While baby sleeps

I love it when my baby girl falls asleep in the car and I can't do anything else but to sketch the surroundings. We went to a softplay place last Monday, called Piglets in Hersham. She had a play date, but the car journey made her fall asleep. So while waiting for her to wake up, I managed to do a quick sketch of the entrance. The watercolours were added later on at home, as she didn't give me much time to do it there.

RWS Friends Sketching Day - 20th March 2011

Wonderful day along the river today! We visited the RWS Spring Exhibition first, with one of the Friends giving us a guided tour through so many inspiring paintings (some others not so much!). Then we headed off towards the Tate Modern. One of the Friends and I found a nice spot on the steps just below the Millennium Bridge and, although it was crowded as usual, the view was not interrupted. I liked the overall view with the modern and sinuous silhouette of the bridge and the very classic St Paul's Cathedral at the end. I did underestimate, however, the very complex shape and perspective of the bridge! I also realised, after so many years sketching in London, that the colour palette that I use the most is always the same: cobalt blue, yellow ochre and ivory black.....not very exciting! I think I'm going try a different approach next time, I'll take out these three colours from my sketching kit and let's see what happens.

St Raphaels Church from Kingston Riverside

What a sunny day! It was warm and calm; we went for a nice walk along the Thames and sat relaxing in the sunshine. The colours of the riverside walk are slowly changing, yellows are starting to show and beds of early spring flowers are announcing the coming season.

RWS Friends Sketching Day - 14th November 2010

Pencil Sketch

St Michael, Cornhill, City of London

It was another cold day for outdoor sketching, one figure temperatures and rain. I spent a good 40 minutes in the district line from Wimbledon to Tower Hill, I had forgotten how slow this line is! On my way to station I picked a bunch of leaves: a Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba) leaf and a very red leaf from another tree which I can't find the name. I tried to do some pencil sketches while I was in the tube, but I've found it a bit difficult to keep my hand steady. Although it was raining we did a tour around Pepys tramping ground and I stopped to sketch in St Michael's Alley. It took me a long time to get the sketch done as I wanted to use a pen & wash technique. Unfortunately, I didn't feel very confident using a pen straight away, so I did a pencil sketch first, then pen on top and some watercolours to finish off.....it took me over 1 hour to do that!!

Pen & Wash

Water Level Indicator

St Paul's Cathedral

Canary Wharf

I was reading the SAA July issue last night and I found the article on Allan Kirk’s sketching technique quite interesting. He uses Stabilo Fineliner pens for quick pen and wash studies to ‘capture the moment’. I had some coloured pens for some time now, but don’t use them very often as I prefer sketching with watercolours. I thought I would give it a go as the technique allows for really quick sketches on the move. I used some pictures I took during a boat trip on the Thames; it took me about 15 minutes to do all three of them and the results were not as bad as I thought. I used heavy cartridge paper to minimize buckling, although I’d like to do some further tests using watercolour paper.

Sketching Day: Kensington Gardens - Sunday 26th July 2009

Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall

Serpentine Bridge

Another wonderful day out sketching in Kensington Gardens with the RWS Friends. I wish I had more time to do more drawing, but it became at bit wet in the afternoon....you can see some rain spots on the sketch of the bridge!

After the rain

Pencil sketch
Watercolour sketch

I did a quick pencil sketch while I was at work on Friday afternoon. It had just rained and there were lots of rain drops on my window. You could still see the rain in the far distance, although it was almost clearing out on the east. The colours were very strong and all in the shade, you could only see the shape of things.

Canbury Gardens

I did a sketch this morning while seating in the sun at Canbury Gardens. The greens of the trees and the bushes don't mix well, and as I have been having this problem since forever, I did a quick study on mixing greens when I got back home. I started mixing sap green with the blues, the browns and the yellows in my watercolour pocket palette, but I wasn't happy with the results, so I started from the three yellows obtaining much better greens. I must remember all this next time I'm painting landscapes.

Kingston riverside

We spent about three hours on the other side of the river last Sunday. It was very sunny and we enjoyed spending time outside just sitting on a bench. It was a bit difficult to sketch as the colours were drying really fast and I could hardly keep my eyes open as it was too bright and I wasn't wearing sunglasses.

Saturday Night at the Library

We stopped at the library near Picadilly Circus, after meeting with some friends on Saturday. It was so calm and quite inside that it felt like we were miles away from the crowded and noisy streets of London.

North Kingston

I can see North Kingston from my desk in the office. Today was a bit grey and I couldn't see everything clearly. The church in the distance is the Parish Church of St Luke's.

On the train

Friday afternoon on the train to Surbiton, finally going back home from work.

High Holborn under the rain

It rained all day yesterday....but it wasn't too cold. I was able to sit outside Pret a Manger and sketch the surroundings while drinking a hot miso soup.

Bloomsbury Square Gardens

I draw this yesterday during my lunch break. There were still snow on the grass and patches of ice on the footpath. It was very cold, but the sky was clear. I added the colour later at home.

....and more snow

I did this sketch while sitting at my desk at work. This is the view of St Peter's Church in Norbiton covered in snow as I see it from my office. What a shame having to be at work today!

First post.......and first snow!

Just a quick sketch to celebrate my first post on the blog and the first snow of the season.
It had just started to snow when I did this sketch and I had to open the window to see what was going on, but couldn't keep it open for long......it was too cold.