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I had a bit of an adventure recently...
It began with me getting a plane to Scotland on a Sunday afternoon. Things got off to a dodgy start though - I nearly missed my flight. I had bags of time, right up to the point where, approaching the departure gate, I realised I'd left my watch in the tray at the security bit, so had to try and get back through. It's not so easy in the other direction. 'Last call for Lynne Chapman...' Luckily someone had handed my watch in. Thank goodness I noticed before I got on the plane.
I had been invited to spend 4 days at the International School of Aberdeen: the longest school visit I think I've ever done. I was put up in a rather nice hotel and had a big, if VERY taupe room: not a whisper of colour anywhere!
Bizarrely, on that Sunday night, I was the only person staying in the entire hotel. I could have run naked through the corridors at midnight. Instead I was very boring and went to bed. Well, I needed to be up bright and early for my first day at school.
The excitement was at a pretty high level before I even got there but, as the days went by, it got better and better. I moved around the school to a constant soundtrack of 'There she is!' and 'Look, it's Lynne Chapman!' with children waving and calling hello. I was nipping to the loo one lunchtime when I overheard an excited whisper: 'Look, she's going to the toilet!', as if it was a shock that I actually needed to.
I kicked off that first Monday morning with a lecture about how picture books are created. They had a totally gorgeous theatre. It was packed tight with all the kids and quite a few parents. I immediately felt very welcome. Everyone was obviously really keen and the talk went down extremely well. Good start!
I read stories and larked about with the younger ones as usual. I read Rocky and the Lamb for the first time in ages and we designed monsters. These are some of the children's monster drawings. Very inventive - I love how they often come up with elaborate stories about their invented creature:
At the end of the session, I got them all to hold them up and make a monster noise:
With the slightly older ones, I had time for 2 different workshops for each group, which is very unusual - normally it's a squeeze to see everyone once. This meant I could try a couple of new things. After passing on all my hot tips for creating characters (basically the 'best of' my Craftsy class), I tried demo sessions, showing them how to colour artwork. Some classes experimented with the Inktense watercolour pencils I love so much and others used pastels.
I did a big demo-drawing of Giddy Goat in pastels to show them specific techniques. I added to it over the days until it was finished and left it with the school as a present. These are a few of the pastel drawings the children created:
It was a bit scary doing something I've not tried before, but the children were great and absolutely loved the Inktense watercolour pencils. Both children and teachers were all so enthusiastic about everything I shared, I walked around in a warm glow all week.
I was looked after really well too. I was taken out a couple of times for meals in the evenings with the school librarian who had booked me (Thai and Lebanese - yum). I even got to try my hand at an after-school yoga class (oh dear: lots of creaky bits). Come Thursday afternoon, I was almost sad to be going home.
Luckily, the flight back home went without incident or recourse to stupidity.
By:
Floating Lemons,
on 1/30/2016
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This is probably the longest I've gone without blogging. The final month of 2015 and this first month of 2016 have been spent taking a (much-needed) break and reassessing everything in my life after the numerous changes and challenges of last year. I've had to make decisions on what to prioritise and what to cut out completely, and have been surprised by the choices I made.
So I'm starting this year out full of Hope, and I'm passing that along to all of you. I've decided to carry on with the free printables to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter although it almost didn't make the cut. But despite my extremely full schedule now that I'm back in college, I do find pleasure in producing a text-based illustration every month, and anything that makes me feel good is staying for the coming year! This year I'm going for just one word, every month, that will express some form of inspiration or just good energy, and I think that "hope" is the perfect way to begin, even if it is a wee bit late ...
Here's a step-by-step progress of the illustration, from trying to figure out which text design I should use:
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I was helped immensely by friends on my facebook and instagram pages who voted almost overwhelmingly for number 6, thank you! I then scanned it in, cleaned it up and printed it out very faintly so that I could roughly draw the flowers intertwined through it, and experiment with colours:
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Once I decided on what I liked, I scanned the whole thing in again, made small changes in photoshop, reversed it and printed it out so that I could draw the outlines out in pencil and then transfer them onto a sheet of watercolour paper, then start colouring it in with watercolour pencils:
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I then added water, painted over the pencils, worked in extra layers, and kept going:
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Here's the final illustration before I scanned it in and cleaned it up in photoshop:
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It took me a lot longer than expected but it was a pleasure getting 'into' a piece of art again, and a wonderful beginning to a creative year full of hope. I'm expecting more changes and challenges this year and look forward to tackling them all. Cheers.
PS: To get the Hope design as a free printable please do sign up for the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter and you'll get a text illustration available for you to download and print out at home every month. To subscribe just click HERE. Thank you!
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As promised, here is the sketchbook I created on the 2nd day of my residency, drawing the way in which weather conditions effect our life. I started another new concertina book, as I am going to do separate books for the various projects.
