My son and his little friend Chloe looking at something at Chloe’s parents wedding. I always look for different things to take pictures of when I am at gatherings, people’s expressions can be really great. I have tried to simplify the faces down to basic light and dark areas. I think this has worked apart from Chloe’s eyes which I wish I had not made so detailed. I am also a bit unsure of the proportions of Samuels arm!
The original Sketchbook entry 9 May 2012
Possibly the most brilliant tractor in the world that was a favourite during the second world war. This model could be started by using a shot gun cartridge and a hammer…How good is that? I drew this sketch from a photo that I took at Breamore house museum. I think I need to do more work on the steering wheel as I don’t think the cornering on my model will be very easy!
Original from the sketch book of day 8 of my sketch a day challenge in May…
I have been experimenting on ways to record the days out that we enjoy with Samuel. One of our favourite places to visit is Windsor although it usually rains as soon as we set foot across Alma’s car park.
On this occasion we had lunch in Zizzi’s, fed the ducks, I was ill in the changing rooms of Fat Face and I had to fix the brake on the buggy in Daniels superstore. Apart from that is was a fantastic day.
Part of the May Painting a day challenge
I liked this image because of the reflection of light coming through the dirty oilers. It was a great excuse to lay down a light was of yellow ochre before building up the darker shapes at the front of the painting. When the light is golden like this at about 4 in the afternoon the edge of objects show up as thin strips.
This picture was created at Breamore House Nr Fordingbridge in Dorset. The setting for a model steam rally for about 10 years.
I love the seaside and especially fisherman’s clutter that can be found lying around. In Clovelly I was inspired by the lobster pots and the colours that shone through the netting material. I tried to work out if I was painting the netting or the holes. The rough cobbles created a regular pattern to help draw the eye into the picture.
While I was painting this picture I read an article in the artist and illustrators magazine about gouache resist. So I thought I would give it a try. Using a piece of mount board I drew my image and then proceeded to paint gouache in the areas I wanted to keep white. When this was dry I painted over the whole image with Indian ink.
Then after a night of drying I washed the image under a cold tap to release the gouache paint. Then I added some watercolour to the image…
I have read other versions of this technique and I might come back and explore them one day…Stay Tuned.
Clovelly fishing pots image from my sketch book.
Sketchbook challenge 5 May 2012
I wasn’t sure where this sketch was going when I originally drew it…Which is no surprise as visits to Bressingham Steam Gardens were quite often consumed with booze. The trip used to signal the end of Summer for me as it was the last steam rally of the season. It was a pilgrimage to Norfolk of about 12-14 years in total.
In this sketch I was trying to portray the effect of rust on the metal and pen and ink seemed like the best method. Getting the tone right took about 2 hours.
Apologies to all sketch fans on the world wide web – Martinsonlinesketchbook has not been updated due in part to illness. BUT I am on the mend and here is the proof a sketch from my latest hospital admission in the Royal Brompton Hospital.
This is a respirator called the Bird and it is used to help get air in the to the lungs and this helps to clear sputum and infection. I must admit when the physio said she was going to give me the bird I thought I’d right royally upset her! The machine is connected to a supply of neat oxygen to help expand the lungs when you breathe in. Surprisingly it works really well and I think ever home should have one, purely because neat oxygen gives you a bit of a buzz.
This is the view from my hospital bed looking out onto Chelsea, London (look up sw3 6hr on google maps). My room is directly opposite a night club called 86. This was quite loud at night.
The IV pump on the left became my best friend for the first 10 days of my admission as I was attached to it non-stop. This did present some difficulties, particularly when I needed the toilet. The little wheels had a mind of their own and the tube connecting me was just long enough to be an inconvenient distance.
I did get to see the Olympic Road Race, both the Men’s and the Women’s and I managed to make some sketches of the spectators which I will post in the next few days.
Sketchbook Challenge - 4th May 2012
On a shopping trip to find clothes for Samuel we ended up in Debenhams where he insisted on trying hats on. He looked really cool and in advance of his age plus there were some really nice lights and darks. I think this sketch of Sam, has the potential for a larger finished painting. I am unsure of what to include in the background but feel that the loose effect of the colours drifting off works well.
Half way stage between drawing and painting. I have put in all the darks that make the contrasts with the lights of the skin tones. This is different from the normal working of light against dark. At times it can be easier to work watercolour dark against light especially if you have some light areas the you want to keep.
The finished sketch as it appears in my book.
Okay so the make a sketch a day in May is going really well, but I haven’t posted all the pictures yet.
This is a sketch in video format of a glass of lemonade I drank in the Fire Station Restaurant beneath Waterloo Station in London. The restaurant beats eating in McDonalds or Burger King within the station.
Enjoy!
Continuing with my epic painting a day in May – Today London’s Shard. I have painted this once before about 8 months ago and I find the whole structure fascinating. I first saw it when the building work had only just commenced at ground level at London Bridge station. This view is looking up from St Thomas’s Hospital next to the Mcdonalds. A wonderful combination.
