sketchbook – Page 5 – Pencil and Leaf

Week 5 Visual Notes

By Val Littlewood September 30, 2012 January 3, 2020 Uncategorized

Some colour.. well just a bit…I thought I would try to make a quick gouache colour note every day, based on the B/W sketches and my notes. MONDAY: the morning drizzle turned into heavy rain

My early washed out sketch, it says “4 cormorants take off in this grey scene, it’s raining harder. 7.50 am”

Later the gouache sketch from notes.. black ducks and white seagulls, the horizon lost in mist. Looking west.

TUESDAY: A beautiful morning after the heavy rain.

I sketched a big anvil shaped cloud on the horizon over Perry. Two whiter than white swans flew across the lake surface.

The gouache sketch later from my notes. I forgot the swans!

WED: Nice early but the rain started soon after I left the house. No early morning sketch but later it cleared and I walked up past the water tower

Looking east from the road. Some rooks on the stubble.

Colour notes

THURS: Light in the wood

The gouache colour note.

I have been thinking about printing today so the colours are a bit blocky.

FRI: A slightly longer walk.

Gouache colour note, silvery green grey willows are so beautiful in the wind.

SUND: A cold breezy morning. Our small inland sea has waves today.

and another small oil sketch based on Friday’s sketch…just to keep practising.

Tomorrow I am hoping to do another Sketchbook in a Day…:)

A Windy Day at Burghley Park

By Val Littlewood September 22, 2012 January 3, 2020 Uncategorized

The next workshop I have planned for my group at Easton Walled Gardens will be “Fill a Sketch Book in a Day”.. yes, it’s a daunting prospect.. but the sketchbooks I have in mind are just 12 pages and not too huge .. 10 x7 inches. The point of doing this exercise is to “get on”, stop procrastinating , make some quick decisions and work in a focused way. So to see how possible or impossible it is I took a sketchbook to Burghley Park near Stamford on Tuesday. I arrived at 9.45 and left at 4.45. had approx 2 hrs for coffee, lunch and tea break and to thaw out, which meant actual sketching time was about 5 hours.

The Problems:

1 I don’t know the place very well, so spent too much time wandering about looking at things.

2 THE WIND. It must have been the windiest day of the year. It howled out of the north west, cold and blustery. The way the great building and the public access is oriented meant it was impossible to find shelter. It whipped around every corner, sought you out even in the courtyard where it turned into a spiralling demon.

It constantly found, lifted and flapped all the corners of the sketchbook, blew my hair into my eyes and knocked over the water. If you sat in the lee of a big tree trunk the wind just split and whirled round it, to assault you from both sides. The only saving grace was that it was sporadically sunny and did not rain. In short, it was a typical, magnificent British autumn day.

Leaves and birds tossed high in the air. Visitors holding their hats and bent at 45 degrees as they struggled round the park. So how did I do.. well ..OK. For me a hard working day is really 8 till 6 so time was very tight. I spent far too long wandering about trying to ignore the magnificent towering house whose complicated architecture was too overwhelming for today’s sketching. But it is mesmerising and demands your attention at every turn. But that is for another day.. maybe.

Wind and petals 9.45- 10.00
Starting off and possibly the most poetic moment of the day. I am cold and hanging on to my sketchbook. The wind is whipping round my ears but as I sketch I am showered with petals from the rose garden.

10.15 to 10.30 An old tree with wooden props.. nice curly shapes.

10.40 –10.55 The entrance to the Gardens. I liked the turrets and pennant.

11.00 to 11.30 coffee and warmth.

11.35 to 12.00 A rather pointless wobbly sketch of a bit of the building..but hey!

After too much wandering about I sat by a tree near Lion Bridge, 12.15-12.35 The couple walking reached the bridge and looked over while I sketched so I drew them twice. I liked the sweep of the land and the shapes of the trees.. could have done a bit more here. I also liked the lion at the end so walked on.

12.40 – 1.00 The lion from Lion bridge with dark cloud I have written. “Lion with Approaching Storm” this could be a “homage” to Stubbs.” (I do have delusions sometimes)

1.00 to 2.20 hot soup and conversation.