This time, I started by recording my journey to Hebden Bridge, as it was one of those annoying occasions, when the temperature seesawed between too hot and too cold. I waited in bright sunshine on Sheffield station, but thick mist enveloped everything, immediately I got underway. Ironically it was cold in the sun, but overheated in the train:
I was met at the other end by Professor Mason, whose research project I am contributing to. She first took me on a tour of Hebden Bridge, scouting out good cafes for the Living the Weather sketchcrawl we are organising for the end of the month. By then the sun was out and things were coming to life, so we settled down with a coffee, and I began by recording a busker with my Koh-i-Noor 'magic' pencil:
He was enjoying the unexpected warmth and the number of punters it was bringing out. It was just like July, sitting sketching in the sun, but then the shade of the building swung round and it was immediately freezing again, so we moved on.The wildlife by the canal was enjoying the sunshine too. Pigeons were hunkering in an odd way, apparently trying to maximise their contact with the warmed-up cobbles, and geese were pottering about. One sat down and spread its feathers, trying a bit of sunbathing. There was also a man taking advantage of the opportunity to do some work on his canal boat. I managed to capture him too:
We had lunch outside another cafe. It was actually slightly too hot, unbelievable on October 2nd, but there was no way we were going inside! Everyone else had the same idea - the centre of town looked like a weekend, with people in sunglasses pottering about and cramming themselves onto any outdoor seating. At our cafe, someone had a dog. It was trying to laze in the sun, but had fleas, so every couple of minutes it leapt up to bite or scratch itself - not ideal for sketching!
Professor Mason had to leave after lunch, so I found a pavement spot opposite this very typical Hebden Bridge mill. I figured that the weather was implicit in the fact that I was able to sit out comfortably and paint. Also, because it was so sunny, lots of people came up to take a look and say nice things. One man even offered to buy me a glass of wine!
I had a lovely journey home, all because of sketching. On my first leg, the student opposite me was asleep. All the people in the area were watching as I drew him. A little girl got really excited and demanded to draw. At which point he woke up, dug in his rucksack and gave her a bit of paper. I lent her a coloured pencil and she drew me a page of hearts.
On leg 2, I had a beautiful redhead sitting across the aisle. She had no idea I was drawing, but kept really still. Opposite me, a student was also drawing. We got into conversation and he dug out some fabulous sketchbooks from his bag - really gorgeous watercolours of the hills at Edale.
I did these last train drawings on the back of the main sketchbook, as they didn't have anything to do with the weather. In general though, I am only going to draw on the fronts, so we can exhibit the work at the end of the residency.
Actually, to get the best view (and still be on the sunny side of the street), I was sitting on the pavement outside the neighbouring Kings Cross Station, but it was St Pancras I was interested in. I've been desperate to have a go at sketching it for ages, but I am so rarely in London any more and, when I am, I'm normally rushing around, trying to fit loads in.
To be honest, my recent trip to my publisher was no exception. I thought I'd sketch it after work, but we carried in until quite late and, by the time I had got back to my hotel, it was already 7.30 and I realised I was exhausted (and hungry for dinner). So, I got up good and early the next morning.
Luckily, I was staying at the Kings Cross Travel Lodge, just across the road. I gobbled my breakfast, got packed up, checked out of the hotel and was on the pavement ready to start at 8.30am. I didn't have time to tackle the whole building - it's huge - so set up where I had a nice view of the clock tower at one end.
I was fortunate that I wasn't needed at Quarto until 10.00, so had an hour to spare before I had to be on my way. I decided on my 'watercolour first' technique, as it's nice and speedy. Then I worked into it with watercolour pencils and, finally, white chalk for occasional highlights.
Kings Cross is very busy. There were lots of tourists but also lots of people rushing past me on the way to work. Several stopped to have a look, one or two stopped briefly to chat. I just about managed to get done in time, though as usual I chopped the top off!
And then suddenly it was time to go. I shoved everything into my bag and scurried off with my wheely suitcase to join the other commuters and get the bus to Quarto's offices:
Next time I'm in London, if I can steal another hour, I'll tackle the front entrance of St Pancras I think.
Yes, despite all this glorious, sunny weather of late, it poured down all day this time last week, for our SketchCrawl. At least it was still warm. I wore strappy sandals and waded my way through the streets of Manchester.
I seem to have an uncanny knack of picking the only REALLY rainy day of the month for our SketchCrawls, surrounded by beautiful, sunny days. June's squelchy day in Buxton was exactly the same, and so was our May outing, the last time we were in Manchester. The forecast was so awful, I nearly cancelled this time.
I'm so pleased I didn't. About a dozen of us had a fantastic time and, in dodging the torrents, discovered some rather special, hidden spaces. First stop was the library, chosen mainly because it was actually open at 9.20am. Mostly it was a bit BIG and so quite hard to draw at that tender hour. So we just did a 30 minute warm-up, then sploshed our way round the corner, to the cafe at the Town Hall.
I discovered the The Sculpture Hall Cafe by chance, while researching whether we were allowed inside the Town Hall to sketch. It totally lives up to its name. Under an amazing, vaulted ceiling are leather sofas and tables draped in white linen, and its all watched over by the statues. A beautiful, very unusual place.
