Here’s a belated collection from a June trip to the Scilly Isles, thirty miles West of Land’s End. After months of lockdown and restricted travel the trip felt oddly exotic; being in a propeller airplane helped. From the top there’s the flight out in a Twin Otter (like a flying charabanc) along the Cornish peninsular and out to sea, then various coastal/island views on Tresco, and finally Exeter airport on the way back. I’m used to being on the coast or on an island and seeing the sea wherever you go, but on the Scillies there’s also always a scattering of other islands reaching out to the hor ..read more

A round up of recent(ish) selfies. First is my take on the ‘One week, One hundred people’ sketching challenge from earlier this year. One hundred mirror selfies in one week, all tiny and done with pencil and smudge stump. I rapidly ran out of expressions and had to start using close-ups, odd angles, hats and other props to avoid too much repetition. Winston Churchill, my father, and various other people make surprising appearances! And then twenty of the usual ones; reliable standbys at the end of the day when I realise I haven’t done my daily sketch yet, with the usual shifty, suspicious a ..read more

A couple of small watercolour sketches, done on recent misty morning dog walks. The first is looking across Bath city centre, with the Abbey and other church towers/spires in the middle distance. The second is looking from above Bath towards the distant Mendips thirty miles away, autumn colours creeping into the landscape ..read more

This month I have been mostly using Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils, in ‘dark indigo’. They’re my new favourite mark-maker; soft and responsive on the paper, lots of pigment for rich lines, and barely any smudging. They combine well with watercolour, and fainter lines can fade into the background when needed. First there’s a crowd of fans waiting on a traffic island for a glimpse of Timothée Chalamet, in Bath filming Wonka. I added colour when I got home, hence the traffic light colours being upside down… Then forty one quick sketches of Bath bench-life. People dozing, eating, drinking, smokin ..read more

Quick sketches while being vaccinated over the last few months. The centre was very quiet, very calm, and oddly normal given the strangeness and relative novelty of what was going on ..read more

A quick post after many months of absence, apologies. The sketching has carried on in the meantime (I passed my ten year anniversary of daily drawing in March!), but the website had gone into hibernation. Here are some recent Bath sketches to get the ball rolling again; the local bandstand back in action after many many months silence, a cafe view in Kingsmead Square, and people relaxing in Queen Square ..read more

(Apologies for the recent lack of posts. Lockdown etc has broken/changed/started many habits, including a drastic reduction in my use of social media, which is probably a Good Thing. The daily drawing from life continues in spite of it all) Here’s a set of sketches of Denis, our lovely 91 year-old neighbour. Since the start of the first lockdown I’ve popped round most days to see him for a chat, distanced for safety. Sometimes I draw him while we’re talking, and he’s usually amused by the results… “I look like an ancient elf!” Most of the sketches are tiny (10cm x 10cm ish), and either in penc ..read more

(I don’t think I’ve done a ‘sketching kit’ post for a while. They’re usually popular so here goes…) To keep up the daily ‘drawing from life’ habit (nearly ten years now) I make sure I’ve always got sketching materials on me. In the past I’ve just used any paper/pen in my pocket, but having more time on my hands recently (…) led to me making a tiny sketch kit. It weighs 37 grammes, less than any pocket notebook I’ve got, and gives me top quality paper/line/tone wherever/whenever. (It’s also forced me not to rely on the Duke Confucius pen for all my sketching) The paper’s the great stuff I ..read more

Here are around 170 people enjoying fresh-air, benches, sunshine, ice-creams, solitude and company. It’s been busy busy busy in Bath’s parks, not surprising with fine weather after months of lockdown. Due to foreshortening, trying to fit them all onto the paper, and ‘artist’s license’ people look closer than they actually are in the parks. But apart from the occasional mask it does all feel strangely normal… (all drawn with Duke Confucius fude, dipped in various inks)   ..read more

Lockdown’s lack of group sketch-crawls has led to regular virtual meet-ups. Using Google Streetview you can freely wander a static location, get lost in side-streets and find a view that suits, joined by other sketchers on Zoom. Transcribing photos/2d images is very different to drawing from life, here’s James Gurney explaining the vital difference.  But it’s been fun hanging out with fellow sketchers again, sometimes adding them as Olympian observers above the scene, and the local subjects are perfectly still! From the top there’s Liverpool (spot the near invisible correction to fit in t ..read more