Beer

Beer is a lovely little seaside town in West Dorset. It's also a working harbour though, only without the harbour; all the fishing boats get hauled up onto the shingle beach by winches. The boats themselves are very characterful and an easy target for sketching. This started off as a drawing with my brush-pen but I decided to colour it up once as it turned out OK.

I quite like water colouring on this cheap cartridge paper. The paint stays fluid for quite a while and I'm not so precious about the paper so I get more done. Only problem is the paper buckles badly so I've got myself some heavier weight stuff to work with.

This pic is all very twee, make a good postcard, but there's still some good stuff going on with the paint which I was happy with.

West Bay

Back in Dorset. Lovely place lovely weather. I promised myself I'd try to capture something of the crazy cliffs in West Bay and Burton Bradstock. All this area was a river delta millions of years ago and the ebb and flow of the water has resulted in really striking strata. Add some uplifting (?) and erosion and you get something very unique.

It feels like the setting for the closing sequence of Planet Of The Apes

"You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

As so well re-enacted by Alberto G' V' when we were there last year.

These are very much sketches I quite like the graphic one but either way you get the idea.

Holycombe

We visited holycombe for my daughter's birthday http://www.hollycombe.co.uk/. It's an amazing collection of steam machines and engines going back 150 years or so. The centrepiece is a fully working steam powered fairground which looked fantastic in the sunshine and is surprising fun but I was really drawn to the rusty old industrial iron in the repair yard. This is, I'm told, the last steam crane used on british railways, oooh! fancy that.

Graveyards

I spent some time in graveyards this weekend, another great place to put things in perspective:-) Anyway, once I was suitably humbled I got sketching. Graveyards are interesting places to paint, nice mixture of hard structures and organic stuff. However, despite the potential I didn't really come back with much to look at.
I did discover that painting without drawing first (at least less than I normally do) can be surprisingly rewarding and is something I will try more of. It could be a good way to being more free with the paint.

The Rec'

The last effort for this weekend. A view of the old manor house over the beech hedge to the side of Elstead recreation ground. This sort of subject matter seems to suit me even if it doesn't especially excite me. I would like to be looser and more expressive with paint but I still incline towards drawing and 'colouring in'. I'm working on it though, so watch this space.

Chindhurst Hill

We went for a trek up Chindhurst hill to take in the glorious May sunshine. I tried a few times to pin down what was happening with the trees across from me. I found it hard to identify the hues and this was the third and best attempt. I think the image is nice enough but I would have done better after couple of trys. You'll have to take my word that the green of the backlit ferns really was that vivid, amazing. BTW, all of these recent watercolours are A5.

Hens

We keep three hens in the garden. They're pretty dim but are nice to have around and begging to be sketched. Unfortunately they spent most of their time with their arse in the air and head in the ground and the rest of the time were too quick for me.

Monmouth Beach

 Ahh, that's better.

Amazing fossil beach to the west of Lyme Regis. This is a beautiful and extraordinary place where there are Ammonite (some massive) fossils under almost every footstep. If you didn't feel insignificant beforehand then standing on a 200 million year old fish will do it.
The picture would have been much better either closer to Lyme (the Cobb at Lyme is in the distance), looking the other way or even moving to the side but I was lazy and I didn't want the sun in my eyes. Consequentially it's a pretty ropey composition so I might well crop it before you come back.

Feet

I spent hours in West Bay searching for something to sketch but for whatever reason it wasn't happening. I'll be back for the crazy cliffs another day though. Sitting on the deck with I decided to pass the time painting what was close to hand. If you imagine the heat of the day, the sound of the gulls and a chilled Speckled Hen just off frame it helps completethe picture.
This is pencil and watercolours on on cheap cartridge paper again. I'm quite happy to have got some denser and more vibrant colours in this one so no Photoshop apart from cropping the lower edge where my pad lay (yes, it is deliberate ;-/) .

Portland from Chesil Beach

A few colour sketches of Portland island from West Bexington on Chesil beach. The island was actually about 15km away so these are really just thumbnails. Quite nice to sit in the sun with a beer and doodle though.

I like the middle one best as it has a kind of watercoloury feel to it. I'd warmed up by then and was trying harder. Leaving the blank foreground works for me as well. I like the way it crops the image, even though there is nothing there, there is something there.

Wey Footbridge

A pretty staid watercolour of the footbridge over the river (canal) wey just outside Godalming. I got distracted by the surface detail in this one and literally lost the big picture. I quite like the feeling of the brickwork but not the feeling of the bridge. Shame, it really deserves better.

Self Portrait Finish

The only way to get something like I saw in the mirror was to resort to more familiar tools and fire up Photoshop. I smoothed out some of the marks, darkened the shadows and enhanced the colours. To recover some of the original success of the drawing (things were getting a bit overworked now) I layered the pencil lines back on again.

It's my first go at a proper self portrait and, all in all, I'm happy with the outcome for a couple of hours work. It looks a bit like me, perhaps me 10 years from now wondering where I left my wallet. If I can stoke up the enthusiasm I'll have a more considered crack at it sometime.

Self Portrait Colour

Rather than leave well enough alone I decided to add some colour. I'm not a confident painter so all I could really bring myself to do was a light watercolour wash. I don't really have a technique other than putting down something approximating the colours I see before me. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Nervousness, impatience and really cheap paper meant that I ended up with a pretty feeble and lightweight result.

Self Portrait Sketch

I thought I'd do a self portrait to kick the blog off. There's a wardrobe with a big mirrored door right beside my bed so this is the face that greets me every morning when I sit up. It looks more spooked than I do generally though, It's hard not to stare madly when you're doing a self-portrait.

It really just started off as a quick drawing exercise. I did a couple of rubbish attempts but as this one had some sort of likeness I ran with it.