I decided I wanted to fill my mini concertina sketchbook, so did this series of sketches across a couple of pages:
Next stop was the Royal Exchange Theatre. I'd never been. What a surreal building! The traditional, and very lovely, Royal Exchange building, with its marble columns and gigantic circular windows above, is huge, like a cathedral, so big it actually encloses the ultra-modern theatre. It looks a little bit like an alien spaceship has teleported in! Apparently, the floor wasn't strong enough to take the weight of the new theatre, so they created this mad set-up to transfer weight through the columns.
I managed two drawings before we stopped for lunch. I really loved the three giant roof windows, so tackled a part of the central one:
I didn't think there was time to sketch the modern theatre, as it was visually pretty complicated, but I was struck by the contrast between old and new, so took a section of the view from where I was sitting, which incorporated both elements:
I didn't sketch them separately like this though. I carried on in my concertina book, so the end result was the long thin sketch at the top of this post.
We lunched in Waterstones - cheap and cheerful (and big enough for us all to sit together). Stephan was showing us his Pentel brush-pen and let me have a try-out. It was lovely and fluid to use. I did this quick sketch of Mike:
The afternoon was spent at the John Ryland's Library. I had really fancied drawing the outside (it's a wonderfully Gothic building - dark stone and very twiddly) but no chance: still pouring. Luckily the inside was good too.
I had never been before but Lucie knew where to go - she took us straight to the Reading Room:
It was designed by Basil Champneys and is a mass of decorative detail. The space feels very like a church, with stained glass windows and another extraordinary vaulted ceiling. Like in a church, everyone was whispering and it was very peaceful, until someones mobile phone went off and played a silly tune VERY loud:
By lucky chance, there was an exhibition of Urban Sketching on in the Reading Room: a collection of really evocative drawings of the city, by the Manchester artist Anthony McCarthy.
We did the sharing session in the Ryland's Cafe - part of a modern wing, added during the recent restoration of the building. There were several new members again and it was so lovely chatting about what we all do and looking through the sketches. Here's me being very proud of my concertina sketchbook:
Oh, and guess what? The sun came out and the rain stopped, just as we finished our drawing time and started the sharing. Typical!
At least I got to walk back to the station with Stephan in lovely weather. I travelled back to Sheffield alone, so did my usual on the train:
Another great day out with smashing company. Thanks to everyone who came, especially given the weather conditions. If you'd like to join Urban Sketchers Yorkshire and come out to play with us sometime, just drop me an email or join our Facebook group.
I absolutely love drawing live music. There something special about twinning the two activities. I generally bob about while I am drawing and, the more into it and mobile I am, the more alive the drawings become. I find this kind of sketching makes me feel at one with the music, in the same way that dancing does. It's pretty intense, but great fun!
John and I have friends up in the north of Cumbria and every year at this time, we pack our warm jumpers and my sketching kit and drive up to stay the weekend and go to the lovely Ireby Music Festival with our friends.
The whole thing takes place in the tiny village of Ireby. They use the village hall, the church and the tiny (and very old) chapel in the middle of a field, but they also create a main stage inside a big marque on the hill above the village, overlooking some pretty dramatic scenery (although this year we could mostly see rain and cloud).
I hate not being close enough to make out the detail, so I often go up to the front and sit on the floor right by the stage. Luckily Ireby is the sort of place you can do that. I often get to share my spot with young children, which is fun, because they are of course very interested in what I'm up to.
While I was working on these three of 'Stark', a little boy kept telling me the bits I had missed. He had to lean in and shout into my ear every time, so I could hear him above the music ('Aren't you going to put the star on?'... 'Don't forget his tatoo'... 'What about his earpiece?'...). Very cute, if a bit distracting.
To do these, I had to kneel in a narrow gap at the feet of the front row of the audience (fortunately I had my little camper's mat for my knees).
I was okay for a while, but by the time the next set got underway, I discovered I had lost all feeling in my feet and of course my legs were locked into position. Somebody took pity on me and found me a seat on the front row, although standing up to manoeuvre myself into it was interesting!
The Hut People were slightly bonkers. One played percussion from around the world, while the other played the accordion and demonstrated French Canadian foot percussion - a cross between very fast tap dancing and Irish dancing, complete with the high-kicks.
On Friday night and Saturday night everyone packs into the marque. I was on the floor at the front once again for The Bills, the final act of the festival. They were fabulous: a fusion of all sorts. I had a wonderful time, scribbling away and jiggling around like a thing possessed, but had to give up drawing at the end and join the boppers, before I got trampled. To be honest, I am just as happy jumping about, so that was the perfect end.
If you would like to see the rest of the drawings I did at the festival, as well as other sketches of music events, check out my new Live Music Sketchbook on the website.
Until last week I'd never met Yves Damin, fellow sketcher and graphic designer, living in Paris, but I had admired his work on-line. Then a few weeks back I got a Facebook message, saying he was coming to the UK and would be visiting family in Sheffield. He asked if I would like to meet up, to do some Urban Sketching together.
