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More Manchester

29/3/2015

Stained glass above bar.

Whilst in Manchester last weekend, I did a couple of other sketches away from the sketchcrawl. The first was sat in The Peveril of the Peak with Simone Ridyard and members of the SAI. The stained glass had caught my eye and as a man was staring at me, I started to draw him... well actually for once, I sketched the background around him, I just got to him and his group left.

A Manchester greenhouse.

On Sunday morning, I sketched the view from the window, with a total disregard to composition. This is my second greenhouse sketch this month. (The first is here.) Then, I sketched a doll on a bookcase, unfinished, both before breakfast.

On the bookshelf.

How successful do you think these are? Please leave a comment telling me.

Manchester sketchcrawl

20/3/2015

Sketching the River Irwell sat on Calatrava's Trinity Bridge.

Yesterday, I joined the Manchester, Yorkshire, and Society of Architectural Illustrators (SAI) for a sketchcrawl in Manchester. It was a surprisingly blue skied sunny day, but with an icy wind, which made outdoor sketching a challenge. As you can see from my sketches below, I alternated between outside and inside locations.

It was lovely to meet so many sketchers from all over (40+ at the interim lunch meeting) and hope to get up to Manchester and sketch again... albeit in a warmer month.

Focusing on something different.

16/3/2015

Over the course of 2 cups of tea, I completed this sketch of my friend's greenhouse, finishing just in time for breakfast. (sorry the scan has lost some of the watercolour details and turned it pink too).

My assistant is feeling sorry for herself.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I had a weekend away and my poor assistant has been in Queen's Veterinary School Hospital, Cambridge for surgery on her elbows. She now needs lots of love and cuddles to help her recover.

I have mainly been creative in a photographic way, apart from a couple of sketches. The above one was drawn at my friend's house in Cheltenham. We have had surprisingly clear blue skies, which has made the UK spring look prettier. Here's a few examples... and a fire as the nights are still cold.

What have you done this week?

Print workshop induction

1/3/2015

I am now a member of the print workshop at Cuckoo Farm Studios, Colchester. Consequently, on Thursday I had my induction to use the workshop unsupervised in the future. Whilst there I took the opportunity to have a 2nd attempt at etching. I used one of my new etching needles, which is quite heavy and a dream to draw with into the hard ground. I redid the oak leaves I'd attempted to etch on my workshop, you can see those results here.

Learning points:

I need to clean the ink off the plates more, as you can see from the print above there is a lot of ink on the background.
I need to pay more attention to the composition. Despite it being an interesting subject (well I think so), as this print doesn't work due to the shape the leaves create... I could use a clean hard ground to work more into this plate, but I'm not sure that will improve a badly thought out compostion.

More Manchester

Manchester sketchcrawl

Focusing on something different.

What have you done this week?

Print workshop induction

What printmaking lessons have you learnt?

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