Working Holiday

A selection of sketches from holiday on the Ceredigion Coast in Mid Wales.

Views from the cottage in the hills above Llanrhystud. Pen and ink on the left and pencil and watercolour on the right.

Aberystwyth Pier. Pen and ink.

Evening Sky and the northern sweep of Cardigan Bay with Snowdonia and the hills of the Lleyn Peninsular strung out along the horizon like a row of islands. Watercolour.

Stonechats (left) and the cliffs north of Llangrannog (right). Both pen and ink.

Llangrannog. Pen and ink.

Swallows on telephone wires (left) and Ynys Lochtyn (right). Both Pen and ink.

Ynys Loctyn. Watercolour. There's a print here!

Two pages of sketches of Gatekeeper Butterflies. Watercolour.

Aberystwyth Castle and War Memorial. Pen and ink. Another print.

Out in the cold

After spending the morning finishing the Rainy day print and printing the first two colours on a new linocut. This afternoon found me in the snow high on the moors above Holmfirth.

It was bitterly cold in the biting wind and the watercolour took a long time to dry, although at least it didn't freeze on the brush. Spent about half an hour on the sketch and that was about as much as my fingers could stand. It was a nice afternoon though, with grouse and curlew calling from across the moor, and even a wood mouse scurrying around.

Northumberland Interlude

Just back from a weeks holiday on the Northumbrian Coast. A family holiday but still had time to get some work done.

Bamburgh Castle from Hackness Rocks.

Pen and  Ink.

29/07/12. 1140am. Flood tide with the sun high overhead above the castle.

Bamburgh Castle.
Pencil and Watercolour. Half hour sketch before the flooding tide forced me to move off the beach.

Juvenile Wheatear and Juvenile Kittiwake.
Braidcarr Point, Seahouses.
Pen and Ink.
29/07/12.

Adult and Juvenile Kittiwakes

Braidcarr Point, Seahouses.

Pen and Ink.

29/07/12.

Black Headed Gulls and Curlew.
Seahouses Harbour
Pen and Ink and Pencil
29/07/12

Sunset over Bamburgh from the Harbour Wall, Seahouses.
2015pm, 29/07/12.

The Gatehouse, Etal Castle.
Pen and Ink.
30/07/12.

The Gatehouse, Etal Castle.
Watercolour.
30/07/12.

Fishing boat returning home. Eyemouth harbour.
31/07/12.
High Tide, 1300hrs.
Pen and Ink.

Male Kestrel, Braidcarr Point, Seahouses.
02/08/12. 2050pm.
Pen and Ink.

Alnmouth Beach
03/08/12.
1500pm, flooding tide

Redpolls

Goldfinch and Lesser Redpoll. Pen and Ink and Pencil.

Lesser Redpoll. Pencil.


Woke up this morning to a hard frost and a mixed flock of Lesser Redpoll and Goldfinches in the Silver Birch tree outside the kitchen window. They didn't stay long and soon moved off although a couple of Goldfinches hung around the garden all day.

Great Northern Diver

Adult Great Northern Diver, Ringstone Edge Reservoir. Pen and Ink.

This bird turned up on a local reservoir almost a week ago. After a failed trip out on Monday to try and see it I finally caught up with it this morning. The views were a bit distant as the bird kept to the far edge of the reservoir. It also spent a lot of the time fishing and didn't remain on the surface much which hampered the amount of drawing I was able to do. Unusually for the time of year, it was still in full summer plumage.

Recent Sketchbook work

A selection of sketchbook work done over the past week or so.

11/08/2011. 2015pm. Pencil and watercolour. 3 Roe Deer in a cornfield beside the A1 north of Doncaster. Raining and almost dark.
These were seen fleetingly out of the corner of my eye as I was driving. With no chance to stop I drew the sketch from memory and imagination as soon as I got home. Will it have any value or use as a study for a finished piece, probably not but it serves as a record of the scene.

16/08/2011. 0830am. Pen and ink. Looking west across the Annan valley, Moffat. The far hills hidden in the low cloud.
A short break in Dumfries and Galloway, this sketch was made looking out of the window of our room whilst waiting to go for breakfast.

16/08/2011. Rockcliffe on the Solway Coast. 1700pm. Pen and ink.
Looking south west across the bay with the tide ebbing.

