Sketch Diary: Tilly the Guide Dog Puppy

Goodness it's been a long time since I posted on my blog! My time has been taken up with a few commissions and teaching my class, but mostly with this gorgeous bundle of fluff. She brings me such joy, as well as incredible frustration and the odd expletive...it's a good job I have an almost limitless supply of patience.

Tilly's first weeks with me are documented here

Rather than overload you with with months worth of sketches I'll go easy on you and upload them a few at a time (but if you can't wait and want to catch them all now you can head over to my facebook album here).

Here are weeks 13 to 19...

Tutorial: Norbert Goenuette's The Boulevard de Clichy under Snow, 1875/6

Famous Paintings in Miniature number 7: Norbert Goenuette's The Boulevard de Clichy under Snow, 1875/6

In this tutorial I show you how to recreate this famous painting in miniature for your dolls house or miniature collection.

Tutorial: Monet's Waterlilies 1916-1926

Famous Paintings in Miniature Number 6: Monet's Waterlilies

In this, the sixth in my famous paintings in miniature series, I will be showing you how to recreate Monet's Waterlilies, 1916-1926

Tilly the Guide Dog Puppy

On the 15th of November I became a Guide Dog Puppy Walker - which means that I get the pleasure of caring for a small black labrador puppy until she becomes a large black labrador adolescent of around 12 to 14 months. I have to teach Tilly the ways of the world, make her as bomb proof as I can, and cover off her basic training before she goes on to Guide Dog School. I tell you, it's a steep learning curve for the both of us!

Along the way I shall be recording our journey in a little sketchbook. Here are the first few pages...

Tutorial: Kandinsky's Swinging Schaukeln 1925 in Miniature

Famous Paintings in Miniature Number 5: Kandinsky's Swinging Schaukeln 1925  

In this, the fifth in my famous paintings in miniature series, I will be showing you how to recreate  Kandinsky's "Swinging" or "Schaukeln" 1925. 

Sketch diary: Holiday in Konstanz

My daughter Kit needs to decide whether to spend her 3rd year of her university life in Konstanz or Berlin. She's already been to Berlin so we thought it would be a good idea to go and check out Konstanz. And of course it was a great excuse for a holiday! 


It is so unbelievably beautiful at Bodensee (the German/Swiss/Austrian name for Lake Constance).Here are some sketches from our holiday with shockingly bad text by an enthusiastic German learner (ME!). I hope you like them...

Holiday in Konstanz 2016

Tuesday
The Journey 30.08.16
by taxi from Aughton to Manchester
by plane from Manchester to Stuttgart
by train
     from Stuttgart to Rohr
     from Rohr to Böblingen
     from Böblingen to Singen
     from Singen to Konstanz

               Ten hours later we arrive!

Melting White Nights Watercolour - a story of Cerulean Blue

I wasn't intending to write a review of St Petersburg White Night paints as I only have one, but I'm so dismayed by it that I simply had to tell you guys about it.

Picture the scene: it was a gorgeous summer's day, I had an errand or two to run and then I was free for a couple of hours. Great! I packed my watercolours, paper, waterpots and my new favourite sketching brush (a 5mm flat springy one stroke brush that seems to be able to do everything) and a lovely picnic of cheese, an amazing apple and ginger pickle sauce from my local church and some homemade slaw mmmmm. I stopped in town for less than an hour to do my chores, leaving everything in the car. The sun was shining but this is England right, the cheese will be fine.

After walking up and down the canal for a while I found a perfect spot at Burscough Wharf and set myself up by some empty moorings.

I often start a new sketch by establishing my lines with a yellow sharpie. YIKES I nearly lost half of them in the canal - it's a good job that they float!

Now to open those fabulous watercolours.

Hang on, what's happened, the lid is stuck!

Gently prise it open to find this...