When Liz Steel came to visit once, all the way from Australia no less, we had a great time, so of course I said I'd love to meet Yves. I contacted the other members of SketchCrawl North too, so we would have a fitting welcome committee.
The weather forecast wasn't great, so we decided to meet the others in Caffe Nero, as there are big windows with views out over the city centre. As crazy chance would have it, Yves's Sheffield-based family live two minutes walk from me so, just before 9am on Friday morning, we took the bus into town together.
We sat at an outside table, because Yves said he would prefer that, and other people gradually joined us. It was a wee bit chilly, but we got coffee to warm our hands.
But as time went on it got colder and colder. I managed the drawing above (in my Inktense pencils and white chalk) but, by the end, I was losing all feeling in my fingers (that's my excuse for the slightly wonky tower) so we went inside for the next one. Nice and cosy:
But Yves was made of stronger stuff: Paris must be even colder than Sheffield! He continued to brave the outdoors:
While Yves was painting the town hall, I got a bit obsessed with the water-balls in Millennium Square:
We had a little break after that, because there was an Urban Sketching exhibition on at the Millennium Gallery: paintings and drawings from the Recording Britain project begun in 1939. The exhibition is on loan from London's V&A until November 2nd. It's really varied and contains some real gems, so I would definitely recommend it, if you haven't seen it yet.
Fully inspired, a handful of the group left the exhibition to squeeze in just one more quick sketch before Yves and I had to head back. Yves went outside again with Rich Wells, while I sat indoors with Lucie Golton and Andrea Joseph, who drew the sketchers and people in the cafe:
This time we were in the warmth of the Winter Gardens cafe - another one with lovely, big windows into the world outside, so perfect for softie-sketchers!
We girls ate lunch before starting to sketch (a very nice roasted-veg and hummus roll - mmm...), after which there was even less time to get something done. As usual, the time constraint loosened me up nicely:
It was so lovely to have the chance to meet Yves and I was really pleased that so many of the group managed to get out to draw with us, despite it being a weekday. You can get a proper look at the sketches Yves did, if you take a look at his write-up of the visit.
Come back soon Yves (or maybe next time I'll see you in Paris!).
Tomorrow I am of to Leeds for the very last visit of the Spring season. After that, I am back in the studio for quite a while.
John re-visited his role as Chauffeur recently and drove me to the tiny (and lovely) Scamblesby Primary School in Lincolnshire (it was just one of those places that was a nightmare on a train, even though it wasn't really that far). He dropped me off and then went to the coast.
It's a good system, but I get to do no train sketches of course. Not to worry though: I spent 2 days at a secondary school in Nottingham last week, working with ESL students at Djanogly Academy (I still have no idea how to pronounce that), so I got my train-drawing fix, as you can see.
Djanogly was a very interesting booking. For those who don't know, ESL stands for English as a Second Language. I had really small groups, anything from 4 to 12 students, because some of them had not been in England for more than a few months and had only a very basic grasp of the language. Some of their confidence levels were, understandable, quite low, although many of them were obviously pretty bright.
I was really pleased that we managed to work so well together, and they all clearly enjoyed the session. I took lots to show them and forced myself to talk slowly and clearly (not easy for me!), keeping my sentences short and my vocab simple. They all worked really hard and produced some smashing drawings.
The staff were very complimentary afterwards, which felt great, as I was in completely new territory. They said that the students weren't used to sitting and listening for anywhere near that long, so they were really pleased with how focused and enthusiastic they all were, right to the end.
I really enjoyed working with young adults too. Even when I am in secondary schools, I rarely get the older students. They are usually caught up with the exam syllabus, but Djanogly were having an Arts Festival, with various visitors and creative workshops going on, so students could opt out of regular lessons, or spend their lunchtime / after-school doing different activities. What a great idea.
You might think this question has something to do with the strange animal couplings from Jungle Grumble, but you'd be wrong. The answer to the riddle is... me, last week.
Okay, hopefully I didn't bear any visual resemblance to either frogs or mice, but my voice certainly did. Yes, I know, again. Almost every year it seems to happen to me. I get a cold and end up with laryngitis.
As usual for March, there have been so many visits booked in, I've just had to dose up on paracetamol and get stuck in. Normally I can blame the germy children I meet around World Book Day but, this year, I think I caught it off a friend the weekend before, because I got poorly on the very first Monday, 2 weeks ago. Groan.
By that Friday, the voice was seriously wobbly, but I was booked to do a talk first thing to a hall-full, at Sheffield High School. Luckily we got an emergency microphone rigged up so I could do the mouse-voice thing. Then, half-way through the subsequent illustration workshop, John suddenly appeared with emergency supplies: a big bottle of of TCP, so I could do some lunchtime gargling in the loos! What a hero. Unfortunately, I've been bathed in the delightful scent of TCP ever since.
