Down by the river

It's been quite a busy week at work with one of our massive team of three off on holiday and the other 'working from home' - yeah right, lol. So that left me. Oh well, I still managed to get away early today and stop off by the river in town on the way home to do a quick sketch. I keep promising myself to do more drawing like this so this was a good start towards fulfilling that promise. I used a 3B watersoluble graphite pencil, not in my Moleskine this time, but in a small square format cartridge sketchbook which opens out perfectly flat to allow you to work across the pages as I did here. One day I'll manage to sketch fast enough to capture one of the many canoeists or rowers that use this calm stretch of water to practice :)

River Great Ouse, watersoluble graphite, 4" x 8"

What, no colour?

Back to work for me this week so not a lot of time to spend on my art :( However, it was a short week and now it's Friday night - yay! Despite all the rushing around I managed to do two monochrome sketches. I do like to just draw sometimes and I think it helps to 'see' better and to sort out tonal values without worrying about colour and technique.

The first sketch was done in the local riverside park on the way home last night. I used a Bistre Conte crayon in a Derwent Journal - about the same size as the smallest Moleskine.

The second sketch was done on my usual Friday afternoon three hour dog walk. It was absolutely baking hot and luckily I had taken a water bottle and tray to give Louie a well-earned cool drink while I settled down to sketch.

I used watersoluble graphite pencils and a waterbrush, working again in my Derwent journal.

Hopefully I'll get back to do some serious painting very soon. In the mean time, have a good weekend everyone.

One more thing, just for Pat Elliott, one of my lovely followers, I've included a sketch from last year of my sketching companion and best friend Louie the Beagle!