Tag: 1702

I have been continuing to try different methods of artwork to illustrate the series of riparian booklets I am producing and co-authoring with Sylvia M Haslam.

Sylvia and I have worked together for many years. I designed a logo specifically for some of her work: “River Friend – To Discover • To Assess • To Conserve • To Save” – a simple but very important message to everyone who is interested in river ecology and its conservation and management. This is the logo, which you may have seen on some publications such as

S.M. Haslam (1997) The River Scene, Ecology and Cultural Heritage, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, ISBN 0 521 57410 2 Hardback.
S.M. Haslam (2004) River Kbir: the hidden wonder. Typeset and present press-ready files onto CD (for printing in Malta). ISBN 99932-0-295-9
S.M. Haslam (2004): Wied Garnaw in Santa Lucija. A Field Study Guide. Santa Lucija Local Council, Malta. 38pp. ISBN 99932-0-339-4
S.M. Haslam (2002): Our Nature, our Heritage. A Field Study Guide. Ministry of Agriculture, Malta. 52 pp. ISBN 99932-0-204-5
S.M. Haslam (2001): Wied il–Lunziata. A Field Study Guide. Ministry for Gozo, Malta. ISBN 99932-0-086-7
S.M. Haslam (1998): Chadwick Lakes. A Field Study Guide. International Tree Foundation, Malta. 50 pp.
S.M. Haslam, (1991) The Historic River  Cobden of Cambridge Press

The latest set of artwork is draft pen and ink drawings from photographs taken by Sylvia which illustrate particular things to do with river landscapes. These sketches are specifically for the booklet about the River Brue  for which I have already done a few water colour/pen and ink paintings as well as some schematic diagrams drawn by computer (see these below the pen and ink drawings).

Here are the [draft] drawings and schematic diagrams for the booklet about the River Brue in Somerset:

 

 

Here is the artworkSaveSave

With the lovely sunshine of the last two days, it has made possible quite a bit of painting. Bearing in mind how many hours it takes me to paint a picture, I have made (what I think to be) good progress on the Bird Garden Illumination painting since my last post. I do really need to finish it by the end of this weekend because I now have to turn my hand to the pen & ink drawings for the booklet about the River Brue in Somerset. So apart from playing tennis tonight and tomorrow morning, the rest of the weekend is free for painting – although the light on Sunday looks as if it will be quite dismal! Will keep you posted…

You will see that I have painted in the baby swallows, and many thanks to Alison Grey for the resource photograph (one of many that she has very kindly supplied for my use); and notice the snail shell in amongst the nest gubbins. I did not notice this until I actually started to paint the nest. Upon closer inspection it also contains little stones and sticks – very clever what birds can do with a bit of mud and spit!

Here is the artworkSaveSave

Following on from my previous diary entry (link below), I have been utilizing the skills gained by my little Beatrix Potter exercise to produce a few draft drawings and paintings for the series of riparian booklets I am producing with Sylvia M Haslam. We have been researching for the booklets since 2010, and now at last we are almost in a position to publish (provided we can find a publisher of course), subject to my tidying up the text and producing the artworks. It is a real honour to work with Sylvia and I hope I can do justice to the project. I have done three little painting drafts regarding Fish Houses which used to be built to house live fish which had been caught, to keep them fresh until needed for food, as well as a few schematic diagrams drawn on computer with my old Adobe Illustrator programme and a mouse. I have not yet tried the pen and ink drawings which will form the main part of the illustration set, so I will have to produce a few in that media, just to see how I get on and to establish a style which is acceptable for publishing and which suits the booklets.

Here are the [draft] drawings and schematic diagrams for a booklet about the River Brue in Somerset:

It has been a splendid fortnight for creativity. I also completed a little graphite drawing for someone—a black labrador named “Tara”, whom I went to meet with my camera and took lots of snaps and paid attention to her character. I hope you like it (she is 10 years old, but very sprightly):

I have also been working the last few days on a painting I started in 2016 (I have several pictures drawn out during that year which I never managed to get to paint, so I have decided to make a real effort and complete them if I can. There are about 9 altogether, including a set of squirrel paintings to be done in oil on stretched canvas – black, red, grey and albino/white. I recall it was very interesting to obtain resource material for these. I was fortunate that the black and grey squirrels visited my little garden and the compositions reflect this; the reds resources resulted in a trip with hubby and caravan up to the lake district where the owners of the caravan site on which we stayed have special squirrel feeders which entices the animals down from the trees and gives the “campers” a very good show to watch. The albino was another story, and I am grateful to two of my voyaging friends who captured a few shots of a white squirrel down in Kent somewhere. I have never seen a white squirrel in Cambridgeshire. The current picture I am working on is entitled “Bird Garden”, an illumination with metallic gold letters and filigree. Today I completed the parrot on the right hand side. I will post updates when I can.

And last but not least, I may have mentioned that I play darts with a local team of ladies. We always finish last in the league and have a fabulous wooden spoon trophy with our name on it. But that does not dent our enthusiasm for the game and we always have a lovely time playing, getting beaten, and then having a fabulous pub “nosh-up” afterwards. I do have a dartboard up in my office and I practice whenever I can (not that it does me any good, but it keeps me moving about when I sit down for a long time at the computer or painting). I could not believe that in October 2017 I actually achieved a 180 – which if one achieves that during a match your name goes into the “Hall of Fame” on Facebook! But of course there was no one here to witness it, so for posterity I took a photograph, and this is it (I promise)! Howzat!

 

Here is the artworkSaveSave

You may be aware that I am in the process of producing the artwork for a series of riparian booklets with my co-author,  Sylvia Haslam. For some time I have been wondering how I would like to produce the illustrations and suddenly thought about the work of Beatrix Potter, whom I believe was a great artist in her field of simple but effective illustrations. BP’s natural history pieces and her realm of fantasy animal characters show just how skilled she was. They say that all artists can improve their skills by copying the “Masters” – and I place BP in this category”. I decided to delve into her work in detail, finding out as much as I could about how she painted. I discovered that she only used 6 colours, which I managed to purchase, namely: Antwerp Blue, Crimson Lake, Gamboge Yellow, Sap Green and Burnt Sienna, as well as a bit of White if she made a mistake!

The worst part of this exercise for me personally is that I love to use  white (Titanium mostly) rather than leave white space on the paper, and I must confess that I did use a bit here and there for emphasis, but mostly I was pleased that I managed to be good and leave the white space.

Although I tried to find out if BP painted first and inked in afterwards, I was unable to obtain the information. I went with my gut feeling and inked in over the paint. I liked the effect! This has been a truly remarkable learning curve and wonderful exercise in the art of water colouring.

This is the artwork which I produced; I do hope you like it.

Picture Exercise Profile Link