Sketching again

Black ink sketch and colour wash on Amedeo 200gsm

I feel it's time for sketching again, have been neglecting it of late, been preferring just putting colour straight to paper.

Black ink sketch in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

Black ink sketch in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

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Morning cup of coffee

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce. 

 ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Over the Teacups,” 1891

Ink sketch on Visual 200gsm watercolour paper, using a Pilot Calligraphy Lettering pen (Black) and a Pilot black Fineliner for finer work. 

Sketching has always been one of my great passions, but of late I’ve been neglecting it in favour of doing mostly watercolours. I’ve decided to go back to basics and sketch a lot more.

Sketching forces you to look in more detail, and ask yourself what you actually see. You’ll end up seeing a lot more than you would otherwise. There’s something about holding a pen or pencil in your hand that gets your creative juices flowing in a much different way than holding a brush. When you get used to sketching, the movements of your hand become much more fluid and it becomes really easy and natural. The more you practice, the better you will become at sketching.

Here I’ve sketched one of my pet hates – tea or coffee in THICK hospital-like cups! (Sketched at the Krugersdorp Private Hospital, Krugersdorp, Gauteng, South Africa).

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Keeping a Journal

Ink sketch and watercolour

Journaling is the process of regularly writing your thoughts, your dreams, milestones, events and feelings down on paper and, these days, virtually on blogs. There are many different kinds of journals you can choose to keep but it is a powerful process that provides the opportunity to explore things in a measured way. It can also be fun to look back and discover how far you have come!

"A common symptom of modern life is that there's no time for thought, or for letting the impressions of the day sink in," says Thomas Moore. Setting aside a block of time, however brief, to freely express thoughts and feelings is psychically healthy.

Journals also affirm the value of our lives, preserve our memories and dreams, and help to pin-point emotional patterns. Writing about problems is a great way to work them out, and recording negative emotions is often akin to dropping them altogether.

Keeping a nature journal, for example, is a wonderful way to become spiritually centred. We are rewarded for the attention to detail and patience this practice requires with deepened understanding of what it means to be human and alive and a part of Creation. What you decide to put in your journal is a personal choice. Nature journals can be anything from field notes, which limit themselves to objective descriptions of what the writer has observed, to fully developed poems, stories, or essays in which the landscape is a major character.

You may want to draw or paint in your journal as well as write in it or to fill its pages with photographs or pressed flowers. Experience the natural world through fresh eyes! Keeping a nature journal is your most powerful ally in crafting the kind of life you want.

 One of my Nature Journals - here I used a Feint

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A written word lives forever

I’ve got a vendetta to destroy the Net, to make everyone go to the library. I love the organic thing of pen and paper, ink on canvas. I love going down to the library, the feel and smell of books. 

- JOSEPH FIENNES 

Black Pilot Calligraphy Lettering Pen and wash in Moleskine 200gsm Sketch-book 

Sketching with my pen gives me great pleasure - very often a few lines and a mere doodle start taking shape and something appears that can be worked into something more substantial.

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No rain yet...

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. 

- Ashley Smith 

 Ink sketch and colour wash of a scene in Magaliesburg in my Moleskine Nature sketchbook

It's the first of October, heading for mid-summer here in South Africa and we've had no rain yet. Normally we have the winds in August clearing up old growth and our first spring rains early in September, but the wind has been blowing right through September, seemingly blowing the clouds back to whence they came from.

I'm having to water my garden every day, we've had some very high temperatures, but nothing seems to give life like even just a couple of millimetres of rain...

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An African moon

Black ink sketch using Pilot Calligraphy Lettering pen and Artline200 black fine-point pen on DaleRowney 220gsm heavy-duty sketching paper

It was full moon last night and when I switched off the garden lights, my garden was bathed in a golden glow… and I could’ve sworn I saw the fairies hiding under the mushrooms... 

One website explains the full moon thus, “The moon and sun are on a line, with Earth in between. It’s as though Earth is the fulcrum of a see-saw, and the moon and sun are sitting on either end of the see-saw. Thus as the sun sets in the west, the full moon rises. When the sun is below our feet at midnight, the full moon is highest in the sky. When the sun rises again at dawn, the full moon is setting.”

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Sketching more

MOST of the earth is beyond the walls of buildings, and is untouched in appearance by the art of the sculptor or the painter.

