Hello!
Welcome to the June recap. June has been a month of landscapes and people watching with a little bit of folktale work and finishing with a lot of life drawing in the last few days. I have also finally planned my sketch walk in Meanwood Park on the 22nd July. Scroll to the end for details!
Location Sketching
After last month, I really enjoyed the repetition of drawing the same place multiple times in Skye and I said I wanted to continue this into June. I found a nice, quiet spot in Meanwood Park I knew I could sit at for a long time and find lots of inspiration for drawing. (Not at all influenced by the family of ducklings that were often here)
I approached these drawings a little bit differently to the Skye landscapes as I thought this area of the park didn’t change so much. I really enjoyed capturing the different people that came down to the stream and including the wildlife in the landscape too.
This female Mandarin duck is inspired by Sandi Hester’s beautiful duck and goose drawings. I enjoyed having fun and trying to get as much information on the page as possible without it being super accurate. This allowed me to identify the species when I got home too!
As I mentioned above, I thought this area of the park didn’t change so much this time of year but looking back, it is interesting to see the change in the Rhododendron in the background. Something I didn’t notice in the individual drawings but can start to see the loss of flowers by the final illustration.
Selkie Folktales
There has been a lot of progress on the folktale story I am working on, but most of it thumbnails. I have the final idea for the cover and just need to add the seals for this and have also thumbnailed the first half of the story up until the fisherman finds the selkies on the beach.
I have been doing a lot of life drawing too and hope to include this in one of the scenes.
Life Drawing and Patreon classes
Last month I joined the Draw Brighton Patreon lowest tier which allows you to join all online sessions on the final Wednesday of the month. This is like a drawing workout! I usually join between teaching online so is always such a hectic day but so much fun. This month I did some of my favourite life drawings. I’m still loving the artgraf from last month’s favourites and it has worked so well for loose sketching in life drawing.
I do feel like there is a big difference in drawing techniques and style with my life drawing and location drawing. I find it difficult to use lots of colour in the life drawing classes and the opposite problem with landscapes. For this reason, I’m not sure how it will work including some life drawing style illustrations in the folktale story but it will be interesting to try.
I also joined Sarah Dyer’s Day and Night animal zine workshop on Patreon and discovered I cannot draw a cheetah (or an African Hunting Dog but this one was so bad I covered it completely!). Perhaps a goal for July?
Drawing Workshops
I have been planning this event for so long. Meanwood Park is one of my favourite places to draw and I am always finding new spots. We will be stopping at a few places for drawing, chatting and nature spotting. I’ll be available for any advice and tips if anyone needs it but it should be a really fun few hours together, finished with cake and hot drinks included.
If this is your first time location sketching, or you have lots of experience but want people to go with, then this will be great for everyone. Purchase tickets here.
I also have a landscape workshop on the 30th July at Beamworks in Headingley. Tickets will be on sale on their website.
Currently Reading
Still working through Wild by Amy Jeffs from last month and really enjoying it.
Favourite Material
I really loved the combination of the Liquitex Marker and Neocolor crayons in the Meanwood series. The Neocolor easily covered the marker and make it so much faster and easier to draw the branches around the pond than it was in the first drawing using only pencils.