229. Kitchen Challenge

Pilot G-Tec C4 pen in

Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, 8.5" x 5.5" (x2)

Our latest challenge is to 'Draw something that's in the kitchen'. I opened the herb and spice cupboard but didn't have much time to sketch before going to work so later in the evening I filled the gap with some wording.

228. Gift Sketchbook for MD

Hardbound Sketchbook, 5.5" x 5.5"

(for the process, please click 'Bookbinding' in the 'Labels' list to the right)

227. Table Decoration

Pilot G-tec C4 Pen and W&N Watercolours

in Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, 8.5" x 5.5" (x2)

Sketch of a little table decoration in Gelato's and a quotation by Robert Brault.

226. Throwback Thursday - Sketchbook

Quarter Bound Hardback Sketchbook, 5.5" x 5.5"

Felt I wanted to post something but wasn't sure what so I've dug out these photos of a sketchbook which was a gift for an artist whose birthday was on Valentine's Day. As in some of my other sketchbooks, I stitched in two types of paper so inserted identifying notes.

Bookcloth made for the 'Quarter'

 

225. Pleased as Punch!

Two 'Quarter Bound' Hardback A5 Sketchbooks:

A5 Chunky (laying flat) and...

… A5 Slim

Levitating in my office

You probably know me by now - when I bind a book, I want it to be bound traditionally, to last for decades and also to be fit the purposes of the recipient. For a while now, I have been researching how to achieve 'lay flat' binding in a chunky book with a rigid (not rounded) spine - a ton of stuff has been written about it on bookbinding forums, etc.

It has been suggested that the only way to achieve it is to use or buy one of three machines which seals it with an adhesive. Apparently, the only way to achieve a 'lay flat' effect by hand-stitching is to use coptic binding but, although the books are absolutely beautiful to look at, not everyone wants to work with all that stitching down the middle of some of the pages. I felt I had to try to perfect it by hand and have been scrutinising numerous case bound, stitched books to see the difference between those that lay flat and those that dip in the middle.

I was recently asked to make a book with a lot of pages which, again, would contain some drawing paper and some watercolour paper - the paper I used is the lovely Fabriano 5 watercolour paper so it's quite thick and thus weighty. She chose her fabrics from my little selection and I made up some bookcloth. (The spot is for someone else.)

Anyway, I am pleased to report that thanks to a lot of research and some experimentation (as well as prayer!), it has finally worked! Yippee!

I threw in the smaller book, as a gift, which contains Fabriano 4 fairly smooth watercolour paper that she can use on the train or at sketchcrawls, etc., where you often have to stand and sketch/paint and, instead of the ribbon close used for the chunky one (which would be fiddly in the field), I put ribbon along the edges of the 'quarter' so it would match it's sibling.

 Making book cloth

Bookcloth made!

Textblocks stitched and ready for the 'chunky' and

one ready for the spotted bookcloth

Handmade 'stamp' in back endpapers

Ooops! Forgot to rotate the photo.

A few more random pics of the chunky...

 

(two bookmarks for ease of reference)

… and of the slim one.

Thanks for reading this far; I do appreciate you all!

224. Still Life at the Pastel Society

Schmincke and Unison Soft Pastels plus Charcoal

on Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper, 9.5" x 12"

The image below (minus the ghostly charcoal leaves and flower in the centre) is how it looked when I left the Pastel Society. However, I felt it needed something to unify the two plants so added more leaves and a central flower.

223. Violinist 3

Schmincke and Unison Soft Pastels plus Charcoal

on Daler Rowney Murano paper, 16" X 12"

This is the final figure drawing I did (before drawing the still life set up) and, this time, I waited for her to start a new piece of music then quickly started sketching her.

222. Violinist 1 and 2 plus a 'Shout out' for USK

Schmincke and Unison Soft Pastels plus Charcoal

on Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper

The Pastel Society had their annual Art Evening at the Mall Galleries this week and, almost at the last minute, I ordered a ticket and went along - last year, they had a classical guitarist but I spent the evening drawing Kimono instead. (See post 121 or click the 'Kimono' label.)

This year, the musician was a frantic (but oh my goodness, so skilled) violinist and there was another beautiful Kimono lady (lying down) plus, out back, a life model. I chose the violinist for two reasons: her gorgeous ultramarine blue, linen dress and the fact that she was moving all over the place. Even when she sat down, she didn't sit still! A couple of people told me they found this difficult, of course but to me it was an amusing challenge.

