online sketching and using photoshop

Sketches/doodles done online here Vivien Blackburn

Julie posting a link to this fabulous time-eating site - sketching with the tools is so fluid and the marks it makes delicious! Click to see it larger and you'll see what I mean. I did this quick sketch from memories of walking through the dunes and down to the sand on the Norfolk coast. (I must get over there with Spring on its way) I used the shading, chrome, ribbon and long fur tools in this.

then combined with colour on my computer .....

making it more wintry

I could play for hours! I'd love this as a proper programme, actually on my computer, that would produce large scale drawings.


It's really worth clicking on them to see the lovely marks it makes properly. And play have a go ..........


oh dear .... Julie this is addictive

Stage by stage, mixed media and collage - finished I think

Saltmarsh, detail of the bottom corner, showing the edges

I think this one is finished now - any tweaking will be minor.


The finished painting above against a white wall, showing the new dark edges, the deep sides of the canvas are also this colour.

The blue edge is gone. I realised that it was detracting from the painting, not setting it off and went for a cold dark bitter chocolate brown - lots of cerulean mixed into burnt umber. It echoes the drawing in it quite well. The dark colour needed to be narrower so the image has extended a little in each direction.

There is a little black in the form of charcoal but no black paint, simply very dark and varied mixes for the darkest areas.

I like the way that the metallic copper paint worked and the flashes of gold metallic tissue paper that flickers through in places. Sometimes it's fun to use unexpected materials.

You can see close ups of the textures and surface here and here.
The creases and buckling have been dealt with, Touches of metallic copper paint have been added to small patches of warmth and tip a little balance back to the left hand side.

The middle building has been pushed back. The house has gained a lean-to in order to extend the building a little.

stage 3 above The background has been altered to a mauvey blue to enhance the importance of the turquoise as it flickers through the painting but I'm still not happy with it.

There are creases from the buckling to deal with. With some I sliced the paper open and squished glue under and flattened the paper. With others I couldn't so I collaged more paper to cover the creases.

stage 2 above glued to the coloured canvas, with an additional piece of painted collage added at the bottom.

I decided to add more foreground and make this a portrait format painting to give more lead in and saltmarsh with wet pools and reeds. The background at this stage is a turquoisey blue.

I decided to lose the right hand buildings.

stage 1 above, working on paper with metallic gold foil, ink, charcoal, paint- the first rough marks

This was a nightmare to glue down onto the canvas (above) as it buckled and needed lots of sorting out - next time I won't play safe, I'll work straight onto the canvas from the start, collaging elements as I go.

Experimenting like this I have no exact image in mind when I start out - I have a rough idea of the mood and composition but they are subject to change. Once some marks are down the painting starts talking back - elements need to be lost, others pushed and pulled to emphasise, cause to recede, play with lost and found edges or reflections .... whatever evolves.

This is like jazz to photorealism's Bach! extemporise, change, don't follow the notes dictated :>)

I'm thinking about putting some lessons together for online teaching at some point soon - what do you think? about experimenting, loosening up .....playing with paint and the visual language of marks.

Project update - work in progress

Saltmarsh update - work in progress - Vivien Blackburn

Saltmarsh, work in progress, 20x16 ins on canvas. Vivien Blackburn

This is where the canvas now is. It's a collage with acrylic paint, charcoal, acrylic ink - some of the collage is metallic gold tissue paper that comes through in a few places. You can see the stage before this here. It's very loosely based on the sketch of the saltmarsh done plein air, but done mainly from memory and much edited.

I've sent that middle building back a bit, changed the colour of the border from a turquoise based blue to a mauvey one and introduced that into the painting.

I've brought the light colour into the sky to silhouette the trees.

I've collage a little more texture into the sand with tissue paper.

I've flicked little bits of paint for gravel and leaves.

I've worked on the way your eye follows the lines of the wet mud/sand etc through and up.

I've also been refining the 'some, a little and a lot' - making the turquoisey blue flicker throught the painting but covering a lot that was that colour - using more of the soft beige to bring light into the sky and elsewhere.

You can see stages and close ups below:

I'm thinking of adding the faintest traces of copper in the trees and the bush in front of the building on the left - just a hint of a warm colour.

