This narrow street in the neighbourhood of Les Halles is another reminder of the labyrinthine nature of medieval Paris. I used a Dewent 2H for the background and a 2B Derwent 'Sketching' pencil for the foreground detail and kept the sketch as loose as possible, concentrating mostly on tonal values with a few hints at detail only. It is a small drawing - 10x15cm.

The centre of Paris was a warren of narrow streets up until the 1870s when Baron Haussmann directed the construction of wide boulevards cutting straight through it. Paris was greatly changed. There are, however; many areas where you can get a feel for what it must have been like - without the horses I guess. I did this from a photo, starting with a pencil under-drawing followed by a fibre-tip with a fairly broad nib to vary the line thickness.

I was staying with friends near Fontainebleau this weekend. It was good to get out of hot, busy Paris into the country. On Saturday evening we took the dog for a walk across the fields and did some sketching; the evening light was casting long shadows.

The green I find works best for trees and vegetation in the Faber Castell Polychromos range is Permanent Green Olive no.167, although you should aim for a variety of greens combined with some complimentary colours if possible ; you may notice the violet amongst the trees on the right.

I should have tempered my greens a little, particularly in the middle distance, to give more depth but overall I'm pleased with the outcome :)

Polychromos coloured pencils by Faber Castell are my favourite of the moment ...but tastes can change over time. I used to swear by Derwent but now I find find them a bit too hard. Their graphite pencils on the other hand are better than Faber Castell's in my humble opinion.
I hear Derwent have a range called Coloursofts but I haven't tried them out yet.

These Meindl boots were a great pair of walking boots, the upper made from one piece of leather. So I felt quite attached to them when I did this painting. A study like this requires a fair amount of forward planning ; knowing which areas to paint first and which to leave white. The details are fiddly but they are the most important part. At the time I was getting a lot of inspiration from Cathy Johnson's work. I love the crispness of her stuff...

This is a terracotta wall panel at the Natural History Museum in London. Museums are a great place for finding things to draw; he lighting brought out the relief of the panel nicely. I used a dip pen and nib and a bottle of Indian ink. The flexible pen nib makes it possible to vary the line width as you draw. The highlights were left as white paper. I did this particular piece from a photo.

Here are some close-ups :

An alternative to the traditional pen & ink drawing involves using grey ink along with the black for more nuanced shading. Here I used Faber Castell's Pitt range of fibre-tips. The shades of grey set comprises 6 pens going from cool grey to warm. Personally I prefer the warm colours and find them more useful for the subject matter I tend to concentrate on.
Here I started with the lightest grey, blocking in all but the areas to be left white. Then the darker shades can be applied to build up the shadow.With my small pocket sketchbook I only had room for the bell tower...

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A dry pastel sketch of the Île de la Cité in Paris. Notre Dame cathedral is on the same island. I began by lightly drawing the compostion using a warm colour such burnt sienna (a warm grey can be used). The choice of a warm grey paper enabled me to concentrate on highlights and shadows without having to cover every square inch of the paper. The highlights seem more luminous as well.
I filled in the sky getting lighter towards the bottom. It's not necessary to begin with the sky but I find that helps me to define the subject working area and to balance tones in relation to the sky. I try to place highlights quite early on rather than overlaying them on other colours in order to achieve the purest and most unsullied colour. In general , the highlights are where the purest colour is to be found. Working with the edge of a pastel stick, quite fine detail is possible. I use fingers for blending.
For trees I err on the side of warm greens in general.

A pen and wash sketch. Begin with a light pencil drawing then apply ink diluted with a little water to describe the main tonal shapes. The pen work should fill in the essential details without suffocating the freshness of the washes. Avoid drawing outlines around objects, and try to hint at detail without being over-explicit.

This view through an open doorway uses the technique of framing to lead the eye into the picture. The table in the foreground, and the doorway frame the farm buildings in the background.