2.20-2.30 A rather nice tree with figure under it to give scale.

2.30-3.00 Some gorgeous fancy ironwork by the Ha Ha.

3 –3.20 One of the magnificent tall chimneys and the statue in the rose garden.

3.30-3.45 some slightly more modest chimney pots.

3.45- 4.00 and I am running out of steam. Am sitting in the courtyard waiting for tea time but still being battered by the wind. These two men were waiting for their wives to come out of the shop

4.00 last sketch …Tea and cake … everything stops for cake. :).

My friend Sue joined me for the day. We went off, did our own work and met for refreshments, show and tell, and mutual encouragement. She also made sure I did the 12!

Conclusions This is a brilliant exercise for quick decisions, for getting down the basics, making notes, “seeing” many things and being inspired but I would really need longer than a 10 to 4 session especially if it’s somewhere unfamiliar. The pen is quite slow so I hope to try another sketchbook with some colour next week, do an 8 hour session and see how that goes.

In themselves these sketches are nothing. Some have the germs of an idea and they will always remind me of an excellent day, but as I have said many times the value of sketching lies in practising your artistic scales. It limbers up those stiff fingers, coaxes the hand/eye/mind coordination to work a little better and fills you with ideas and possibilities. It’s not about what you do, it’s that you do it!
I was just clocking up some of those 10,000 hours that I need.

Wool Carder Sketches 2

By Val Littlewood May 29, 2012 January 4, 2020 Uncategorized

The next stage of the wool carder is getting the pose worked out a little more. I know what I want to achieve. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Sometimes things change quite a bit when I start to paint

I am looking at my little model and noticing things like the quite short tarsus, the darkish wings and the slight haze of short ginger hairs on the thorax and the silky longer hairs under the thorax, on the legs and the stiff pollen collecting hairs under the abdomen, the scopa.

I watched them last year both at Heligan and at Twigworth.
I do hope my newly planted Lambs Ears and Motherwort (…the happiest thing in my garden !) will coax some of these lovely bees here. It is quite noticeable that the female carries her head lower than the male. Bees have a limited possible head movement because of the broadness of the rigid exoskeleton where the head and thorax meet.

The head shape and size relative to the body can vary quite a bit between species. Some remind me a bit of the old fashioned nodding dog models :). A nodding bee might be rather nice to have on the back shelf of the car.

Colour note sketch. Sketchbook, watercolour and pencil

Dancing Woodland Fairies and a Noon Fly

By Val Littlewood May 27, 2012 January 4, 2020 Uncategorized

On Friday afternoon it was hot and still. I walked to the woodland edge behind the reservoir where, in the dappled shade, the wild things were resting. The mining bee colony was quiet. The birds were still.
A huge bumble bee was snoozing on a log and a beautiful noon fly had folded its golden wings to take a break in the sun.
However not everything was sleeping because dancing all around the emerging leaves of the scrubby oaks and sycamores was a shimmering cloud of tiny moths.

“Enchanting” is the only word to describe these exquisite little things.
Of all the tiny pretty creatures in the natural world these might just be the ones to persuade you that fairies could exist.

When you look closely you see their wings are have a metallic sheen, their tiny bodies are gorgeously adorned with long black spiky hair and their antennae impossibly long and white. They dance and settle, then dance again.
Caught by the light and set against the dark woodland interior, their glimmering wings change from gold to pink to blue to green to bronze. Fabulous.
But, reluctantly leaving the realms of the fanciful, this cloud of silvery flying things are the males of little Green Longhorn moths or Adela reaumurella, one of our day flying moths, swarming, as they like to do on a nice day.

If you want some hard facts and dissected moth photos go to the excellent British Lepidoptera species page.
If you prefer to live in magic land stay here for a while.

At some point I would like to try a painting, but how to capture that delicacy? I made a couple of sketches which seem inadequate but I do think a loose watercolour would be the way to go, to keep their lightness and insubstantial nature. More sketches to come.

The dancing Adela reamurealls.. (which sounds a bit like a circus troupe!)
Watercolours in my sketchbook.

