Sketching in Hitchin

First day of sketching in Hitchin this year. Sunnyish with a cold breeze. Lots of people out and about enjoying takeaways, chatting, sitting etc. Very pleased with the results and it is good to be back in my favourite sketching environment again. 

 

Gardener's Lunch

A couple of weeks ago I was intrigued to try the app Affinity Designer for iPad to see how it compared to Adobe Illustrator. Although more fiddly to use on an iPad than perhaps it might have been on a large screen desktop computer, I was very pleased with the result. Being able to blend vector and pixel modes was quite a treat and I was quite surprised how slick the app was once I had got the hang of it. It lacks some key functions of Illustrator, but as an up and coming competitor to Adobe I was impressed with it. Might invest in the desktop version at some stage as it is soooo much cheaper for individuals like me.

Swing

An autumnal sketch. I'm struggling to get the right lines that I want on the iPad - drawing on paper has much more freedom but at least I can play around with colours and textures easily.

Box of White Flowers

A quick sketch of the gardener with a box of white flowers to plant out in the walled garden.

Stripes

This little sketch turned out ok on the iPad but in some ways I think it would have turned out better having been drawn by hand. The iPad is good in that there is always a constant flow of ink from the pen, but I do find the small screen size spatially limiting when working on detail like this. I am playing around with figure drawing and working on my personal style. I am fairly happy with this and I like the composition and line work with the absence of colour. 

Too many things to do...

Life is full of things to do. Some interesting, some not quite so, but on the whole I seem to fill time up more than adequately with things that interest me. I think I have seen the value of this at work this week for various reasons: always be creative, find things to do, keep being inspired, keep learning new things no matter how small, keep good relationships with people, embrace change and keep being positive. If you take a step forward then you are further forward than someone who hasn't taken a step. Must wash the kitchen floor sometime.

Snow Cat

Cat enjoying a Christmas drink.

Foxy

Another little fox.

The Storyteller

Went to the children's book festival today at Luton Hoo Walled Garden and spent the day there drawing in beautiful spring sunshine. I didn't see this particular character amongst the crowds of people but I was a bit stuck for what to draw late in the evening and so decided to create what might be my alter ego!