I won't be able to work on it for a couple of days now as I'm teaching extra hours, so it can sit on my desk while I think about where next.

Any thoughts?

North Norfolk Salt Marsh Harbours

Boat in the harbour, Brancaster Staithe. photograph: Vivien Blackburn

The North Norfolk coast is totally unlike the Cornish coast - unlike the wild seas, steeper beaches and coves, clean sand and rugged cliffs of the south western tip of England, the coast here is softer, gentler, muddier from the silt washed down from rich farmland. I have to admit I love the wildness of Cornwall more but this area has its own charm.

Photographs of Thornham creek and Brancaster Staithe, North Norfolk

There is a short section of cliff at Hunstanton but most of the coast is salt marsh. Inland are low hills that dip down to flat land, fields that were once marsh but have been drained, marsh and dunes.

The cottage I sketched recently on my blog was being thatched with reed from this area - just a little further along the coast at Cley.

The harbours have creeks that thread to the sea through channels - the sea only reachable at high tide.

You may recognise some of these places in sketches and paintings on my sketchbook site and main website

Looking at pattern in the landscape or seascape

Patterns in the sand. Mawgan Porth, Cornwall. Photo: Vivien Blackburn

I really enjoyed the slide shows of Gesa's beachcombing and thought I'd show something similar ... but a little different :>)

I'm often attracted by strong pattern elements in the landscape (seascape) - the pattern of shining wet pools or ripples, the bands of colour, or textures and shapes of rocks. Here are a few from my files across the years. They were taken in Cornwall (Mawgan Porth, Cape Cornwall and Sennen Cove), Devon (Hele Bay and Lynmouth) and North Norfolk (Hunstanton, Holkham and Wells next the Sea).

The pictures of the sand, sculpted by the sea are near the low water mark at Mawgan Porth in Cornwall. The wild seas sculpt deep pools out of the sand and as the water evaporates it leaves miniature steps down the sides, where the water has washed against successive mini 'cliffs' in the breeze. The beach shelves fairly steeply so the tide doesn't go out too far. The pools themselves make a pattern across the beach at the seaward end. They can be over 2 feet deep and walking to the surf is a zigzag path around them.

In Norfolk in contrast, the beach shelves very gently and the tide can go out for a mile or two, moving in or out rapidly over the flat beach. Pools of water are much shallower here,and the water nowhere near as clear, as it contains silt from the rivers and drainage dykes that join the sea from the farm land around the Wash (a large bay).


You may well enjoy the work of Tony Howell who takes fantastic photos of Cornwall, I really like his close ups of rocks.

Cornwall to Norfolk in Tiny canvasses

I've been doing some tiny canvasses for my Etsy shop - and coincidentally, so has Sarah! (hers are gorgeous check out her blog ) We both posted at the same time and had both chosen 4 inch squares, though hers are on wood panels and mine are on canvas.

These are 4 inches square, on deep 1.5 inch sided, gallery wrapped canvas.

They work well in a group and even look nice standing up on a shelf as they are so deep.

I really enjoyed doing them and for a change used acrylics, not my usual choice of medium but it worked well for me.

ONE BEACH .... AND TIME

Mawgan Porth, Cornwall

Light changes a scene dramatically and is one of my key interests - the particular colours that it creates, the way the sea changes from indigo to lavender to turquoise to jade.

In the mornings the far cliff is bright, lit by the morning sun and shining. Below it the small stream that comes down the Vale of Lanherne (or Mawgan) trickles to the sea, shining and reflecting sky and cliffs.

This is the wild Atlantic coast. The tide ebbs and flows leaving deep pools scoured in the sand, in drifts across the wide beach, with intricate patterns of wriggling ripples between. As these dry out a little the wind across the surface creates a series of neat tiny steps leading down to the waters edge. The beach shelves more steeply than the Norfolk coast and so the tide doesn't go out anywhere near as far and therefore moves a bit slower in and out, giving the surf time to carve deeper. In Norfolk the pools and strands of water are very shallow and dry fast on the almost level surface, the sea is calmer and ebbs rapidly for a mile or more, here water remains until the next tide. Down at the waters edge the waves loom high, the horizon isn't straight but a mass of heaving swells and it's noisy with the waves crashing on sand and rocks.