It does help though and is probably the reason why I've not gone completely silent this time round. I had only two days of visits last week, on Wednesday and Thursday. I had hoped that the few days of rest would sort it out, but no - still the same. Oh well. John is enjoying the luxury of getting a word in edge-ways. Also being told off at a far lesser volume than usual.
I met some smashing children on both days and everyone has been very patient with my difficulties. It all seems to be going very well anyway, despite adversity. Maybe next week I will sound less like a squeaky frog...
On Saturday, I met up with some of my SketchCrawl chums, where we had a little stall at the Sheaf Valley Festival.
It is an annual festival and is held in a fantastic location: an amphitheatre, right in the centre of Sheffield, cut into the steep hill behind the station, with great views down over the city:
Just like last year, SketchCrawl North were invited to record the occasion in our sketchbooks and were given the stall for free, to help spread the word about Urban Sketching.
We took it in turns to man the stall and, in-between, went out drawing the fun. There was plenty to go at. I especially enjoyed the challenge of sketching the dancers.
Throughout the afternoon, there were performances by lots of different kinds of dancers - all ages, from quite young children up to adults, and all in fabulous costumes, like these majorettes:
The Son de America were particularly good to sketch, in their long, swirly skirts and I loved that massive sombrero:
But possibly my favourite was the Indian dancing, with it's very particular movements. The saris were glorious. One little girl of about 9 did a long and remarkably confident solo dance. She came over to see my drawing of her afterwards and her mum took a photo.
Our stall made a very handy 'base-camp': a place to chat, chill and eat cake between sketching bouts (we were opposite a way-too-tempting cake stall). There was also a massive stall (about 4 trestle tables, laid out end-to-end) celebrating different kinds of bread, all baked and donated by local people and businesses:
I am amazed, looking back through my sketchbooks from the day, that I managed so many drawings, as I seemed to spend quite a long time chatting. It was a really sociable day - more time than usual to talk to my fellow sketchers, plus and I kept bumping into people I knew.
At 3 o'clock there was a dog show. I remembered it from last year and so was really looking forward to it. There were all kinds of dogs, big and small: some beautiful, some cute, some bouncy, some hairy - almost all rather over-excited by the occasion. They had proper judges from Crufts (!) but it was still absolutely bonkers and really funny:
We were very lucky with the weather. Despite threatening clouds and occasional wild gusts which threatened to blow the stall away, we stayed dry all day and had some bouts of gorgeous sunshine to wallow in.
The day finished off with live music. I have always had a soft spot for barbershop quartets, so especially enjoyed the Manor Tops. I gathered a crowd of children behind me while I was doing this sketch ('Can you draw me and my friend?' 'You're right good, you' 'How'd you draw that so fast?'):
It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon: local people, celebrating local talent and showcasing local produce and community groups, all having a good time, hanging out together in the sunshine - exactly what local festivals should be about. SketchCrawl North collected several new recruits over the day too.
A big thank you to the organisers: a great success. I'm already looking forward to next year!
We've tried a few times to film my workshops and lectures, but the events which have granted us permission to film, have all taken place in a shared space, like in a library, which means too much background noise. The recording John made at the Hallam University lecture was the same: there were students in an adjacent studio, chatting, laughing, coughing or just walking about, which on the film made it sound like my audience was bored!
So, we decided to try something different - a film of me sketching out on location. We went for a walk up into the Limb Valley and John filmed over my shoulder at I painted.
It was weird though: I had thought, after all these years of sketching in public, that being filmed would be no problem at all but, for some reason, I found it incredibly off-putting. The camera, which needed to be right beside my face, to provide the best view of the sketchbook, felt really oppressive. The pressure to do something 'good' meant, of course, I was convinced I was creating rubbish from the very outset. Despite my smiles at the end of the film, I was very grumpy (poor John)! It's a good thing we decided to go for a voice-over, otherwise you'd have had to listen to all my grumbling and swearing.
Hopefully you can't tell that from the film though. I still think I've done better sketches, but I'm hoping it's interesting to watch it evolve on the page and hear why I am making various creative decision during the process.
If you do enjoy it, please share it with your friends. Plus, if you like this one and haven't yet seen any of the others, take a look at the film page on my website or subscribe to my YouTube channel.
This time last week, I was on the east coast, celebrating my birthday with good friends.
The coastal area around Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby is one of my favourite places and somewhere John and I return to again and again. We got engaged at Robin Hood's Bay and so started our honeymoon there too. Unbelievably, that was 20 years ago this summer, which makes me feel really rather old!
This time, we rented a lighthouse cottage, high on top of the crumbling cliffs above Whitby. Very dramatic:
Given the time of year, we were pretty lucky with the weather, though it did rain on me while I was out painting this view of the cliff. I had to stop as it got heavier, but I rather like the speckle-effect:
We mainly pottered about on the beach, as recently melted snow made it too muddy to walk along the coastal path. The boys had fun hunting fossils - there are loads to be found in that area:
I mainly hung behind, drawing and painting the cliffs and the sea.
