Our place

I love coming home to our place on a sunny morning, the sun and shadows do lovely things and make it easy to ignore the rampant weeds, punctured footballs, scrappy grass and dog dug holes. Even though this is literally my own back yard, I still didn't  do this from life. Shock horror.  I have watercolour sketched it a number of times in the past, but even then the shadows move too fast for me; the sun would have moved around to the other side of the house by the time I had even squirted out the oils.

Sketching it helped though, as it meant I had looked at and thought about the whole shadow/bounced light/tone thing going on under the porch a number of times. Instead of the usual and usually frustrating attempt to use a big brush and simplify , I used a smaller brush this time and held it far back on the handle and tried to be a bit looser that way. Not unhappy with the result, may explore that approach  a bit further.
Within the next two weeks all the kids will have moved out, and it will just be me and P here - wierd and sad.

Some summer sketches

Well I have been painting, but I've been painting the exterior woodwork on the house which is no fun whatsoever. I did a rubbish job on it anyway, and managed to get impossible to remove paint on legs, shorts, dog, path and plants. I've been keeping up sketching though and have finished pad number 3. Ta Da. That's the end of the Moleskin. The long format didn't suit me, although, it was okay for this foxglove:

 

I need to leave home more often, I've been sketching looking out of doors and windows:

 

 

And I've been sketching bits of rooms:

 

 

And I've been sketching any flowers in the garden:

 

I get a bit fiddly and faffy too easily, so sometimes I have to try and force myself to be looser:

 

I've given one of my daughters some watercolours, so she was sitting out in the garden sketching with me last night, while my other daughter was out there reading with us. Nice way to spend an evening.

 

 

 

 

 

Sketching the house etc

I've been trying to draw things that are a bit challenging, especially lines and perspective etc. for the practice. That makes it all sound like a boring  exercise, but I must say I'm loving the whole thing.

 

I sat out on the grass doing the next one, Max ran off with the tissues, licked the paint, and took to chewing my sandal , painting with a dog is gas crack.

 

I'm not the most innovative when it comes to subject matter. I wandered around looking for things and ended up sitting in front of the shed.

 

The next one  I didn't do for drawing practice, I wanted to try and quickly catch the late sun on the grass and the backlit viburnum. Minimum drawing and very quick painting.

 

 

And last weeks veg box.  Now that I think of it, I think that fennel bulb is still sitting in the fridge a week later, oops.