A Few Simple Tools

It is what I really like about drawing. You find something that inspires you, in this case a really beautiful gull feather and then with a few simple tools you make a drawing, something unique.

Everyone has their own style, the way they draw and their own marks that they use. It is a dictionary of your own individual marks that you have collected, it is like your finger print. You use them without even realising they are yours alone, hence the uniqueness of your work.

Just like every feather, shell, leaf, acorn or natural object has its own lines, colours, shapes, and patterns which are unique. It is this variety that makes nature so fascinating, the same but different.

So with A few simple tools, my HB pencil (nice and sharp), a pad of lovely smooth bristol board paper and the feather I found in the sand. It had such a lovely clean crisp shape against the pale brown sand, just lost by a sea gull.
Lost, but not for long. It then found its way to my blog.
Press picture for close up.

Lords and Ladies

I love red berries and when I found these three stems of "Lords and Ladies", I just had to draw them. Due to all the wet weather all three of them had rotted away at the base of the stem. The weight of the berries, along with the weakened stem and they had all toppled over. So I rescued them before they all rotted and decayed in the wet soggy grass. The berries are poisonous but I have known this since being told as a child. That is why they are in the plastic bag, I can touch and observe and of course keep washing my hands afterwards.
So that evening I spent four hours quickly getting them down on paper. It was an attempt to capture what I first saw, the bright glowing berries on a gloomy wet day. I hope to draw one with much greater detail and record the lovely way the spathe (once the green hooded leaf), shrivels up and folds like paper at the base of the berries.
I like the shiny berries, still orange coloured and some at an even earlier stage of green. Later in the autumn they turn deep red. They really shine out bright red and glow in the hedgerows on their tall stems, just as everything else is turning brown.
I painted them with acrylic paints...yellow, red, green and yellow orchre mixed my colours. There is something so nice to start with paper and a pencil, paint and a brush and create a drawing, inspired by Nature. Thought you might like to see the real thing, the lords and ladies, found 30th July 2009.

Starfish

Yet another of my favourite things, a beautiful starfish.
I have a collection of different sizes and shapes, white ones, a blue one and some little tiny ones. They all sit on the shelf in the bathroom displayed with pebbles, shells and sea urchins, so I see them every day. I bought them over the years from shell shops or flower shops, they are not found on our beaches.
When I was teaching they were always a favourite drawing lesson, the children loved the shapes. For an observational drawing I encouraged the children to really look at the patterns on the starfish. I often pick them up and just look, they really are so interesting.
My pencil drawing still remains at this "work in progress" stage. I like it here, sort of half done, yet you know what it is. Maybe that is how it is going to stay.

Dragonfly gift

I had a gift today. It was a dragonfly, a beautiful blue dragonfly that someone found on their car bonnet. It was dead. They put it in a box and send it for me to draw.
It is now a browny colour and still has some blue showing, but it has been dead for a few days. The wings are slightly damaged.
I adore dragonflies and have drawn them many times. I have both an artcard and a print of my drawings of a dragonfly. As I live near some marshes where they live I am so lucky to see them each year, usually August onwards. Perhaps this hot weather has brought them out.
My drawing is one I did last year in inktense crayons, to try out the colours and crayons. It is not as detailed as my other dragonfly drawings and was a little too near the bottom of my paper, as I was experimenting and didn't worry too much about the composition. I will do some sketches of my new specimen. I often receive presents of feathers, but a dragonfly ..even better.
Hope you like it. Will post some of my Dragonfly gift soon.

Beach Pebbles

I have selected and painted some of my pebbles. Each time I go for a walk on the beach I carefully choose a few lovely pebbles to bring home. It might be their colours, or it might be the pattern or it is the smooth rounded shape....but when I find the right one ....I just have to have it. I really like the grey ones with white circles and stripes, they are probably my favourites.
After selecting the ones to draw I placed them in the circular shape on my paper, and I do love this little arrangement, it turned out perfect.
I used acrylic paints. Press for larger view.

Tiny Blue shells

When I go for a walk along my local beaches I collect feathers, shells, leaves, pebbles and seaweed. The shells here are usually tiny, cockles, mussels and crab shells, nothing very fancy. But I like these really tiny striped shells. I like their simple shapes, their pretty stripes and the fact that I found them. These were all blue ones on the stretch of beach I was walking. At a different beach they are brighter colours like yellow, pink, blue and orange stripes.
They are simple and yet beautiful. They are so thin and delicate and yet survive the strength of the sea as they are washed up on my beaches. Just like a child I find them and add them to my treasures. I painted them with watercolours.

Fragments of china and drips of tea

I collected the fragments of china and the old brown oak leaf on the same day. They were found by the lake at Coniston. I love these little pieces of china, what did they used to be and who did they belong to? The answer I will never know but it is fascinating to think about.
I found them together, so they went in a drawing together and then I dripped my tea across my paper...I think it was meant to be, maybe they were a teapot and cups and saucers. They are painted using watercolour paints, press picture for close up.
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Nine Shells

I love shells and collect them whenever I go for a walk on the beach. I have some gorgeous ones from holidays abroad, bought in shell shops. The other day I saw this bag full of twenty pretty striped shells in the craft shop. Of course I had to buy them and bring them home to draw. I have never had this shell before so I was really taken with the colours and patterns. Each one has different colours but they all felt so summery, like striped rock, deck chairs and beach hut colours.
On the bag, it said they were a waste product from the food industry.
I have used acrylic paint to get the bright clean colours, which is what attracted me to them, see the different coloured striped pattern on the nine I chose.
Press picture for more detail. Roll on summer and days on the beach.

Feather

I have been walking on the beach and collecting more feathers. My collection grows as I can't resist picking them up and bringing them home to draw. They really fascinate me and I love the lines and patterns of feathers.
The beach always inspires me, feathers , shells and pebbles all attract me and I arrive home with my pockets full. So looking forward to summer and spending days walking along the beach and seeing what the sea has washed up. Always odd shoes, rope, shells, crabs, seaweed, wooden objects and plastic beach toys lost or abandoned. Then the thrill of a message in a bottle.
This feather is drawn using a HB pencil. Click on picture for close up.