A Laughing Boy (Henry VIII) attributed to Georgio Mazzoni
11" x 8", pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
I visited the Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian at the National Gallery last week and took my sketchbook and a pencil into the exhibition. The exhibition covers faces in paintings created in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This is the result.
The drawing at the top is
A slide show of all the gorgeous work in my book :>) - hovering the mouse over an image will show the name of the artistMy book is home :>) and the sketchbook exchange is almost over :>( , I'm putting the finishing touches to Ronell's book and will post it on Monday I hope. Sorry I was a bit slow with this one Ronell. Look at all these fabulous images and imaginative ideas.The challenge that I s
Everyone on this earth has felt some kind of unsubstantiated prejudice. At some point in their lives, everyone —the cashier at Target, Michael Douglas, the woman who takes your picture for your new driver’s license, The Pope— dislikes someone for a stupid reason. If you say “Oh no. Not me.”, then you’re prejudice and a [...]
James Whale didn’t care what people in Hollywood thought of him. Whale was openly gay in 1930s Hollywood, at time when gay actors and actresses had to hide their sexual orientation at a risk of jeopardizing their careers. He was an innovative director. Universal Pictures owed its stellar success in the 1930s much in part [...]
Irene Gibbons was an Oscar-nominated costume designer in Hollywood for thirty years. She took over from Adrian at MGM, and went on to establish her own company, Irene, Inc. She was known only as “Irene” in her screen credits.
Doris Day wrote in her 1975 autobiography that she got to know Irene quite well. One night after [...]
With The 2008 Philadelphia Phillies headed to their first World Series in fifteen years, I can only think of my father. My father died the day The Phillies won the 1993 National League pennant. This would be the Phillies’ first trip to the World Series since their loss to The Baltimore Orioles ten years earlier. [...]
Top L to R: Munstead Woods; Penshurst Place
Bottom L to R: Fields to the rear of Sissinghurst Castle Garden - in Spring and Autumn
This post lists all those posts which relate to places - and gardens in particular - in the South of England outside London.
Counties are listed alphabetically. The posts are then listed in the order they were published except where there are a group belonging
Nina's work in my sketchbook in the FPP exchange :>)I was lucky enough to take part in two sketchbook exchanges [ one is now coming to an end :>( and I'll really miss it!] and I've had a lot of queries about them - how they work, timings, what type of sketch books etc etc etc etc so I thought it might be a good subject for a post here.Above is a great example of one of the major benefits - you g
So I took a major departure in shape, but kept within my concept. What happens in ripples? Something expands from a particular point of origin. How else could I use that idea? We have two spiky, branching versions.Then a failed circle movement trial. This REALLY didn't work. Then the growth of a snowflake.These explorations into the undergrowth weren't satisfyin
Thelma McQueen was born in Tampa, Florida in 1911. She trained as a dancer and took her stage name from the “Butterfly Dance” after performing it in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She never liked the name “Thelma” and legally changed her name to “Butterfly”.
Although she appeared in an uncredited role in 1939’s [...]
The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook will be released in a sumptuous large-format trade paperback for the first time. The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook hardback edition, published in 2005, was a major best seller for over two years in a row and the new paperback will be very succesful for sure. It is being announced for tomorrow, but no cover has been revealed so far. I hope Harper Collins can hold up
Diane Nemerov was born in New York City into a wealthy Jewish family. Her parents were fur merchants. Her older brother, Howard, served as United States Poet Laureate in 1963 and again in 1988.
When she was 14, she met and fell in love with Allan Arbus, a photgrapher who would later abandon photography for an [...]
The toy guy who has totally cornered the "Black Line-3D thatlookslike 2D" style is releasing his collection of sketches in a book format so we get more of an insight into his world.Available for Pre-Order HERE.[VIA]
As I moved forward in my moleskine I continued playing with color a bit, first going back to the elongated circles, which a friend thought looked like peacock feathers in the black and white version, and then trying a looser, sketchier style with the Art Stix, instead of the markers which I'd previously attempted. Neither enthused me.So I took a little different path. I had been thinki
monoprint and coloured pencil. in Casey's book for the FPP exchange, by Vivien - link to the exchange websiteThese are my additions to Casey's book - theme: Local Colour. It's safely arrived in France so I can post them here now :>)The monoprints were done by painting onto acetate with turpsy oil paints and then using that to print onto paper. I then worked on them when dry with coloured penc
In 1956, Bob Crane was the number one morning disc jockey on Los Angeles’ KNX-AM radio. He filled the broadcast with sly wit, drumming, and guests such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Hope. Crane known as “The King of the Los Angeles Airwaves.” With high ambitions, Crane pursued acting opportunities. He subbed for [...]