I also took a snap of the handsome noon fly, it was, just after, noon..

Bombus pratorum and the Hairiness of Bees

By Val Littlewood January 18, 2012 January 5, 2020 Uncategorized

For this six bee commission I have decided to paint the male of this species. I saw so many of them last year and they are simply enchanting. They were zipping around the tiny flowers of the cotoneaster in the churchyard here.

They are easy to spot because of their bright lemony yellow colour and orangy tail, yellow moustache and long silky hair. They are extremely pretty.

The Hairiness of Bees

Bumble bees differ quite considerably in the quality of their hair. B hortorum for example, has quite long scruffy hair whereas B lapidarius has closer short dense hair more like velvet. The hair may differ between male and female.
The term used for bumble bee hair is “pile” (which always makes me think of carpet).
The hairs are referred to as “setae” and have a particular quality. Here is the explanation from the excellent BumbleBee.org which is packed with expert info.

“The other adaptation of the hair is that many are branched or feathery enabling more pollen to stick to them, as can be seen in the scanning electron microscope images (SEM) right, and below.

hair1a

“When flying a bee builds up an electrostatic charge, the parts of a flower are usually well earthed, the stigma (the bit that leads to the ovary) more so than other flower parts, so as the bee enters the flower the pollen is attracted to the bee’s hairs and even grains of pollen that are not touched by the hairs can jump a few millimetres to the nearest hair. When a pollen covered bee enters a flower, because the stigma is better earthed than the other parts of the flower the charged pollen is preferentially attracted to it. So even if the large, hairy, bumblebee fails to brush against the stigma, the pollen can jump the few millimetres necessary for pollination.” Text and images from Bumblebee.org

Below another Scanning Electron Microscope photo of the hairs of US species B fraternus from Duke University.

A photo submitted to Springwatch in 2010 demonstrates the attraction of pollen to bees!

“Little bee © Mark Johnson from the 2010 Springwatch Flickr group!

Bombus Pratorum and Cotoneaster

The cotoneaster, where I watched the bees last May, has almost overtaken a particularly nice old grave in a part of the churchyard where wildflower spotting signs are displayed in the summer.
I am assuming it’s a Cotoneaster horizontalis, one I particularly like with its spreading, low growing habit, the tiny dainty flowers and leaves contrasting with the lichen covered gnarly branches. There are a couple of small ones in the garden here. I hope there will be bees!

A little B pratorum male.

Working out the pose and composition.

Mr Fluffy :)…. Painting the hair slightly ruffled hair will be a challenge.

Hips…make some wartime syrup!..

By Val Littlewood August 30, 2011 January 6, 2020 Uncategorized

A quick sketch of some rose hips. It’s “research” for a nice little job to draw 9 medicinal plants for the labels of a lovely range of herbal products.
The first one is the rose… whose “hips” have been used for many and varied medicinal remedies over the years and are edible too. It seems that Rosa rugosa hips are the preferred ones for eating.
Rose hips are packed with vitamin C and allegedly can help lots of things.. from coughs and colds to rheumatics and digestive problems. So in these frugal times hedgerows can help keep us healthy and the wild rose bushes here are laden with these pretty fruit.

Here is some wartime advice:

ROSEHIP SYRUP The recipe distributed by The British Ministry of Food 1943: ‘The Hedgerow Harvest’

2 pounds (900gm) of hips: Boil 3 pints of boiling water. Mince hips in a course mincer and put immediately into the boiling water. Bring to boil and then place aside for 15 minutes.
Pour into a flannel or linen jelly bag and allow to drip until the bulk of the liquid has come through. Return the residue to the saucepan add 1½ pints of boiling water stir and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
Pour back into the jelly bag and allow to drip. To make sure all the sharp hairs are removed put back the first half cupful of liquid and allow to drip through again.
Put the mixed juice into a clean saucepan and boil down until the juice measures about 1½ pints (852ml) then add 1¼ (560gm) of sugar and boil for a further 5 minutes. Pour into hot sterile bottles and seal at once.

