Autumn Sketches

We are taking a break, I am back at college and Sue off to warmer climes for a while. Meanwhile in September I tried to make one 30 minute sketch a day. They had to be in colour and A4. That’s quite a task for me but its been great, getting ideas down quickly and simplifying things is always a good exercise!
Here are a few favourites: leaves, bugs, elderberries, blackberries, the grebes, starlings, last plums, jam The last one, below, is the huge supermoon with the flock of passing geese. The sound of their cries is the essence of autumn to me.










See more and the inspiration behind them over on my blog www.pencilandleaf.blogspot.com
Back with new work, new inspiration, and new thoughts in the New Year!

Mole: Deceased

Last week Chris saw a dead mole when we were out on a cycle. Poor mole.. but an opportunity this time to get a closer look at those feet.

It was not in very good shape, a bit chewed, very smelly and with circling flies but I did bring it home for some quick sketches and photos.

The front feet are extraordinary, huge and paddle shaped with long pointed claws. The skin is leathery and deeply scored. I have a lot of respect for the moles who attempt the heavy clay soil around here.

I sketched the rather handsome hovering iridescent green bottle fly too. Its all part of the cycle after all.

Mole is now buried under the apple tree in a box. I am hoping the flies, bugs and microbes will work well in this warm weather and in a few months time I might have a relatively clean skull!

Some More Moles …

 

  

Just sketching and thinking… :).. as, I think, is the mole.

A feast for thrushes

Walking through the wood I just happened to glance down at the ground  through the blackthorn bushes and saw an unusual sight..... hundreds of broken snail shells  in  a very small area, about a couple of feet square .  They were all a similar colour and size and had obviously been a food source for a very busy bird, perhaps a thrush or a blackbird.

 

When I showed my husband he made the comment that it was a prime example of optimal foraging which apparently means that one or perhaps two birds  have been feasting on yellow snails to the exclusion of everything else.  By the looks of it there won't be many more left now......

 

I've always loved thrushes so I'm sad that there numbers are reduced but hopefully there will be at least one or two well fed member of the species in Gidding Jubilee wood.

 

Watercolour and pencil sketch, first stage

 

Working hard at the coal face - wonder if they like garlic with their snails!

Tree Sketches

With our Jubilee Wood project in mind, this week I am looking at trees, in all sorts of ways. Today I walked down to the reservoir where along the side of the main path are a magnificent stand of poplars. They are regal. It’s really the first time I have looked carefully at the fascinating rhythmic branching pattern.  I made a few quick sketches of the poplar and a few other  local trees.

The old oak and the branching poplar, A5 sketchbook

Sycamore and the twiggy downward arching willow, complete with camellia galls.

and, back home, a simplification of the poplar pattern.

Suddenly many Art Deco designs make sense to me!

More Grasshoppers

I have been looking at winter colours today and while I had the paints out made a few more very quick sketches of the grasshoppers:

Eel Sketches

Sinuous, slippery and lovely shapes.

 

pencil sketches 5.5x 8 inch sketchbook

Eel do have teeth….awesome !

Nightjar sketches 2

A couple of small colour studies for the nightjar. Their plumage is a grey-brown mix of dots and dashes, spots and wavy lines,  perfect for blending in with the bark of trees and leafy undergrowth.



more soon......

The Nightjar: First Sketches

At the moment I am deeply involved with all things moon and nocturnal and thought it would be interesting to take a look at nightjars. They are  odd little things with an ill deserved “goatsucker” reputation. Their shape and sound are distinctive but I have yet to see one in the flesh. Apparently it’s  not easy. They are protected birds and also on the Red list for endangered species.
I have made a few preliminary sketches just to get to know its shape and characteristics: the huge gaping beak ringed with stiff modified feathers which act to funnel the insects into its mouth and those big eyes which close into slits when asleep.There is something of the nightmare animal about them and Hieronymus Bosch didn’t help by placing the nightjar firmly in Hell, snacking on people.

A detail from Hell in Bosch’s, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490..ish )
Apart from its strange head probably its most striking feature is its beautiful camouflaged plumage, like the bark of a tree, mottled and grey-browns, lovely.   People who have seen them say they are almost impossible to detect amongst the undergrowth. I shall be looking at that next.

More sketches to come …

Moth Print 1

Like Sue I am just back from hols. This time another inspiring visit to a favourite city Amsterdam. Time is short this week so just a simple moth design to try a few print techniques.

Some initial sketches to sort out a design that will be quick and versatile. 

A few further thoughts and starting to cut the base plate.

Charcoal Moth

I had a moth to stay last year, a beautiful but sad female Emperor. She lived in the shed for a while, then outside for a while. It was not a long life. I made these big charcoal sketches today from her rather decrepit remains. It’s nice to be able to breathe a bit of  life into her again.

