The Lake and waterfowl at Kew Gardens

Last Wednesday I was sat in the sunshine, next to the Lake in the centre of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, drawing this sketch and listening to the complete din which the birds were making combined with what sounded like tree munching.

Spring Green, Sunlight and the Sackler Crossing at Kew Gardens
11" x 16" pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Folio Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

It reminded me of city folk who go to the country for some peace and quiet and can't get over how noisy it is because of all the noises from the animals and activities which go on a rural area.

The Lake has a huge amount of waterfowl and they're all very territorial.

When we arrived we had a swan letting some Canada Geese know that they were NOT allowed to get into the water just in front of where I sat.
They tried it once or twice and the swan steamed in with wings set to "ack ack" mode and saw them off.  After which they took to marching up and down on the bank with occasional forays for a bit of weed from the edge.  We were sat there so long they began to ignore us so it was fascinating to watch.

In the meantime the gardeners seemed to be getting rid of prunings although it did sound rather more like they putting an enormous tree through the shredder as the noise was so loud.

Then the mallards had periodic races across the top of the lake.  They seemed to be keen to see how long they could skip across the top of the water before they had to take off

The coots were being noisy as per usual (when are they ever not?)

Every once in a while some other Canada Geese would practice display landings by swooping in and doing a very "look at me" landing in the middle of the lake.  Boys will be boys.....

Believe it or not the sketch is not quite so luminous as the leaves were.  I had the combination of brand spanking new leaves with that incredible green - lit from behind by the sun - at the same time as the sky changed so it became violet blue as it thought about having a thunderstorm.  Thankfully that held off until we got home!

Link:  The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew

River and hills: Experimenting with an old collagraph cut off

River and Hills, 14x 4 inches, collagraph and cp, Vivien Blackburn


details to see the texture:

I came across this 14x4 inch collagraph in the 'do-something-with-this-later' drawer. I think it was an offcut from a larger collagraph plate, cropped before it was printed and then printed with the same inks that I'd been using (green and yellow), just to see what happened.

It had originally been vertical and part of a seahorses/underwater series of printmaking. Looking at it horizontally I saw a landscape with a river winding through.

Using coloured pencils I worked on it in warm rosy hues to contrast with the cooler green. I want to darken and cool with deep blue the area around the right hand tree a little before I'll call it finished I think. What do you think?

Coloured pencil works really well over collagraphs as it gels with the graininess of the print - which I'm pretty sure was on Fabriano Rosapina paper, which has a nice velvety feel adding to the grain. I've never been happy with the results if I've used watercolour or oil over them because of the sharp difference - the way it fills in the grain unlike the printed surface.

After working a bit too tightly sometimes recently :>(, it was very freeing to simply play with an image, pulling the landscape from the abstract shapes.

If you are interested you can see other collagraphs and the process here

Smoked undyed cod loin

I was just about to cook my smoked undyed cod loin for dinner when I read Ronell's post about her scampi and prawns.  It had never occurred to me before that I could draw fish for watermarks - after all it's Jeanette who does the fish! ;)

Anyway I thought I'd have a go - but since it meant delaying dinner this was a very fast sketch!

I have to tell you that I now believe painting the flesh of fish ought to be part of every painter's training - in learning how to see colour and the subtlety of colour.  The colour changes are so subtle that I think anybody who mastered painting the flesh of fish would find painting flesh for portrait painting an absolute doddle!  Who knew?

This is a very imperfect sketch of my dinner - uncooked and on a pale duck egg blue plate - although I only had half for dinner!

Smoked undyed cod loin
coloured pencils
Katherine Tyrrell

Mission Trails, California

detail from larger work

Katherine and I are taking part in an exhibtion in California in November with friends - details later.

At the end of this post is a slide show of the work I've done - there are 5 paintings, with close up details following.

The work is based around Mission Trails Park in California. I needed to work around how I was going to tackle painting an area that is so different from the usual land and seascapes I paint here, in a very different climate. Needless to say it ended up involving water :>) Unusually for me, I was working on painting a place I don't know personally - a friend had provided photos and I used Google streetview, which was really useful for getting a feel for the area and did lots of research. Still, it was difficult. I usually work plein air and learn the feeling of a place as I sketch.

I started with the coloured pencil drawing of a still pool, reflecting the trees behind, the dry landscape very different from England - but the rocks and trees and reflections all interested me. I was trying to get to grips with the landscape there, the aridity, the rockiness, the mood.