As the day goes on the far cliff becomes a silhouette with little detail, backlit by the afternoon sun and then with evening the sun sets over the sea in a spectacular variety of colours and clouds.

The colours change constantly, the clouds change, the reflections in the pools change - the tide ebbs and flows. Rain approaches across the sea and I watch the approaching edge cross the cliffs, obscure them and a rainbow moving forward with it appears to end on the beach below, in front of the cliffs, then the rain reaches me and the rainbow is gone and there's just a silvery haze. Nothing remains the same. If only I could paint faster ......

In another post I'll show some of the paintings and sketches done there and studio works from them.

Introducing Vivien Blackburn

I've loved the coast ever since I can remember.

When I was young we lived by the sea in Gibraltar, Cornwall, Scotland and Malta and I loved the colours and light that constantly changed with weather, time of day, season and tide.

Returning home to our house in Cornwall from visits to family 'up country', we could tell when we were getting nearer the coast long before we could see the sea, simply because of a special quality in the light. I'm sure Sarah, a member of our group who is lucky enough to live there now, (turning me viridian with envy), will confirm this :>)

The sheen of wet sand, the wild surf, the way the waves move, reflections, skies, the particular colours of a place and sense of place are what interest me.

Cornwall in all areas and all moods is my favourite county to be in and to paint. The north coast is wild and rocky. The colour of the sea here changes from vivid blue to green and silver, jade and lilac. It has caves, high cliffs and sand carved into ripples and pools by the ebbing sea. There are rock pools, reflections of the high cliffs and clouds, gulls wheeling up above and rough seas coming in straight across the Atlantic.

The colour of the rocks changes from amber to almost black as you round Lands End and head towards Cape Cornwall.

The south is gentle with flooded valleys and creeks, herons and woods that overhang the water. Inland are moors, patchwork fields, high banked hedges, full of flowers, lining incredibly narrow roads and wooded valleys

• This is a gallery of paintings of Cornwall and Norfolk
• This is a sketchbook of Cornwall and another sketchbook of Norfolk
  

North Norfolk is 100 miles away and our nearest coastline but is a total contrast to Cornwall. The beaches shelve gently and the tide goes out a very long way, leaving shallow water in pools and channels reflecting the sky, until the sand dries in the sun and wind.

The sea is also much calmer except for winter storms and the colours are often greyer or silver, sometimes muddier from the silt washed down through rich farmland that was once a vast area of marsh. In good weather the sea can still be a vivid blue. Along the edge of the beaches that stretch for miles are dunes and salt marshes.

This is a gallery of paintings of Norfolk in oil, watercolour and mixed media - done plein air on the North Norfolk coast

Leicestershire - Another strand of work associated with water is a series I started on local, inland waterways. I decided to look at the river, canals, pools and streams, making it a slow-burn, long term project that would weave in and out of other work as I had the time or opportunity.

(rough sketches testing out Inktense pencils)

Unlike the seascapes, which concentrate mainly on the quiet lonely stretches of beach that I love, the waterways project includes industrial landscapes as The Soar, our local river, and the the canal weave through the city. River and canal also weave through pleasant countryside, through villages, past medieval packhorse bridges and farmland.

• This is a gallery of waterways drawings on my website
• These are all the blog posts relating to waterways on my blog

Whilst talking about my work some time ago I realised that I like the edges of things - where water meets land, where sky meets sea, the edges of woods but never deep forests - the edge where things change.

Watermarks - the group

I thought it would be interesting to set up a group blog of like minded artists - all with our own particular interest in water, our own concerns about what and why we painted and different ways of making the marks that knit together to create our images - so the title had to be Watermarks :>)

Lindsay and Katherine agreed to be co-founders and Katherine has been wonderful with her organisational skills and technical knowledge - thank you Katherine. The 3 of us bounced my original idea about and it evolved and grew with their fantastic input into ...... this ...... far better than I could have created alone :>).

I hope you enjoy it. The members are extremely talented and with their widely different ways of working in different parts of the world it should be a fascinating journey. We've got lots of interesting things planned so ........ sign up to follow us ......... and please let us know what you think.

Links:

• Vivien's blog
  
• Vivien's website
  
• Vivien's book