Perspective... the eternal struggle

I hate perspective, my renderings always look .. awkward.
Yes I know how it's supposed to work and how to do it but it never 'looks' correct.

So I keep trying .. ;-)

So this one started out as a pen and ink rendering and ended up as a little watercolour
(it's about 6" x 3"), using QOR watercolours and trying to work in purples, fushia and violet into my shadows.
I think the angles look a little better but.... 

Alan

Road Trip - Erin

I went on a road trip this morning all the way to Erin.
OK not a long way but far enough for some fresh scenery.

After checking out the (ahem) Bakery we settled down across the street to draw/paint the buildings of downtown.

I chose a rather freestyle pen and ink method (one line sketches) that I am tinkering with, thanks to Larry in Quebec City  http://www.larrydmarshall.com/

Noodlers Carbon Black Ink in a Noodlers Ahab flex pen
Strathmore 300 mixed media sketchbook 8.5" x 5.5"

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Patrick had taken on a rather large watercolour so I was done before him so I decided to work on a small watercolour, a fire hydrant ... thanks to Larry again!

It was to have ink added but I was told to leave it alone ...so no ink.

W&N watercolour Field set W&N travel Brush set
Moleskine 5" x 8" watercolour sketchbook

All in all a great, relaxing morning

Alan

Low Tide

I have been thinking of boats recently ..
This was a fleeting scene in a video I was watching, luckily I could rewind it :-)

Noodler's Ahab flex Pen
Noodler's Carbon Black Ink
and a bit of pencil work..

Canson 5 x 8 Multi Media (98 lb)  sketchbook

That little bit of land with the buildings has gotta go though :-)

LOL

Alan

Sitting beside the river ..

..on a quiet, cool Saturday morning.

All the humidity had gone it was a 'good to be alive' day.

I was waiting for a friend whom I had arranged to meet at the Boathouse for tea and conversion; I arrived early so I could put in some sketching time.

The Boathouse is a local eatery, ice cream vending, canoe renting, and as this description hints at, an eclectic kind of place.

I have been meaning to sketch it for some time..

5 x 8 Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, Windsor and Newton watercolours applied with brushes from my little W&N travel kit.
Pen and Ink from Noodlers (Lexington Gray)

Bunch of Keys

Sometimes the mundane can take on a life of its own..

Just a bunch of keys that caught my attention while reading Barrington Barbers book
"The Fundamentals of Drawing Still Life"

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)

The Ruins III

Another rendition of the Ruins.

Close to the original sketch but on 'real' paper.

I think:
the Jack pine (the tall skinny one) has to go

the shadow colours are getting muddy

the background is too cluttered but I am not sure what to do with it..

Alan

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..

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