I just love the patterns and colours you can pull out of the rocks, the water and the sky:
It was all over way too quickly. But isn't that always the case when yiu are having fun?
Things have been quite busy lately, so John and I really enjoyed the chance of a lovely weekend away recently.
I have brothers who are twins and it was their 50th birthday. We are all always busy and so don't get to spend time as often as we should, so we rented a house on the isle of Anglesey for a long weekend.
We were very lucky with the weather. It was FREEZING but, despite being Wales, it was dry and the sun came out for us, at least for a little while, each day.
It was all very laid back: getting wrapped up like Eskimos then mooching around various bays and beaches, looking at the sea birds, collecting shells, taking photos, then warming up in cafes or pubs.
As you can see, I took my sketchbook. I love drawing the big outdoors and those huge skies reflected in the pools of sea left between the sand-banks was perfect. I was lucky that the view from the house was fantastic, so I could paint and draw from the comfort of the kitchen:
But I did also take a mini-sketchbook out onto the walks and drew on the beach:
It was a bit tricky standing up in the middle of nowhere, holding onto my various pencils and my book and my waterbrush, trying to balance an open pencil case in my coat pocket... I kept dropping things and getting in a right muddle!
Worth it though. Although I can sometimes get grumpy when I am drawing-in-adversity, I still really enjoy the immediacy of it. If you're freezing to death and your friends are fast disappearing into the distance, you can't mess about and so generally do your best, most intuitive work.
March is the busiest time of year for authors and illustrators who do school events. It's all because of World Book Day on March 7th. I've already visited children in Pinner, Telford, Leamington Spa, Sheffield, Manchester and Barnsley. Next week I am part of a 5 Schools Project here in Sheffield where I'll be performing in a theatre!
Because I am hardly in the studio at all at the moment, I don't have time to tell you about the specifics of what I've been up to, but anyone who reads this blog at all regularly, will know the kind of thing I get up to.
They will also know that all this travelling around has of course generated more train sketches.
I love showing them to you - it's so much better than just closing them up in my sketchbook and storing them, unseen, on a shelf in the studio. Since I've been on the move, John has been back at base-camp, scanning them in for me.
Mostly I am still using my watercolour pencils and waterbrush, though the black and white drawing is done with a 6B graphite stick, which I would recommend for it's lovely range of marks.
Having John working with me is invaluable at this time of year. If I'm not in the studio for days on end, I need someone to answer the emails, buy my train tickets, send out the invoices, tell me where I'm going next day and, most important of all, make me a nice cup of tea when I get home! Thank you John :-)
If you are interested, here are some of my hot tips for drawing people in public. There is also a short film about keeping a sketchbook on the film page of my website.
A rather unusual project has come my way...
Wakefield's central library is a brand new building (I did some storytelling to help celebrate the opening in November). There is a very long, very empty wall running through the children's library. It's supposed to be decorated with a mural. The mural was part of the original building contract, but the various designs offered were apparently awful and the librarian's rejected them all.
So, I got an email asking if I had any ideas. Everyone thought it would be a good idea to involve local children in some way, so I dedicated one of my long train journeys to giving it thought.
Which is why I was in Wakefield again this week.
I didn't really fancy painting onto the actual wall: that's very much out of my comfort zone, especially as it's over 12 metres long (!). Yikes.
My idea was to bring a couple of school groups into the library for illustration workshops and get them to draw (on paper) various animals chasing one another through the library (books flying everywhere, horrified librarians...). I would then take these home, scan in my favourites, and use Photoshop to combine them into one long, digital illustration, which I could simply send to a printer, to have made into panels, to attach to the wall.
Which all sounds kind of straightforward, doesn't it?. Hah! If only.
The workshops were the easy bit - they went really well and we had a lot of fun together. The children did some smashing illustrations, which they've taken back to school, to finish colouring in.
But, when the drawings come back next week, I have to play around, grouping them in different ways, designing the mural's layout. Which means I need to get the individual animals to a scale where I can move them around in a space the same shape as the actual wall. This is the tricky bit.
Even scaled right down, the wall is too long and thin to look at on the computer as a whole, but I don't have a real-life space anything like big enough to lay out the actual children's drawings on the floor. Hmmmm.....
Plus, even when I have somehow designed the mural and scanned in all the drawings, I'll need to create the final, digital artwork in several sections: even at one quarter size, the entire file will be so massive, it would crash the computer several times over!!
I'll let you know how things progress...
In the meantime, I hope you like these
watercolour pencil sketches, which I did on my way to Wakefield on Wednesday morning.
We had another Dr Sketchy evening last Tuesday, up at the Greystones pub in Sheffield. I went with some of my SketchCrawl buddies.
The models dress up to match a theme and pose on the stage, while the audience all try to capture them in sketchbooks. There is a series of short poses, one after the after, starting with 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes.