It is good to sometimes photograph the progress of a piece of work to find out where things go wrong! I created this painting in 5 sittings although I forgot to take a picture of stage 4!
Stage 3 – First light water colour washes to establish the main areas.
Stage 2 – Ink drawing making any corrections.
Stage 1 Pencil sketch – although I usually go straight in with pen.
Sketch as it appears in my sketchbook.
I have a lot of problems with trees not least that I have a tendency to be colour blind in the green/brown spectrum. The sketch is of a tree in the Breamore House estate. I spent a lot of summer weekends on the estate with the Theale Miniature Steam Club at their annual steam event.
I had a second attempt at the tree…
In both images I have failed to get the size of the tree to be convincing. The shadow in the ink drawing is correct but the tree canopy is not right. I may give this another go on a bigger bit of paper using charcoal and wash.
Sketch as is appears in my book:-
I was quietly pleased with this portrait of Samuel – even more so when I showed Sam and he recognised himself! This is a watercolour sketch on cartridge paper. This was drawn from a phone I took while at a wedding.
Samuel is in the yellow t-shirt and in a row of babies born around the same time. In order from left to right, Lexi, Alex, Henry, Oscar, Samantha and Samuel.
This is a cartoon sketch of Samuel at Odds Farm on the tractor. I have created a background to include sheep – in reality there was a muddy looking pond with a solitary duck and a plastic cow. At Odd’s Farm I was the only one who fed the animals, Sam and Debs tried but left me too it!
This is a incomplete painting that I started…It’s Samuel on another tractor at Odd’s Farm but it didn’t work for me in the end.There are some nice passages of light and dark but I didn’t manage to get the wet-in-wet effects that I was after that worked well for the first portrait in this series of sketches. I might try it again as part of my painting a day for May 2012.
Last year I filled 2 sketch books by making 1 sketch a day in the month of May and August. This allowed me to explore some ideas from pictures I had taken and also to help develop my sketching technique.
This sketch is from a picture I took while I was in London at the Bankside Gallery. Debs and I had stopped in Costa Coffee for a drink when workmen turned up. They sat outside in Falcon Point Plazza where they must have been doing some work. I intend to work this image into a bigger painting. I was attracted to the bright orange overalls in an area that was mainly concrete in colour.
This is how the picture appears in my sketch book.
Royal Brompton Incarceration Tour (6 of 6)
What follows is a series of very random sketches.
‘Mummy, Daddy missing fix it’ - Having a son and Cystic Fibrosis is a challenge when you are fit and well. Skype offers a unique way to communicate with family while you are cooped up in hospital. Sam was a bit surprised to see Daddy on the Ipad when the normal viewing was Justin’s house followed by Charlie bear. And in the sketch below I was upstaged by Space Chimps and as I tried to say hello to Sam I knew my time with him on my Sony Xperia Ray would be cut short with the words ‘…Bye Daddy, Monkeys on.’ Thanks Sam.
As mentioned before the Royal Brompton Hospital has won awards for its food. Below is what was described as fish and chips – I’m a snob and I like Haddock. This was most definitely a white fish in batter production. But in the Royal Brompton Hospital all is not lost when you have Cystic Fibrosis and the additional call menu – order from the normal rations or top up with greasy spoon tucker…Doily Hell as one person commented on Facebook.
And now some nice Town houses that I saw on some walks I managed around the Chelsea and Hammersmith area!
Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour 2012 (5 of 5)
Having signed my life away to the Foulis ward register and promised not to return drunk and be back in time for tea I hit the streets of Old London Town in search of adventure and Dinosaurs at the natural history museum where I was promised history would come alive by there website…
I have to day that the experience did take me back in time…to school day trips. There were lots of school kids running about making fun of the animatronics. Trying to find innuendo in all the items of the cleverly placed gift shop at the end of the dinosaur exhibit.
So the next sketch is the Dinosaur in the main hall of the Natural history museum.
Walking back to the hospital it occurred to me that there are a lot of mopeds in London and I stopped to draw them – completely missing the opportunity to draw the Row of Boris Battery Bikes.
I worked up the original sketch into the following finished painting.
On of the things I tried to find in the urban London jungle was hidden beauty – I think I found it in the run down garages in a side street off of Cromwell Road. I was particularly struck by the bright green doors at the end of the alley way.
Royal Brompton incarceration sketch tour – A decent cup of coffee (3 of 5)
The ‘coffee/tea, please’ people come around the hospital about 4 times a day. Like a good pub after about 3 days in hospital they get to know your drinks order – coffee, white, 2 sugars in my case. Ironically for the Royal Brompton hospital that prides itself on award winning food – Maxwell house is the blend of choice for the NHS and not my particular cup of tea. I think this is because it comes in paper cups and cuts out a lot of the faffing around with tea spoons.
