I did this line sketch of a street in Montmartre  sitting on the terrasse of a café. The detail of windows and rooves was of sufficient interest that I didn't need to add shading. The perspective was a bit of a challenge, but I guess that is what this drawing is all about. Being a line drawing, the technique is similar to a pen & ink one. A pleasant half hour was spent :-)

A trace of the past in this narrow medieval street near the centre of Paris. This sketch took about 1 - 1/2 hours to do standing on the pavement opposite. I started by outlining the composition in faint pencil lines, and then set to work with the felt-tipped liner. The pencil can be rubbed out afterwards. I left certain areas white to increase contrast. Too much hatching and shading can overload a drawing and make it heavy. Economy of line should be aimed for wherever possible.

I was attracted to the light falling on the corner of this building so I did this quick sketch in my pocket pad using graphite pencils. I used a harder pencil for the background (2H) to make it lighter and thereby give the scene more depth.

I took advantage of a sunnyish morning to go out sketching with my pastels. In this view looking out over Leigh-on-Sea marshes, you can see Canvey Island in the distance, and the north Kent coast in the far distance beyond the Thames estuary. The weather being changeable, the light was forever changing. I quite liked it when the middle distance was in shadow and the foreground bathed in sunshine, so this is what I tried to capture.
It was also rather windy so I had to hold the page down as I drew and my hands got very grubby :)

Yesterday afternoon was not the sort of weather for going out in, so I rummaged around in the kitchen and found these - suitable for a still life!
I began by outlining the various shapes and then I put in the highlights; it would be harder to get the same white laying it on top of other colours. For the shading, I used a blue violet on the yellow pepper, a dark crimson on the green one and a bluish green on the red one. This helped to give three-dimensional form and made colours in the lighter areas appear more saturated.

I came across this vintage vehicle when out and about nearby and couldn't resist a quick sketch in my pocket sketchbook. I learnt afterwards that it was being used as a prop in some period drama although I hadn't spotted any film crew. The secret to smooth shading is a very sharp point on your pencil. Building up shading gradually with a light hand, changing direction with each successive layer, enables subtle variations and gradations in tone.

This week I went to London Zoo with my niece, so I took my sketchbook!
Unlike Life Drawing models, animals insist on moving around A LOT, so these two pages took more than an hour to do. The thing about drawing this sort of subject is that it forces you to capture in your mind's eye what you see in a fleeting moment - very good for developing a visual memory I should try and do more like this.

Here's a piece from Life Drawing classes in dry pastel. I really enjoy using pastels : it is like painting with a dry medium, a cross between drawing and painting. Rather than building up colours in overlaid successive layers, you have to be bold and lay down strong colour blending with other colours on the paper a little as you go. Once the paper becomes clogged, as it does rather quickly, you can't add any more colour on top.

I prefer to use a limited number of colours such as burnt and raw sienna, and a couple of blues - a complementary of the warmer colours and a light one for reflected highlights - but there's no rule as to the number of colours you use.

A coloured pencil sketch of the garden. I used a lot of violet which is the complementary of yellow-green and, therefore, balances the greens and helps in the rendering of shadows. I used Derwent Cumberland pencils on an A5 format sketchpad.

An old rotting hulk lying off Leigh marshes on the Thames estuary. I spotted this whilst out taking the dog for a walk Boat hulls have such graceful shapes. I used a fibre-tip and a pocket sketchbook. The dog was very patient :)