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Quick landscape sketch with my Parker Fountain Pen, black Quink ink and some colour added - done in my Moleskine Folio (A4) 200gsm Watercolour sketchbook

Sketching has always been one of my great passions, but of late I've been neglecting it in favour of doing mostly watercolours. I've decided to go back to basics and sketch a lot more. Sketching forces you to look in more detail, and ask yourself what you actually see. You’ll end up seeing a lot more than you would otherwise. There’s something about holding a pen or pencil in your hand that gets your creative juices flowing in a much different way than holding a brush. When you get used to sketching, the movements of your hand become much more fluid and it becomes really easy and natural. The more you practice, the better you will become at sketching.

The Proud little Black Wattle

“A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.”
- Alexander Smith



This young little Black Wattle tree at the bottom of our smallholding is earmarked for eradication, together with a couple of others that have sprung up again since the last clean-up. It's a constant and on-going battle against this alien, Australian species which spreads like wild fire if left unattended, threatening our indigenous trees and grasses. I decided we'll leave the dead one as it's a favourite look-out point for the Fiscal Shrike.

See the previous post about the ongoing battle against Black Wattles

Sketch in Agenda Art Journal

"Exploring space and colour"

I have this old, leather bound, 1997 Agenda Planner that is now filled with watercolour paper cut to size and some of the old note paper, which I use as an art journal. I did the above sketch on one of the note papers to try out a new green I was mixing using Thalo Blue and Burnt Sienna and was quite pleased with how the green turned out. I also experimented with Indigo and Cadmium Yellow on this, which I used on parts of the tree.

I'll use anything I can lay my hands on for sketching and using old diaries and planners is a great, inexpensive way of building up a collection.


Agenda Planner filled with watercolour paper - I used a 6-hole punch to do the holes for the paper.

If you would like to make your own sketch-book in an easy, quick and fun way, go to 'An Artist's Sketchbook to Make'.

Moleskine - Road to Harties

"Creativity begins in wonder."

- Maree

Daily Moleskine sketching...


"Road to Hartebeespoort Dam" in Moleskine Watercolour Notebook
(Click on images to enlarge)


Notes for 'Road to Hartebeespoort Dam' in Moleskine Watercolour Notebook

We often take a drive out to Hartebeespoort Dam in the North-West Province (South Africa), which borders Gauteng, just under an hour's drive from us. We prefer to take the scenic route, staying away from the main roads and all the traffic, using a gravel road crossing over a mountain, reveling in all the wild life we spot on the way.

The once sleepy village of Schoemansville, which has always been one of the major tourist attractions in the area, is now buzzing with activity and new developments, but has still managed to maintain most of it's original charm. Harties is Lynda Smith's choice place of residence.

I had to scan the notebook in two sections as it is too long for the scanner when opened up.

Blackberry Blossom from Nature As Is

"Blackberry Blossom" - a quick pencil sketch and watercolour done from a photograph taken by 'Nature As Is' - on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree

The colours in the photograph are actually much more subtle, (but what's artistic licence for?!) with the flower being almost white with tinges of pink, almost light purple - will re-do it at a later stage and try and capture the correct colours.

Thank you for allowing me to use your amazing photograph Crista!

Photograph by 'Nature As Is'

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Birds - White-Eye

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost."

~ Martha Graham

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!

"White-eye" sketch with watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree©

The White-Eyes are regular visitors to my garden. They normally flit around furiously catching the tiniest insects hardly visible to the eye and never sit still for long. Did a quick out-line sketch of this chappie as he gave me the cocky eye and finished it off once they had moved on.

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Birthday portrait 2009!

The portrait is one of the most curious art forms. It demands special qualities in the artist, and an almost total kinship with the model.

- Henri Matisse

It's my birthday today! Something I saw on Arty Velarde's site, she does a birthday rhyme every year. I've decided to also do this, if Arty doesn't mind, so here goes :

At 63, I am free to be ME!

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Rock Challenge : SEASCAPE

"Creative people, however, need to be stimulated,

inspired, nudged, cross-pollinated, and occasionally

kicked in the ass. Art both entertains and inspires

at the same time."

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!

"Seascape" watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - Maree

Taking your time with a painting can be highly rewarding. As I worked on this seascape, I stepped out of the room frequently and often got up to have a drink of water or make myself a cup of coffee. Returning to the painting gives you a fresh perspective and a new way of looking at it. I did this painting over the weekend, leaving it half finished on Saturday afternoon to visit some friends, finishing it off on Sunday afternoon after lunch.

Jeanette of Illustrated Life has a rock challenge starting up running until the 4th August 2009. This is one of my entries.

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Falcons

"The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!

"Falcons" in Moleskine Sketch-book - Maree©

Published on 'SkineArt'

As the pages on the right-hand side of my sketch-book started filling up, I've resorted to the left-hand side, and as I was sketching this Falcon last night, I noticed the detail on the right was done exactly a year ago.

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