My favourite cup of coffee usually arrived just after breakfast at about 9:15. Three hours later than I am used to – I was an unusual patient as I was up, showered and dressed by 8. This took the attention of 1 doctor who took asked me on one occasion why I got up so early as the rest of his patients were asleep. I explained when you have a 18 month old baby there are two 6 o’clocks in every day… – Anyway my favourite cup of coffee arrived in an orange china cup complete with saucer.
Ironically I can’t draw ellipses and so this post about a decent cup of coffee relies on some dodgy drawings of NHS cutlery.
Initial Sketch completed in hospital.
Charcoal sketch to help create a finished painting.
Finished watercolour of the NHS orange cup of coffee.
Paper cup of Maxwell house designed to leave you wanting more…
Finally I have been experimenting with ipad sketching.
Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour - 3 of 5
It is very boring in hospital especially when you are just waiting for IV drugs to be administered 3 times a day. To relive the monotony at the Royal Brompton Hospital you are encouraged to go out and about for a walk. You have to sign a disclaimer to say you will come back and failure to return will mean your bed will be reallocated after 24 hours. Apparently this is to help focus the young minds of teenagers who see the afternoon walk as an escape route to more exciting ways to enjoy London – and in the process miss their medication. I had to sign it. I am 39.
So where to go in Old London Town? I walked the main Fulham Road high street and came across a MandS – Brilliant for Milkshakes, a fantastic book shop and the worlds first and I believe only Virgin only fitness club – Although I may have read the sign wrong…But my favourite outings was to Albert Bridge as the last time I was in London it was being renovated. It has been painted shockingly in lime/yellow green and light blue. Despite this is remains an amazing structure and one that I sketched in pen and ink.
The Guard house on the Bridge has this rather out dated message – ‘All troops must break step when marching over this bridge’ It seems odd now, that the pounding of booted feet, should cause so much structural uncertainty that a notice was required. Yet today thousands of Lorries, cars and pedestrians pass over the bridge without a hitch and without noticing the stark warning. Maybe steel is stronger these days?
It was while I was drawing the guard house that is occurred to me the Congestion Charge cameras had been moved. I park regularly in Kensington so I looked it up on the web to find out what new technology is being used to record the congestion charge stickers on windscreens – Only to find out the congestion zone has moved and I have been paying £10 for no reason for 8 months…Not impressed. Thank –you Boris.
Read more from the Royal Brompton Incarceration sketch tour…
Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour – (2 of 5)
Okay so the Royal Brompton hospital Cystic Fibrosis Unit, sounds like the Hilton hotel, right? TV, computer, En suite…But I forgot to mention that after every meal time for the first 48 hours there was a small prick to test for Diabetes – regardless of whether you have the complaint or not. If a prick is missed the 48 hours is reset. So you can be sure I was ringing the nurses for my prick after every mealtime.
The sketch above is the view from my narrow window in my room. I can see across to the Nurses Quarters and the stair well. At night I developed a game to guess which room a person lived in, by watching to see what lights come on as people climbed the stairs to their accommodation. A bit like in Sneakers. I noticed that people left items on their window ledges – most notable running shoes, bottles of drink and a big red plastic bag – I’m guessing full of rubbish and part of an extreme refuse collection. A sport that seemed to start at 4 in the morning with the clearing up of bottles from the public house at the end of the alley. One day it rained and all the possessions got wet.
This sketch is of my view from my en-suite see-through window and quite a surprise for me as I am used to frosted glass in a bathroom. I guess when you are 4 floors up dignity goes out the window.
So in March 2012, almost a year after my last hospital admission, I found myself in the Royal Brompton National Heart and Lung hospital for IV drugs to finally get rid of an infection that caused me immense problems in 2011. To pass the time I used the opportunity to sharpen up my sketching skills and to try and find something nice about London.
The main entrance of the Royal Brompton Hospital South Block where the specialist Cystic Fibrosis (CF) unit resides in the old Private wing. All CF patients get their own room with en-suite, TV, computer (if you want one), fridge and for some reason an exercise bike. What I like about the buildings in London is the reflections of trees that appear in the windows.
Below is a pencil sketch of my bed. As with most hospital beds it can be put into any position. It also gets stuck in any position which I found out to my cost on the first night when the end of the bed became dipped all night long and I kept slipping to the foot of the bed. I don;t like to disturb the nurses for such trivial matters so I woke in the morning scrunched up and achy.
I don’t know what interior decorator was in on the day they painted my room, but lime/yellow/brown walls seemed to be in. The slit window was my only source of light and also breeze in a room that got upto 36 degrees at night. The vinyl chairs in hospital are almost comfortable and yes, snot green in colour. NIce. Aids the recovery.
Coming up on the Royal Brompton Incarceration Tour…Albert Bridge…Why I drew the blinds in the Toilet…Motorcycles and buildings.
