Garden

The garden is looking good this year, although it is very dry. As usual, the hops are the fastest growing plants and are already a good six feet high. Vegetables are slowly getting going. I always say the garden is a late garden, I put it down to the conifers in neighbouring gardens. A lorry load of woodchip from some tree cutting nearby has enabled me to resurface the paths and have little left over (or rather, a lot). I've decided to let some rough edges and weeds exist this year to increase the biodiversity. Just occasionally I see some interesting insects and want to see what I can attract by leaving nature to do what it does best.

Garden Sketch

Fountain pen sketch of the garden this evening.

Woodland

This is a sketch of woodland near Knebworth today. A hot day with bright sunshine. The colours of the leaves were so vivid with the sunlight behind them. Several of my recent pictures have been experiments in using lighting effects to a greater extent. I have been inspired by many images on Instagram and I now trying to nudge my illustrations up a level.

Cow Parsley

This picture was meant to be a couple having afternoon tea in a garden. However, I got stuck planning the illustration and deciding how to draw the characters. After spending a week or so doodling ideas I then decided to draw this. (Affinity Designer on iPad)

Radishes

The first radishes picked from the garden. For once, I knew exactly where I wanted to go with this sketch and it worked well. Perhaps I will do more like this as I am not out and about as much at the moment along with everyone else. I am missing going out and sketching in cafes so enjoying a few challenges attempting different illustration styles.

Flower Lady

I wanted to do more of of an illustration as I hadn't used Affinity Designer for a while. I didn't really know where I was going with it and vector work seems much slower to do on the iPad, though there are advantages and it forces me to work in a different way. Not sure where the idea came from, I think it was a doodle I did one day.

Portrait

A very rare excursion for me into the world of portraits.