The first page was an attempt to take a looser approach with the pen. I was not pleased. It just looks sloppy to me. With the second page I returned to familiar ground in a different variation, some areas of circle spaced further apart and some with them closer together. The trick this time was the river boundary lines and then all of the dense circles had their center poin
well this should have been a slide show - but photobucket is just taking FOREVER to load it and that's on broadband - so I give up!I'm not going to waste any more time on photobucket slide shows :>(
"Not a lot of room for weeds"
The Long Border at Great Dixter
12" x 16", coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
I hope you like this plein air sketch of The Long Border at Great Dixter. Click the link to go to my Travels with a Sketchbook blog where you can find out more about this absolutely terrific herbaceous border and also see some photos of this incredibly long border
Vivien's Time and Tide series in the FPP sketchbook exchange - Nina's book, theme: Local ColourNina's book is now with Ronell so I can show the pages I did - Nina's pages were bathed in golden sunlight and Glen had continued with large red poppies.My first thought was to do some extreme close ups of poppies but I decided to cool things down instead and do the English coast in changing weathers an
a small fragment preview of my addition to Casey's book in the FPP sketchbook exchangeThis is a fragment of my addition to Casey's sketchbook - theme: Local Colour. It is just about to be sent winging its way to Ronell in France. It already contains work by Casey, Nina, Glen and now me and it's getting fat :>) I had to extend the cover to fit the pages :>)
Canson watercolour sketchbook - first pageA few weeks ago I went to an artists talk where he showed his sketchbooks - I love sketchbooks as you may have noticed :>)He often used Canson watercolour sketchbooks 12ins wide x 9in high and I really liked them and the proportion/size of the book (his work was interesting too!) . I ordered one from Great Art and it came yesterday, it's lovely, a smart r
I decided to try another page where the ripple pattern was contained within a shape. The butterfly worked really well, especially since I carefully chose where to put the origination points. Then I wondered what would happen if one ripple set off the other ripples as it expanded to touch the origination points. This page was my first try and I wasn't pleased with the effect.For the sec
Rasmus Karl Therkelsen Gottlieb was born in 1886 in central Copenhagen, Denmark. As a teenager, he apprenticed as a machinist. He married and had two children, but with the outbreak of World War I, he entered the military. In 1916, after his discharge from military service, he headed to America alone, hoping to send for [...]
The Two Ronnies Sketchbook was a collection of classic sketches from the BBC comedy series The Two Ronnies, with newly filmed introductions by the stars, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was broadcast over 17 years after the final episode of The Two Ronnies was aired.
The show came about following the BBC’s broadcast of Ronnie [...]
Poppies dancing in the wind. collage, watercolour, coloured pencil, Vivien Blackburn, moleskine exchange July '08I can post the images now as the book has arrived with Stephanie. These pages were done for the moleskine exchange .This is in David's book, theme: Dance. You can see his wonderful intense tango dancers below, followed by Gesa's great abstract thoughts - timing and steps, cooling thing
So no offense to all of you hardcore Seinfeld fans out there, but I had a rather offensive dream about Cosmo Kramer last night.Seriously!!It was really frigging bizarre, too, and NO, it wasn't a sex dream!!Well, actually it was a sex dream, but I wasn't having sex, I was just watching. Er, I mean I was watching Kramer explain his sexual escapade from the night before to Elaine and Jerry.Yep, and a
An update on the FPP sketchbook exchange - I now have Casey's book :>) as Glen finished her section in record time! ..... no pressure then :>0 Casey started her book - theme Local Colour - with some lovely colourful sketches of people and market fruits, a real flavour of France :>) There is a beautiful fresh fluidity and freedom in the way she catches these and it's great to have them here to see
Color again - but this time colored pencil instead of markers. I love how this medium lays down on the paper of the moleskine sketchbook. It gives me a lot more room for shading if I want to make the pieces appear more three dimensional than the overlapping does on its own. The design element of having one circle be squiggly lines instead of smooth also seemed to work well.I coul
The Garden Tower, Penhurst Place
8" x 11.5", coloured pencils in Daler Rowney Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
These are the images - if you want to read the text and the explanation for where I went yesterday afternoon you need to visit A hot summer's afternoon in a Kentish garden over on my other blog Travels with a Sketchbook in.....
Plus you get to see some photos too.
