Come on Spring

At last after a little break I am uploading a sketch of a path up in the heath in front of our house. It's a path I run up as I head back towards home. Although showery today there were glimpses of sun and it actually felt warm, lifting my spirits tremendously. I can't wait for the days to get lighter and the weather to calm down. Kids have horrible colds and have been off school feeling ill, sick and miserable, the garden looks terrible and to cap it all someone at work said I looked 'very tired and pale'. Great.

So come on Spring, lets have some warm, dry sunny days and happy healthy children.

Father Christmas on the Guitar

So a year is up with a sketch a day, although I still owe one for yesterday and this will be added to January 20th by the end of the week. Above is the sketch for today. I started with Jack, so I wanted to end with Jack. Why he decided to put the Father Christmas hat on and practise his guitar is beyond me. But it does make a good sketch.

As for the future of the blog I think I will update the site at least every week with exciting highlights, kids stuff, College stuff and basically anything which catches my interest and is good to sketch. Oh yes, I will also post up current art stuff I am working on as well as paintings and sketches for the Hartley Wintney Summer Festival.  I also have a Facebook page and will be posting selected artwork up there.  Please have a look at my on line portfolio with all my commission work (I need to update and add to this!), its:

www.rosebramwell.carbonmade.com

So please keep in touch and have a look!

Reflecting back on the year of blogging

Tomorrow it will be exactly a year since I first started publishing a sketch a day and it was Jack's idea to set myself this target. Above is the first sketch I put up on my blog; it's Jack of course! He looks very different now. As I reflect, it seems to have gone very quickly, although sometimes it has been hard to conjure up a sketch at the end of a long working day.

Below is one of my favourite sketches used to inform a watercolour painting, now sold at the Hartley Wintney Summer Festival. At this point in the year with all the cold and snow, Summer seams so far away! Tomorrow I will publish a last couple of sketches to round off the year, (this will cover for me not having one today), together with a few favourite sketches from the blog.  I will also let you know my plans for the blog and how I intend to carry on.

 

 

The kids Snowman

What else is there to do apart from go sledging or make snowmen and throw snowballs at each other?  The field where we normally go was not ideal for fast sledging this time, so the kids made a lovely snowman with a large carrot for his nose.  He is at least six foot, so a large amount of effort went in to this!

Snow Day

When you think you will be able to get on with lots of work the snow comes and schools are off and children are at home............

More snow coming, so watch out for lots of snow sketches which will be loaded up tomorrow.

A quick sketch of the fields covered in snow at the front of our house. The road is just sludgy.

Landscapes

I have been looking at landscapes, architecture and habitation, probably because I am doing this with Foundation at college. 

This landscape is totally imaginary.....

Winter Blues

This was taken from a larger image of a crowd on the beach last summer. Yes, I am thinking of warmer climes and wanting the Spring to start. Dark mornings, dark evenings and freezing cold weather with the prospect of heavy snow this Friday does not excite me.

Henley-On-Thames in the freezing cold!

This is Henley-On-Thames sketched in -2 degrees with the Foundation students. We went out in the afternoon to sketch for their current project based on 'Architecture and Habitation'. Unfortunately the weather has decided to go very cold this week and all of our sketches had to be extremely quick before our hands went blue!

Workshops: Creating grounds to draw on

I am going to upload some artwork produced in workshops both today and tomorrow which I am doing with the year one Extended Diploma. Of course I have left this at college in the mass exodus to escape the heavy snow, so I will need to do this tomorrow!

Above is the workshop, or parts of it. We were looking at creating different grounds to draw on to instead of directly on to white paper.

Ten second sketch!

Another really quick sketch while the man stopped in front of me for around ten seconds! I keep trying to tell my students at college, it's amazing what you can sketch down in such a short time!

Shopping and cafe

Holly and I went shopping to take back Xmas gifts which were the wrong size, so of course we had to visit Cafe Nero. This is my favourite cafe with the best tasting coffee. I have sketched Holly sitting in front of me. But I am now too tired after staying up to watch Jonathan Ross (good show), so will upload this tomorrow.

Holly says she actually looks better in the sketch than in real life! I'm just thinking her finger looks a little long, but it was all done very quickly.

Sam

Although this didn't quite scan too well, I quite liked the expression on Sam's face as he was concentrating on his work.

The Cafe

Due to spending so long on my Photoshop experiment making a stencil, I am now behind in my sketch!  So this will have to wait until tomorrow...

So here it is. A cafe sketch!

Using Photoshop to make a 'Banksy Stencil'

I have been working on a sketch which I uploaded into Photoshop and put through some modifications to see if I could make it look like a stencil- rather like a Banksy Graffiti stencil. I intend to use this technique with the students in a project we are doing at the moment so used this opportunity to experiment with the technique.

'Gestural and contour Drawing'

Some sketchbook examples I have been using with students. They have been sketching from life around college sketching people and I wanted to try and show what was possible when the person you decide to sketch is only around for more than a minute or so!

Watercolour Window

I thought I would upload some of my workshop examples I have been using with the college students.

The eve before school

I think my little note at the bottom says it all!

The Cricketers front door

This was sketched in half light. I can't wait for the longer days!

More footie on the green

A few really quick sketches of Jack, Holly in the background on the right doing the 'Girlie Footballer' twist.

Nearly a year of a 'Sketch a day'. On the Cricket Green

I am going to load this up tomorrow since I want to publish a series of sketches as a narrative.

I have alos looked at my fist blog which started on 20th January 2012. So I will continue to blog up until the 20th of this month. I also intend to revisit and publish some past blogs to conclude a 'Sketch a day for a Year'. After that, I will need to reevaluate and reflect....and then decide what to do.

 

On the cricket green and Jack kicks the ball to holly. So Holly then looks away.....

'Vintage Clique'

Just another little illustration from the old car event at the Phoenix pub yesterday. I had to eek this out, some scenes were quite humorous.

New Year at the Phoenix: The Vintage Cars

Great turn out of Vintage cars today at the Phoenix pub. But sketch here will be uploaded tomorrow. I have been in bed this afternoon feeling a little ill.......

So here is the sketch. I have made it more illustrative, but I think the atmosphere and character of the event is portrayed well.