As I thought about it, I realised that I wanted to abstract the images a little, play with texture, time, and shape and colour, experiment and include collage. All the works except for that first one are mixed media, using whatever was going to make the kind of mark I wanted. The joy of collage is the ability to move elements around to work out the composition before finally sticking down.

This is the final version that the above detail is taken from


It went through several incarnations on its way and further work with scissors as it became rather overcrowded and needed room to breathe :>) I would have liked to have given it even more room but had to work to a specific size - 11x14 inches so that it would fit the frames at its destination.

Each tree is a separate piece of paper, with watercolour, monoprinting and drawing to create the bark. The background is also collaged and then painted and drawn into.

Each was pure experiment with only a loose idea of the final result, responding to the marks, moving the trees and background pieces around until I felt they could be fixed.

There is watercolour in there, coloured pencils, ink, acrylic, gouache, biro (ballpen) and charcoal pencil - maybe other things that I've now forgotten!

The dark background helped with the fragmentation of the image, the changes in time/viewpoint and linked to the black of the charcoal and biro. It isn't of a specific place but plays with a mix of elements from many sources and imagination.

The colours play with warm and cool neutrals against the blue of the sky and reflections - the touches of warm apricot tones glowing against the blue (I hope!).

The 'some, a little and a lot' guideline applies - with most of the painting in neutrals, the blue and purple becomes more important.


If I'd had Sarah's instructions on varnishing watercolours in time I would have tried it out on this one - I think it would work best without glass.

you can see earlier versions here

Towards Dusk

This one again plays with the idea of time and fragmenting the image. Daylight moves into dusk.

What do you think?

The Studio Boat #3 and Monet painting poplars on the Epte

The Studio Boat (1875) by Claude Monet

oil on canvas / private collection

Claude Monet made a number of paintings of his studio boat.  This is the second painting - with one more to come.  In 1875 Monet was painting on the River Seine near Argenteuil.

I used to spend ages trying to work out how Monet painted some of his paintings - until I went to see the Manet to Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery in 2007, got the audio guide and heard how his habit was to use a studio boat on the River Epte - which is how I got interested in paintings of his studio boat.  (Click the link to see the location of the River Epte near Monet's house at Giverny)

Below is a sketch I did (see Sketching at the National Gallery: "Manet to Picasso") plus an extract from what I noted at the time.

Copies of National Gallery paintings from Claud Monet's "Poplars on the Epte" series
oil on canvas
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I started with two of my favourite paintings from Monet's Poplars on the Epte series. This time I got the audio guide and learned that:

• there are 24 paintings in the series depicting the poplars at different times of the day and in different weath
• Monet painted them from a flat bottomed boat borrowed from his friend Caillebotte which had been specially adapted so that it could take canvases of different sizes. ( The painting from a boat habit reminded me of John Singer Sargent who used to sketch in Venice while sat in a gondola - I'm beginning to think about devising a boating expedition!)
• He had to buy the land that the poplars stood on to avoid them being cut down before he had completed the series!

The one on the left does not compare well to the original due to lack of the right colours in my tiny pencil case. The one on the right worked rather better - but I could have done with my big sketchbook!

Given the dates of the paintings I'm guessing Monet's habit of using a studio boat must have started much earlier when he first started living next to rivers.

For earlier posts about Monet and studio boats see:

• The Studio Boat #1 - Monet's bateau atelier
• The Studio Boat #2 - "Monet Painting on His Studio Boat" (painted by Manet)

For more about Monet see Claude Monet - Resources for Art Lovers

The Thames at Embankment

Charing Cross Bridge & Parliament from Cleopatra's Needle, on the Embankment

11.5" x 17", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I have a fascination with trying to find the spot where Monet painted the Thames and the Houses of Parliament from the west (as opposed to from the opposite bank in the room he had at St Thomas Hospital).  This is too far west because ths sketch of Embankment Pier was done from the base of Cleopatra's Needle.

However it does provide an excellent place to sketch the Thames without having people peering over your shoulder!  You just need to avoid being on the lower terrace when the tide is coming in!