I always enjoy myself enormously, but it's totally exhausting, as you can't afford to waste a moment. The concentration in the room is so intense you can feel it vibrating in the air. I was trying out some new intense pigmented watercolours I bought on Monday. Because I wasn't used to them, it helped me to be more experimental in the way I tackled things.
The theme this time round was the circus. We had 3 models: a
sword balancer, a tattooed lady, and a burlesque ring master. The red of the ring master's jacket was great.
The sketch below was a 5 minute pose where I was warming up with my usual watercolour pencils. I played about, using my fingers dipped in water to smudge them:
Drawing in a pub is fun and I love drawing to music. The music for the evening is always selected so it reflects the theme of what we are drawing. When we drew zombies, we had horror-movie soundtracks blaring out, for the Victoriana evening, it was Music Hall, the rollergirls night was punk. This time round our frantic scribbling was accompanied by a mix of all sorts, including mechanical arcade music and French accordion.
The sword balancer did a little performance half way through the evening, to give our sketching arms a rest for 5 minutes. Then it was back to it.
One of the problems I had with my new paints is that, especially in the dim light of the pub, many colours looked indistinguishable on the palette. Something that looked black could turn out to be brilliant turquoise, purple or green. That's why there are all the little marks above the drawings - I'm doing an experimental dab, to find out the colour before I use it.
Thanks to all the models - it was good fun drawing you.
By the way,
Dr Sketchy is a franchise, so if you like the sound of it but don't live near Sheffield, check to see if there is one in your area.
I really like this sketch, but it was nearly a right old mess.
I had been showing my sketchbook to some Y2 children in Leeds and did a quick demonstration of the watercolour pencils and waterbrush I use (kids always love it - magic paint). I must have not quite screwed the top back on my brush properly: when I started to use it later on the train home, I suddenly has a small lake on my sketch!
I didn't want to blot it off, as that would definitely ruin the drawing, so I blew on it, fanned it and tipped it back and forth, trying not to spill any of the inky water in my lap. It took the rest of the journey home to dry. I still had to walk through Sheffield Station wafting my open sketchbook back and forth in the air (what an attention seeker).
It's odd how it goes. Late last year, I felt like a commuter to Nottingham but, more recently, I seem to have been back and forth to Leeds a lot. I was there working with KS1 children on Tuesday and Thursday of last week, although the two events were unconnected. As usual, I was enjoying myself as much as the kids. It's such a great excuse to tap into the bit of you that is still 8 years old!
The real school visits season is yet to begin: there's always a surge around World Book Day. I am doing another couple of days next week, then have a week's grace before it really starts and I am visiting somewhere different almost every day for a fortnight. Luckily, I have just about finished visualising the new stories I need to show to my publishers, so everything is under control (phew).
John and I are lucky enough to have friends living in the north of the Lake District and this weekend we drove up to visit them. I took my sketchbook of course.
It rained buckets to start with, but got brighter. There was not much of the snow left unfortunately, but the very tops still had enough to be lovely.
I did quite a lot of drawing through the car window, while we were on the move but, as you can see, I did brave the cold a few times.
Our friends took us to a magical place we had not heard of, called Castlerigg.
It's an ancient stone circle set on a grassy plane, very high up in the hills and surrounded on all sides by an extraordinary view - literally 360 degrees of mountain tops. Fantastic.
I managed three drawings at Castlerigg. It was incredibly windy though, so really, really cold and there was only so long we could bare to stand there!
As you can see, I was done up in layer upon layer of jumpers and coats and drew in my gloves. I had to hang on to my sketchbook really tightly - if the wind had snatched it, I would never have seen it again!
You can see the rest of the sketches from the weekend (as well as lots more drawings from other days out) on my website here.
Arriving back into Sheffield station, after one of my Nottingham school visits at the beginning of the month, I was struck by the most beautiful singing floating up the stairs from the entrance. It turns out to be Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus singing carols in gorgeous harmonies which swelled and resonated, filling the station forecourt. It made me stop in my tracks to listen.
I had to get home, but their flyer said they would be singing at Weston Park Museum nearer Christmas so, as soon as I got in, I wrote the date in my diary.
This Saturday afternoon, John and I went to listen. They were outstanding. The harmonies were so beautiful it actually made me well up in a couple places. The space had lovely acoustics and, because it was an informal recitation, we were up really close and I could draw. I could see the singers looking and, sure enough, as soon as the singing was over, they all came rushing over to take a look.
I know a lot of sketchers can be intimidated by the attention, but I really love that part of it. John and I stopped to chat for ages afterwards to various members of the chorus. I was introduced to their Chair, who asked if perhaps they might use the sketches for Christmas cards next year.
A very uplifting interlude. Thank you Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus - truly beautiful.
I finished off a very busy year of author visits on Tuesday, with a really positive session at Farnborough secondary school in Nottingham (their art department is brilliant!). It was nothing to do with all the primary school visits I've been doing in Nottingham - just a coincidence.
This is a follow-up to a project I did in half a dozen Nottingham secondary schools a while ago, running illustration workshops with Y7 children. I was invited to go back to see a book the students had created as a result of the work we did together, and to give prizes to those involved.
While I was there, I did another illustration workshop. Trouble was, because it was a mixed group, some of whom had been part of the previous project, I had to do something completely new. I also had the added challenge that some children were with me all morning, whilst others had to come and go, because of other lesson commitments - tricky.
I decided to adapt a Giddy Goat idea that has worked well in primaries. We briefly recapped about how to use facial expressions and body-language, then they all created their own character balancing at the top of an A3 sheet, suitable terrified or show-offy. They were then challenged to balance as many different and interesting objects as possible beneath, creating a surreal tower spanning 2 or 3 sheets of paper. They really got the message and we had some lovely ideas, where different elements of the towers interacted with one another and with their environment.
I was chatting to the teacher afterwards and complimenting her on the inspirational environment she had created: wonderful artwork by the students everywhere. The current art rooms are in temporary buildings in the playground, because next year they move to their new build. BUT, it turns out they will not be allowed to attach anything to the walls in the new art room, no children's paintings pinned up, not even a staple to attach a line to peg work up. Formal display frames only, because the new-build funding involves private investment, so it won't belong to the school. How crazy is that?
This morning we went to pick up our Christmas tree. We like to support a little, local city-farm called Whirlow Hall, by buying our tree there rather than from a big, garden-centre chain.
It was bitterly cold with a nasty wind. All the trees were piled up in the yard, so we chose one without messing about. While John was loading it into the car, I tried to sketch a small clutch of people in Christmas hats who were playing carols.
I was well wrapped up and was drawing in fingerless gloves, but I had to stop after just a couple of minutes: my finger-ends went completely numb and I kept dropping my pencils. I have no idea how they were managing to play!
I've been back and forth to Nottingham on the same train so many times recently that I've begun to feel like a real commuter. I even started to recognise the same people in the mornings.
These are some sketches from last week. I've filled half a sketchbook during this project (I was especially prolific on my wrong train adventure) and my favourite colours have been worn down to stumps.
It's been good fun (Y3 children are my favourite) and it's made a really nice change to work with the same group of children for a whole day at a time. Still, I can't say I'm not pleased to be back in the studio again after such a long stretch of nothing but school visits, interspersed with odd days of mad catch-up at the computer...
Which is what I have mostly been doing with the end of this week, though John has been great, holding the fort for me over the last few weeks, fielding enquiries, ordering books and writing all the invoices.
I am really looking forward to getting back to doing some actual writing and illustration on Monday morning (but not too bright and early...)
These are the sketches from my last couple of days of Nottingham story-workshop trips. That's it now. Just as well, as I started to go down with a cold last night. I dosed myself up with Paracetamols this morning and managed to get through the day without too much trouble, though I'm beginning to feel a bit iffy now, so I should probably get off the computer and go and slump in front of the TV...
Since my various bouts of laryngitis, I'm always a bit nervous about straining my voice on school visits when I soldier on through a cold. Luckily the Y3 children at Whitemoor Academy were lovely and I didn't need to raise my voice at all. Both the teachers were fantastic too. I got some lovely feedback from them at the end of my 2 days there, and left feeling very loved. A perfect visit to end on.
It takes about an hour each way to Nottingham. On the way there yesterday, I patiently waited for it to get properly light, which unfortunately took the first 45 minutes of the journey then, once again, I quickly drew the sunrise skies through the window:
I was in a secondary school for the day this time, doing an illustration workshop with a group of Y9s (a tricky age...), but it seemed to go well. I shared lots of tips to help with their drawing and they all came away with some good work to use towards an illustration they are each creating for their art BTEC.
It was only pure coincidence that the school which invited me, out of anywhere in the country it could have been, also happened to be in Nottingham!
Travelling back on the way home it was already dark, so I drew people instead of skies:
As I mentioned last week, I have got really into sketching the changing skies out of my train window. Here are a few more, which I did last week on my way to and from Nottingham:
I am back on the same train again today, so will hopefully catch another sunset and sunrise, and maybe even a storm like the one below:
I am really attracted to the transitory nature of the colours and shapes: I love the idea of having just a minute or two to capture what I can before it's all changed, or disappeared behind an embankment, or both.
The watercolour pencils have proved a perfect tool for such incredibly speedy impressions, especially in the tricky set-up of being on a train with limited space. Thank you Derwent for introducing me to them!
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Thanks for posting this video. I am a beginner and like to see how the "pros" do it. The ongoing commentary is also very helpful. And I do love your style.
Very interesting to see your method, and the difficulties weren't apparent at all!
What sort of pencil were you using for the trees? Didn't quite catch the words (my ears, not your speech!)
Thanks guys - glad you found it interesting.
The pencils are watercolour pencils Vivien. I mainly use Derwent's Intense range.
You make it look so simple! Always find your sketches hugely inspiring, and especially so when you show them happening in animated form. Thanks, Lynne!
Lynn - Thanks for your answer. Your sketches are always enlivening and done with so much more skill than appears on the surface.