 

A2 charcoal sketches

The tatty little model is on the box on the left

Female Emperor Moth on box: Charcoal A2

There is a beautiful softness about these moth. Their hair is silky and their pattern slightly blurred.  Despite their distinctive pattern they are hard to see in the hedgerows.

I ask myself, what exactly is it I like about moths?
Partly I think it is because of their exceptionally beautiful colouring and patterns, partly because they are masters of camouflage and mostly that they usually fly at night. All that pattern and colour in the dark? They are truly mysterious things.

I am working on some moth prints which will be mostly to do with the pattern, I think. 

More Moth Sketches & Notes

 
A couple of pages of notes about the gorgeous colours and patterns of some of the moths. 

 

Eyed hawk moth and Elephant hawk moth.. very beautiful things.

Sketchbook Watercolour  8 x4

Moth Sketches

I am doing a bit of exploratory work for our proposed Fenland Book, which nicely ties in with some research from last year, concerning the local willows.  Willows are a vital foodplant for many insect species, including bees of course and some very beautiful moths. I have become more and more interested in moths having watched a couple of moth ID sessions last year and  I am really beginning to appreciate their beauty, diversity and incredible camouflage abilities. The willow it seems hosts well over 150 species of varying shape size and colour.

I am also looking at Fenland moths in general and so am starting off with a few sketches of general moth shapes..an amazing variety I find! These are locally recorded moths so encompass the Great Fen area as well as our small hilly plateau.

 

Many Moths …pencil on A4 sketchbook.

and a couple of colour note sketches….

I do have a small moth trap which I have yet to use so perhaps I will set it up tonight, although I think it is a bit late in the season.

Back to the Blog with a Frog: First Sketches

Sue and I are back to our Beautiful Beasts with some exciting plans for this coming year, and with a book on the horizon too. It’s going to be busy!

Frog Woodcut
My Easton Group’s Workshop this week is a simple woodcut. So I have to cut and print a sample. We will hopefully achieve a two colour reduction print, using a spoon to print and water-based inks and acrylics in a day.

I am preparing a very simple design to hopefully complete in a day. Frogs are on my mind at the moment as the garden is full of them, from tiny froglets to large adults.

They hide in the undergrowth, in the borders and under the huge leaves of the courgettes. They leap about, all around and under my feet, when I am weeding. They are delightful.

Thumbnail sketches first. I know I want to fill the frame and keep it bold.

Preliminary Sketches.

Sketches 1 A4 sketchbook.

 Sketches 2 A4 sketchbook.

Hmmmm decisions decisions…

Last Easton Panel..Slow Progress

I have one last panel to do for the Easton joint project and the theme is “architecture/tree”. This is a free choice so I am planning a print. The subject I have chosen is the Apple Store, one of 4 small buildings across the river in the orchard and I decided to include Spot somehow.
There are many ways to view the small and rather mysterious towers. One is from the darkness of the yew walk. There is a gap about half way down the walk which gives you a fleeting view 2 of the towers. The tall yews are as solid as buildings and anyone or anything passing by is gone in a flash. In this sketch I have 3 Spots getting closer each time and, of course, chasing an escaped apple.

I made a few rough sketches and some colour ideas…

and this drawing which I  like .. however as I was really planning a print I am having a rethink. This image is a bit fussy for a simple lino cut.

Spot and the Apple Store..pen and wash A4

Dogs in Dutch Churches

This is a sketch book and research week for me. I have a dragon puppet on the go, the next coot print is being designed  and I am still mulling over my brief notes from Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum was exceptionally wonderful and we only covered a small section of it. We are going back in September.
I particularly wanted to see some of the genre paintings and the calm cathedral interiors of Pieter Saenredam and Emanuel De Witte. etc. The calm atmosphere is created by the beautifully modulated colours and still figures. However I noticed there are often dogs in the frame, not all of whom are behaving as good church dogs should.

I made a few sketches and notes in the museum and then, back in the UK, spent an hour in the National Gallery looking at the Dutch Cathedral paintings there. Some brief research only shows that others have noticed the frolicking and occasionally urinating dogs,  but as to why they are there I am not quite sure.

Rijksmuseum sketches

The dogs are often in the centre of the paintings, sometimes with an owner but sometimes just going about their own doggy business. Stand offs, playing, sniffing and just hanging about they add such a domestic and normal air to the scene.

  

The sketch at the top of the above page is from a fascinating detail in Pieter Saenredam’s painting “The Interior of the Buurkerk at Utrecht 1644” in the National Gallery. There is a boy teaching a dog to sit or beg and another figure contemplating some curious graffiti showing the the four sons of Aymon escaping on Bayard the magic horse who is able to change his size to accommodate the number of his riders. It’s all very curious and irreverent. Excellent.

 

National Gallery Sketches… I particularly like the dog looking up at the preacher

A watercolour of one of the dogs from the National Gallery paintings.

I am sure something will develop from these.