The Mistletoe
Poppies by Glen Heath - detailI have the next book in the FPP sketchbook exchange and help!!!!! what a challenge. The book is Nina's and her theme: Polychrome. -exchange-ninas-work.html You can see how Nina started the book here, with a beautiful watercolour of the view from her home.Now Glen has lived up to it with this lovely study of poppies - the full image is below with some of Nina's work s
This is our friendly garden hedgehog enjoying a pasty (OK - I know the edge is scorched!) - he/she really enjoyed the cheese and potato pasty and remains of the cat's dinner :>) Flearidden I know, but awfully sweet. He/she was limping so we'll keep an eye on the situation and make sure food is out. (the limp isn't due to the cats as they have a live and let live attitude to the hedgehogs)He/she
By the time she was six, Anissa (pronounced “ah-NEESE-ah”) Jones was hawking cereal in her first television commercial. A couple of years later, in 1966, Anissa’s acting talents caught the attention of two television producers who were preparing a new television sitcom called Family Affair. They felt Anissa would be perfect in the role of [...]
I did go back to patterns for some of these drawings. I wondered what would happen if I expanded one ring and added designs to it and also what would happen if I divided the field of the drawing, so I tried two of each.My mind drifted and I tried something intended to be a landscape. It was okay, but not impressive, so I abstracted and rounded the idea further for the next page.
Sketchbook exchange updateNina's painting in her book - which is currently with Glen (but I got a sneak preview!) and will come to me next.Isn't it gorgeous? Her theme is polychrome and there are the most gorgeous subtle colour changes in there with a wonderful sense of light - the golden light of late afternoon/early eveningI love her sense of balance with the other elements as well - the writi
watercolour, fragment of watercolour sketch - Vivien BlackburnI picked up Glen's book on Friday and have had fun (though it was intimidating after seeing the gorgeous images she'd created) adding to it. These are fragments of what will soon be flying on to Ronell in France :>) I've done 2 pages and just have to do the half page, where the next person - Ronell - can interact with my image.My bo
I began adding color by extending the largest expanding circle with the greens, deliberately not letting it intersect the centers of the other circles for more interest. That wasn't quite enough, so I made the center green as well. I was really pleased with this one. The next page I tried to have red and blue intersecting circles make purple.I added colored lines inbetween black
This is the bit where Gesa's pages end and she overlaps slightly onto my page - just a fragment of the image - I've treated it like the paper game of consequences and continued the marks into my work - but to see the whole pages you'll have to wait until Stephanie gets the book and then I can show you :>)And now I have to go and sort out some room to fit my new plan chest into - I got it from Fre
Fields of Gold. oil in moleskine sketchbook. Vivien BlackburnMy little moleskine before setting off for the moleskine exchange - it's the little concertina one, which I found really tiny to work in.Stephanie has now received it and so I can post the picture here. I've been working in Gesa's book which arrived on Wednesday - her challenge was great fun to work to but I can't show it until it's fini
I'm taking part in 2 sketchbook exchanges and it's fun!1 Moleskine exchange:Gesa Gesa sends her book to me - and it arrived this morning. :>) She's used a really interesting mix of media and integrated them beautifully - something that looks easier to do than it is - relating to the theme for her book ' Lines, Lineages, Linings' with a lovely quote from Nicholas de Stael' a series of discontinous
I continued with rings of asymmetric growth from the origination points, altering which direction the objects grew in. I really like the movement in these and will probably return to this variation of the motif.But the next day I felt like combining circles with ovals, or origination dots with origination lines. The ovals made me think of eye, so I played that up a bit on the next dood
Jerzy Kosinski walked a fine, sometimes blurred, line between bullshitter and storyteller. Kosinski was born Josek Lewinkopf in Poland in 1933. As a child during World War II, he avoided the Nazis by using a false identity. He lived with a Roman Catholic Polish family in eastern Poland under the name, Jerzy Kosinski, an assumed name given to [...]
Nintendo might be the best videogame company on earth, but occasionally they waste some serious opportunities. Like Mario Paint on the DS. It's pleading for it. But Wired's How-To Wiki shows us how to turn it into a sweet digital sketchbook in the meantime with the Colors app. All you need to install it is a <a href="
-Multimedia-Video-Picture-MicroSD/dp/B00161IBOO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&
Mary Bickford Dunn was born in 1898 in Ontario, Canada. After her father died, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister. While working as a secretary, the attactive Marie applied for and landed an acting job at the Hollywood studio owned by Mack Sennett. Sennett dubbed her “the exotic French girl,” and [...]
