I'm Back

Hi All,
Its seems like ages since I did a post on here but I'm now back for another run. The reason I have a break in my art posts is because once the weather gets warmer I want to be doing stuff on my lathe or I'm busy doing stuff in the garden. The main problem is that I like to be creative and want to do so many things. Woodturning, woodcarving, pyrography and gardening all take up a huge amount of time in the warmer months. However, once the cold weather arrives those activities take a back seat and art takes over.

I'm a bit on the nesh side so sitting in the warm doing some artwork really appeals to me. So here we go with another 6 months of  regular posts.

This season I intend to concentrate on pencil drawings with an odd colour full piece now and again.

I have just finish a drawing of a clematis on some trellis and I can tell you now that I'm very pleased with it.

In fact I'd go so far as to say it is my best drawing so far. If you compare it with one of my last year's pieces it is easy to see the difference. Here is a drawing from last year.

Now don't get me wrong, I like this drawing too but it is spoilt by the lack of background colour. Basically, it is a competent drawing, but it doesn't look finished.

The clematis drawing was done with 3 pencils made by Derwent, 9B, 3B and H I also used an electric erasure in places. The paper I used was also interesting. Until now most of my drawings have been done on Bristol board and I have always liked it. To be honest over the years I have used all sorts of paper for drawing. This included cheap art sketching pads, cartridge paper and sheets of copy paper from my computer. The results were always mediocre but when I tried Bristol board the quality of my drawing increased dramatically.

If you have just taken up drawing or sketching and you are using any of the papers I mentioned above, please do yourself a favour and get some Bristol board. Winsor and Newton do a small A5 size pad so give It a try and you'll never go back to the old stuff.

Having said all that, for the Clematis drawing above I actually used Aches hot pressed watercolour paper. It has slightly more tooth than Bristol board so it allowed me to get a deeper tone of black and provide a bit of texture that suited the subject matter.

Right, that's it for now. Any question or comments please let me know. I am looking forward to showing you my next drawing soon, I've just got to figure out what it will be and do it.

To celebtate my return one of my fishing books," Learn From The Tips And Laugh At The Tales"

will be available for a free download from the 27th of November until the 1 st of December. To get your free download just click this link and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon