Fiddling around.

Actually, been busy today. Have got a number of images done, some of which I'll post tomorrow. Here's the one I did earlier. Sunny day, blue ink, see if some detail makes it better. All going well until I decided to extend the sky. Used the wrong blue.
So it's off to Photoshop to sort that out. Here's the result:

Still think it needs something on the street.

Serene, we rejoice in clean air and empty streets.

Piece done for The Broken Church  Creative Days project. "Each day for 50 days (Easter to Pentecost) there will be a new creation in response to the previous days creation. Each creator only see’s what they are responding too when it goes live here…" I had to react to an Imaginary Landscape by Ange Drozfrom who had done day 10. You have from the time it appears to the following late afternoon to react. Of course, I forgot all about it until about three in the afternoon, or to be more precise, I had a rough idea in the morning but didn't sit down in front of the white sheet of paper until three...

Realisation

The image is drawn with, as usual, Derwent Inktense water colour pencils, which are hydrated and then an eraser is used to get rid of the outlining pencil and any unhydrated Inktense. On this occasion I also went over with traditional watercolour - time was running short. 
I had intended to also strengthen and detail the lines with blue ink, but I ran out of time. Maybe I'll do that later; but on the whole I'm not too distressed at the submitted image. 

Title

"Serene, we rejoice in clean air and empty streets." is a longer title. I wanted to reflect on the fact that on the whole I'm enjoying this time. I don't mind queuing for 15 mins for an emptyish supermarket, I like the fact the roads are clear and you can breath. I had to go to the Doctor today for a blood test - it's on the other side of town. I drove back the long way, usual very busy and, so I'm told, some of the worst polluted air in the UK. Today, no traffic, fast journey, sunshine. Good to be alive. 

Reflection

Maybe I'll draw the details in. I'm not sure it needs it. The image is scanned however, so the version here won't be totally lost. Next time I'll draw it bigger and probably take more time to work out a correct perspective. I'll also pay more attention to the scale.
Colours are OK, using real watercolour again, instead of watercolour pencil or acrylic paint has reminded me that I'm in control here and the colours are better than the pencils on the whole. 
I need to pay more attention to the figures. They were alright but they were rushed and didn't quite work.I should have done more sky.

Christmas 2018

After much head scratching, this was the Christmas card for 2018. It's our new cat flying out with the presents. Picture was drawn with Derwent Intense Pencils, plus a little help from Photoshop. Photoshop added a couple of shadows and added the white lines which had disappeared when I got the paper too wet.

Inktense

Probably my favourite watercolour pencils. Not joking. I've tried a number of different sets of watercolour pencils - and I always come back to these. Three reasons: controllability, the strength of colour when wetted and the permanence when dry. I first discovered these a few years ago, but until now I've never had a set as large as this. The wooden case is a nice way to store them and a real plus.
When I'm using these I like to do an outline first. Normally I use the Indigo pencil, sketching lightly as I don't want to drive the colour into the paper at this point. Incidentally, I use Derwent's watercolour paper,  as it has a particularly smooth surface. Then, using a bush I hydrate the lines I want and bring them out to a wash if required. Finally I rub out with a regular eraser all the lines I don't want. As long as the paper is very dry, I leave it overnight usually, this works pretty well.
Then because the wetted pencil is dry and therefore permanent I add the other colours as required. One thing I do is check the colours, both by themselves and as over colour; Inktense pencil colours are a lot brighter and often slightly different to what you might expect so it pays to test somewhere. If you look at the sample picture you can see where I've done this along the lefthand edge.

After that, I use them like waterproof inks. Shade the areas I want to colour, use a water brush to stroke out the colour, let it dry and apply more as required. The image attached to this review is a section of one I did for a Christmas card this year and other than a few black lines done with a Derwent fine liner is all inktense pencils. I should note that this had further work done after this scan; but I think it shows the versatility and colour you can expect.
If I have one niggle, it's that the pencil is quite soft and doesn't hold a point for very long. I can work with that, but it would be nice to see these available in a mechanical pencil one day.  Until then, I'm very happy with my 48!

Some weeks later...

It's gone through a lot of drafts. Too many. Trouble was finding the glue to hold it all together and I don't think I'm really there yet. This week I started what I wanted to start a month ago, namely Illustration.
Dug out the old pictures - if all else fails, I have an exhibition here. Found one picture that I had forgot that I had, and another that was never finished. That last one is now on the production line for finishing.
Today Ruth is out for the day, so I'm hoping that I will start at least five pictures.
Tonight's effort takes shape. #grayanddismalgreen#greenbelt Gb17