A Pocket Full of Coins

I left the Sketchcrawl Sheffield meetup, a couple of weeks ago, with a pocket full of pound coins and a head full of ideas.

Here are the main things I’m trying to focus on in my current sketchbook (Book 18 for those of you who would like to keep a count)

- Work in other sketch books other than my ongoing ‘day book’; having a sketchbook with a theme. I have one or two ideas already, but I’m keeping those under wraps for the moment.

- Experimenting a little more with hatching and shading.  Just to add a bit more texture.

- Not getting hung up on ‘having’ to start a new page every day. Weekdays/workdays I think I’ll try and concentrate on revisiting work I’ve already started, but not finished. Otherwise my sketchbooks end up being full of unfinished scribbles.

- Trying to use a wider range of materials – I’ve already got in mind a bunch of materials that languish, unused, in a box at home. It’s time to break them out of semi-retirement!

- Focusing more on adding text to my drawings, or at least somewhere on the page. To add description and, ironically, colour, to my drawings.

Gloves

The weather’s really beginning to draw in here, and while I love the Autumn and Winter months, I’m not so ken on freezing my fingers whilst trying to sketch! This morning I bought myself a pair of inner gloves to wear. Super thin – they don’t feel like I’m wearing boxing gloves to sketch with! But, I don’t really think that they’re up to the job of actually keeping my hands warm. Does anyone know of some sort of ultra-thin glove that will allow me to sketch freely and still keep me warm?

Pencil

I’m not sure where my aversion to using pencil in my drawings started. Maybe because pencil marks are not permament. Using ink means I have to live with any mistakes which I make.

In fact I’ve come to embrace the errors in my work.

Isn’t that what art is about? Making an image of something and adding personality and changes. If I produce a perfect reproduction of something, for example, where is the personality?

I think I’ll continue to use ink and wash.

Local art shop closed down

Calder Graphics closed down this week.

An old-fashioned art shop which catered for the general, but aimed a lot at the local student population. Okay, I didn’t particularly like that they only stocked a couple of sketchbook brands, but it was always useful for popping in to pick up some fresh pens and watercolours.

Mind you, I suppose I can’t grumble too much as I have pretty much migrated towards the internet for buying materials now. It’s nice to browse , though isn’t it? But that’s always tricky with art materials; a tube of paint in a shop pretty much looks like a tube of paint in a catalogue.

70% discount off marked prices meant I was able to pick up a good bunch of Acrylic paints – just picking up colours I liked the look of, and a couple of sets of Kuretake water pens.

The Sketchbook Project 2012

I’ve just signed up to the Art-House Co-op’s Sketchbook Project 2012.

They send me a blank sketchbook on a theme that I’ve chosen.

When I have filled it in I send it back to them, before next February, and it gets included in a World tour of other sketchbooks submitted into the project this year. A lot of the tour dates are in America, but there are a few locations around the world, including London.

I’ve chosen the theme of ‘Encyclopaedia of’, which I thought could be about myself or about West Yorkshire.

Things I keep with me

I keep the pens in my trouser pocket; so I’m good to go any time I want to draw.

The water pen and paint palette are kept in my bag (A half-sized messenger bag)