I received a lot of lovely comments on my timelapse watercolour pencil sketch of vegetables last week. I was asked if I could show one in real-time.
This is a 15 minute video. Next time I may figure out to have appropriate music playing in the background.
A container of mixed olives. I chose this as I wanted to use an obscure colour that I do not carry in my everyday sketch kit. Olive Green Yellowish. You can see it is perfect for olives, but probably not much else in life. I used a few other colours from my daily sketchkit:
Caput Mortum
Black
Cold Grey V (for the plastic container)
I put the pencils out on the table beforehand. I began by sketching the different olives in each colour as I changed olives,
I used a serviette (offscreen) to squeeze water from the waterbrush to clear the colour from its tip between colours.
I have been meaning to film some watercolour pencil sketching for quite a while. I don’t film regularly so it is always a challenge to remember the technical parts of it.
Yesterday I went grocery shopping, choosing some colourful vegetables, that would be ideal for showing watercolour pencils: pumpkin, carrots, broccoli and red onion.
Now that I have my subject, I decide what I want to sketch and then where it will sit on the page.
I do this all in my head. I don’t do thumbnails (small tonal studies). My sketches are not still-life compositions. They a quick, often spur of the moment, captures on the page. Often the subject will move or get moved. A lot of my sketching process is based on travel sketching.
Before I started to sketch I choose the watercolour pencils that I am going to use. I always chose from MY SKETCHKIT that I carry with me everyday. It has 26 watercolour pencils, an ink pen and sharpener. I know my pencils, their colours and what they do on the paper and then when water is added.
If you have watercolour pencils play with them on the page, make marks. scribble. add water and see what happens. I have been using watercolour pencils for over 20 years and know them well, but still excited by what they can do.
Today I used:
Magenta
Orange Glaze
Chrome Oxide Green
Grass Green
Payne’s Grey
Naples Yellow
I would have used Pine Green but forgot to put it aside for this demonstration.
I do have the whole 126 Faber Castell watercolour pencil range, but usually only use these when I need very specific colours for a commission.
In my watercolour pencil classes. I explain watercolour pencils, paper, waterbrush and we play on the pages. We then go and find a place to sketch for 15 minutes! Not a lot of time but enough to get some colourful lines on the page, capturing the essence of the object or scene. As you will see…
In the first video my first marks on the page are getting the basic shapes of the vegetables on the page. I sketch in the colour of the object ie the carrots and orange, the broccoli is green etc.
The next steps are:
sketch with heavier lines and blocks of colour
spread with waterbrush
wait to dry
add another layer of the colour to intensify the colour and add volume or texture.
While I am waiting for one area to dry I work on another, You will see that I move all over the page, changing colours.
NOTE : when I use a new colour on the page I squeeze the waterbrush onto a napkin / serviette (or my hand, because I did not have one nearby). This is to clear the waterbrush of the previous colour.
You can slow this down by locating the Speed control (the first icon. the two parallel lines) and the SPEED . slow down to 0.25 for the slowest.
My second video – focusing on just one vegetable.
See how much can be achieved in 15 minutes! I have sketched pumpkins before and I also know the colours. It is the impression of detail, not actual detail. There are a few areas where I add hard, defined lines to give that impression.
While I was sketching and filming, I was making notes in my head of what to explain. I know that I have left a lot out. Please feel free to ask any questions.
I hope this has inspired and motivated you to get your watercolour pencils out again.
I will now go and cook these and may even sketch the final meal!
I am home from another wonderful Clunes Booktown Festival.
This two-day annual event dominates my evenings and weekends in the months leading up to it. Once I receive the email confirming my application, I focus on drawing in the old books I have been acquiring throughout the year.
We drove up from Melbourne 1 1/2 hours and immediately set up in the Old Bluestone Church. Most of the stall holders are in the main street in the large white marquees. There was excitement in the air, with everyone setting up stalls, signs and books.
The weather was perfect sunny, Autumnal weather all weekend. It could have been better.
and in the town. Thousands of book lovers filled the streets to browse books, enjoy the talks entertainment and local traders.
You get the idea !
Here is our Old Bluestone building set up.
Cheers to us at the end of day 1
and again on Monday morning with coffee.
and of course, I brought some bargains to draw in for next year!
I had wonderful conversations with friends, librarians, and book lovers galore.
My greatest thanks to my good friends Adam & Micheala who provided transport support and fed me ! Also to the organisers and many volunteers who made it a success.
Any books that I did not sell on the weekend will be added to my ETSY store this coming weekend !
This is the third week in a row that my blog has featured ‘This week’s sketches”. Those of you who follow my daily posts on Instagram and Facebook will have seen these.
Next week I promise something new and exciting as I report on my Clunes Booktown Festival weekend.
Another busy week. Most of most non-work (I have a full-time job) time has been spent drawing in books for my stall at Clunes Booktown Festival in just three weeks!
Last week I started by celebrating swimming by drawing my goggles.
Thsi was mirrored in the goggles I drew in a book
My other sketches were very quick.
A quick lunch break sketch. fire hydrant . Red watercolour pencil . unfinished . I won’t go back and complete it. I am happy just to have done some sketching on the day.
