 and killed by them the following year after refusing to allow himself to be ransomed. Alphege was canonised as a saint in 1078.

The church was built around then, according to Wikipedia:  “The first church was built adjoining the London Wall, with the wall forming its northern side.The churchyard lay to the north of the wall.The earliest mention of this church dates to c. 1108–25, though it is said that it was established before 1068.”

The ruins of the Church have recently been made beautiful, and accessible, by the wonderful new public space around One London Wall Place. Here is is a sketch done from one of the wooden benches close to the church:

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You see the marvellous new high walks, which curve in the sky.

Until I started drawing them, I had not realised that the walls of the highwalk vary in height. The highwalk is made of some material which rusts, to give this bright orange colour.

On the right of the picture is the red brick of the old London Wall. The building in the background is Roman House, on Wood Street, a residential block.

The architects of One London Wall are MAKE architects.

About 2 hours, drawn and coloured on location, in Jackson’s watercolour sketchbook.

St Giles’ and Cromwell Tower

Here is today’s sketch showing:IMG_4081(annotated)

  • London Wall – 2nd century AD
  • Barber-Surgeons Hall – current building 1969, first hall, on this site 1441
  • St Giles Church – current building 1966, first church on this site by 1090
  • Barbican, Cromwell Tower,  Wallside and Arts Centre – 1965-82
  • Braithwaite House – completed around 1963
  • White Collar Factory – finished 2017
  • Atlas Building under construction

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Done in one hour 40 min from the high walk next to 140 London Wall, 4th June 2018. Finished 12:10. It was very cold and windy on the high-walk.

This completes a series:

St Giles’ Church and Shakespeare Tower

St Giles Church and Lauderdale Tower