Monday 26 July 2010

Solo drawing and travel thoughts...

At present, I am a little bit crap at solo drawing expeditions. I lose my rubber every two minutes and its ALWAYS the rubber. I'm not sure why. I spend about an hour looking for it and it turns out to be somewhere right in front of me or in my pants etc. I had another free weekend so I thought "GREAT - solo drawing trip". I packed all my bits and headed out the door, got half way down the road and realised that I had forgotten my paints, pad and pencils but yet packed everything else. Fool.

Once I got everything, I headed back down the street and hopped on the bus up to Crystal Palace. I plonked myself in the middle of the park. The sun was beating down and I realised I didn’t have any sun lotion which resulted in burnt shoulders.

I then needed a wee (miles from a loo)

I then needed a drink (which I didn’t pack)

I seemed to be in the path of every dog, wasp and child. I also ended up having some strange half naked tramp come over to me and make some sort of warbled conversation.

I had a much more successful trip the week before at Park Hill Park where I sketched with my new little watercolour moleskine which flips long ways for a panoramic type result. This layout is helping me to draw in a completely new way. I thought I would find it too small, but in fact, I'm finding the size strangely exciting and liberating. The lack of space makes me feel less daunted, yet I put just as much time and effort in as I would in a larger book (and I have both sizes but seem to be using the little one more). Heres the sketch I did in that park:





Here are some bits I drew on my Crystal Palace trip in the same little book:















Big Picture Gallery:

There is now a new gallery set up for local artists in Crystal Palace which I'm interested in participating in. There's a lot of talent out there. I do wonder how they price it all though, some of them were priced at a grand a pop for simple paintings and sketches. I can't imagine sitting down and thinking "this is worth XXX amount", how do people do it?

Last year I went on trip round Asia to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. I was thinking back to it the other day and although at the time I struggled with being in a group 24 hours a day for over a month (man that was hard) it really helped me. At the time I was in a bad place and when I think of the difference in me from then and now and it makes me smile. If only I had been drawing - I wanted to, but my head wasnt right. I took some good pictures though, which need to go on flickr. Here are a few I like (which was tough to pick through because I have HUNDREDS):









I'm going to be loading the whole lot on flickr at some point but please have a gander at my recent doodlings here

10 comments:

  1. Looks like an awesome trip! =)
    Really like those sketches too

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  2. Love your sketches..! You seem to like the panoramic view that the sketchbook provides!! That looks nice too!!
    You seem to have had a wonderful trip... Would you be painting some of these photographs too?

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  3. I like your sketches and the wide panoramic drawings of the area, you got a lot of detail in.
    Your photos are interesting too, it looks like you saw a lot of new things.

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  4. Lovely sketches. I have the larger Moleskine watercolour book but it's too big to carry around really. I may save up my pennies for a small one.

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  5. Wonderful sketches! Will you be adding color? I only ask because I always feel guilty if I use watercolor paper for line drawings...it costs more! :D I have a hard time drawing that small. I even think the large ones seems small!

    These photos are stunning, really. I look forward to seeing more of these on flickr. Hopefully, you'll have time to tell us a little about them!

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  6. Sketches and photographs are simply lovely - I especially like the city scene sketches, very cool!

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  7. Thanks everyone! I know what you mean Raena, I did mean to add colour but it never quite got there for various reasons (mainly due to getting totally burnt and leaving quicker than planned) but Im off on holiday to Crete next week and Im planning on getting some serious watercolour action on. I think I will do some painting from my photos, definately.

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  8. Enjoyed the sketches and photos Natasha, you have a great eye there. One of the buildings in the first sketch has a face!

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  9. I think your sketches are wonderful - my favorite being the panoramic view. I also think the photos are great too - my favorites, the parked canoes and the ruins. Re the rubber, it's much more serious on this side of the pond when we lose one. :) But have you ever considered not using one at all? It's a great challenge that improves skills. I've been using pen for some time, and there are many disasters but mostly I learn to use the stray lines. It makes the picture my own, for sure.

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  10. Hi Natasha. I agree with the others, your panoramic sketches are really nice. Your photos are also vary nice. Stop by my art blog sometime. By the way I found you through Raena's sketch blog.

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