Something occurred to me on the way home: whenever in the past I've attended such events, I've sat an drawn (or painted) one or two pieces of art and returned another day to view the exhibition. This year, in the three hours, I did four sketches (three figure and one still life) then walked round and viewed the whole exhibition before going home. This is surely thanks to sketchcrawling with Urban Sketchers. On a sketch crawl, especially the London ones, there are people flying back and forth in front of us and so much to capture that we are forced to work rapidly. Add into the mix the fact that at 1:30pm and again at 4:00pm, we reconnect and photograph our artwork so there is a constant subliminal countdown to finish something and appear with your artwork in the group photo! However, sketchcrawls are so much fun that we are not stressed! What this amounts to is that, personally, I've become quicker and more decisive - who knew?!

So, thank you 'Urban Sketchers London' and 'Drawing Outside Northampton' - your training has been and continues to be priceless!

Schmincke and Unison Soft Pastels plus Charcoal

on Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper

Our model (Anna, I think) took a break and sat down before walking around looking at everyone's sketches.  Even as she sat, she was wriggling about so much that it was a job to even capture the violin. Had I thought of it, I'd have sketched it on both sides of her, rather than waiting for her to revert to one of her many positions. She was fantastic, playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons, amongst other lively pieces, for three hours straight minus two five minute breaks - an amazing young woman!

221. Window Decoration

Staedtler Fineliner 0.05 pen, W&N waterolours

in Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, 8.5" x 5.5"

My friend and I had a pot of tea each a couple of weeks ago and, as we always have some art materials with us whenever we meet - and this tiny little window decoration was looking its best - we got the paints out!

220. Vegan Yumminess

Staedtler Fineliner (0.8, I think) and

Faber Castell markers on photocopier paper

Short version:

After I'd written out the ingredients in the dish, I found myself absent-mindedly sketching it so decided to get out my markers and add some colour.

Detail

Explanation:

We're currently in the middle of another Alpha course and each week we give the participants a hot two-course meal so they can come straight from work without worrying about what to eat.

We discovered in week 3 that we have two other vegetarians on board - one had simply written "no pork/beef" under 'dietary requirements' on the registration form but the other had put nothing at all. Consequently, we noticed they were just eating the veg!

We have a great catering team who will turn their hands to anything but guess who forgot to pass on the information?! My excuse is that I was told on my way to do something else. Anyway, I remembered on the morning of Week 4 - in the shower!!! I had a little panic and told my husband (who, unusually, happened to be at home that day) and, in his own inimitable way calmly said "I can cook something if you want…!" He regularly cooks for me - an almost total vegan these days, although he'll eat almost anything (except eggs and black pudding - yuk!) - so we went shopping for fresh ingredients and put this dish together, which he then named "Courgette and Mandarin Cassoulet". We served it with rice.

Our friends adore and regularly request his food (he has a PhD in Biochemistry so has experimented over the years with food and flavours - look at the ingredients!) and this was totally yummy!

219. USK - Sketching the Wallace Collection 2 of 2

Pilot G-Tec C4 pen, W&N watercolours and Tombow brushpen

in Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, 8.5" x 5.5" (x2).

This sketch was done in the Wallace Collection Restaurant with USK London on Saturday. As usual, Katherine made us sketch the fare before consuming it. I don't like strawberries, cream, etc, so just had a pot of (lovely) tea and sketched someone else's cream tea.

The restaurant staff were really encouraging, walking around and commenting on our sketches and we were so pleased they allowed us to paint at the tables (not inside the galleries though!).

One newbie and two regulars - I always love the international flavour of Urban Sketchers London! In our little group of four (above), the only continent not represented was Australasia but I bet further down the table (below), there was at least one. (Almost 20 of the 30+ sketching on Saturday stayed for cream teas.)

218. USK - Sketching the Wallace Collection 1 of 2

Pilot G-Tec C4 pen, Unipen 0.05 and 0.5 pens and Tombow brushpen

in Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, 8.5" x 5.5"

With Urban Sketchers London at the Wallace Collection yesterday.  Can't believe I only did two sketches all day but I must admit I enjoyed doing this immensely. The more I sketched, the more I saw to sketch, like the reflections in the mirror and all the intricacies in the  gold ornamentation - everything is like that there! As you can see from the photos below, the bottom half of the sketch should should have been longer to prevent the hearth bit looking so stretched widthways but hey… we were 'sketching'!