Quick street scene

The Bridge on the Moskva River

Suited and booted

Edinburgh Skyline

Kim

Hashima Island

I was watching "Skyfall" on TV the other night which featured a scene on an abandoned island which turned out to be a real place off the coast of Japan near Nagasaki.  According to Wikipedia "The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island's most notable features are the abandoned and undisturbed concrete apartment buildings and the surrounding sea wall."  It looked like a cool location to draw so I checked out Google street view which has great shots from the island and from the sea.

 

I drew this using a nib pen and Winsor & Newton black Indian Ink.  It is the first time I have used this and it is pretty tricky.  I also made the mistake of using it whilst sitting on my sofa which now has a lovely black ink blot on the cushion.  Well, you live and learn.

 

 

Great Loot!

As Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes would say, there was excellent 'loot' under my Christmas Tree this year, not least this great collection of art materials.  I'm drinking some Brazilian Moscato at present and thinking of some project ideas.  Hopefully  there will be lots of sketching to come in the New Year so stay tuned folks. 

 

Merry Christmas everyone.  Lots of love from Hot Oyster of Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

Loreto Aprutino

Filling the void

 

I haven't had much time for art recently, but hopefully I'll be able to create some new sketches over the Christmas break.  Meantime, here are a couple of skribbly sketches.

Thumbnail landscape

Conte scribbles

I love Google Street view and I drew these very rough sketches with Conte Pencils whilst doing some armchair travelling

Reading

Found a great sketch of a reading man and a hiding dog by @sallyfriend42 on Twitter.  Again, a good learning tool to try and replicate another artist's work.  I've missed out the dog, and there are many flaws but I enjoyed the process.  I am not sure what she used but I have used an F pencil here.

Untitled

Stag

 

A bit of leg

The man and the red umbrella

Profiles

Rhinoceros

Here is another lunch time quickie with my trusty HB pencil I use at work.  I drew this from a photo on the net (as there aren't many rhinos roaming about Edinburgh) rather than from a sketch as I did with the little girl image yesterday.  I adopted cross hatching for the shading again.  I think this has a little more of a sophisticated outcome than if I had just shaded in the usual way as I have done in the past.

 

Little girl in the sun hat

I occasionally try to replicate sketches I find in books or on the internet. I find it helpful to try to learn from accomplished artists.  I found this lovely sketch on Twitter by Turkish artist Erdal Ekmekci @erdalekmekci79.  I recommend you check out his Twitter feed. He has some really excellent pieces.

I've introduced some cross hatching here.  Mine is pretty heavy handed compared to Erdal but it is the first time I have tried this so I don't mind too much at this stage.