Hedgerow

Cycled along one of my favourite local quiet country lane this morning and admired the profusion of what is probably hogweed. The verges haven't been cut yet and so the roadside was full of abundant growth. I love these umbellifer flowers and was struck by the different shades of colour from white to a murky pink.

Snails

Sunday 22 June, near Offley, Hertfordshire:

I am sitting in the earthen track of a local bridleway on a hot June day. This side of the hedgerow - a tall and unmanaged ancient double row of trees - is in the shade of the afternoon sun. I am looking at a patch of flowering nettles in front of me intertwined with goose grass, dock, hogweed, cow parsley, white dead nettle and a small bindweed. It is an area of about one square metre and my attention is caught by the sparkling silver trails left by snails all over the nettle leaves. With little effort I can easily count around 25 smalls, all about 5-15mm in diameter (probably white lipped snails and a few other species) and motionless in the summer heat. Once the night draws in they will probably start moving around to forage. I am amazed at how these small snails will happily move around the surrounding vegetation and will climb quite high over seemingly inhospitable surfaces to redt not just on broad leaves but to reach the ends of some distant stem too. It is interesting how 3-dimensional is the interaction between all elements of the ecosystem. Space is utilised in every direction and is quite different to how we humans interact with plants and animals around us. 

Whilst drawing the attached sketch I notice other things: a cranefly, tiny black leaf beetles on the cream umbellifer flowers, several scorpion flies, normal flies, a bumblebee, a tiny spider, a hover fly and the rustling of a mouse or other small mammal moving through the ground cover. It is amazing what you can find just by looking any patch of vegetation with a closer viewpoint and a few minutes to spare.

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. 

Pages from my sketchbook

Although my blogsite postings have been few and far between recently I have been quite busy scribbling away in bits of paper and in my sketchbook when I have some spare moments. I've been trying to get back onto doing handdrawn work and, in particular, pen and ink illustrations. I love black and white line drawings and in many ways would rather work like this than in colour. I have always liked the fine art of detailed wood engravings and the cartoon/illustrative lines of people like Heath Robinson, Ronald Searle and Quentin Blake. There seems to be much more in the way of traditional line work around at the moment in much contemporary design rather than simple digital vector lines. Working on paper again is quite a liberating experience as there is no boundary of the screen edge or pages that have to be moved around and magnifications constantly being adjusted. I have been exploring quite a few ideas and trying to develop more of a personal brand and style that I can quickly and easily flow into with flexibility and creative freedom. This collection of scanned pages from my sketchbook is just my playing with ideas and seeing what will evolve and flow out of my trusty fountain pens. My aim is to translate these into proper pictures on white canvas or other media.

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.

Spring Bird

Here is a small bird with some blossom. Lots of birds singing in our new garden at various times of the day, which is nice. Spring seems to be well on the advance now with colour and greenery appearing everywhere. Have planted potatoes and parsnips on the alottment and seeds of lettuce and radish are appearing in the garden. Still a tiny bit chilly when sitting out in the garden in the evenings though.

Icknield Way

This picture of the Icknield Way above Pegsdon started off as a sketch during a bike ride today, and then finished at home. It doesn't quite do what I wanted but here is what I intended. It was a beautifully warm spring day with bright sunshine and the pathway was well marked by bike tracks in the damp soil. I tried to create some pattern elements using these as well as with the bright green dog's mercury growing by the path edges beneath the trees. It is a bit abstract and not as finished as I would like, but I quite liked the idea.