Sherwood Forest and Rufford Abbey

The Major Oak

We visited Sherwood Forest during the summer holidays, but as I just finished an oil painting based on the Robin Hood legend, it seems like a good time to catch up on the quick sketches I made there and at Rufford Abbey.

The ruins of Rufford Abbey, set within the house's own park, are within the Sherwood Forest area, but is not part of the Sherwood Forest Country Park, although both are run by Nottinghamshire County Council. Rufford is famed in the world of folk song for a true poaching incident - which you'll find in my song drawing right at the very bottom of this post. If you want to listen to the song, I can recommend Jim Moray's version.

Sherwood Forest visitors

Rufford Abbey

Rufford Abbey

The Rufford Park Poachers: A song drawing

Paradise in a paper bag

Oil pastel on A3 mixed media paper (cropped)

My son picked these apples (variety: Paradise Citta) from our little tree. It's still laden down with fruit.

Cartoon Capers with Beenham Wind Orchestra

Last night, I had the great pleaure of attending a concert of cartoon-related music, given by the Beenham Wind Orchestra in the church of St. Mary's in Thatcham. The orchestra were not expecting to be sketched, but seemed quite pleased with it nonetheless.

Cornish beach scenes

I often end up on the beach in Cornwall in the off season, or when the weather is not so fantastic as it was last weekend.

So it was not surprising to find that Praa Sands was thronging with people. I made a number of sketches, and they were all about the people on the beach rather than the landscape or the sea.

The Making of Harry Potter - Studio Tour

Yesterday, we visited the Warner Bros site in Watford, where the sets, props and costumes from the eight Harry Potter films are presented to the public as a studio tour. There was a great deal to see, and while I had a sketchbook in my hand most of the time, I didn't come away with many worthwhile drawings - possibly because the subjects that suggested themselves were exceedingly large or intricate or both.

Steam Locomotive Oulton Hall

The Knight Bus

The inevitable gift shop at the end

Pitt-Rivers dinosaurs, arches and bees

A series of quick sketches of reconstructed dinosaur skeletons in Oxford. All those knobbly bits make Eddy, Trike, Iggy and Rex tricky subjects, especially with children in tow.

The ceiling arches were an easier subject because they were drawn from the café (more time) and bees are smaller and simpler than dinosaur fossils. They did move, though; the Pitt-Rivers has a glass-sided hive (I'm so glad the dinosaurs didn't move!)

Pitt-Rivers dinosaurs, arches and bees

A series of quick sketches of reconstructed dinosaur skeletons in Oxford. All those knobbly bits make Eddy, Trike, Iggy and Rex tricky subjects, especially with children in tow.

The ceiling arches were an easier subject because they were drawn from the café (more time) and bees are smaller and simpler than dinosaur fossils. They did move, though; the Pitt-Rivers has a glass-sided hive (I'm so glad the dinosaurs didn't move!)

Village Rock Fest

 A selection of sketches made at last Saturday's "Kingsclerefest".

Warneage

Four A6 fountain pen sketches

Warneage Wood in Wanborough, near Swindon was the venue for my meet-up with Polliemath today. We both did some sketching. These are my sketches.

Grassland in mixed media
(fountain pen, watercolour and Molotow marker)

Path in mixed media
(various inks, applied with fountain pens, brush,
poured and smudged with fingers; carbon; graphite;
Derwent Drawing pencil; dressmaker's chalk)

Bench in ink (Pilot Parallel and Sailor Fude de Mannen fountain pens)

Stranded Mermaid

St Swithun's church in Nately Scures (a very small place just off the A30 near Basingstoke) is tiny and very old, having been built by the Normans. And it has a mermaid.

Now, if you know where Basingstoke is, you'll realise that this mermaid (who lives on the top of the left-hand door pillar shown in the drawing below) is - by UK standards - a long way from home. Noone really knows what she's doing in Nately Scures, but I think that she's really rather charming.

Odiham Castle

Odiham Castle (known locally as King John's Castle) is not actually in Odiham, although it isn't very far away, being nominally in North Wanborough. It isn't really in any village, though; it stands, peacefully, by itself next to the Basingstoke Canal, which - fittingly - does not actually go to Basingstoke.

I was fascinated by the poppies growing on the walls (above).

All sketches A6, executed in fountain pen. 
Top sketch also has Inktense pencil and then more fountain pen ink, both added after leaving the site.