Friday 3 October 2014

Robin in Flight



Free sketching of a robin in flight. I like drawing in this notebook which is pictured below in my kitchen/studio general set up. I don't usually like painting on thin paper, but somehow this notebook seems to be an exception. The size of this notebook is larger than I am used to (15cm x 21 cm closed) and that may be the reason why it works.


This shows the general set up of my kitchen studio. I've taken the photograph after I finished the painting, for size reference of my notebook. On the right is the graphite pencil I am using quite a lot recently for sketching. The lead is quite hard so I could draw faint lines or heavy lines with it. I think I bought it when I went to see Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. The pencil being a souvenir item, it doesn't specifically say the hardness of the lead, but it feels like HB. I wouldn't have thought I would be using this pencil this much when I bought it. You never know which drawing tool will become your favourite!

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Blue Tit in Flight


Blue Tit in Flight, Watercolour on 280g Fabriano NOT Paper, 7'5"x5'5", 19cm x 14cm

At the drawing stage, I wasn't quite sure about this painting but it turned out OK, I think. It is painted on NOT paper which has slightly rough texture, and I was drawing using hard graphite pencil and I didn't much like the quality of the lines I was getting, or the scratchy sensation I was getting from the paper surface. That doesn't bother me when I am drawing the landscape. I think it's the small bird and its delicate feathers that don't quite match the paper surface or the drawing medium I was using. Next time I paint a bird, I think I should try smooth paper and see how it feels like.

Having said this, I am quite happy how it turned out. To finish off the painting, I put a tiny tiny amount of white gouache in its eye. If I have to put the highlight at the end, it is always a nervous moment. The eyes make or break the painting, if I put just slightly wrong amount of white and the eyes would look all wrong. Thankfully for this painting it worked.