Friday 22 April 2011

The Ancient

I don't know the age of this wonderful tree but I bet it was around at the time of the English Civil War when Cromwell roamed this county and perhaps some of his army would have stopped here for shelter from the strong Eastern winds that sweep across from the North Sea. Cromwell was born and educated here in Huntingdon; he later moved to Ely and his battle headquarters were in nearby St Ives so lots of the local streets and buildings carry his name.

I drew (painted ?) this on the spot, using mainly watercolour pencils , building it up in layers, activating some of the pigment with a waterbrush and applying dry pencil or wet pencil to areas to produce more intense colour. I'm quite happy with this one.


OLD TREE, HOUGHTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

2 comments:

  1. I am not surprised you are pleased with this - I would be too. Trees are not one of my strong points it has to be said. I love the way you have drawn this - the detail on the trunk in particular :0)

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  2. Thanks Sandra. I used a sepia Pentel Colour Brush for a lot of the detail on the tree. Unlike the normal BrushPen they dry up as you use them so they behave more like a normal brush and give really nice dry brush stroke effects.

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