A Doodle A Day

The Bartimaeus Trilogy

Today's quick scribble comes courtesy of idly doodling something based on the cover illustration by David Wyatt for The Amulet of Samarkand the first book in the The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Obviously I would think he took a little more time over his illustration than the half an hour I was idly moving the pen around the paper as a break from reading the second book in the trilogy.

I could be described as a voracious reader and cannot pass a book shop without entering to browse with the inevitable result that I always leave with new books to join the soon to be read pile. I totally loose myself in books. I find it very difficult to put a book down once I have started reading and while those pages are open I am totally immersed in the characters, time, place and situation of that book.

I still find myself delighted by children's books. In adventures and worlds inhabited by demons, vampires, dragons and the whole host of characters that constitute the world of fantasy literature. Yup, I am still pretty much a big kid. Out of this years kids reads there are a number of books that stand out as great reads: The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness - Wolf Brother and Spirit Walker by Michelle Paver,  Dragon Rider, Inkheart and in the to be read pile Inkspell by Cornelia Funk, Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini, The Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill. The latest read has been the first two books in The Bartimaeus Trilogy - The Amulet of Samarkand and The Golem's Eye with the third book Ptolemy's gate sitting in the to be read pile as the next read once I have finished the last few pages in The Golem's Eye.

The books in The Bartimaeus Trilogy have proved to be very hard to put down. Set in a modern day but Dickenesque feeling world with the upper classes and society dominated and ruled by wizards and the lower classes consisting of anyone without magical ability. Unlike the world of Harry Potter though this is a wizard class whose source of power rests in the ability to summon demons through rituals to do their bidding. A world of internal struggle and maneuvers in the halls of government and of struggle to overcome oppression in the world of the commoners. A world of international power plays and empire, history having been shaped by the governments with the most powerful wizards and powerful demons to carry out their bidding. The sarcastic rhetoric of Bartimaeus captured as foot notes directed as a one to one conversation with the reader is a great touch to an already great read. The only shame is the lack of illustrations. These books cry out for and would lend themselves so well to ink illustrations. The kind of Illustrations that grace the pages of The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. Yes I am biased, to me there is nothing that can better fine ink illustrations, I grew up reading books graced with them and still search out books that contain them.

Anyway, that is a long enough post the gist of which was go read the Bartimaeus Trilogy and someone tell Jonathan Stroud that the books need re-releasing with illustrations!

The Technical Bit.

Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper.

Illustration Friday - Broken

I haven't participated in Illustration Friday for some weeks now so time to put that right.

The topic this week is 'Broken'. I was tidying up a drawer and flicked through one of the sketch books and happened upon a little ink doodle from last year and decided that the subject would suit this topic and so I spent half an hour creating this ink doodle based upon it.

It's that childhood moment when you find out that thing that means that Christmas will never be the same again, when that little bit of magic gets broken and something of childhood is lost for ever.

The Technical Bit.

Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper.

Dull

A very quick watercolour doodle of the Cathedral against the rainy overcast evening sky.

I am not sure if the weather is reflecting my mood or if my mood is reflecting the weather but either way around it all seems pretty dull to me!

The Technical Bit.

Artists Watercolour on 300g/m Not Watercolour Paper.

Something old

Someone a little while back I think mentioned this little pastel from the sidebar.

So as I haven't had the opportunity to doodle for the past couple of days I thought I would do the cop out of 'here is one I did earlier' but this time around with a slightly better photograph.

It is rather a strange one really, but there is something that looking back at it does appeal to me. I do like the quality of soft pastels, but hate the dust and mess!

The Technical Bit.

Artists Soft Pastels on Ingres Pastel Paper.

Too dark to doodle

I guess there are various ways people while away the hours in hotels when away on business, me I tend to read or doodle.

Of course at this time of year it is now dark before I can get the chance to do any sketching and it was a case of either sketching people in the bar or maybe finding a photograph on the laptop which I could use for a quick sketch or, sketch the room or something in the room. While the latter might not be that interesting a thing to do it was my choice for tonight as I didn't really fancy sitting down in the bar and I prefer not to sketch from photographs.

I was surprised to hear today that one of my colleagues who knows I have this site and that I doodle told a couple of his fellow team members about the site and showed it to them.  It just isn't something that I would expect to come up in conversation. I also tend to forget that 99% of the people I work with and know have no idea that I used to be an artist and that I worked as an artist and studio manager within publishing and as a creative within advertising agencies for many years before moving into other publishing related areas and finally into Information technology within publishing. I guess it is a bit of a surprise to realise that you know very little about the people you work with.

The Technical Bit.

Artists Watercolour on 300g/m Rough Watercolour Paper.

St Chads WC

A quick little watercolour doodle of the church from the ink doodle of a couple of days ago.

