I was given a neat little tin of pastels for Christmas and decided yesterday that it was time to pull them out and have a go. The person that gave them to me is into classic cars, so I drew a couple of favourites that pop up in conversation from time to time.

I loved it! Pastels are so quick and responsive and I love the feeling of the chalky pencil dragging over the toothy paper, followed by the buttery blending as I move the pigment together to make something entirely new.

Tags: car, colour, pastel
Filed under: General

A Parisian woman watches on

I’ve been back from France now for almost three months and finally I can say that I am making progress on my book! Yay! I have finished the actual travelogue part of my journals, and I’m working on approximately 30 supplementary sketches to fill out the second Moleskine. Today I start on the tedious task of high res scanning my journals so that I have print-ready images to share

I cannot tell you how excited I am that I am working on this project!

Tags: art, books, inspiration, moleskine, portrait, Visual Journal, watercolour, woman
Filed under: Visual Journal

Well! Only a couple of hours and we’ll be jetting off for our 16 day adventure in France. I won’t be blogging here until after we return, but I’ll be posting sketches and photos to a dedicated Flickr album if you would like to follow along for the adventure. Click on the picture below to be taken to my France 2011 set.

Filed under: Visual Journal

Figuring out how my paints behave on the Moleskine watercolour paper is fun!!

learning how to do maps and freehand lettering…

Crap photo…but practising buildings…

Sketches during worship this morning…

Loving that I am making time to draw so much.

Tags: art, edm, faith, God, ink, moleskine, pen, Visual Journal, watercolour, worship
Filed under: Visual Journal

I am LOVING sketching with ink and watercolour! The results are so immediate and fun!  I think I could sit and do this all day long Here are two that I did this week:

Tags: moleskine, pen, Visual Journal, watercolour
Filed under: Visual Journal

One of my architectural practice pieces for the trip…

I’m too excited to keep this a secret any longer!

I have been inspired by the beautiful Blurb books created by Liz Steel showcasing her urban sketches and adventures with Borrmini, that I am thinking that I will create a Blurb book of my own from my adventures in France later this year. I am more than a little excited

What is a Blurb book? It’s a book that is available for order and printed on demand just for you and then posted directly to you. Nifty system huh?

My French holiday sketchbook will contain all of the sketches I manage to capture while I’m travelling, and be combined with the odd photo here and there as well as excerpts from my written journals. I am so wound up about it that the anticipation is just about killing me I may even include some of the lead up and preparation sketches and back story …. we’ll see.

Anyway…I’m telling you all now so that I can’t chicken out later I would love to have it out in time for Christmas, but having a realistic look at my work schedule and art commissions on the list…it will probably be early next year.

Tags: art, books, edm, ink, moleskine, pen, pencil, watercolour
Filed under: Visual Journal

I am thinking I’ll take a watercolour Moley to France later in the year as my travel journal, so I decided to do some experimenting today…here are the somewhat less than stellar results! Adapting to the new page shape is an undexpected challenge too!

Tags: edm, ink, landscape, moleskine, pen, Visual Journal, watercolour
Filed under: Visual Journal

I love spending lazy Sunday evenings with friends What better way to celebrate than with a drawing

The colour behind the food was supposed to be “redder” I don’t like the way the sketchpaper in the Molekskines takes colour. Will almost definitely be taking a watercolour Moley to France later in the year.

Tags: edm, food, ink, moleskine, pen, Visual Journal
Filed under: Visual Journal

It’s been quite a while since I did a “proper” drawing. It was nice to slow down and work on this one over the last couple of months.

4 x 6″
Graphite on W&N Bristol Board

Tags: art, baby, Graphite Art, pencil, portrait
Filed under: Graphite Art

Here are a couple of drawings from the last couple of weeks…

Tags: art, doodle, edm, ink, moleskine, pen, Visual Journal, watercolour
Filed under: Visual Journal