Sketchbook Pages - Observational Drawing

I have a few pages from my school sketchbook.  We have been doing some work to develop observational and secondary drawing skills.

So we have been drawing something that I actually dislike doing.....buildings!

There was a trip to Truro which I did not go on as it clashed with another class but where there is a will there is a way....photos were used instead for me.

Please bear with me but I am prepared to bear all (from my sketchbook that is...)

I hope that you can see this but I decided to add photos and blend them in with my drawings.  I have done this with other projects and it is a little thing that I like to do.  It gets me into the flow of what I am doing.  Sections were drawn first with lines and tone in pencil.  I have been using a graphite stick.

Moved on to larger sections of the building.

Line and tone on the same drawing to show the differences.  These pages are part of my lesson planning so that the students can see what they should be aiming for.

Sections were then taken and re-arranged to form a more abstract appearance.  Sections that the drawer likes.  Some basic colour added again taking line and tone into account.

Developed those ideas with more shading, line and tone.

Experimental page.  Love doing these, just playing around to see what you end up with.

I then moved on to the final drawing....more on that tomorrow I need to take another picture of it.  Dull days are not great for pictures are they?

I really have enjoyed coming up with these pages, at the moment my sewing machine has quite a bit of competition from my sketchbooks!

xx

Watercolours.....Edited on Sunday

What do you think of these watercolour paintings?
Back later, we are putting some flooring down in the hallway.

xx

Added on 8th March 2009

Well, the hall floor is nearly finished, just a couple of things to do to complete it. Hubby and Sophie have just gone to B&Q to get some beading to go round the edge where the floor is not quite square and there are gaps.

Last Sunday I planted some polyanthus and it has done nothing but rain ever since, so sorry folks I think it is my fault that there rain has been ceaseless this week.

As for the paintings above, well I painted them! Shocked yes? We have various sessions that we could sign up for at school and I wanted to see how this media could be used in the classroom. I already use it for designing but you never know. I had no idea what I would be asked to do and when we were shown the examples I thought the chap leading the session was a bit over optimistic but they turned out better than I thought. I have experience in fashion illustration, but to try and paint a landscape was completely new to me. They actually look better here than in the flesh really but here you can see what they look like before I cropped them to frame better to neaten them up. Surprising how it made such a difference.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. PS. It seems very quiet in Blog land at the moment. Have you noticed it too?
xx