I was planning to create more of a distance view with more lake and less church. More of a silhouette on the horizon kind of affair with the addition of a couple of little sailing craft the like of which a few years ago you would have seen bobbing about on this stretch of water. I recently found out why the little sail boats aren't there any longer, the sailing club closed down a while back for some reason or other.

However for some reason I went in closer and found it quite hard to keep the simplicity while suggesting the form, especially in the tower section which started to look like a faceless monolith. This is one of the reasons watercolour frustrates me, I just can't seem to keep the watercolour translucent and simple and create a pleasing image. I did manage to stick to five colours though, Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ochre, French Ultramarine, Sap Green and Burnt Umber. For a while it was just four colours but in the end I needed the Umber as well. That is a result for me, in other mediums I happily use very few colours and mix everything, with watercolour I normally hate mixing and use far too many tubes of colour as, well the only thing that it is easier to mix mud with than with watercolour is earth and water. Of course the less base colours you use the more coherant the painting so I have hiden all those tubes of colours away in order to try and behave. Anyway apart from a little frustration it was mainly fun to do and I will crack quick doodles with these dam watercolours....just maybe not today.

The Technical Bit.

Artists Watercolour on 300g/m Rough Watercolour Paper.

Moonlight

Remember Moonlight (rough) from a few weeks back?

No? OK then. Well a few weeks back I posted a rough Ink doodle of an idea called Moonlight following on from a previous Pen and Ink Drawing Dreamers. Anyway my better half rather liked the Moonlight doodle and would mention it from time to time and so for her birthday which was today I spent a little time turning it into a simple larger Acrylic on Canvas painting.

Even though it is a relatively small canvas at 24" x 20" (60cm x 50cm) it was a bit of a problem as the space I work in isn't geared up for anything larger than a large watercolour pad or sketch pad, which probably explains why I haven't worked with my Acrylics for a while now 42nd Street being the last Acrylic which is still sitting there unfinished. I'm not sure that painting with the canvas propped up on your lap is the best way to paint!

The Technical Bit.

Artists Heavybody Acrylic on Canvas 24" x 20".

Less is more

I mentioned a couple of days ago that Watercolour and I do not get along. Give me Pen and Ink, Pencil, Acrylics, Gouache, Pastels and the world is good, give me watercolour and dire things happen which is a shame as they are highly portable, ideal for on the spot quick paintings and, well, I like the look of watercolour.

I was thumbing through one of the little watercolour primers tonight written by Alan Crawshaw and thinking how overly simple and a little childish the example watercolours were when I realised that rather than being overly simple and childish it was my approach to the medium that was wrong. I realised that the little paintings with the simplest of colours and simplest and minimum of brush marks portrayed their subjects with ease letting the eye create the complexity of the objects within and that the beauty came from that extreme simplicity. I always fail because I try to use watercolour as I would say use Acrylic. The reality it seems to me looking tonight is that with watercolour it is what you don't paint that is far more important than what you do paint. The less you paint onto that paper the more effective the painting.

I also realised that that was what I wanted to be able to do with watercolour, to be able to create very quick little watercolour doodles that just capture the essence of a scene. Scanning through the pages I found a little example of a sailboat race which reminded me of the small craft that could always been seen on Stowe Pool on the weekends and I used it as the basis for a very quick 5 minute watercolour. I found that a 5 minute little doodle with the minimum of marks on the paper and nothing actually painted everything just suggested by the merest of brush marks was far more pleasing to my eye in its simplicity than anything I normally produce on my rare watercolour attempts. Who knows, now the light bulb has been switched on in my head that very little is a great deal when it comes to this medium, I may actually be able to start to use it. Then again pigs might fly.

The Technical Bit.

Artists Watercolour on 300g/m Rough Watercolour Paper.

St Chads Church

Back to the pen and ink doodles for this one you will be glad to see I think.

This is a quick little doodle of St Chads Church in my home town which nestles on the far end of Stowe pool the opposite end of the pool being dominated by the Cathedral beyond the small field which runs down to the pool.

St Chads, the earliest parts dating back to the 12th century with modifications over the following centuries, and the 18th Century Stowe House make a very picturesque backdrop nestled in the trees and reflected in the water at the far end of Stowe Pool.

The Technical Bit.

Fountain Pen on Cartridge Paper.

Reflections

Watercolour Paint £3.95 a tube. Brush £12. Watercolour Block £11.95. Only liking the bottom half of the painting.. Priceless. For everything else there's MasterCard!

If you don't have that series of MasterCard adverts in the US or Australia or wherever you are, then .. A post that makes no sense.. Doubly Priceless!

And finally just because I hated the autumnal trees that were originally in the top half of this little watercolour doodle, a quick little woodland watercolour doodle with NO autumn colours and reminiscent of the small wood in the grounds of a nearby church, minus the gravestones that nestle in now semi overgrown woodland. Oh, and the abundance of squirrels that scamper around them and shoot up the tree trunks when you walk past.

The Technical Bit.

Artists Watercolour on 200lb Not Watercolour Paper.