The haystack and the honey bee (with better images)

As you may have noticed, I've been a little inactive with posting lately since I've not had a great deal of time to do much art that is worthy of posting. However, when I have had the time, I have been re-evaluating where I want to go with watercolour, reading some of my collection of art books, gaining inspiration and generally playing with some new colour ideas and techniques which I hope to try out properly very soon.

Despite the hiatus, I still managed to get a quick sketch done yesterday on the way home from work. I went back to a local farm that I had sketched recently and was intrigued by the haystack that had appeared since my last visit. The sketch was done a little too hastily and that haste became even worse when a bee that was bigger than a hummingbird decided it liked the taste of the honey in my Schmincke paints! After digesting all that Cadmium and Cobalt it's probably become a radioactive mutant ninja bee now lol. Dissatisfied with the sketch, I decided to rework it into a complete painting and a better composition, all done in the comfort of home! I'm still not entirely  happy with the result but overall it's a reasonable effort.

PS These images, which were photographed in daylight, replace the original awful scanned images I originally posted - time to put the scanner away I think :)

Haystack, watercolour and Inktense pencil on Clairefontaine 300gsm/140lb Not, 24cm x 30cm/9.5" x 12"

And especially for Sue, here's the original sketch.

Happy painting and have a lovely weekend everyone. Normal posting will be resumed as soon as possible :)

Going for the one

I'm getting myself psyched up ready to have a go at doing a big painting. I have painted big before - well up to quarter imperial anyway, so it's not going to be such a big deal. I even got my oils out of storage to remind myself of the colours I have and to make sure I had everything I might need if and when the inspiration and time arrives! I'm still undecided about whether or not it's going to be an oil, a pastel or a watercolour. I may even go for gouache. I'm thinking of doing something based on the charcoal drawing in my earlier post, New Horizons, which seemed to get a very good reaction from all of you lovely people out there. It was done from imagination so I have no colour references to help me to take it from the value study I had done but I had a little play with my Inktense pencils just to get a feel for how I could approach a colour version of the scene. I expect I will do a few of these sketches before I'm happy enough to do a full painting.

PS Most pencil manufacturers will tell you not to dip their products directly into water but if you sharpen Inktense pencils properly - with a craft knife or similar, not a conventional sharpener - and expose enough of the core, you can then dip the leads directly into water and then you get fantastic effects almost like painting with mini oilbars! The slight caveat is that continuous dipping of the pencils, as is the case with other water soluble media, does tend to soften the core a little so just be aware of this.

Never give in too easily

"Down in the meadow where the wind blows free in the middle of a field stands a lightning tree.
Its limbs all torn from the day it was born for the tree was born in a thunderstorm.
Grow, grow, the lightning tree, it's never too late for you and me;
Grow, grow, the lightning tree; never give in too easily."

Ah, to be so very young again. Are you singing along or have I lost you completely now? The words are the opening lines of the theme tune to a children's program called Follyfoot which was shown here in the UK way, way back in the early 70s when it was cool to wear flares and tank tops and you spent all your pocket money on the latest single by grown men who wore even more ridiculous flares and garish coloured tank tops! I was a big fan of the programme, loved the song, and was always fascinated by the lightning tree.So I couldn't resist sketching this very special tree on the saturday dog walk. It doesn't stand in the middle of a field but it is down in the meadow. Despite appearing to have taken the full force of nature, noticeable in its shortened and blackened upper branches, it hasn't given in too easily and has still managed to produce some new growth on a few of its lower branches.

The original sketch was done in pencil in a small moleskine and, despite the problems of moleskines and wet paint, I decided to add some watercolour, Inktense pencil and a few scribbles with a pigment liner later at home.

The Lightning Tree, Hartford