Category: Sketching

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.

Faber-Castell PITT artist pens

I bought these sketching pens in sanguine colour about two years ago, but never managed to use them properly. They have quite a bright reddish colour when still wet, but then the colour changes to a more a matt brownish red when dry which I didn’t like that much. Also, I didn’t quite find use for the different sizes of the tips; 4 in total, from a small tip to a brush one. They caught my eyes this weekend, while I was tidying up my desk, so I decided to give them another go. I used a small sketchbook which I made out of an old diary using Fabriano Accademia watercolour paper; it hasn’t come out very well, so I normally use it for testing colours and tools….this way I don’t feel the pressure of ruining a nice sketchbook if things don’t come up very well! I drew directly in pen, my very first attempt after reading the interview of Bryn Hughes on the winter issue of UK Handmade. Did 4 sketches using each pen, I should have probably used the same subject for all, but hey! However, I’m still not convinced….I like the lines of the fine tip (S). The brush tip (B) is also fine but probably for a different type of subject, I don’t think this colour is suited for these lines. The two in the middle (F and M), nothing special I would say! I might try again in the future, maybe adding some watercolour…..

Interconnecting flight

It’s always good to bring a pocket size sketching kit……you never know how long your travel journey might take! After escaping the snow blizzard at Heathrow airport back in December, I landed in Rome with an almost clear sky (no signs of the snow that had paralysed the city the day before!) and 2 hours delay. Having to wait for another 4 hours for my connecting flight, I found a quite and sunny spot right behind the gate perfect for a quick sketch. I only had a tiny watercolour palette, just enough to highlight the main features.

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!!

RWS Friends Sketching Day – 27th June 2010


Holland Park – The Arboretum

Holland Park – The Pond behind Lord Holland’s Statue

Holland Park – Kyoto Garden

Had a fantastic day yesterday in Holland Park. It was about 30degC and the watercolours were drying very quickly. The sun was so strong you could hardly see the real colour of things. I managed to get three small sketches done before meeting for lunch at the cafe’ (it was too hot to sit in the sun!). I also spent a bit of time taking some pictures with my new camera, but had to revert to the auto mode as I’m still not ready to use the manual settings!