The close-up views below show how varying tone and linework can create the illusion of continuity. The gateway appears light against a dark background and dark against a light background. The eye must be 'helped' to see this in the drawing which must convey what the eye is used to seeing even if it is an illusion. Similarly, in the second close-up the three branches on the left appear to be the same but one is black and the other two are white.

 

Museums are an endless supply of subject matter for practising drawing and I'd recommend them to anyone. Thee suits of armour are to be found in the Musée des Invalides in Paris where I spent the afternoon and were an ideal subject for studying shiny metal. I will explain how I achieved the smooth shading in a future post...

These 2 watercolour studies are typical of the eastern coastline of Essex. These salt marshes are home to a wide variety of wading birds and geese and the landscape is constantly changing with on the tides. The upper sketch was an attempt to capture the evening light and reflections. The lower picture was made facing the sun so the colours are more saturated. Watercolour is fun but it's a very unforgiving medium. The ability to draw will help your painting ability enormously.

This was drawn during a day trip on a Thames Barge. These sailing vessels used to ply the coast east taking hay and other agricultural goods up to London.A number have been kept in working condition by sailing enthusiasts and can be hired out for functions or trips. This is a view of the below deck where I was sheltering from the wind.

Here are some small sketches of trees made whilst taking the dog for a run in the nearby woods. A pocket-sized sketchbook and a fibre-tipped pen are ideal for making this kind of drawing and visual notes.  Drawing with this kind of pen is pure pleasure : the fineness of the nib for detail, the blackness of the ink for shading, no pencil sharpener needed, the responsiveness of the pen when drawing fast. The one drawback is the inability to vary the thickness of the line. For this I recommend a broader harder felt nib and vary the pressure, or ,of course, a flexible nibbed dip pen.

 

Here's a drawing you may have seen here recently. Read on for a more in-depth look at my technique....

This drawing was made during a visit to the fishing village of Honfleur popular with tourists. Finding a spot to park myself with so many people about wasn't easy. I ended up having to crouch with my back to the harbour wall with my pad on my knees to stop it from blowing away. the pen I had with me was of a broad felt nib type but sufficiently hard to enable me to produce fine lines when using light strokes. In fact a pen of this sort allows a wide range of line thicknesses depending on your stroke...

I began by sketching the scene in light pencil (which I rubbed out later). This meant I could concentrate afterwards on filling in now that the bones were in place. As you can see the result is like a pattern of abstract dots and dashes. The horizontal lines represent brickwork. The aim was to be as economical as possible with the line to acieve the maximum results. You may notice that only the shadows are drawn (such as window reveals) and sunlit areas are left blank. Look at the dormer windows on the close-up below.

Notice how all the shading goes in the same direction. It is very important to decide on the direction of shading for each object in the compostion, as it has a real effect on the end result and

unifies the drawing. In this example, these rooves are in the background. The shadows are beginning to merge into one another and form abstract shapes. It was important that they be treated, therefore in a similar fashion. The horizontal direction of the hatching was an obvious choice : it represents the brickwork coursing, slate roofing etc.

This view shows the quayside cafés. From this close-up it's almost impossible to tell what it is. It would have been pretty impossible to depict this scene exactly, and it would have been counter-productive. Visually the cafés are not the main focus of the drawing, but they do provide an interesting counterpoint to the main part of the drawing above. It was necessary, therefore, to give only an impression of activity, and light and dark shapes. It's fun to try and represent something in an abstract way - to leave the rest to the imagination. It can be more powerful, and is certainly less time consuming :)

When I go out, I always try to have a pocket-sized sketchbook on me in case anything catches my eye. Such was the case with these railings in London. I liked the perspective seen from this oblique view as they stepped up.

This is a drawing in pen & ink of the medieval town of Puy l'Eveque in the Lot region of France. I was on holiday in the region and took 2 or 3 visits to finish the drawing. I started , as usual with a drawing of this size, by sketching in pencil the main lines which I could rub out later if needed. Perhaps I could have done it less time but the number of people who stopped to chat meant that it took longer :)