Friday, 10 June 2011

The devil's in the detail

It's Friday ... Yeh! That means I get to spend a little time on my art after a fairly busy week at work :) I took the intrepid Louie the Beagle for a nice stroll along the riverbank - no sign of Rattie or Mole this time but there were lots of Canada Geese and Mallards, waddling around by the village church and waiting longingly for some bread. Sorry guys (and gals), I'm going sketching.

This is a view across the River Great Ouse which meanders its way through much of the old county of Huntingdonshire. I say old county because it was absorbed into Cambridgeshire a few decades ago,  although the local council has maintained the signs at the county boundaries - good for them I say!

I used vine charcoal and compressed charcoal and laid down a 'wash' of a light tone all over the paper to begin with to establish the average sky colour and to give a harmonious tone to the whole drawing. I was rushed a little towards the end as it started to get quite popular and it also started to spot a little as heavy rain clouds moved overhead. I would have liked to have had  a little more time to add some detail and to push and pull some of the values but after scanning it in I thought it looked quite fine as it was. Have a great weekend everyone :)


Hartford Flood Meadows
Posted by at 18:25
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12 comments:

  1. Anonymous10 June 2011 at 20:50

    This is very beautiful Michael.
    Have a nice weekend to.

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  2. Unknown11 June 2011 at 05:21

    Dankje Renske. I enjoyed doing this, despite the rain, so I'm glad you liked it too :)

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  3. Ingrid Ormestad11 June 2011 at 06:17

    It looks more that 'Quite fine' Michael; this is an excellent piece of artwork! Love it. :)

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  4. Unknown11 June 2011 at 06:26

    Thank you very much, Ingrid. I think I've finally found a medium that I like (and that likes me too) but I really want to get back to my first love which of course is watercolour. Love your Great Dane painting - thanks for stopping by :)

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  5. Judy11 June 2011 at 08:54

    Wow, another great one! Glad you like to work with charcoal, but I hope you don't forget watercolour.
    You inspire me to do some landscapes! Enjoy the weekend!

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  6. Unknown11 June 2011 at 09:25

    Dankje Judy. I think that we all inspire each other and that's one of the major benefits of blogging: we challenge and push ourselves sometimes and that helps us to develop as artists. Have a lovely weekend too :)

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  7. Unknown11 June 2011 at 10:44

    Looks good with fabulous tones.

    I get the wash on any charcoal work I do because I always smudge everything lol

    Hope you are having a good weekend.

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  8. Unknown11 June 2011 at 10:48

    Thanks very much, Sue. Given my record for messy working I was a bit hesitant about using something that's fundamentally very messy but I'm fine with it ... and there's always the ArtGum! Have a good weekend too - hope you're feeling better :)

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  9. Pat12 June 2011 at 11:32

    There's another for the wall :)
    You'll have to move to a bigger house soon, Michael. Or else find a gallery to hang your beautiful work :) xx

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  10. Unknown12 June 2011 at 12:31

    Thanks Pat, for such a lovely comment. Bigger house, noooooooo! It's taken me four weekends so far to decorate just one room here - in between the blogging of course ;-)

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  11. Sandra Busby13 June 2011 at 14:30

    This is just gorgeous Michael.
    I love these charcoal drawings of yours. Somehow they just ooze atmosphere! :0)

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  12. Unknown13 June 2011 at 14:41

    Thank you Sandra. If I can learn to handle pastel as well as I do charcoal then I'll be happy. The problem is I just fall to pieces with all those colours :)

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No silly verification words here - all comments are appreciated! Thank you :)

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