A sketch of the Leicestershire landscape, fields of rapeseed glowing with their bright yellow flowers against the hazy blue distant hedgerows and woods in the evening light and clouds of cow parsley in the fields edge. Pastel sketch in my new hand made concertina sketchbook. Vivien BlackburnI managed this sketch of the local landscape between classes yesterday. It was early evening and the distant
The expanding circles doodle that I used in Taking a Line for a Walk stuck in my brain so much that I decided to commit an entire moleskine to elaborating and varying the idea. I've never tried to stick with a series that long and this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. The idea is mutating already and I have no idea what the last page in the sketchbook will look like.I began
In the summer of 1961, eighteen-year-old Richard Manuel joined Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, The Hawks, along with Levon Helm on drums, Robbie Robertson on guitar and Rick Danko on bass. Garth Hudson joined the band around Christmas time. After two years, Manuel along with Helm, Robertson, Danko, Hudson and saxophonist Jerry Penfound left Hawkins and [...]
In March 1916, eight-year-old Peg Entwistle came to America with her father and her uncle, both stage actors. In 1922, her father was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Peg and her two half-brothers were taken in by their uncle. 1925 brought Peg her first acting role, a walk-on part in Hamlet. This led to the [...]
The story of the YFZ (Yearn for Zion) isolated compound in Texas has been front and center in the news for the past few weeks. One of the most intriguing parts of this story is the women of the community. Since the first pictures of the women surfaced, I know I have been fascinated by their [...]
Slice of life at its finest. As Lucky Star was ending, a friend and I went looking through the Fall 2007 lineup to see what series would be best to replace it in terms of random, simple “it’s funny because it’s true” humor. Based on the blurbs we read about sketchbook we felt confident it [...]
Born Albert Van Ecke in Brooklyn, New York, Albert Dekker made his professional acting debut with a Cincinnati stock company in 1927. Within a few months, Dekker was featured on Broadway.
Dekker moved to Hollywood in 1937, and made his first film, The Great Garrick. He returned to the stage and replaced Lee J. Cobb as [...]
“She left her home one morning/For her school not far away./And no one dreamed that danger/Was lurking near that day”
On December 15, 1927, Marion Parker, the 12-year-old daughter of Perry Parker, a prominent banker in Los Angeles, was abducted from her school. Nineteen-year-old Edward Hickman showed up at the school Marian attended with her twin [...]
Born Harriet Shapiro on July 9, 1927 in Boston, Susan Cabot grew up shuffled between 8 foster homes. She developed an interest in acting and singing – performing evenings at Manhattan’s Village Barn. A film career seemed destined when the nightclub singer appeared in the 1947 film Kiss of Death with Colleen Gray and Victor [...]
This award winning short film was written, directed and animated by Tony White who is known for his versatility and range of styles, way back in 1978. His career includes twenty years at Animus Productions/Entertainments as president and founder, seven years at Richard Williams Animation Limited as personal assistant to Richard Williams on A Christmas Carol (Academy Award), five years at Halas and Batchelor as Head of Design, Director, Designer, Animator of numerous projects such as the animated tv series Jackson Five and Tomfoolery, various commercials and short films.The film brings to life the worlds of Japanese ukiyo master, Katsushika Hokusai (best known for his iconic The Great Wave). Hokusai's work is so pervasive in Japanese culture that you can still see it influencing today's ar
Two views from Circular Quay
- Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Ferries (pencil, 8" x 11")
- Sydney Opera House from Wolfie's (coloured pencils, 8" x 11")
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
My new series on Travels with a Sketchbook in Australia has started over on my other blog, Travels with a Sketchbook in......
My sister Helen lives in Australia and in 1997 I visited her and her husband Phil
Two views from Circular Quay
- Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Ferries (pencil, 8" x 11")
- Sydney Opera House from Wolfie's (coloured pencils, 8" x 11")
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
My sister Helen lives in Australia and in 1997 I visited her and her husband Phil and my 'soon to be three' niece Kate in Sydney, the largest city in Australia and the capital of New South Wales.
Making a
Two more of my book reviews for The Big Drawing Book Review. These two are about books which provide advice on developing an artist's sketchbook. They adopt a different approach to looking at how an artist approaches choosing and using a sketchbook. Both will be of particular interest to those who use watercolour.
Describing how you produced a sketch shouldn't be difficult for most artists
Lots of my sketches on my travels end up being done in restaurants, cafes and tea rooms. One day I may do a book.........