You can read more about this sketch and location on my sketchbook blog Embankment Pier and Thames at Charing Cross

quick sketch of tiny covelet next to Porthcurno beach

watercolour and coloured pencil sketch, tiny cove next to Porthcurno beach. Vivien Blackburn

The sea really was this colour, even though the wind was cool. The cliffs were covered in flowers - especially pink seathrift and these white flowers that I always thought were wild garlic but I think are actually called Three Cornered Leeks. (Sarah may know?)

A slow worm (small legless lizard that looks like a snake) was basking on the path in the sunshine.

by Sam, aged 2yrs 8 months

This is Sam's version of the sea - I really like it. I have to admit I loaded the brushes for him - I wasn't actually doting enough to let him loose on my watercolour box :>D

Pelicans in the wild in central London

When you think of birds you might find in the wild in central London - pelican isn't a word which comes to mind quickly!

Pelicans grooming - on the rocks in the lake in St James Park, London
8.5" x 11", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However if you go to St James Park and sit on a seat at the Horse Guards end - right outside the Foreign Office and near to Duck Island Cottage - then you can frequently see the Pelicans of St James Park engaged in their grooming and posing activities.

I sketched them on the way back from picking up my pictures from the Society of Botanical artists exhibition last week - and on the way to the RI exhibition, as the route basically involves walking along Horseguards! It's not a very good sketch - but then it is my very first sketch of pelicans!

If you go between 2.30 and 3.00 each day, the St James Park website indicates you can see them being fed. Although getting fed somewhat compromises their 'wildlife's status.

Apparently the first Pelicans were given by the Russian Ambassador in 1684!

There are currently five Pelicans in the Park; 3 Eastern (or Great) White Pelicans and one American White Pelican, which is distinguished by different colouring and a crest on its bill. They're gregarious, social creatures and there are numerous stories of their entertaining antics. One rather mischievous Pelican used to fly over to London Zoo in Regent's Park to steal their fish for his lunch and they're often seen climbing out of the lake to sit on the benches
St James Park - Pelicans

Singapore Boats

Singapore Boats
(23" x 17") coloured pencils on black Canson Mi Teintes
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Sometimes you have an image which takes quite some time to come to fruition. This is the tale of one such image.

Back in 1987 I went to Singapore for the overseas field trip for my MBA so we could find out how business works in a completely different environment to the UK.

I wasn't even drawing at the time. My art had been left behind at school a long time ago and doing a 'full-on' MBA part-time at the London Business School at same time as holding down a management job meant virtually all my 'spare' time was accounted for. I remember I actually qualified for an NUS card as a full time student because of the number of contact hours we managed each month in School!

However on one evening we went down to the harbour and I saw the fishing boats at dusk. Something about them made me take a photograph. When I got the photographs back, it looked like a painting. I was amazed. I'd not really taken 'arty' photos before and I was very struck by the strength of the image - particularly of the boats in the foreground. However it got filed away along with the rest of my MBA studies and I got on with what was now a senior management job!


Some time later, I decided to try my art again as a completely different activity which would balance out the type of job I was doing at the time - artistic instead of numerical, solitary and peaceful instead of a regular round of meetings. It worked and that's when I started to get back into my art - starting with watercolour.

I subsequently realised that I really enjoyed drawing and in the early 90s started using coloured pencils again. Then joined an art forum in the middle of the last decade.

Eighteen years later I finally got round to drawing the boats. I'd had them in my head for a long time and went searching for them while I was leading a project about drawing water.

Now you've heard the back story, here's the whole sequence of images of how this drawing came about - plus an explanation of what I said back in 2005 when I did it.

Probably the most important thing I did was crop the photo so I started with something manageable from my perspective - the large photo is nice but I'd be doing boats forever as opposed to the water.

Next I printed off a colour print of the cropped photo onto A4 matte photo paper and a greyscale onto plain paper. I then gridded the greyscale and the black Canson into thirds. This is really just a guide for me - I eyeballed the drawing from there using a celadon green (background colour of the water) - not being too precious about super accuracy but enough that the boats don't look too silly and I'm keeping the proportions on the page which I designed into the crop.

This is a slightly smaller version of the image as I got my initial scans wrong and couldn't be bothered to do them again - so there's a bit more at both the top and bottom!

So far as the boats are concerned I'm only focusing on the big shapes at this stage - detail is not allowed until a lot further on when the decision gets made as to which bits get the detail. So there's a nod in the direction of tyres around the boat - but they're not carefully drawn nor will they be for the time being.

