sketches – Page 2 – Pencil and Leaf

Last Daily Sketches

By Val Littlewood August 1, 2015 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

The last few daily sketches for this month:

Monday 27th July: One of the stones from the reservoir edge again. This is my favourite.

Tuesday 28th July: A single flower from the very beautiful wild flower, Meadow Clary which I grow in the garden. The colour is stunning.

The flower positions the pollen bearing stamens in the top part of the flower which rub against the insects who push into the flower looking for nectar. The anther is like a little serpents tongue.. nice!
It is classified by Plant life as near “Near Threatened” due to loss of habitat. But you can buy it! Please do.. it’s gorgeous, mine came from Bee Happy Plants: https://beehappyplants.co.uk/bee-plants/salvia-pratensis/. It has begun to seed itself around too.

Wednesday 29th July : A couple of seed heads from another ace bee plant, Birds foot trefoil. The individual pods dry and twist to scatter tiny, tiny, seeds.

Thursday 30th July: A Selection of Bird Cherries from the tree outside. Not many are still green. They are just about edible ..the birds have already started..

Friday 31st July I am about to shift my focus and it’s back to the lovely bees for a while. Some sketches and simplified designs from a deceased little Bombus pascuorum the Common Carder bee.
I am hoping for a small booklet in about 3 weeks time if I ever get to grips with InDesign.

Week 4: Daily Sketches

By Val Littlewood July 27, 2015 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

Sometimes in a very busy week it’s hard to get round to the quick sketches, but it is a good discipline and to be honest it’s not that difficult to find half an hour. No time to agonise about what to draw either!

Monday 20th : Agrimony a very common plant round here, with sticky burred seed capsules. Excellent pollen for bees and hoverflies with some curious medicinal uses..

Tuesday 21st: More flints. Encouraged by Anna another student at college I have bought some coloured pencils again, having been with out them for a few years. I have mixed feelings about them but they are sometimes lovely for sketching. More flints to come.

Wednesday 22nd : Yellow Rattle and Seeds. Fascinating semi parasitic plant which helps clear land by thinning out grass.The seeds spilling out of the papery pods were unexpectedly large.

Thursday 23rd. The Black Feathers: I have had these two very beautiful black feathers for a while now and eventually have worked out what they are. They are turkey feathers. I must have picked them up in the winter near where the local farmer keeps a few turkeys every year. I am going to do a coloured version sometime. They are very handsome, with a beautiful dark sheen and very soft downy fluff on the shaft.

Friday 24th. Pigeon skull. I know this because the pigeon died in the garden over a year ago. It lay under the hedge undisturbed before I added it to my very small skull collection. I am hoping for a mole next year. …)

Sat 25th: Feathers 2 Another couple of feathers this time pheasant I think. Just a few more sketches to go.. I wonder what Paul’s next monthly challenge will be?? In between I am working on a “quick” 3 week project challenge to design, illustrate and make a small book, which entails learning how to use InDesign which is proving to be very slow…The sketches are much easier!

Week 3 Sketches

By Val Littlewood July 20, 2015 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

Continuing my daily sketches for July. There are a few rules. They should be quick. Half an hour to an hour and just something I have seen recently and found interesting, mostly to do with the natural world. The purpose; to observe, record, explore and just see what ideas come along through the sketching. Many do.
The drawing, the making marks, the use of colour on paper, however basic and perhaps unpromising are the key. Nothing is a mistake or wrong or good or bad, it’s just work. Visual notes. More stuff for the visual memory bank. Seed pods are endlessly fascinating:

Monday 13th: Campion Pods. Red Campion pods are on closer inspection, exquisite little urn shapes with rolled back edges containing a treasure trove of seeds. The Bladder Campion pods are papery and translucent showing the large black seeds inside

Tuesday 14th: Herb Robert or by its most sinister name “Death come Quickly” … why??? . It’s a delicate little weed that loves my garden.

Wednesday 15th: Convolvulus. One of the many types. This is the large white one. The flower buds are beautiful. Tightly furled. More drawings I think..

Thursday 16th: Cacti at Cambridge Botanical Garden. Little thumbnail sketch just to remember the soft blue/grey/greens but I was most interested in the shapes.

A5 sketchbook notes

The Gardens are interesting, but the Glasshouses, with their steamy jungle smell, dripping mosses and clambering vines, filled me with a wave of nostalgia and longing for my familiar old botanical friends in Florida. Ahh….

Friday 17th: Flint. One of the black hearted flints that have been unearthed by the recent works round the Reservoir. I love these mysterious things. This one has milky clouded spots. There will hopefully be more drawings.

