I then extended to the whole of the spread of the sketchbook so it had more of a panoramic feel to it. The sketch initially started just on the right-hand side of the sketchbook and I was focusing on the shape of the headland in the distance. With this sketch on Coral Beach I started off with a soft pencil and then worked on top with the pen. What’s fascinating is the walk to the beach is very green, mountainous with stunning views across water and then it appears, hidden within the greenery that surrounds it – a brilliant white beach made up of tiny shells and hard seaweed called Maerl, crushed by the waves and bleached by the sun. I was keen to explore the rest of the coastline so we took a walk out to Coral Beach, this is a beautiful area on the North of Skye. I used a black pen and then a warm grey and a cool grey always looking for the shapes, spaces and the differences between lights and darks. You can use them to add tonal blocks of warm or cool to give you a subtle idea of how the landscape feels and quickly establish the tonal hierarchy. The Pitt pens come in a range of different greys that can be perfect when you’re sketching with the end goal of a painting. This is not to be underestimated because when you’re back in your studio you’ll never be able to conjure up the sense of time and place purely from a photographic reference, even though you think you will when you are on location.Ī drawing no matter how sketchy, will be invaluable.įor the sketch above I used a mix of Faber-Castell PITT pens, a Micron Fine Liner 0.3 and a Pental Brush Pen. When I look back at my sketchbooks of the past I can be instantly transported back to the smells, the noises and sounds from that environment. The one critical thing to remember is no matter how short the time that you’re actually sketching, be it one-minute or one-hour, you subconsciously absorb so much more of the atmosphere and feeling of the space around you when you draw it. The tendency can be to take hundreds of photographs thinking you will decide what to paint later on, however, making the decision when you are on location is a much more productive approach. When you’re deciding on a scene to paint you naturally become more selective if you know you’re going to be spending the time drawing it – rather than taking a quick photograph. Once I’ve established that a sketch ‘works’ compositionally, I take shots for colour references or more details I might need later for the painting.Īrmed with the sketches and photographs, I can then head back to my studio to work up a more finished piece. Instead of taking a photograph first and then making a sketch from that, I use the sketchbook like my camera viewfinder. It’s worth mentioning that I usually use my sketches like a quick snap-shot of the scene, they’re not intended as final pieces but the aim is to get my eye tuned into the subject I’m looking at. I have a mix of pens that mirror the choices and techniques I use when I build up a painting, so instead of a thin round brush I would use a fine line pen and likewise would use a brush pen for thicker, darker textural areas. When I sketch on location I like to approach it quite loosely and often use pens rather than pencils. It was a fantastic sunny morning so thought I’d take advantage and get out on the road sketching around the Isle of Skye. View from Laundry Cottage window of Dunvegan Castle Sketching on Location Surrounded by lochs, mountains in the distance and a spectacular view of Dunvegan Castle out of the cottage window… It was only the next morning we truly appreciated the setting we were in. There had been a few minor worries en-route, slight overheating, suspicious drips from under the car and the Sat-Nav had given up the ghost but we were here…and the pack of shortbread left as a welcome gift was quickly consumed! After a long drive we arrived at Laundry cottage in the pitch black, the only sound was running water from the nearby waterfall.
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