A recent photo of my sketchbook, still training with ballpoint pen directly, a cruel training. But I am beginning to get a better ability to imagine perspective grids without tracing them, and I can even begin to plan full-page compositions. It takes a while to build these new skills, but they are worth it.
Off topic: in summer I keep a sketch-diary - helps me remember the obscure and beautiful.
This years book is almost full, so here a few outtakes #urbansketching that I liked!
I took most of 2023 off from my studio from burnout and too many funerals in 2022. I’m super excited to be planning #birdart projects for 2024 as I’m going through photos from my older sketchbooks. #art#dailysketch#sketchbook
Testing out the paper in this funny little watercolour sketchbook with a few splashes on the back page. The paper has a strange weave to it, and soaks up a ton of water. This is a view of Parc Lafontaine in the autumn.
I've been out with my #sketchbook today. This is the garden at Canons Ashby, a National Trust place in #northamptonshire.
It was chilly sitting outside #sketching soil perhaps didn't make the most of my time there.
Mrs Mike and our daughter went round the house.
The snowdrops in the grounds were well worth seeing.
I was a big Greek mythology buff at school. My dad had bought an encyclopedia in the late '70s, and I was learning everything about it via it. Naturally, my favorite character was goddess Athena. All about knowledge & wisdom. The most kind-hearted of the gods too. So I had to paint a portrait in her honor.
In the last few days I've switched my painting style almost exclusively towards the cottagecore aesthetic, with very limited palettes of muted gouache colors. It's possible that I'm entering a new phase in my art that might last a while. While cottagecore is not a new style for me, I was switching to other themes whenever I felt like painting something different, mostly with watercolor. But having done a few paintings of that style now, it's obvious that gouache is the right medium for it. You need the layering complexity to get the best out of the style, you need the painterly feel and thickness of the paint. So far, I'm having a blast!