My sketchbook and I went out for a brisk walk around Longshaw this week. There are some incredible autumn colours up there at the moment (just look at that bracken!). I had fun trying to capture the mood.
For those of you who are interested in these things, I sketched using a combination of watercolour & waterbrush, sailor pen with waterproof ink, wax crayon and colour pencil.
Autumnal scenes and fairy houses from a quick scoot around Ecclesall Woods this week. I love this time of year.
Not much to report from the studio this week but here are a few snapshots from behind the scenes.
As well as grabbing as much painting time as I can between all the Other Things, I’ve been working on lots of shop updates and improvements, and I’ve put aside the guilt (mostly) and made time for a few sketch/walks out in the Peak District for some autumnal sunshine and inspiration.
I’m going to start sending out a monthly email newsletter again soon. I know I keep promising this, but I think I’ve found a format I can work with. If you’d like to read it, please make sure you join my mailing list and it will be sent directly to your email inbox. I never share any of your details with anyone else and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Almost a year to the day since I last went to the Secret Garden near Surprise View. It was such a beautiful day I had to get a bit of outdoor therapy and moorland inspiration for some new Peak District art. Gorgeous spring colours, shadows and textures, and lots of silver birches of course. I also surprised some sheep, but I apologised for disturbing them and took another path.
Some lovely late winter moorland colours and textures from Higger Tor and Hathersage Moor inspiring me this week.
A quick trip to National Trust / YHA Ilam Hall, Dovedale, and then back home in the snow.
I took a bag full of sketchbooks with me on our recent visit to the East Coast of Yorkshire, but it turns out it’s quite difficult to sketch when you’ve got a toddler. I’m sure it’s not impossible and there were moments I could have got a sketchbook out but I always feel too bad for taking my attention away from the little guy. I’m okay with that, he’s pretty fun to spend time with and I’ll get back to sketching eventually!
I did make a couple of sketches (from my head) of weather-based moments I’d been inspired by when we got back:
I also did quite a few cow sketches from life (out of the cottage window). All drawings were created using the Procreate app on iPad and enhanced in PS Express.
For those of you interested in cows, I believe they were Simmentals. They were very beautiful, and very inquisitive!
Just a couple of quick gouache sketches that were inspired by a weather-filled walk on Hathersage Moor this winter. The wind was wild, moving the swirly-whirly clouds along so quickly and allowing the sun to peek out and do its reflection-y thing again here and there, it was wonderful. I didn’t get rained on either, which was a bonus.
Scroll to the bottom for the free Desktop Wallpaper Calendar thingy!
The moors are beautiful on days like this. I mean, they’re beautiful always, but cold, bleak and hazy is one of my favourites. Colours begin so muted that they’re almost imperceptible. As the fog starts to lift, the odd flash of sunlight breaks through and bounces off silvery pools of water that have formed in dips in the gritstone. Then suddenly the cloud clears, the sun comes out and everything is glorious technicolour (well, still mostly grey and brown).
I was there with an outdoor playgroup, ushering/carrying my small person and a bag full of snacks rather than any drawing equipment, so I couldn’t sketch on-site this time. Cool playgroup though, hey?
Braved getting my paints out later while he slept. Tried to creep around and not wake him up. Got paint all over my keyboard. Didn’t swear. Managed a quick gouache and charcoal sketch based on my photos.
I’ve made it into a Desktop Wallpaper/calendar thing! Do people even use those? View and download it for free here anyway (click on image to view full size then right click and save):
Let me know if you use it and if it’s any good and I might make more.