Sat 18th: Enchanter’s Nightshade This dainty little plant carpets the nearby wood. It has delightfully tiny hairy seed pods. Its Latin name is Circaea lutetiana which accounts for its wonderful English name as the enchantress Circe, supposedly used the plant to turn men into pigs. Hmmm…

Anyway it’s not related to the dangerous deadly nightshade. Transformation is, I guess, preferable to death.

More Daily Sketches

By Val Littlewood July 13, 2015 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

Week two of the daily sketches …

6th July, little marmalade hoverflies, which are everywhere at the moment. They are so dainty. I was thinking it might be difficult to explain the name to anyone who does not know what marmalade is.

7th July, some more stems and a few seed pods.

8th and 9th July. On a bike ride we were rather fortunate to find a dead mole, (see mole drawings and print posts from a couple of weeks ago) Unluckily it wasn’t in very good shape. Something had chewed at it and it was beginning to decompose. But not to be deterred this time I brought it back and made some sketches before the smell and the circling flies made me call a halt.
However it was such a good opportunity to get a better understanding of those extraordinary feet. Big, almost scaly and spade shaped with long claws. If you have ever held a mole you will know how very strong they are.
I now regard drawing a dead thing as an honourable tribute, so can just about cope with the yuk factor. It is now under the apple tree with the hedgehog and a shrew. I have buried it in a box with thoughts of preserving the skeleton. My internet search history could be misconstrued.

10th July Dog Rose. I think the last one in all of Grafham …. I had thought there would be plenty of dog roses left but I could only find one. The little rosehips are already forming. I am wistfully thinking it seems too soon.

On Saturday 11th we had mussels in wine, garlic, chilli and tomatoes… this time with a few langoustines thrown in. I can’t quite believe I have never drawn one before. It’s one of those things you are sort of expected to draw when learning. They are really delightful both to draw and eat. I have saved a couple of claws to make more detailed studies.
The drawings take between a half an hour and an hour. I like to make them quick. They are usually on A4 sketchbook so something similar. This week, pods and some quick loose brush paintings… and a dancing Owl.

Almost Back to the Blog…

By Val Littlewood May 27, 2015 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

After a fascinating Spring Term of exploring and developing
more and more ideas for the MA Course, I have a break for the Summer.

The most interesting aspect of the course so far has been
the good shaking-up my creative brain has had. Many many experiments are
beginning to open up possible new directions. More of all that soon.

But I am definitely back to walking and cycling and down by
the reservoir the young corn is growing fast. So are the swans who seem to
spend most of their time in the field, I am presuming they are snacking on the
new shoots.

Sometimes you can only see their heads. I made a few
sketchbook notes to get going again…

A tiny colour study..maybe something will come out of it..

Eels .. a start.

By Val Littlewood January 24, 2015 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

I am completely fascinated by these slippery, mysterious creatures and their extraordinary life cycle. They are one of the subjects in my very long, 2015, to-do list. I have drawn some eels before, long ago to illustrate Philip Gross’ poem “Sargasso”. I had been thinking about another interpretation of the poem for a small book.

But meanwhile I am playing with all sorts of printing methods and wanted to make a simple concertina book for a bit more simple bookbinding practice.

I started with some sketches:

eels-2

They do have teeth… awesome!

Then made a couple of simple plates cut from card. I had made some card plates for the moon project but they were not terribly successful. Now I have made up some of my own shellac which I think will help.

Sketch and plates

Trials with different weights of ink

A first folded print Then I made a small simple case for the book. I say simple but it is tricky to get everything square, to stop the ink smudging and to keep everything clean. I printed some foliage for a quick cover, wrestled with some old wood type for the title and printed the back of the eel to tidy that aspect up a bit before pasting the print to the front cover.

The case cover

The back

Opened book There are a million things wrong with this but it is a small triumph for me and number two small book form for this year. I am trying to make one a week. Last week I used an old frog print, folded it and made two separate boards.

The folded book

The front and back boards

The opened out print.

I have to consider this an experiment .. but good practice. See more here.

Twigs

By Val Littlewood January 18, 2015 December 29, 2019 Uncategorized

I trying to decide on my tree for Lucy’s Tree Following blog this year. I gathered some inspiring twigs and did a few sketches. I am also looking for a “good” twig as the basis for a set of prints. I like twigs very much….and their colours are lovely this time of year.
I particularly liked this Hawthorn.

