Holiday Sketching

A few of the holiday days were spent outside in cold damp conditions getting away from the dead days around Christmas and beyond. Still infatuated with the Pental Colour Brush Pen for drawing. Compared to dip pens and fineliners it forces me to be bolder, work quickly and create design choices within the mark making. 

22 December - Calder Wetlands, just across the road from me. Needed to get out in the open air and draw. Something I feel like I haven't done on purpose for awhile. Found a small wooded area and then found a smaller path off that down by the lakeside. The drawing comes second at times like these while bird calls become clearer and meaningful. Started out fairly warm and confident but after 25 minutes stood still I was ready to move on.

I finished the drawing off at home applying watercolour and white paint. The colours are expressionistic as I don't have the skills to watercolour a realistic painterly rendering over my bold mark making. That's not the aim of the sketchbook, to make things that look realistic. Getting outside and do the doing, process over product, that's the aim.

24 December - Sandal Castle. I knew I was going to collect my Christmas Dinner from the Castle Cafe and meet a friend so arrived early looking for inspiration. Ten minutes in someone shouted up from the carpark that I would be needing a pair of warm gloves in this weather. Or something along those lines. Standing here is lovely. Maybe I was brave because I knew hot coffee and scones were within easy reach within the next 30 minutes. And to top it off I had a chance meeting with someone who I had not seen in absolute ages, which is always nice.

28 December - Durkar Low Lane. I took a detour on the way home from Asda. I found a great, gnarly looking oak tree in the depths of a winters day. It's 6°c according to my weather app and I was soon feeling it. 25 minutes later I was ready to move. My hands and back were seized from standing with a rucksack of shopping in the cold.

Applied watercolour, white ink and pencil back at home with Snickers bars and a cup of black Redbush tea to reanimate my seized up limbs. I like black and white but only drawing that way becomes monotonous - pun intended.