After walking to this beautiful bay I decided to sketch this simple scene looking up the steps from the bay (in the evening).  I sketched a pencil outline first and then used dipping ink and watercolour.  I think making journal art is a great way to remember places, this process is to just put this memory into artistic format. A wonderful day last week while in Tenby.

This was a live demo in another class, this time painted on canvas pad in acrylic.  I prefer this attempt to the most recent one.  I really enjoy using monochrome images.  Using just balck and white paint helps to understand the whole process of tonal values.

In a class yesterday I decided on the spur of the moment to paint an image of this bridge along the Taff trail in RCT but instead of colour I decided to use only black and white acrylic paint.  I used A4 canvas pad paper.  It took less than two hours; I enjoyed this attempt as it was more spontaneous and looser.  I applied based tones of grey and just built up the layers and sketched with paint rather than sketch out the scene before hand in pencil.  Monochrome images makes you focus more on what lights and darks there are in an image and this gives a great underpainting if you ever decided to add colour later on.  More like this may be coming for the next few weeks!!  

  This is a recent demonstration image for a handout I have prepared for a new class next week.  I had done this scene many years ago based on a charcoal study from a fine art drawing publication I read a while ago. This was my first copy in 2017. I like the older one better as I took more care to paint it, however, back to the recent demo.  I started with  simple black acrylic sketch. Next, I blocked in some tonal values quickly and roughly on drawing paper (a journal book). Then I moved onto the sky section and worked those soft edges for the clouds and the distant trees. I continued to work on the rest of the midground and foreground and added those poles. Finally, I added all the detail of the poles and the trees and the pathway down to the foreground.  The whole task took about an hour.