Another 'Oldie'

Last week Patrick and I talked about stippling while waiting for Doug at a local restaurant. 

I mentioned that I used to do some on larger works, and although it's a tricky method I usually liked the result

This one was is from 1993, we were on vacation with the kids and I was sick ;-p

We had a howling, overnight wind storm that took down a lot of branches and the morning found me sitting on the deck drawing while the kids helped the clean up crews.

The subject for this sketch was on the deck all I had to do was pick it up :-)

Alan

Signs of Spring..

I was away in the wilds of Quebec this week, where winter still has a grip. Temperatures well below freezing (-14c) freezing rain and snow.

However back in balmy Guelph and while out walking Winter this morning I spied a cluster of snowdrops on a neighbours front lawn.

Using a bit, OK a lot, of artistic license and my memory I created this when I got home.

HandBook Paper co. Watercolour sketchbook 8" x 5.5"
Lexington Gray ink
and W&N watercolours

The greens got lost in the translation to interweb ('onest)

Blue shadows and yellow sunshine

Recently I was chatting with my friend Constance, who likes to review my watercolour sketches. During the conversation she mentioned using blues for the shadows and yellows in the sun lit area's as base washes.

So in a quiet moment, which are rare now as we have a new-to-us 40lb Siberian Husky puppy who has to be watched constanlty ;-) ... but I digress...

In a quiet moment I sketched the arbor and the fast fading lilacs in our backyard to try out the technique..

OX - our Saturday destination

After wandering the riverbank yesterday we decided to scratch an itch, sketching some of the fine buildings in downtown Guelph.

What better place to start than our regular 'watering hole', OX.

I should call this "without before within" because as soon as we were done we crossed the street for our reward of tea and croissants / muffins. 
We are all creatures of habit :-)

Pen (Micron 0.05) and soluble graphite.

Alan

A good place to start ..

Goldie Mill - Guelph - June 28 2014

A good place to start...
I have had my photography blog for several years but in recent times I have reignited my need to draw and paint. This caused a confilct with my photography so I have decided to give it its own space.
Why 'Happeninks'?
Well in trying to find a catchy name for this blog I used Wordoid, a nifty name generator.

I knew that the majority of posts would be pen and ink sketches so I used the tags 'pen' and 'ink' and hit generate and 'Happeninks' was born :-)

My visit to Goldie Mill in June was my first En plein air excursion, my coming out of the closet day so to speak, so it is fitting that a pen and ink sketch from that day should be the first post.

I hope you find inspiration here and return often to see where I have been, what I have been up to and where I am going with this...

Alan