For this exercise I decided to go back to my foraging sites that I worked on last year. The site is within an area called the Basins. I love visiting there as I just love the natural ruggedness of the place and how nature is at its best. It also provides a tranquil feel and serenity. I packed up my kit including camera and a lightweight walking stick that doubles as a chair. I love painting outdoors and trying to interpret what’s there and as Derrida taught me what isn’t there. I have a lot to thank him for. I manage to find a sight with a ready bench so park myself as below. As suggested I want to push the boundaries so I’m equipped with a couple of bottles of ink too. I have watercolour brush pens, travel paints, water spray bottle as this is good to keep the paper damp. I choose watercolour practice paper as my support. I also have some oil pastels and some thinner to use too if I can. The second view I sketch is of overarching trees along a pathway. I decide to be bold using the inks. I have a yellow and an antelope brown. The beginning of the sketch is on top in the photo below. I get carried away and forget to take photos.
I don’t want to replicate all the details but want to capture the main features of my scene like the light falling through the trees and onto the pathway and how the trees overarch. I can’t really sit in the exact spot as its a walkway but my situation is close by.
I draw in the tree on the left as my main feature and I use the bottle of ink with its stopper and draw with this into my wet paper. I like the effect this makes with the inks. I’ve use these inks in this way only a couple of times last year and I learned that it’s important to let the ink dry before applying more colour. Once dry I decide to bebold and add the yellow some random blob like shapes in the tree and on the floor or foreground. I hope that this yellow represents the sun shining through. I build up more colour and add into it some greens for the foliage.
The sketch is below and I try to stick to the ten minutes and work quickly.
The above image is a close up of some of the effects in ink on the tree. I do like using these and they can work really well.
My first sketch is below and is a view from where I sat with the bench. The view is below.
While I must capture the trees I want to add some definition with colour and tone plus I try to capture the ruggedness of the place. I work quick again. I always try to ensure I have a background, middle ground and foreground when working on a landscape. I really want to refine this but I stop after the ten minutes. I like the contrasting blues and green in the trees. I used some of the brown ink again and wanted to do more with this in the foreground.
I do want to vary what I’m doing with these sketches so will try the oil pastels next.
My next image is of several trees grouped together on my journey and some rough grasses in the foreground. I’m sticking to the watercolour paper and with the flat of the oil stick I make some tree like shapes and I find that the harder I press on the stick the more dense the colour and this also serves as whether the trees are more distant. I continue to scratch in the foreground and the trees quite rigorously. The final sketch is below.
I add in a more dense layer of green in front of the trees as green bramble like bushes and the longer grasses of sienna and brown coloured grasses are in the foreground. I quite like the effect on this paper. I could now add some solvent but I quite like it as it is. I might try this on the next one. The photo below is roughly what I’m depicting but I like to add some movement to the grass so flicked most strokes to one side.
For my forth sketch I work with watercolours again. In a mad moment trying to mix up the media I draw in with watercolour felt pens just the outline of houses in the rear of my scene. I then just work in the main tree and the foreground and background. The photographic image is below.
I work quickly again for just the ten minutes. My first blocking in is below.
The grasses sometimes look very silvery so I work the foreground with some pencil. I work on all areas quickly but stop after ten minutes. I want to really do more to the grasses with ink maybe as they need to be more dense, have more energy and gusto.
My next sketch is of another pathway and trees. I have gone back to the car as I want to work bigger and use a larger watercolour pad.
I decide to try to capture the sun although its left me for a while. I use inks again elephant brown and yellow. I spray the paper before I start with water. I use the stopper of the bottle and run the ink up the page to make the tree branches careful not to squeeze out too much but gently exude a little pressure mainly on the thick branches. I love these exercises being outdoors and just going for it. Drawing in colours! The end result for this one is below.
For the final sketch on this route I paint a tree in flower as below.
In order to try to paint the flecks of flowers I try using wax sticks. I’d not used these before so not sure if it will work. I roughly make lots of marks on the paper but can’t see where I place every one as the wax crayon is clear wax. I use a mix of greens and greys and this time reflect how the sky is a little overcast. I don’t use ink but sketch in the sky and the trees at the same time. I work quickly and fast on all areas.
The flecks work a little but I haven’t done enough. It would be better done in my studio with more time. I stop again after ten minutes but feel I could continue. There’s a lot of bleeding wet into wet and I use a little drybrush in the foreground.
I love being outdoors and this exercise of quick sketches is really good on many levels. It not only helps improves our observation but also allows you the freedom to take risks and to interpret the environment or subject in your own way. When taking risks and using materials in different ways or introducing new materials it is inevitable that not every sketch or medium will turn out as you would like them to. However you learn what works for you. I would like to add to some of these sketches and finish off but I will stick to the ten minutes.
I layout the sketches altogether inside my studio as below. What is interesting is how the weather changed while I was there. From early morning sunshine to being dull and overcast. I’d chatted to a dog walker for half an hour and almost with the blink of an eye the atmosphere changes so quickly. I place them orderly and they do reflect the change in weather conditions. I changed the size of paper with some sketches and I do think I worked better bigger and with my larger brushes. I would like to resize all the sketches to larger paper to link them but I could link them by adding a mount that would be the same size on the outside. I can cut my own mounts so this would help link them all together visually irrespective of them being two sizes. I could also add a short narrative or description and describe it a a short walk series.
Drawing 2 Interpreting the environment 