Then I started to get a layer down all over the area of water. I started by finding the right colour for the reflections of the boats and then worked on the lighter areas. Bear in mind I'm really scouring the photo for slight changes in colour and looking hard for what the colours are. There's a ton of hues between very dark green (which hasn't made an appearance yet) moving through beep blue greens and mid greens and sky blue and yellow greens through to an awful lot of tints of grey green and just a smidgen of white. (Do you want to know the colours?) I worked colours from both into the boats as I went to help the unity of the painting.

I'm working quite hard at this stage in getting the shape of both the reflections and the negative shapes inbetween them right - as in my experience this is what gives the painting the feeling that the water is 'real'. I'm also working over the edges of the reflections a bit so they don't get too hard (but without losing sight of the underlying shape) - they should be a tad blurry at this stage. I decide where to go for hard edges later.

I'm using the pencils on their side and cover vast amounts of paper really fast this way - plus it stops me being too pernickety about it and helps to merge colours in a pleasing way. I'm not too fussed about which direction I'm doing this in but broadly speaking it's a lateral movement. They're basically quite light layers - I'm not pressing hard at all.

I picked out a few colours to start the boats off - one or two brights hatched onto boat roofs and tarpaulins in the background (as generally this is going to be quite muted and I wanted to see what the brights looked like) plus I wanted to try and find the right colour for the weather beaten wood

Subsequently I included the drawing in a portfolio of work for admission to an art society and worked on it some more to get to the drawing at the top. I do remember adding in a tiny bit more red on the boats. Unfortunately I have to tell you that coloured pencils have an unhappy habit of sinking into black Canson paper over time so although this looked good at the time it had to be 'rescued' to produce the image at the top of the post for the portfolio.

I daren't look at it one more time.......the boats may have sunk yet again!

Where Queen Matilda fell in

Old Ford Lock, River Lea, East London
7.5" x 7.5" coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The title of this post references that the story that in 1110, Queen Matilda, wife of King Henry I, fell while crossing the ford while on her way to to Barking Abbey - more or less at this spot.

I developed this drawing from a sketch which I did last year and it was part of my 'backwaters' contribution to the recent Alleyways and Waterways of London exhibition at the Barbican. I'm not quite sure why but this image seems a bit indistinct and the original is now behind glass which is not the best place for getting another scan!

I've drawn and redrawn this about four times so far and this is just the latest version. I think Constable may have got in on the act as I was reading about him while doing the drawing!

Anyway, having looked at it hanging in the exhibition - which I find always provides me with a fresh perspective on a piece - I'm sure there's a better drawing in there somewhere but I'm not quite sure what I need to change to bring it about.

This was the original sketch in my sketchbook blog post Old Ford Lock - and some ancient tales.

Old Ford Lock, River Lea, East London
8.5" x 11.5", pencil and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Waterways Project: Swithland Reservoir, still day, overcast and about to drizzle

Swithland Reservoir, still, overcast day, about to drizzle, watercolour and coloured pencil, Vivien Blackburn

I visited Swithland Reservoir on a day that was sunny when I left home, but grey and overcast by the time I'd been there a couple of minutes, turning to a light misty rain, dulling colours and contrast.

It's interesting to catch different lights. The foliage in summer is heavy and solid - I don't find that as interesting as spring, summer and autumn, where the structure of the trees shows and colour is more varied. It made for an interesting abstract shape across the centre of the image though, with lots of lost edges and mystery.

It's certainly somewhere to revisit once the autumn colours are advanced.

Watercolours plus polychromos pencils, about 10x9 inches unless I crop it a little - or decide to show the messy edges (they are a bit messy, not just ragged).

Victoria Park Lake people #4

Victoria Park Lake People #4
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I sometimes sketch the people on the terrace by the cafe next to the West Lake in Victoria Park when I stop there for my cup of tea on my morning walk. My aim is to develop a series of sketches in different seasons although I think I need to aim to do rather more sketches first. I get distracted by the trees and the birds............

The people who gather on this spot are interesting. They often seem to be under the misapprehension that if they you sit outside near a fountain you can't be overheard! While sketching I find I hear snatches of conversations into the sketches without even trying - I often think I ought to try and incorporate some of the words into a sketch.

