Back on track

Printed the next green, a darker shade and I'm happier now about how the print is going. Not sure what to do next though. I should finish it in two more colours but the temptation to add a third is lurking just around the corner.

A bit more progress

Colour 6 and I'm still not happy about that green!

Losing the plot

Back to printing. Its been over a week since I last worked on this, a much longer interuption than I would like. It can be hard to pick up the thread again without losing the direction of the work.

Anyway onto colour 4 - the first green.


.... and then a warm brown colour, which has made the green look a bit lurid. Hopefully the next colours will calm this down a bit!

A Break in Dumfries and Galloway

Just got back from a short break visiting my brother in Scotland. Had five days of really good weather.

27th August.
The view across the rooftops towards Frenchlands Tower. Moffat, Annandale.


28th August. Another view across the Moffat rooftops, looking towards Hunterheck Hill.

....and below a real surprise.

An Otter hunting in the River Nith below the weir in central Dumfries. After walking round the town we were going back to the car and stopped beside the river to see if any Salmon were jumping. This otter appeared below the weir and gradually moved closer to us. As usual in such a situation- no camera, paper or pencils. We watched it for about ten minutes then I decided to go to the car for a sketchbook. It took me another ten minutes to get back to find it still there although it gradually made its way up the fish ladder and onto the weir before swimming upstream in the deeper water above the weir. These drawings were made on the spot, the watercolour was added later, more to 'fix' the drawing than anything else.

28th August.

Looking west across the Annan Valley from Moffat towards Queensbury.

29th August

The same hill from Roberts garden. 1900hrs.

31st Auugust

Jackdaws mutual preening.

30th August

St Marys Loch.

31st August

Loch of the Lowes

A mixed bag this week

Quite a bit of news to post this week. Firstly the latest copy of the Huddersfield Bird Report has been published and is now available to buy. Details can be found by following the link to the Huddersfield Birdwatchers Club on the right.


Following on from the previous post regarding bookplates, I used one of my recent holiday sketches and produced this scraperboard drawing of Lindisfarne Castle. Which should fit the bill for a bookplate design for an old friend from Northumbria now living in the West Country.



And now on to the next Linocut. I'm not going to reveal the subject just yet, for anyone familiar with the history of Yorkshire the identity of the castle should become apparent quite quickly. So here we have the first colour, as usual darker than I intended. I really struggle to get the tone right on the first colour!

The second colour goes down and now I'm a bit happier about the tone of the first colour.

Third colour down and I can move on to the foreground.

Bookplates

Someone suggested that I produced a set of 'ex libris' bookplates. After playing around with some designs I tried to cut a lino block but couldn't get the required detail. So after scrapping that idea I scanned an old scraperboard drawing and played around with it. If I can get the printing right it might be a worthwhile project.

Castles, Cobles and Kittiwakes : A week on the Northumberland Coast

A family holiday so neither a birding or a painting break but managed to do a bit of both.

1st August. (My Birthday). North Sunderland Point, Seahouses. 1000 am. Pen and Ink with watercolour.

Offshore; Black Headed Gull, Cormorant, Kittiwake, Sandwich Tern, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Herring Gull, Swallow, House Martin, Linnet, Mute Swan, Heron.


1st August. 1940pm. From the harbour Seahouses, looking north. From left to right; Bamburgh Castle, Monks House and Lindisfarne Castle. Watercolour.

If I had a time machine, this is where I would come; the mid 1950's and Eric Ennions bird observatory at Monks House.

2nd August. Lindisfarne Castle. Pencil.

2nd August. Lindisfarne Castle. 1030-1100am. Ebb Tide. Watercolour.

2nd August. 1115am. Ebb Tide. Coble and Lindisfarne Castle. Pen and Ink.

2nd August. Adult and Juvenile Kittiwake. Braidcarr Point. Seahouses. Pen and Ink.

2000pm. 10 minutes drawing before the rain started and the ink began to run.

3rd August. Craster Harbour. 1400pm. Pen and Ink.

3rd August. Dunstanburgh Castle. 1500pm. Watercolour.

3rd August. Black Headed Gull and Turnstones. Seahouses. 2000pm. Watercolour.

4th August. Herring Gull. Seahouses. Pencil and Watercolour.

Spent today wandering around Berwick and then up to Eyemouth. Highlights included a Peregrine circling over Berwick town centre, and feeding Grey Seals Mackerel halves in Eyemouth harbour.

4th August. Farne Islands from Seahouses Harbour. 2010pm. Flood Tide. Sea flat calm. Watercolour.

From left to right; Inner Farne, East Wideopen, West Wideopen, Brownsman and Staple Islands. Longstone is to the right but I ran out of room on the page!

5th August. Kittiwakes. Braidcarr Point, Seahouses. 0845am. Watercolour.

5th August. Bamburgh Castle from the breakwater at Seahouses harbour. 1930pm. Pen and Ink.

6th August. Ringed Plover and Dunlin in the rain. Seahouses harbour. 1430pm. Pen and Ink.

Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Eider, Redshank, Curlew, Kestrel, Swallow, Swift, House Martin, Gannet, Cormorant, Black Headed Gull, Kittiwake, Great Black Backed Gull and Herring Gull.