Source: The Hedgerow Harvest, MoF, 1943 via Woman’s Hour.. where else ! 🙂 Another nice old quote, whose provenance I cannot find, says this:

‘Children with great delight eat the berries thereof when they are ripe and make chains and other pretty geegaws of the fruit; cookes and gentlewomen make tarts and suchlike dishes for pleasure.’

This not-so-gentle woman is still contemplating her haul of damsons and windfall apples but thinks this year she really should give rose hips a go! Mother would be proud!

Rose hips from Grafham

I only had to walk a few yards to find bushes laden with hips.
The bushes have a graceful arching habit and ferocious thorns.
Our kitchen window was reflected in the glossy surface ..will report back on syrup progress!

A Few Bird Sketches, but am humbled by masters.

By Val Littlewood August 22, 2011 January 6, 2020 Uncategorized

I have been working on the hypnorum painting today.. this is the second time I have started it. (First time around I managed to drop some paint on the pristine white paper when I was about half way through.. sigh).

I am also trying to resume sketching everyday and at 4.00 the weather was still beautiful so I took a sketchbook out, determined to try to sketch some birds. Birds are not really my thing but I was so very inspired by seeing all the wonderful paintings at Birdfair yesterday.

I have never been to this event before, never seen so many bird paintings, never been seduced by so many alluring travel companies and by so much gorgeous techie birdwatching equipment.

There were some favourite artists there and the wonderful work of Darren Woodhead http://www.darrenwoodheadartist.co.uk/.

He works outside on large sheets of paper and is an inspiration with stunningly beautiful watercolours which are loose and expressive with superb brushwork. He is a master.

My response today, resisting the urge to tear up everything I have ever done, has been to take out the smallest sketchbook I have and try to draw the birds on the reservoir… well, all I can say is, it’s a start. The grebes have two babies which are learning to dive.. sometimes they all disappear together.. they call to each other constantly.

My favourite terns sitting on, what I now call, tern rock. 🙂

And swans looking swan like and beautiful.

Maybe more birds and bigger birds tomorrow.. maybe not.

Walk /Sketch:Day Seven. Water Tower and More Bee Sketches

By Val Littlewood July 29, 2011 January 6, 2020 Uncategorized

I am doing some more work on my Bombus hypnorum.
The pretty Tree Bumblebee who is quite new to the UK. I will paint the one I saw at Easton in May who was busy on the cherry blossom.

I looked through my photos again and see I have photographed both male and female over the last few months.
They are very similar but the male has a ginger section on the abdomen and a top knot of ginger hairs. They are really quite delightfully hairy with long silky hair and their wings seem quite long when compared with other bumble bees.

They are certainly spreading throughout the country now, its ten years since the first records, and it seems they are a benign invader. The sketches are useful just to get re-acquainted with the bee.

I think I have finally decided on the position of the bee on the page and its size. It is vital to get all this sorted out now as changes are not really possible…well, not once you have put the first layer of paint down.

I am using my rather blurred photo for the pose inspirations, and I do have a little model which I can use when I paint the final piece. It’s taken me two hours just playing around with various possibilities.

I think I will be painting this later in August. At Nature in Art I hope to be sketching and making studies from their lovely garden.

Grafham Water Tower The local Post Office is in the next village and I had a couple of things to post so cycled over there.
On the way you pass the water tower which comes as a bit of a surprise as you round a corner.
It stands in its own neglected and weedy plot of land and there are dire warnings of DANGER and risk of “Non Ionising Radiation”.

I am fascinated by water towers. In Lincs you can orient yourself by their positions on the skyline. They are strange, blank looking edifices. They seem silent and tight lipped as if they hold a private secret. I have to admit I have never seen inside one.

I made a little thumbnail sketch then started a larger one. It was cold today and I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to stay out for long. I took a snap of the pencil stage.
I don’t usually use do pencil prelim when I am out sketching as I feel it makes me too fussy but drawing buildings makes me nervous. I feel I need to work it all out before committing to pen. Silly really! I just need more practice!
Maybe the Church tomorrow.. well maybe just a bit of it!

I like the tinted paper because you have a mid tone already there for you!

