Tag Archives: creativity

Porto Pavement People.

I sometimes stand on the pavement and scribble people walking along. Most people move quite quickly so my sketches are speedy. I generally spot someone when they’re quite a way down the road and follow them as they get closer, focusing on the essence of the figure, not the details. I did a few ofContinue reading “Porto Pavement People.”

The Rediscovered Sketchbook.

Sometimes I put a sketchbook down and forget about it for months or even years. I don’t know why I do it, some of them just seem to fall out of favour or maybe a I fall in love with the novelty of a new one. This little leather-clad book is one of these. IContinue reading “The Rediscovered Sketchbook.”

Old And New

Here’s another sketch I did on holiday in Porto, Portugal last week. It was very hot (for me anyway) and Husb and I took refuge in the beautiful Crystal Palace garden near our little hotel. There was loads to sketch there but I settled on this view of an old statue, probably 19th century, inContinue reading “Old And New”

Strange Trees In The Dark.

I was so taken with the odd pollards in the Porto park, Jardim da Cordoaria, that I went back the next evening with my landscape Khadi sketchbook and Derwent Inktense blocks and spent a while drawing the strange trees in a mix of natural night-time darkness and harsh orange/yellow street lighting.

Pollards In A Park In Porto

Husb and I went away for a few days, which is why I haven’t blogged recently. It’s our first trip outside the UK since before Covid19 and to be honest I was nervous, but we met up with family from different parts of the world in Porto in Portugal and it was so lovely. TheContinue reading “Pollards In A Park In Porto”

Let The Water Do The Work.

Here’s another little watercolour from my adult teaching session this week. I’ve been emphasising that the important thing about watercolours is actually the water, letting the image develop as it dries. We flooded the stretched Bockingford paper with clean water then using a very wet brush, “dropped” the wet pigment onto the paper without overworkingContinue reading “Let The Water Do The Work.”

Teaching Watercolours – The Reveal

Today was a fun day. Last week’s adult education group prepared some samples of different watercolour effects but they were still wet when they left (below), so today we had the big reveal! It’s always exciting and these techniques often have that WOW factor! We used Winsor & Newton Cotman half pans onto Bockingford watercolourContinue reading “Teaching Watercolours – The Reveal”