Eryri: 3

I live in a very rainy country, but rarely represent the rain in my sketching …. because it’s miserable to stand in the rain and draw! And not very practical – paper gets soggy, colours run or slip around. That can be interesting, but it’s a lot of physical discomfort. So the journey on theContinue reading “Eryri: 3”

Eryri: 2.

Waking up to torrential rain and gale force winds on our short break to North Wales, Husb and I decided to ditch the planned walk along mountain paths and opt for a steam train ride from Caernarfon up the mountains to the legendary village of Beddgelert. It was pouring and windy outside but we wereContinue reading “Eryri: 2.”

Eryri: 1.

I took a blog break for a few days while Husb and I visited North Wales / Cymru Gogledd, such a gorgeous part of the country. The weather, however, wasn’t gorgeous, it poured with rain most of the days we were there. The upside is that the atmosphere was amazing, soft and smudgy, almost butContinue reading “Eryri: 1.”

Playing With New Toy.

My new toy came through the post today, a box of Caran d’Ache Neo-Pastel colours. For a long time now I’ve been following the blog of USA based artist Aletha Kuschan and I’ve been so impressed by her work, particularly her lovely vibrant pastel drawings. She kindly told me what she used for them. SoContinue reading “Playing With New Toy.”

Getting Nearer.

I did some more work on the “celebrity” portrait I started recently, using my new-ish pastels from the Lake District. I don’t normally work from photos or do celebs, but I need a lot of practice to try out these as they’re much softer than I’m used to. The likeness is getting nearer but notContinue reading “Getting Nearer.”

Who Is It?

I don’t generally draw celebrities but I was trying out my new pastels and there wasn’t anyone in the house so I grabbed a photo off the Internet and started scribbling their likeness. Here’s the halfway point – can you see who it is yet? Raising Funds. My family is raising money for Phil, aContinue reading “Who Is It?”

Pastel Sausages And Scribbles.

I gave my new pastels from Florence Paintmakers a go today, on some black paper, just messing around to get the feel of them. Nice. Looks like a box of sausages though 😀 Then I had a go at sketching a head from a photo. Didn’t have time to do much today, but I’ll finishContinue reading “Pastel Sausages And Scribbles.”

As well as the gorgeous mineral pastels from Cumbria I featured in my last blog post, I also have these lovely pots of mineral pigments from the Clearwell Cave mine in the Forest of Dean. Husb and I visited last Autumn and were amazed by the beauty of the underground caverns, which are reasonably easyContinue reading

Pastels And Pigments.

Husb and I went to the Lake District for a break a couple of weeks ago and took ourselves off to the gorgeous town of Keswick. On the Main Street there’s a lovely little gallery, The Graphite Gallery, where I was able to indulge my love of natural pigments and talk at length with aContinue reading “Pastels And Pigments.”

A Walk To Sgwd Gwladys

Husb and I went for a walk in this afternoon’s sunshine to Sgwd Gwladys (Lady Falls), a waterfall on the Afon (River) Pyrddin. We stopped on the path so I could quickly sketch the view across the river to a mine entrance, partially overgrown, with Rembrandt pastels onto Khadi paper. Sgwd Gwladys is one ofContinue reading “A Walk To Sgwd Gwladys”