I might add a bit of sky to this …but no more time today.

Walk/Sketch:Day Six. Nature not so Idyllic!

By Val Littlewood July 28, 2011 January 6, 2020 Uncategorized

I was so encouraged by all your very kind emails and comments re My Day.

I particularly liked the ones which felt, like me, that all work and no play makes for a very dull person.
So today as it was sunny and beautiful I went out for some time.
And of course, if you don’t go out and look, you don’t see, and then you don’t learn, so I do have the very best excuse to go wandering the local paths.
By 12.00 it was hot, steamy and torpid… no breeze at all and actually quite uncomfortable away from the lake.
I cycled and walked for some time before deciding to go back to the dead tree again and the path leading up to it.
Today I took pen, brush, white gouache, water soluble pencil and coloured paper. I like the sweep of the hill and the tree.

But after I had done the first sketch I walked up to the hill and saw a dead crow hanging from a stick in the ground. I know this is an old custom to deter birds but thought it was long over.
It is completely misguided and unnecessary. I felt sad and the day seemed to become more oppressive.
Now I am not so sentimental as to feel that everything in the garden of nature is always lovely. Living here we see our share of animal fatalities.

But I do like crows…I lost my appetite for sketching, just as I had the other day, when sitting by the lake to sketch, my drawing was accompanied by the frantic intermittent buzzing of a fly somewhere which was being wrapped up by a spider.. what to do?

Deprive the spider of its food, try to save the fly?

I could see it nowhere and that gloomy day just got gloomier.. These small cruelties can sometimes seem unbearable, bad enough when they are animal against animal but somehow the involvement of the human hand is more unacceptable.

But on the other hand today there were so many beautiful butterflies around. I am particularly admiring of the peacocks with their dark underwings which give no clue to their beauty until they spread their wings. There were many, many of them resting on the path.

So just a couple of sketches. Yes, and a thumbnail of the crow at the bottom of the page.. I drew a similar one for my Scarecrow Book.

Later, the day became more settled, clearer and more beautiful..
I went out again and walked by the water, my faith in all things natural restored, for a while!

Bee Thumbnails, almost on the Drawing Board. And Walk/Sketch 6

By Val Littlewood July 26, 2011 January 6, 2020 Uncategorized

I am working on some new paintings.. so far I have been researching and sketching.

I have said before I don’t consistently use one beautiful and carefully annotated sketchbook, I wish I did, but never have and am too old now to change! So rough ideas are sometimes just scribbled on the back of bits of scrap paper.

I will be working on a Heligan Bee.. the only problem is which one??

I have thought and thought about this. I am undecided between a Bumble bee and foxglove, or the wonderful female Anthidium manicatum on the curious motherwort.

The Bombus hypnorum, The pretty Tree Bumble Bee will now be a commission. I am delighted to be painting this bee at last. I have added more blossom.

Another little Osmia rufa Red mason bee with cherry blossom was an alternative commission possibility. I am fond of this one so will probably do it anyway.

Below are a couple of thumbnail sketches for another painting of the snailshell bee, also a commission, for Peter and Carol who were fascinated by this combination of bee and shell.

This will be a bigger painting than usual and with two bees. A massive 14 x 14 inches! Nice. It will be two Osmia bicolors, male and female. This is another bee I haven’t painted yet. These are just first thoughts about how I might position these two bees.

Honeysuckle and Bombus hortorum. I watched these lovely bees both this year and last year on Dad’s honeysuckle. This one will be another commission I think.

I think that’s enough for now 🙂

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Day 6 Walk/Sketch

I didn’t get out till 5.00 today for my walk/sketch. I was out until 6.15. I know this because I have also been writing down where my day goes..I seem to get nothing done some days so decided to keep a record of where exactly the time goes! Its 7.15 now and I should be getting this posted as I still have emails to write/answer…. so just two sketches today, on this cold grey day. Dark skies and wind in the tall crop made for a gloomy and uneasy walk so I didn’t stay out long. The fishermen were wrapped up.

and the sky should be much darker!!

That’s a UK summer for you 🙂

Tag: sketchbook