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