Blake's Lock - a teaser...

These are details from nine pieces that I have been working on for Artikinesis' Blake's Lock exhibition (17 September to 2 October). I've been considering the surface of the water and thinking about the Victorian turbines...

The George and Horn: painting a line and wash

The finished painting is at the end of this sequence of in-progress shots, showing you how I painted the local pub...

Our printer was out of magenta and yellow, so I printed my photograph out in rough monochrome.
I used a mechanical pencil (beause it was there) to sketch in the construction lines freehand.
I used my Noodler's Creaper flex-nib foutain pen, loaded with Koh-i-Noor document ink, to ink in the line work. The document ink is wateproof and claims to be safe for fountain pens. Waterproof is important, because the wash is wet! Usually, I use acrylic ink or India ink with a dip pen.

Pen work (almost) all done
(can you spot the missing bit?)
and a few bits of masking fluid in place.

That fantastic moment when you remove the masking fluid...

Most of the watercolour wash is done...

Finished!

The Pier (Royal Pier Gatehouse, Southampton)

Line and Wash on rough watercolour paper, approx A3

This is from an old photograph that I took in 2002. I'm fairly certain that The Pier had been a nightclub when I lived in Southapmton, but the building was unused at the time of the photograph. It's now been restored and is a Thai restaurant.

I used a fountain pen with a flexible nib (the Noodler's Creaper pen), loaded with Koh-i-noor black document ink, for the line work that preceded the watercolour wash. Both of these are new to me; the flexible nib allows for a more expressive line, while the document ink is apparently fade-proof and waterproof and (unusually for inks with the other characteristics noted) isn't going to damage my fountain pen.

Of course, I still like dip pens (which are often more flexible, and can be used with any ink without fear for delicate workings), but this combination is very convenient for working outdoors, and it seems to work very well.

Picture This - the pictures

Last October, this happened - but I didn't show you any pictures. So, here they are... along with the relevant bits of my cringeworthy parody lyrics.

All I want is red, yellow and blue
A sight worth seeing, a vision of New(bury)

From atop a car park with a view, oh-oh
Town hall clock, chiming the hour

Sterling cables, the telecom tower

Corn Exchange, chimneys and roofs, oh yeah

and

 Picture this... a day in October
Picture this... reasonable weather
Artists in town, wielding cameras and canvas
Is that someone painting the garage?
If you could only oh-oh  

Picture this... with acrylic and knife
Picture this... a Victorian gas works

Botallack Count Houses and Newbury Lock

Botallack Count Houses

Two more - rather watery in theme - line and washes. Both were done from photographs using dip pens, acylic inks (sepia and white) and watercolour.

The Only Way is Up

This isn't the whole picture; you'll find that further down this post, next to the unwashed line drawing. This climber was at Winspit in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, on the day that we were visiting the former quarry and cove during our summer holiday in Dorset. I took a photograph from a fair distance away; strong light and good fortune gave me a clear enough image to work from.

Down the Line: the West Pier

Brighton's West Pier is in a sorry state. There was a lot more of it there (although it was not accessible) in 1989, when I moved to Hove (and then Brighton), but it has been falling into the sea, hit by storms and arson, and I understand that there is nothing that can reasonably be done to save it.

Nonetheless, the skeletal remains are elegant and distinctive. Apparently it is the "most photographed building in Brighton". I took many photographs of it, myself, when I revisited Brighton and Hove on Wednesday with my children. This line and wash is from one of those photographs.

Line and Wash on The Langton watercolour paper, cropped from A3

Acrylic Inks - Sepia and White
Watercolour Palette - Phthalo blue, Cerulean Blue, Permanent Rose, Quinacridone Gold, Winsor Violet

Reading Abbey

Reading Abbey has been closed to the public for several years now; I understand that there is a risk of faling masonry. It seemed pretty solid the last time I was there... at the time, I was playing with my new SLR (a second hand Pentax K1000) and took a series of black and white photographs in which, to be frank, the masonry and the autumn eaves were pretty much indistinguishable. So the photographs scarcely represent a solid ruin! Fortunately, I had another camera loaded with colour film, and those photographs helped me to interpret the monochrome ones.

This is line and wash, with sepia acrylic ink (and a cheeky splodge or two of white acrylic ink) applied with pen and dropper, on A4 HP Bockingford paper.

Baht 'At (On Ilkley Moor)

This place has stayed with me since I was last there, and since I took the monochrome photgraph that my line and wash painting is based on. It was about 15 years ago.

I wasn't, to the best of my recollection, wearing a hat.

Baht 'At (On Ilkley Moor)

Line and wash on HP Bockingford watercolour paper (A4)

Kingsclere Library - Commission

Kingsclere Library, Line and wash

Our village library has closed.

The Village Club - Commission

This painting was commissioned by the trustees of Kingsclere's Village Club as a gift for a dedicated  committee member upon his retirement from the committee. It was presented to him today (Sunday 8th March), framed and and mounted, with a dedication in a separate window.

I wrote the dedication in the same sepia acrylic ink used for the linework, using a calligraphy dip pen, styled in the Chancery hand.

The mount and frame was made by Overton Gallery.

I have it on good authority that the gift was well received.

Kingsclere Village Club
Line and wash, approx A3

Burns Night Flowers

Sepia acrylic ink and watercolour (violet, yellow ochre and Hooker's green)