Northumberland Sketches

Some pages from my sketchbook from a recent trip to Northumberland. Alnwick town centre with some rather disproportionately sized people, a man on his phone in Alnwick Gardens and a gardener mowing the lawn at Howick Hall. This was supposed to be a sketch of people wandering around the garden and sitting on the benches, but no one obliged at the right time...

Bedford Sketching

Spent yesterday sketching in Bedford. One image is a pen and ink sketch of the flower stall in the market and the others are iPad sketches at the Taste Bedford festival by the river.

Urban Sketching: Luton

Pen sketches from Luton and the High Town Festival yesterday.

Play sketch

A test sketch made on the iPad from my imagination this lunch time. I find it slightly depressing that I can instantly achieve, almost, exactly what I want to create this way rather than with pen and ink on paper. It is just so much more fluid and instantly variable. Need to explore both media more.

Urban Sketching: Milton Keynes

VIsited Milton Keynes today and was quite pleased with the following ink sketches. I am approaching this style of work with the aim of jumping straight in and getting on with it. They are more laboured than I would like but that does give them more depth. On an iPad it is so much easier to vary line width rather than having to change pens and I much prefer having a little more flexibility with tools working that way. I am not quite happy with the lines and it will be interesting to come back and look at these in a few months time and see how things have evolved - which I hope they will have done.

St Albans Sketch

I had a few minutes spare whilst waiting to go to the dentist today and so did this quick sketch in St Albans. I only managed to get an outline down in ten minutes or so and so worked on it more during my lunch break. Am I happy with it? Partly. It is just taking lots of practice.

Urban Sketching

Ever since I fell in love with the the pen and ink illustrations of Ronald Searle, I have been enticed to attempt to draw people in places such as towns, cafes or any where else they might congregate. I have always been held back by a lack of confidence and a feeling of not really knowing what I want my drawings to look like. Most of my life I have been trying to find artistic inspiration in the natural world around me. This is fine but, as I find myself more and more drawn to urban environments just through the necessities of living, I find my artwork is taking on a new sense of direction and interest. Without going into too much detail I get a sneaking suspicion that this is also a consequence, or reaction to, some long term health issues and medication. My art has to evolve and looking back I wonder if I should have done more training. Creativity has always been a personal journey and, fortunately, has more than adequately kept me employed even though what I do in my own time is very different to the artwork I do for International Greetings.

Each lunchtime I look forward to going to a small cafe where I have freedom to sit in a corner and sketch the people around me - it is a fun and creative time. It has also become a little social world and I can end up spending an hour talking to new acquaintancies.

I don't always find it easy finding a comfortable place in an urban/social setting in which to sketch. Sometimes I feel quite secure and relaxed. Other times I can feel exposed and self-conscious. What I am trying to do is to learn a confident way of  drawing what I want to draw. It is a big learning curve for me. What I also suspect is coming out of the process is a subtle change in how I view and relate to people. This could be part of a journey that is initiating some subtle emotional healing. I have moved away from the iPad and back to my sketchpad. I would prefer to use the iPad because of the tools available to me but I think there is a greater discipline in moving back to traditional pen and ink illustration. It just has a fluidity and character that I can't get on a small screen and it works in bright sunlight. One day, it would be interesting to try out one of the large 12.9 inch iPad Pros in this context. However, I am not sure I really want to carry around an £700 sketchbook and a £100 Apple Pencil in the middle of Luton!

Sketching in Hitchin

A series of fountain pen sketches made a week ago in Hitchin. I've been working hard on developing this style of drawing over the past few weeks. In fact, I feel as though it has taken me 30+ years to get to this point - finally something seems to be fitting into place. They are fun, quick, loose sketches and I am fairly pleased with them.