Rocks in Rockport

Continuing with the rocks theme - this is my drawing of a view which apparently is very popular with the people who draw and paint when they visit Rockport Massachusetts. So much so that I decided to call this drawing Motif #2 - given that Motif #1 was already taken! ;)

Rockport Motif #2
9" x 12", coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've managed to find exactly where I sat on Google's Street view and you can see what I saw below. Except they took the film on a cloudy day while I had a lovely blue sky and balmy weather in the mid September 2006.


View Larger Map

That path you can see below is where I sat - as you can see on the right as recounted in my this sketchbook blog post about my trip to Rockport - Sunday 17th September: Rocky Neck and Rockport, Massachusetts.

I found the trick with the rocks was to look for colour and striations in order to provide interest and form. That and work fast when it's late afternoon because the shadows change fast!

Sketching rocks in mixed media - stages

Rocks between Sennen Cove and Lands End finished, watercolour, biro and coloured pencil in the moleskine folio watercolour book, approximately 10x11 inches, Vivien Blackburn

Rocks between Sennen Cove and Lands End stage 2, watercolour added loosely, biro and watercolour, approximately 10x11 inches, Vivien Blackburn

Rocks between Sennen Cove and Lands End prelininary biro sketch, approximately 10x11 inches, Vivien Blackburn

Jeanette has issued a Paint/Sketch Rocks challenge on her blog and this was done in response.

Unfortunately it's from a photo, as Sennen Cove is 320 south and west of me right now so popping over wasn't an option - but I'd wanted to sketch the fantastic rocks there and thought this was my chance. I also like the figure perched precariously, though confidently, on the edge, giving the rocks scale and adding a little drama - well I don't 'do' heights so someone standing above that drop is drama to me!

I first sketched it freely in biro (Parker - they don't blob as much as some others) and then sloshed some watercolour on it quite loosely. Next I added some scribbles of coloured pencil and some more biro.

You can see a slide show of previous paintings/sketches of rocks here - they are something that fascinates me with their shapes, cracks, facets, crevices, ledges, colour changes and general complexity, not to mention trying to get the feeling of hardness, jaggedness or smoothness and their innate dangerousness.

This is the first time I've used the moleskine folio watercolour book, other than the try-out doodles in various media on the first page. I quite like it.

Vivien says I must use more watercolour!

I posted this watercolour with coloured pencil scribble on my sketchbook blog yesterday. It's so unusual that I use watercolour that it generated It's a watercolour......... as a title for the blog post!

Willow Pond 14th June 2009 5.00pm
watercolour and coloured pencil in Conté à Paris sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Vivien tells me that using CP on top of watercolour is an ace wau to sketch and that I should do more of it....and I agree. I do very much like the feel of CP on top of watercolour and the way that you can use it to obliterate mistakes with where the brush went!

However I'm going to have to find the right paper for working watercolour with CP on top as there are very few pages left in this very old sketchbook (from Cornelissens and started in 1991 in my pre CP sketching days!)

Any suggestions as to the best paper for watercolour and coloured pencils?

This is yet another view of Willow Pond in the Ecology Park Pond series.

Moor Hen Pond in April

The Ecology Park Ponds are a mass of fresh spring green at the moment with intense colours even in the shadows. It's quite a challenge to find form in the middle of all that fresh bursting out all over spring green. Plus the colour of the water keeps changing!

Moor Hen Pond in April (from the Ecology Pavilion)
10" x 7", Talens Van Gogh watercolour pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm experimenting with watercolour pencils at the moment - on small 'sketch-sized' paper. I don't normally sketch and paint at the same time but I'm minded to give it a go. In the meantime I'm testing different brands of watercolour pencils to see which I like best. I'm also trying to find a way of 'painting' with watercolour pencils which suits me - and have been reading a book about Cezanne's watercolours which has proved very inspirational!

This was done last night at home using a reference photo but trying to use it for the purposes of making a sketch and working in my normal 'sketchy' way. I was using my Talens Van Gogh watercolour pencils which have a great range of colours in the blues and greens - however this 'sketch' came alive when I added in the pink and the red!

My brush technique is getting interesting and I think you may be seeing more!

Links:

• Pastels and Pencils portfolio website - The Ecology Park Pond Series
• See the photodiary of the ponds in The Ecology Park Ponds Project on Flickr

Spring at Willow Pond

Ecology Park Pond Series #11 - Spring at Willow Pond - 8th April 2009

8.5" x 11.5", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The first time I went back to the ponds on 8th April, Spring had well and truly got started and there was a huge difference compared to my visit before my leg problem.