16/08/2011. Southerness Lighthouse with the Lake District fells behind. 1855pm. Pen and ink.

Southerness Lighthouse with the Lake District fells behind. Pencil.
Drawn from a slightly closer viewpoint than the previous study.

17/08/2011. Nuthatch. Moffat. 1300pm. Pen and ink.

17/08/2011. Loch of the Lowes. Scottish Borders.Pen and Ink. 1445pm. Overcast sky.
One of my favorite spots, I painted this loch from a slightly different viewpoint in August last year. On 1st January this year I drew this view from almost the same spot with the lake covered in a thick layer of ice.

17/08/2011. Grey Mares Tail Waterfall. Watercolour.
I climbed up to the bottom of the waterfall and started to draw.Then it started to rain, at first a light drizzle which soon got heavier. This started life as a pencil drawing but the paper got too wet and the drawing smudged beyond recognition. To try and salvage something from it I added the watercolour later after I'd dried out the book.

Recent Sketches

I started this blog with the intention of it being a kind of sketchbook diary, hence its title. Since then though it has changed and developed and now contains more finished studio work than field sketches. Ten years or so ago, pretty much all I was doing was sketchbook work with very little, and in some years no finished studio pieces being produced. Now I seem to have turned full circle, with nearly all of my time taken up with studio work and very little time being spent outdoors. I need to redress this balance, ideally I would like to set aside some time each day for some serious observational drawing, even if only for half an hour or so. The following are some recent sketches made over the last month, actually they are the only sketches I have made over the last month. So you can judge for yourself how much time has been spent outside, (even some of these were drawn from inside the house looking through the windows!).

A dejected looking Dunnock in the back garden in a heavy rain shower.
6b Progresso Graphite Pencil.

A Heron sketched as it flapped lazily overhead as I sat in a supermarket carpark.
Rotring Art Pen.

Two Jays sat on the fence at the bottom of mums garden. Eyeing up the fat balls hanging from the birdtable, trying to work out how to get to them.
Rotring Art Pen.

A female Sparrowhawk drawn as it flashed passed chasing a Blackbird. The drawing on the left is all wrong the wing shape looks more like a harrier!
Rotring Art Pen.

This afternoon we had an hours walk around Winscar Reservoir on the northern edge of the peak district. This Common Sandpiper was on the edge of the shoreline, the Wheatear on the moor above the reservoir.

Common Sandpiper.
Rotring Art Pen

Female Wheatear
6b Progresso Graphite Pencil and Watercolour.

Elland Gravel Pits

Had an hours walk around Elland Gravel pits this afternoon before picking the kids up from school. Or to give the place its new name ; Cromwell Bottom Local Nature Reserve. It used to be one of my regular haunts but its a couple of years since I last walked round it. I didn't have much time but still managed a few record sketches and a study which I may be able to develop into something more.

The two butterflies are Ringlet and a Small Skipper, birds are male Reed Bunting, Wren and male Whitethroat. All pencil, watercolour and pen and ink.

Further along the canal I came across a large shoal of Bream idling just beneath the surface in the shadows of the overhanging trees. These two were the tail end of a shoal of about 15 or 20.

Bream and Damselflies. Watercolour.

Its not turned out quite as I intended, I started to loose control of the watercolour. But the tone of the two fish is about right in relation to the darkness of the water. Its a useful starting point for further development perhaps.

Lime Hawk Moth

Lime Hawk Moth Mimas tiliae.
Pencil, watercolour and pen and ink.

A male I think, judging by its small size and strong colouration. However if anyone reading this knows better I stand to be corrected.

I found it dead on the path by the back door as I went out this morning. Possibly a victim of last nights strong winds and rain. A bit battered with its left antenna missing. It's the first one of this species that I have ever seen.

More Report Illustrations

Another set of Pencil and Wash Illustrations. All 95mm x 135mm. The first two shown with the original field sketches on which they are based.



Field sketch of a Collard Dove pair, drawn as they perched in the top of the conifer at the bottom of the garden.

and below the pencil and wash illustration.

Above, field sketch of Black Headed Gulls drawn at Denaby Ings in black ink using a Rotring Art Pen.
and below Pencil and Wash Illustration.

Above : Juvenile Swallow
Below : Lesser Whitethroat