Playing with colours

Sketch by David Meldrum

Sitting on my balcony, having fun with some bright colours and my 0.70 Faber-Castell...

I need a hero!

A Hero calagraphy pen. Photo: Cathy Johnson

After reading Cathy Johnson's article from the Artist's Journal about illustrating with a Hero Calligraphy pen I was literally hooked.
I have been looking for a fountain pen that would encourage me to draw in a loose style. My continual personal fight is to try and forget my graphic training from my years in advertising. I aspire to a free expressive line, not easy to find when you have reached or maybe even passed middle-age. By the way, does anyone know what the official mid-life years are? When do they start and when do they end?

So after reading Cathy's article which was published on the Artist's Journal Workshop website I immediately followed her advice and visited eBay and started hunting for some Hero pens. I found two which I ordered from China, one for 6 dollars and the other for 12, not so expensive and I hope to have a lot of fun with them. The seller of the Hero 86 Calligraphy pen had a very impressive page on eBay, he even had a number of pictures of himself going about his export business with the help of his moped, cute, I wish him the best of luck with his business.  I have been buying a lot of art related things recently; I should probably stop ordering and start drawing instead - but shopping is so much easier than scratching that first uncertain line on a clean, white page!
If you would like to see the work of an excellent pen & ink sketcher who uses a Hero pen, visit Don Low's blog, I discovered him on urbansketchers.com

Hero 86 Calligraphy Pen (12 dollars)

Hero 86 Calligraphy Pen exporter!

Lunch Sketch



Pencil sketch by David Meldrum

I have not completed a Lunch Sketch for long time, at least it feels that way; I am trying to improve my line drawing skills. Charles Reid mentioned in one of his watercolour DVDs that drawing was 90% of a successful painting, I agree.

Sketching more and more

Since I started drawing again I've been mainly going to life drawing evenings but now I find I'm starting to sketch other subjects, I'm diversifying. Is it time to start a 'My Sketches' page I wonder?

Charles Reid Watercolour Secrets

I ordered this Charles Reid Watercolour Secrets DVD direct from Pulsar Productions in Australia less than a week ago! There was no charge for postage either, amazing! It would have been so much more expensive if I'd ordered it on Amazon.



Charles Reid Watercolour Secrets

Urban Sketching...

I have precious little time to sketch which is frustrating, I became ill this mid-summer weekend just when I thought I finally had some free days. Blah. Still, I managed a few sketches before I was forced into bed.

My second Charles Reid DVD

I received this DVD when I arrived home from holidays the other day, it's a funny coincidence that a trawler is one of the main subjects Charles Reid has chosen to watercolour. I found the DVD to be very helpful, I learned a lot and I hope my skills improve in the coming months. The title of this tutorial DVD is, Charles Reid's Watercolour Landscape Masterclass. He paints two watercolours, explaining in detail his approach and execution of each piece.

Charles Reid's Watercolour Landscape Masterclass

Old trawler

I arrived home from a one week holiday last night. I was in Paimpol, a beautiful old fishing harbour on the north-west coast of France. I managed to find time to do some watercolours. The painting below of the old trawler took me about 2 hours to complete, I am very happy with my progress in learning how to paint. I only wish I could spend more time with my new hobby, these last few months have been so busy both at work and privately. Still, the summer is here and in a few weeks I presume I will have more time for watercolours as the pressure at work diminishes during the holiday season.



Old trawler



A great collection of Charles Reid work

I found this wonderful web page full of Charles Reid's portraits and nudes. Click here.

Watercolour life drawing by Charles Reid

Watercolour by Charles Reid

My first tree!

A Tree by David Meldrum

The great thing about beginning something, like having art as a hobbie for instance, is that there are so many firsts! Like drawing this tree, I've never painted a tree before, at least I don't remember ever doing one. I am currently on holidays, relaxing after a very busy period at work, coming down, looking forward to having a few days to sketch, sketch, sketch.

Alexa Meade creates acrylic illusions

Alexa Meade paints with acrylics directly on human flesh creating the illusion of painterly portraits. Interesting twist to portrait painting. 

Alexa Meade portrait

John Singer Sargent

Rosina by John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent, I like his work, I like his official web site too but I wonder is there another site out there that is even better? - With superior resolutions and with no copyright protection covering one third of each image. The picture featured here is called, "Rosina" and I haven't downloaded it from the official site. PUH!
Seriously though, if you know of a better John Singer Sargent site than this do please let me know.

Behzad Bagheri's photostream on Flickr

Urban sketch by Behzad Bagheri

I like Behzah Bagheri's  loose sketching style. There are many high quality, quick sketches to be found on his Flickr page.