I wanted to capture the light behind the willows while they were still in that lime green unfurling leaves stage. However they look a bit stilted to me even though I know pollarded trees have a very definite shape.

I'm happier with the surface of the pond where I think the light and the surface changes are coming across quite well. I have to confess I could get into just drawing the colour and forms of the pond surface very easily. I so get what Monet was up to now and why he ended up doing 250+ paintings of the water in his pond!

You can see photos of what April looks like at the Ecology Park Ponds here - Ecology Park Pond April 2009

Old slate quarries, water, reflections and woods

update on the waterways project: Vivien

I've been looking at those old flooded slate quarries and the reflections in the water. We've had some lovely spring weather and the sky was a vivid blue so the water was too :>)

3 of these are of the little quarry near Swithland Woods. It's on private land so it's impossible to get different viewpoints. The reeds and tangled branches against the blue water are Groby Pool, a much larger ex-slate-quarry that has been dammed and is a lovely wild life reserve.

I'm really enjoying these and with the warmer weather hope to get out and do more sketching as soon as possible.

The coloured pencil one is too 'tight' I prefer the watercolour and I'm planning a 40 inch square canvas of those calligraphic reeds and branches against the rippling blue water of Groby Pool.

I've just come back, exhausted, from a very good exhibition of watercolours at the Mall Galleries in London - well worth visiting, with some lovely inspirational pieces. Also some naff ones and good paintings spoilt by truly AWFUL framing but lots of interesting stuff in a very diverse range of styles and concepts.

The waterways project so far

The waterways project so far ........

As the weather gets warmer (my arthritis doesn't like this cold :>( ) I want to get a lot more work done on this project. It was always intended to be a slow burn project but it's a little too slow burn at the moment!

The beautiful huge willows that overhang the water in the charcoal sketch of the 15C packhorse bridge are now the sad pollarded stumps of the lino prints and pastel. Though interesting to draw, the landscape is poorer for their loss. I know they will grow again but it will be a long time before they regain their beauty.

So far I've only looked at Aylestone Meadows, the canal marina at Market Harborough and countryside nearby and the city centre with its old factories and weirs.

I've looked at aerial views thanks to mapslive.com and I'm interested in taking them further at some stage. They show you the context - how the bridges and rivers, canals and streams relate to each other.

In the Charnwood Forest area are old slate quarries, now flooded and surrounded by trees that I want to look at soon. Rocks and depth and craginess - something quite different from the tranquil canal.

update: link to oldest fossil found in that area in really ancient rock

So many things I want to do - I just need the time.

collage experiments

High Tide. Vivien Blackburn. Collage/mixed media in a little moleskine

Sometimes it's nice to 'play' as Jeanette is doing with her lovely fish - trying out something different, experimenting, getting away from what you normally do and discovering new ways of working, new marks to make, new visual language that can feed into more finished work.

These are some of the collages that I've been playing with in sketchbooks - the idea for first one was triggered by some lovely marbled wrapping paper that Lindsay had sent with something - it just needed to be used :>) It wouldn't be light fast enough to use in a 'finished' work but it's great for experimenting in sketchbooks. I also used fragments of brown paper and the brown tape you seal the backs of frames with, for the rocks. Then a mix of media for the rest including cp's and oil pastel.

I cut up and pieced the marbled paper to give the swirl and perspective of the waves and then scribbled and altered, covered or enhanced areas to try to get that swirl of waves crashing on sand and rocks.

Waves on smooth rocks. Vivien Blackburn. Collage, hand marbled paper and mixed media

The second one, Waves on Smooth Rocks, has been shown on my blog but I've reworked it so that it now looks rather different and I think reads much better. The paper in this one IS lightfast because it's some I made myself - yet another thing I want to try again when I can. I'm going to have a go at the shaving foam method that I've been told about.

Lino print on tracing paper (right hand page) worked into and continued onto opposite page, Vivien Blackburn, linoprint/mixed media

In the last one, the right hand page is one of the series of linoprints I've been working on. It was printed onto tracing paper - I was experimenting with various papers. Then it was worked into with coloured pencils, mainly Polychromos and Lyra, and the image extended onto the facing page,

This one makes me think of the mood in a Samuel Palmer painting, I don't know about you?

All of these have given me ideas for larger works and make me consider incorporating collage into finished work.