What’s on my drawing board, May 10 2019

• 

• 

Middle row: Accordion sketchbook with country house pen and ink studies. I’ve come across this idea of folded paper creating little sketchbooks on the internet, and think its a great way to contain the prep sketches I do for each new painting, and keep a little record of what I’ve done all in one place, rather than spread across my numerous sketchbooks. I have an exhibition coming up in July, and thought I would display these notebooks along with the finished work to give a bit of background information.

Bottom row: Inked up picture of Little Cove that I’m about to paint, with some blue sky practice pieces behind it. I’m using Artist Spectrum Cobalt Blue for the sky and Winsor & Newton Ultramarine blue with a touch of the cobalt for the sea. The cobalt granulated a bit when I first tried it, so I thought it best to do a few practice graduated washes before committing to my final piece! The paper is taped to a piece of lightweight corrugated plastic card. I use regular masking tape to attach the paper to the surface and use a hairdryer to warm up the glue on the tape when it comes to removing it at the end of painting.

Dahlia flower sketch study and another accordion sketchbook with more dahlia flowers, preparation for a painting on a wood panel ( bottom right) that I’ve prepared with 2 lightly sanded coats of Daniel Smiths watercolour ground. Dahlia petals are really complicated when you study them, and I’m having fun working out exactly how to paint them.