Stipple sketch with a rotring pen. You can see the messy thumbprint on the page as I somehow always seem to get ink all over my hands when using a rotring.

In this case I'll blame the high altitude!

This is a sketch I did about a year ago when travelling in Peru. I did it the day before the little pen and watercolour sketch in Pisac I put up a few posts back.

Not a very poetic title but never mind. One of those sketches that starts as a doodle and gradually becomes a sketch.

Sketched after returning home from a long day in the studio. Cold wet winter's evening. Low light from one lightbulb. Roll on the Spring!

Tags: Conte

Rapid sketch in a crowded cafe. Want to do a load more of these of any subject.

Speed up, loosen up!

Note to myself: Barry setup some life drawing sessions in the new year.

Well not exactly the whole Sacred Valley!

A little pen and watercolour I did whilst enjoying the morning sun and waiting for a friend. I'll be going back to Peru at the end of 2009 and will fill my days with journeys, adventures and sketches.

I haven't put up new drawing for over a week now as I've been up to my ears in rehanging our galleries and designing a new web site for Working Artist Studios, the artists group I'm a member of based in Skibbereen in West Cork, Ireland. You can see the new web site here www.workingartiststudios.com

Meanwhile back to my humble pencil drawing of garlic. I managed to do this in my Moleskin during a lull in the excitement.

Expect to get back into full swing art-wise in the immediate days to come.

Barry

Tags: Pen and watercolour

Nothing much to say about this one. Simple pencil drawing on the kitchen table.

Feel a real urge to sketch out and about around the town. Hope this rain stops soon.

Tags: Pencil Drawing

Was having a conversation with my friend Ian McNinch, (a fellow member of Working Artist Studios), about his sculptures and admiring the forms he uses in his work.

Immediately afterwards I went up to my studio and sketched this little piece in my Moleskin which is based purely on my response to Ian's work at that moment.

PS Ian's work is Waaayeeee!! more interesting than this little sketch.

Tags: Pencil Drawing

A few stones from the back garden and a little bit of spare time. Gradually built it up. A meditative study I suppose.

Tags: Coloured Pencil

When this rain stops I must get out and about sketching.

Meanwhile a different approach to the subject. One stoke at a time, avoided muddying the subject.

Tags: Pen and ink and Watercolour

Loose watercolour of objects in my kitchen. Thankfully I managed to put down the washes in one go without fussing with them which ruins the effect and natural beauty of watercolour washes.

I'm working a lot with oils and acrylics recently so 'one go' washes are something I've got out of practice with.

Want to do a load more spontaneous watercolours. Plenty of room for improvement.

Tags: Watercolour

After supper looking around my room I started doodling then sketching the back of my well worn chair.

Amazing what catches the eye!

Tags: Pencil

Semi-abstract sketch of the view out of the back of my house of an old barn as the rain and mists came down.

Tags: Coloured Pencil

A quiet moment, a few moments and the back of a fairly substantial man sitting opposite me.

Another quick sketch forcing me to not fuss and just go for the quick impression. Pencil.

Tags: Pencil

Pen and ink - fast sketch of a face whilst hanging out in a local coffee shop. Great practice as only a minute or two to capture an impression.

Often when I buy fruit or vegetables I just want to draw or paint them. The shapes, the colours that's what I see. A friend looking at some large paintings I did of lemons asked me puzzled, '....why lemons?'.

For me everything I see is a visual feast. The colour, shapes, the effect of light!

Anyway a side effect of this visual passion is fruit and vegetables that often go off! There they sit in my kitchen, no longer 'just' shopping but the stars of future drawings and paintings.... 'just as soon as I get around to it' of course.

This pear is one that didn't get away, it only took ten minutes to paint and afterwards it tasted delicious!

B

Tags: Watercolour

Not often I play around with abstract sketches. This was done with pen and pencil. It started as a doodle and developed into this little sketch.

I like it and would like to experiment more and translate some of them into paintings.

Tags: Abstract

Pen and ink and watercolour. This is a sketch of sand dunes on Long Strand, a magnificent beach around 15 miles from where I live in West Cork.

Low winter sun made the dunes glow until the sun slipped under the horizon.

Tags: Pen and ink and Watercolour

Pencil and water colour - love the spontaneity and fun of sketching!

Here's a drawing I did when travelling in Peru. It's of some buildings close to the center of a large town called Iquitos right in the heart of the Amazon. Only way to get there is by plane or boat upriver from Brazil or Colombia.

Nothing special about the buildings, just enjoyed doing the sketch, of course the locals thought I was loco.

Tags: Pen and watercolour

So here's the monoprint I did and mentioned a few days ago on this site.

Fun, simple and effective. Since then I've been drawing daily. Practising the basics.

Today I spent some time photographing some recent work and bringing my websites up to date. Two new paintings to go up on Crimson Salamander tomorrow.

Tags: Monoprints

Spent today drawing still life. Intend to concentrate on the practice of drawing over the next 3 months or more. There is nothing that will improve the quality of my art work faster than the daily practice of drawing.

I intend to get out more into the townscapes and landscapes of West Cork over the weeks to come. Although winter has now arrived with gales force winds and heavy showers, the Irish landscape is amazing no matter what the season.

Time for the thermos flask of hot soup and warm jerseys!

Will put up some of the work resulting from this in the weeks to come.

Barry

Tags: West Cork Landscape

Back to updating this site now that summer is well and truly over although the weather here in Ireland over the last 3 weeks, has been better than the wettest summer I can remember! I've been working away on my paintings over the summer, just took a break from writing on this web site. You can see some of the fruits of my labour here on my web site Crimson Salamander

Have been working with Mono Printing over the last week. I find it's a great way to experiment, another way of mark making. The way I do it I would call it 'drawing a print'. I like the randomness of the process. Using a slab of plate glass approximately one meter square, I roll out the oil based paint using a single colour, (I like the colour Prussian Blue). I then carefully lay down a large sheet of heavy cartridge paper on top of the prepared plate and draw my image using a thick graphite stick. I put in tone using my fingers and the heel of my hand. I then peel the print off the slab of glass in one even motion. And there it is, image in reverse, a genuine single-edition Mono Print!

I love the whole feel of the print, the boldness and randomness of the marks all work together so well it's almost primal. I'll put up one or two images here over the next week, as I need to make time to photograph a few examples from my Studio.

So I'm back now with the intention of updating this site on a regular basis over the winter. Onwards....

Barry

Tags: Prints

Saw a box of shiny new pencils in the local art shop called InkTense from the English pencil maker Derwent. ( Here's their web page http://www.pencils.co.uk/ ). I couldn't resist them so bought a set of 24.

I normally don't like watercolour pencils. I tried them from various manufacturers and found them all very wishy-washy. So what were these ones like?

Much better I'm pleased to say, especially after buying a box of them! With the title InkTense it implied what I was looking for - an intense ink effect. When I first scribbled down a few shades it looked quite flat and uninspiring until I splashed on some water with a fully loaded brush, then the colour came alive. Rich and yes intense, over the next few days I'm going to do a more elaborate drawing and I'll show you how I get on.

Meanwhile here's my first Doodle.

B.

Tags: Art Materials

Thought I'd redesign this website as the last design was a bit serious. This site is meant to be light hearted, the way a day at the beach is about relaxing and chilling out.

It's a kind of catch-all for drawings, sketches, ideas and thoughts about and around my work. So the new notebook look is a bit more relevant, though it looks way more neater than my journals and sketchbooks!

So you may like it or not, I don't mind. It's OK for now, so on with sketching and writing.

Tags: notes