Monday 29 October 2012

Haunt






My idea of a hauntingly spooky vision in time for Halloween.
Inspired by the word 'haunt', this week on Illustration Friday, watercolour and pastel.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Somewhere Down the Dusty lane




Another try at pastel over watercolour, this time I used an unfinished sketch of  the dusty lane.
I'd sketched an outline in ink and put in some basic colour in watercolours but that was all, left abandoned 
and never finished.
I used both soft  and hard pastels this time, working mainly from memory (this is a very familiar view but at the moment the right hand side is black and burnt following a wildfire a few weeks ago) .

What I haven't got is a fixative for pastels, the only one I've ever had changed the colours making the pastel darker and duller, which isn't the desired effect!  So can anyone recommend a good make please?


Thursday 18 October 2012

Un Grappolo d'Uva



Pastel & watercolour (30x23cms)



A bunch of grapes from my garden.....there were only four bunches altogether.  This painting started out as a watercolour but I was having difficulty getting the right translucent colour for the grapes so I got my pastels out and went over the top.
I don't use pastels very often but I enjoyed working over the watercolour so I'm sure I'll be trying this again.




Saturday 13 October 2012

Autumn is Back





Crispy brown leaves from my garden....autumn is here!



I can't resist the colours at this time of year.
A  song by Irish jazz/blues singer Mary Coughlan comes to mind.

Like the wind takes a leaf from a tree
Time will take your love from me.....




Wednesday 10 October 2012

UKCPS Annual Open Exhibition 2012 and.....



Endymion and Aglaia (coloured pencil)




The UKCPS (UK Coloured Pencil Society) annual exhibition is underway at Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery, Coten Road, Nuneaton.

My painting Endymion and Aglaia is in the exhibition and I was very pleased to find it had won the third runner up award.
This is the first time I've won anything for my art work so all I can say is that I'm tickled pink!

The exhibition runs from October 6th until November 25th but you can  see the award winners and  the amazing work that can be achieved with coloured pencils online here


Monday 8 October 2012

Mirror





















The prompt for Illustration Friday this week is 'mirror'.  This is an illustration from a couple of years ago (Sketchbook Project), but it fits well with the theme.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Need Some Colour!








I'm without telephone and internet connection for now as we had a wild fire down the dusty lane

and telegraph poles were burnt and telephone wires melted. Lucklily the fire only singed the

edge of my garden and we wern't at home at the time! Sadly the view from the front of the house

is only blackened burnt trees which I thought about sketching but the idea was too depressing.

Hence a lovely colourful feather!!



I don't know how long it will take to get everything fixed and I will post when I can get to a

computer.