Monday 20 September 2010

Back in the Spooky Cemetery


Well, it's pretty spooky after dark, but in the sunshine it's lovely. All the tombs are really old, and are entangled with ivy and blackberry bushes. There are wild flowers growing through everywhere, massive trees framing it all and everything green basically going crazy.


You might remember, I did a brief visit there with Liz Steel the Urban Sketcher? Well, these were actually done a few days before that, but there's been so much else going on, I've not had a chance to show you them until now.


The huge, old tree at the top looked like it was trying to wriggle free of the undergrowth and was set wonderfully against the blue sky. I'm using a thin, black, conte stick instead of pencil, as I find that stands out better with the watercolour, and is more expressive than a pen line.


All the pink on this last one was done in squashed blackberry. I ate several while I painted but, as the text at the top says, I had to keep to the higher berries, because the cemetery's a real dog-walker's haven. I sat on this tomb to draw the one above. I have a foam pad to stop my bum getting too chilled - works wonders!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

These are great! I learn so much from you! I like the texture in the stone statue, and the bits of light filtering through the leaves. Very nice!

Caroline said...

I'm enjoying seeing your sketchbook pages - I like the way you're using the conte stick. Might just try that! The blackberry stain is a nice touch - I tried, but couldn't enlarge the pic as unable to read your writing :(

Lynne the Pencil said...

Yes, sorry Caroline - I've not worked out what I am doing wrong that stops them enlarging, but you can see it (and most the others) larger on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnechapman/4953477143/

Caroline said...

Thanks for the link to your Flickr page, Lynn - nice to be able to see your work there. I wonder if your enlarging problems have anything to do with dragging and dropping photos - you could try cut and paste instead, or if you're game, use edit html!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Tried all sorts to no avail. The only thing that seems to help is if I load the picture MUCH bigger than I need it, but I'm conscious of not slowing things up. Will experiment further though...