Sketchbook sketch, Hawthorn

Hawthorn, Willow, Bramble and I think, Hazel…watercolour 11.5 inches square

Then in the Garden there is an annoying and vicious wild cherry of some kind. It has lethal thorns which embed themselves deep in your unsuspecting flesh and it throws up suckers everywhere… BUT it is a wonderful tree for the birds and bees and is so pretty in the spring and does have almost edible fruit. We hack it selectively every year.
I sketched it when we first moved here.

So all things considered I might just study this one this year. More knowledge should engender more understanding and affection. It’s not unlike the hawthorn in many ways but has a simpler leaf shape which will be good for the prints I am hoping to make.

More twigs next week.

Getting to know Shieldbugs.

By Val Littlewood April 24, 2014 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

I really like Shieldbugs but know nothing about them. I like their neat shape and their very pleasing patterns. Close up they are quite exquisite and I don’t mind that they are also known as stink bugs. Over the years I have seen quite a few but not really taken so much notice of them.

Now I am more interested. Britishbugs.org have an excellent site all about our UK bugs. These are the true bugs, the family Hemiptra. It seems in the UK we have over 2000 species and as the site says they are not very well covered in field guide books Shieldbugs are just one family. Wiki has a page detailing 44 species in the UK. T

hey are sap sucking, some carnivorous and some not. I had no idea there were different stages of development but they go through various stages of metamorphosis before adulthood. Also it seems the female shield bug is quite a good mother and watches over her little brood until the nymphs can look after themselves. Birds eat them and in some parts of the world they are pests but often are not.
The shield bugs I saw on the White Dead Nettle are Pied Shield Bugs (see Black Bee Continued) and I am including two of them in the black bee painting. Both of them love the same plant so it seems only right to pair them up.
Today I went out to see if I could find some local ones but nothing, even though we have plenty of White Dead nettle here. However I did find a lovely Common Green Shieldbug Palomena prasina sunning on a leaf.

And, looking through my photos from Holme Fen again, I find I had taken a photo of another bug that day. This I think is Coreus marginatus a squash bug. It likes docks and that makes sense as there were quite a few growing nearby.

Pied Shieldbug Sketches I am making a few “getting-to-know-you sketches” of the bugs before I start the artwork .

Adult, mid stage and young Pied Shieldbugs (Tritomegas bicolor)

The development stages are just as attractive as the adult. I read there are 5 instars before full adulthood. I have not quite worked out at what stage they get their wings but the middle one I think is still wingless. Metamorphosis is very strange isn’t it?
More bug sketches to come…

Cormorant Sketches

By Val Littlewood March 25, 2014 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

There are quite a few cormorants on the reservoir here. Sometimes I see them skimming the surface of the water, soaring up high into the air, sitting on the outlet towers or, at Perry, perched on the breakwater by the boats. This is where I found them this week.

I am hoping to make a drawing/print/painting of a cormorant or two for Beautiful Beasts and wanted to get to know the shapes a bit better. There were about 6, two young ones and two wing drying adults and a couple swimming around.
You can’t get very close to them, they are very shy, so it’s really a case of watching and making rough sketches.
They do, however, stay quite still on the breakwater drying their wings or snoozing.

A4 Sketchbook: First sketches of cormorants on the breakwater (with a couple of bouncing jackdaws at the bottom of the page).

A4 Sketchbook: More very quick sketches of the wing drying while they were still on the breakwater.

Some of them were still there when I left. Others took to the water before flying off. They make quite a bit of noise when they take off and I love the big flapping wings and the big trailing feet

The quickest and probably the best sketch A5 sketchbook

A5 sketchbook colour note.

The breakwater is orangy red. which makes an interesting contrast.

More cormorants to come.

Drawing Willows with Willow Charcoal.

By Val Littlewood March 14, 2014 December 31, 2019 Uncategorized

2013 Willows: Last year I made some drawings of the Willows at Perry. It was April.

2014 Willows

Today I went back to the same spot. There are new pollards and the pollarded trees from last year have sent out huge strong shoots.

Three sketches of the same log. The one top right was from last year. Now like some magic hedgehog it has sprung long spines. I made some pen and ink sketches. The shapes of the new stumpy pollarded trees are strange. They give the landscape a desolate look, ruins of old tree.

Pen and Ink sketches A4 And the 3 in charcoal.

Exuberant growth from last years pollard.

The twisty truncated branches on their short bases remind me of some trimmed internal organ.

Charcoal Sketches 12 x16 inches Perry Thursday 13th March.

It is rather special charcoal ..more of that in my next post…..

Tag: sketches