Drawing a pencil in Pitman’s Shorthand Instructor 1930s. I love to draw my pencils and pencil shavings, so this was an excellent opportunity.
I did not do Shorthand at high school, but it was still part of the BP (Business Practices ) subjects you could choose.
Drawing an owl on a page about birds in “The Camera in the Fields: a practical guide to nature photography” by F.C.Snell (1905.)
Each book I draw in has different quality paper pages printed in different years. I never know what it is going to be like until I add pencil to paper and then add the water. It is always different. This is slightly glossy. Adding water with a small paintbrush the colour gets richer and darker. But the colour slides all over the surface. I will see what I can do with this one ! I also used water soluble crayon on the black and white parts of the page. The colour is thicker and darker, but it quite waxy. so I can’t use watercolour pencil on top of it.
I have 53 books drawn in at the moment and ready to sell. I have 16 almost complete.
And 10 to be complete. I have decided on the page to draw in and what image to draw.
Work in Progress.
Drawing in Herbs, Spices and Flavourings by Tom Stobart 1977 .
Below are my sketches and drawings from the past week. It will give you an idea of the opportunities I take/make to sketch.
Waiting time is sketching time. I did not have time to colour my stockings black.
I received a new bottle of ink in the mail, I decided to line up some old ink bottles and sketch them.
Arriving early at State Library Victoria for a breakfast function. I spent the time sketching.
Friday night. It is a tradition to open a bottle of wine on a Friday night and sketch it. It is also practice at ellipses’, reflections and colours.
Saturday morning class of “Sketching the Library FGarden with Watercolour Pencils” . Six lovely creatives attended and had a wonderful time. I like to inspire and motivate people, so that they walk away ready to continue their journey.
Lots of playing with colours and then going out into the garden to cut some leaves and flowers to take back into the room to sketch.
And then planning for the next Watercolour pencil class.
I am also working all the time in the evenings on “drawing in books” for my upcoming stall at Clunes Booktown Festival.
Sketching, sketching, sketching all the time. I love it .
A short video showing how I use a waterbrush and watercolour pencils colour on a page. The video plays in a loop and I finish with nine colours on the page.
I am experimenting with swatches of different colours on the page.
I am using a waterbrush (basically a tube of water). I could be using a paintbrush and water container.
touch the waterbrush to the page and move some of the pigment around. You can see that sometimes the colour becomes a lot more intense when the water is added.
I then pull the brush across or down the page, spreading the pigment. You can see that it gets lighter as it bceomes diluted. This means that you can get a large range of colour from one pencil.
I clean the brush between colours on a serviette.
You don’t need to keep pumping the waterbrush. It is very easy to flood the page with water.
Colours used are from my daily sketch kit:
I hope that this post inspires and motivates you to put pencil to paper.
A very last minute blog post this week. I had great plans for an instructive video this week, but got to the end of the weekend with nothing accomplished. I spent a lot of time working in and on my drawn in books for my stall at Clunes Booktoen Festival. It is only seven weeks away.
These books were under $5 or in little libraries as giveaways.
I have checked and they are not rare books! Many are ex-library and have stamps and tape and writing in them.
and another opportunity to draw a field mouse.
see you next week. I hope to have a video of sketching with watercolour pencils.
This weekend I set up a display at East Melbourne Library.
It is all about the Community Garden, which is at the back of the Library.
I have my sketchbooks on display open to pages of herbs, vegetables and fruits that I have sketched and are grown in the garden.
It was established in 2018 and run by local volunteers, with support from the Library. More recently they have established a Seedbank, which is included in the display.
I hope to inspire and motivate people to pick up a pencil and connect with their gardens.
We will use examples of plants from the garden. I am not sure if we will sit out there, it will be weather dependent.
Observing and connecting with nature
produce for cooking
I have a watercolour pencil class at East Melbourne Library to coincide with the display. book here.
Some posts are practical hints and tips, others give some insight into what I sketch, why and how. And then sometimes it is ‘what I sketched this week”.
This still gives you a look at the variety of what I choose to sketch and how,
Beginning with a little cormorant drying itself in the breeze, On the walk to work. As soon as I saw him I grabbed my Black and Light Yellow Ochre watercolour pencil. It great to know all your colours and what they look like, so that you can make quick decisions. I did not add water to the page.
A discussion with Linda about the East Melbourne Library Community Garden and a sketchbook display to install next weekend. It will all tie in with the Seedbank Project that the Community is running. I plan to hold a class. Keep an eye on my Instagram or Facebook page for details and bookings!
a very quick sketch of some Buskers in Bourke Street Mall. Just a minute in and it started to pour rain.. Everyone ran for cover – the buskers, the audience and me.
a quick sketch of a popular coffee place in Melbourne city – Patricia’s. There are seats inside, but most people sit down the laneway, in the gutter or on milk crates.
I purchased some shoes for the gym. They are not colourful, but the packaging is !
and finally, ending the week on Sunday. I am very fortunate to hold Watercolour pencil sketching sessions at The Johnston Collection. I have written about this previously.
We explored watercolour pencils. These are in the Red Range (student grade) that they get on the day.
we then explored and sketched in the collection. You can see what a special place this is.
What sketching opportunities will next week bring ?
