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)

Grand Day Out

Ludgershall Castle

The other side of Ludgershall Castle

Danebury Hill Fort

A lovely day - perhaps the best this week - for driving round in circles in Andover and taking the children to free outdoor attractions.

Back so soon? The Devil's Den and Fyfield Down, in company

The Den, in Conté, on orange paper

Wiltshire was calling me, and I paid it heed...

Today, I went back to the Devil's  Den, this time with my friend, Rose.The weather was much kinder today, and we both got quite a few sketches made. We started at the Den itself, and then walked around and through the "Grey Wethers" sarsen fields.

The Den, from the same position, in Indigo ink

My first two sketches were made while I sat on the ground. I wanted a low viewpoint to emphasise the drama of the monument against the sky. By the time that I had completed two sketches, my legs were going to sleep, so I thought it best to stand up and find another viewpoint:

The Den, from the side, in oil pastel

Early sightings of the sarsen field were impressive:

 Fyfield Down, Conté

... as were the rolling downs themselves.

Line drawing (walk-and-draw), Uniball

The Devil's Den, Fyfield Down, Wiltshire

The weather was very changeable on Fyfield Down yesterday. One moment the sky was blue and the light was sharply unreal; the next, it was dull and raining. Or hailing.

It might not have been ideal conditions for paper, let alone the preponderance of watersoluble media that I had with me... the first sketch (top left), in Graphitint (tinted water-soluble graphite pencils) was effectively rained-off. I went to shelter in the lee of the dolmen, and drew the second sketch from there, also in Graphitint. I added ink lines to both sketches from the shelter of the stones.

Then the weather cleared and I thought I would try a watercolour. It rained. The results (including the effect of closing the front cover of the book on the soggy painting) are shown below left.

I added more watercolour and acrylic ink at home (above right), but I'm not really all that happy with it - not least because of the "more watercolour" bit. Watercolour is a medium in which less is more, and overworking it is generally a recipe for disaster!

I did try watercolour again today, from a photograph that I took yesterday.

Edit (April 2018) -
See also:

• Back so soon? The Devil's Den and Fyfield Down, in company
• More Lino
• Devil's Den

Avebury in February

A busy day today, including a visit to the framer's, a conciliatory hot chocolate for my children who were obliged to accompany me, and a jaunt to Avebury to meet friends. It mostly didn't rain while we were in Avebury itself - or at least, I don't think it did. We did spend quite a bit of time in the pub over our lunch.

The sketches were all made before lunch, and were all done in indigo ink with the Japanese calligraphy pen that I mentioned (and illustrated) in "Little Extras".