In the meantime, this summary post lists all the sketches by title, with their locations. I've organised it geographically in case anybody else fancies having a go at sketching the same view.
I'm also planning to post more of my sketches in various restaurants and other
Click for clearer image and to enlarge:
The vase and carnations on the left is gouache, and the other sketches are watercolor. These sketches from the past few days have been done in a Hand Book Journal, sold by Dick Blick and other art stores. The paper is very thick and holds up to water media quite well.
Click image to enlarge:
From time to time, I really enjoy doing more sketchbook work while I shift gears. These are both watercolor sketches.
Now that plein air season is coming to a close, I’m exploring other possibilities for winter subject matter. I’m excited about diving back into portraiture and figure drawing. I’m also getting ready for my North Salem show. Today I pulled out a lot of my paintings from the area and started sifting through to decide what will go into the show and what I won’t have room for. I’ve got to start varnishing soon and selecting frames…like tomorrow!
Hace unos días la gente de Frozen-Layer Fansub estreno nueva serie, Sketchbook, no la eh visto todavía pero párese esta buena.La serie se basa en la vida diaria de Sora, la protagonista que se la pasa dibujando en todas partes, es una obra de Totan Kobato, cuanta con 13 capítulos de los cuales ya están para descargar 3 por torrent ingresando Aca!
Street Sketchbook: Inside the Journals of International Street and Graffiti Artists
I can honestly tell you I was never a fan of graffiti, like any art-form there is good art and there is bad art. Now graffiti falls into that category also. I would not be a happy camper to be the recipient of scribbled lettering on my building. However, walking and driving upon my fair city I came across some interesting pieces of art on buildings that were given free reign by the owner of edifice. Then as I travel through the hi-way, there are many fly by night spray painters who scrawl etchings of distorted lettering that make no sense. As you comb through the cities in most North American cosmopolitans you will find some interesting pieces of art as collected by the latest book from Chronicle Books about the art and the culprits, I mean artists. You will find something of interest for all, just make sure your local city counsellors or authorities don’t get a copy, maybe they’ll bo
digital images and photograph copyright Vivien Blackburn I should be getting on with the paintings of C0rnwall in progress and maybe be working on the waterways project - but I'm always juggling lots at once and I wanted to carry on with these digital images I've been working on.They've been in and out of Corel Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop and I couldn't tell you exactly what I've done to them! They started life as photos, close ups of flowers - the rest is layers, filters, cropping, adjusting colour and contrast and levels and .................. ......... etc etc etc!I'll upload some of these to my Imagekind account I think and will also give some thought to developing paintings from them. Some would work fantastically well in watercolour - if I'm good enough, not sure if I am though. They would involve careful layering and patience and that isn't something I'm strong on. I'll also try some in mixed media on canvas. I think they'd work really well in those
Not surprisingly journal keepers have specific material requirements about their supplies....avid journalers are on the brink of being book fetishists, collecting jounals on trips and receiving them as gifts. They can recite names of companies that produce blank books the way people know wines or shoe labels (care for a Daler Rowney?) and are on more than nodding terms with a wide array of pens
Fish! Supper
11.5" x 17", pen and ink in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
Last Friday I started a new 'big' sketchbook and this was the very first sketch - a double page spread drawn in pen and ink.
I have 'a thing' about the first sketch in a new sketchbook. I have to try and set the tone by making sure it is a good one and if possible I like it to be a challenge as well.
Sketchbook’s homepage has a preview video up, though it’s quite hard to find (it’s a white rectangular icon with black text near the top of the page) It wouldn’t play at the correct speed on my computer (>_<) but I still managed to enjoy it and realize some things:
"Leaves from a Sketchbook"
- a view of part of the exhibition at the Bankside Gallery
Yesterday I visited the current exhibition at The Bankside Gallery. "Leaves from a sketchbook" shows how work progresses from the sketch to completed artwork - as print or watercolour painting and as exemplified by the working processes of members of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers or the Royal
This post is going to link to all the posts I've previously written about assembling a tool kit for sketching plein air.
First off, everybody's idea of what they need is different - there is no one right answer. You need to experiment to find out what works for you. Different circumstances also require different kits - you need to think about where and how long you will have to carry yout kit
Early Morning Garden. Watercolour, sketchbook.Out and about early this morning I snatched a moment to doodle the morning garden just as it emerged from the shadows with the first rays of the day catching the tops of the lavenders. Tall verbena flowers nod on delicate stalks like wandering sprits in the gloom. The air is already warm and scented with the heady notes of sweet peas and honeysuckle. Have a good weekend.
