Sketching people with a brush

I met up with a friend I made a long time ago on Facebook recently.  It reminded me of a watercolour sketch I'd paintedof her while we were on a painting holiday together in 1993!

Lise in Goa
watercolour sketch in Conte a Paris Sketchbook

I think we'd got to the "challenges" stage of the holiday. You know the sort of thing - lots of limbering up and getting eye in has been achieved in the first week.  Now it's the second week and time to "go for it" in terms of trying new things!

So I tried painting directly with the brush ( no pencil first!) and only using two colours PLUS getting the full range of colours that I needed through using colour mixes, saturation and tints. 

This sketch is what I achieved.  I was quite pleased with this effort which didn't take too long.  I remember thinking at the time that maybe all those life drawing classes were paying off!

The reason it makes it into my Travels with a Sketchbook blog is because I did it in my Goa Travel Sketchbook in December 1993!  (Goa is in India)

Painting Holidays

For anybody contemplating a painting holiday you might like to take a look at my FREE guides concerning:

• why choose a painting holiday
• how to choose a painting holiday
• how to make the most of a painting holiday

Plus there's also Art Holidays - Resources for Artists

Walking is still a problem

I'm getting very fed up of being confined to home while I wait for my foot to improve.  The problem is....that it isn't.  While vaguely better, it's a very long way from being OK.  This week I tried a slightly longer walk to see if stretching it might help.

It involved very slow walking and stretching the foot as I went - plus a couple of sit downs and a sketch.  Plus an awful lot of tension because I forget to breathe when I'm walking but think I'm going to fall over any second!  It's as if I'm continuously on the sharp inward yelp which occurs when in pain while forgetting to breathe out.  Almost as if I'm balancing on a tightrope with every stpe.  Very wearing.........

Anenomes in Bow
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 10 x 8" in Large Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Anyway, these are those rather nice dusky purple pink anenomes which never ever come out the right colour when you photograph them - which is a good reason for sketching them!

10 reasons to sketch with coloured pencils

Today, the Derwent Pencil Company has published my article - 10 reasons to Sketch with Coloured Pencils by Katherine Tyrrell - on their lovepencils blog.

Published on the lovepencils blog 1st March 2011

I've now been sketching with coloured pencils for over twenty years - following a tip from a professional artist about how easy and effective they were to use for sketching.  I'm so convinced of their value I have no doubt I'll be sketching with them for the next twenty years too!

However I've always been really surprised that coloured pencils don't get mentioned more in art journals as a valuable sketching medium - for all the reasons I outline in the article.

As you can imagine I was absolutely delighted to be able to give coloured pencils a higher profile by focusing on value as an article for the blog!  Here are the 10 reasons - and if you want to know more you'll have to read the article!

1. Not a lot to carry!
2. As many colours as you want
3. Go where other artists cannot go
4. Scope for mixed media
5. Get a true record of colours and tones 
6. Work small - and large
7. Impervious to rain
8. If you make a mistake....
9. Coloured pencils don’t run 
10. No waiting for the paint to dry! 

I'll be putting a FREE downloadable copy of the article - in a slightly different format - on the Making A Mark Guides page of my website blog later this week. 

If you've not tried coloured pencils as a sketching medium why not give them a go!

The Love Pencils blog

The lovepencils blog was started in November last year by Derwent - the Cumberland Pencil Company. 
It was great to see a major pencils manufacturer grasp the value that a blog can have for those who are fans of their products and the company itself. 

The Derwent ladies make a point (joke!) of posting on a regular basis.  You can see the archive of past posts here.  Plus the blog has now passed the magical three month mark - which means it's "a stayer"! (It's a fact that something like 90% of blogs die before they are three months old).

I love all the people at Derwent - they're always really helpful and I'm certainly more than happy to contribute an article to this great new blog.  :)

If you're a fan of working with pencils I do recommend subscribing to the LovePencils blog.  Apart from keeping you up to date with new products and product changes, the blog also has articles by artists working with pencils in different ways.