Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
We met at Mercury Plaza last Saturday for the monthly Urban Sketchers meet. Meeting inside a warm food hall was a good choice given the storm raging outside!
I immediately started drawing with my Noodlers fountain pen, but the ink ran out. Thankfully Esther lent me her Parka pen and I soon discovered that the ink was water soluble. Rather than apply watercolour over the lineowork, I started blocking in tones with a wet water brush - this activates the ink and lets you add tone. A bit unpredictable but quite a loose and fun process.
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