A word from Alice - studio stories from Alice Draws the Line – Tagged "Sketchbook"– Alice Draws The Line

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A word from Alice - studio stories from Alice Draws the Line

  • Apples for breakfast

    by Alice Savery

    Sometimes something will catch my eye, and that’s it I’m completely distracted and focussed only on that. This happened this week. You may remember me saying that I have apple trees in my garden? 

    In the autumn there were so many apples that I had to keep clearing them from the lawn, and so I rolled them (as I if was playing lawn bowls) onto the ‘will-be-veg-patch/flower-bed’.

    In the cold snap this week the birds (and a squirrel) have been loving the apples that remain. They are nice and soft, and are probably a bit like stewed apple now!

    Posted in apples, Birds, Garden, Sketchbook, Sketching The Seasons

  • Doing the things I like to do

    by Alice Savery
    I recently read how few weeks there are until the end of the year, and how it’s a good idea to make a plan if there are things you want to get done in a set time frame. So I thought about what I’d like to do between now and Christmas and I made a list!

    I thought about what I want to do each week and I wrote out a list. Having it on a piece of paper on my desk is helping me to actually do the things! 
    Posted in Artist’s Date, Sketchbook

  • Under the oak

    by Alice Savery
    This Oak tree made an amazing base to sit at, lean against, and look out through the branches. I really like looking out through a canopy, and especially if there is light behind, playing on the leaves. 
    Posted in Green Sketching, Outdoor sketching, Sketchbook, Sketching The Seasons, Vitamin Tree

  • Holiday cottage views

    by Alice Savery
    Our holiday cottage had decking in the garden with a lovely big table where you could take in the views and plenty of space for a sketchbook!
    This was a graphite sketch during the golden hour on one of the first evenings.
    Posted in Green Sketching, Outdoor sketching, Sketchbook, Sketching

  • Back to Borth beach

    by Alice Savery

    This extract hopefully shows some of the brush marks I was working with. The sky was amazing - blue but with streaks of white wispy clouds. Hard to achieve with watercolour without white or masking fluid, and so I added just the blue for the sky and left out spaces for the white clouds. 

    I was also working with a partially dry brush to try and create the white horses at the shoreline - I started to want to really play with this and develop it - but prolifically filling pages and stopping them blow away in the middle of a birthday picnic didn’t feel the right thing to do!

    Posted in Beach, Borth, Outdoor sketching, Sketchbook, Sketching

  • A Robin for company

    by Alice Savery

    At the start of the year I met up with my friend Kath (The Walking Sketchbook) to sketch outdoors. We had the brilliant idea to put another date in the diary to make sure we made it a regular thing. 

    This week we met up again. I was lucky enough to meet Kath’s Robin - a beautiful feathered friend that regularly comes to find her when she is out locally. The Robin likes to sit near Kath when she creates and this time the Robin came to see what I was up to too!

    Posted in Green Sketching, Outdoor sketching, Robin, Sketchbook

  • A rainy Vitamin Tree adventure

    by Alice Savery
    It was a really rainy outing this one! I met my friend Kath for a catch up and we went first to Park Wood at Hergest Croft and then back up through the gardens to the tea room. But actually, sheltered under an Oak tree it was lovely to sit with a coffee and a biscuit or two. This is my enamel bug mug design which you can find in the shop here.
    Posted in Green Sketching, Outdoor sketching, Sketchbook, Vitamin Tree

  • Pigeons...

    by Alice Savery

    Look at all these pigeons I spotted in Barmouth yesterday. All on the railway bridge.

    We hadn't parked for long enough for me to sketch them there and then, and so today I drew four from the photographs I took instead.

    I started with black ink - mixing it with water for the initial layer. Later adding colour pencils, white dry pastel, silver ink and charcoal pencil as well as black and grey brush pens.

    Posted in Black ink, Drawing a Day, Follow the whispers, Sketchbook

  • Bluebells and Cow Parsley

    by Alice Savery

    I spotted my first bluebell of the year a couple of weeks ago. Six days ago I returned to see how they were getting on and there were many more appearing.

    This morning I went to find them before opening up the studio. 

    There is a carpet of blue now! 

    I paused for a minute and did some quick studies in the A6 sketchbook I'd put in my coat pocket.

    Posted in bluebells, Nature connection, Outdoor sketching, Sketchbook, Sketching, Sketching The Seasons

  • A day at the beach

    by Alice Savery

    Last week I had a day at the beach with my cousin. Despite heavy drizzle when we left Herefordshire we had a dry day at the coast, with a bit of sunshine for an added bonus!

    We picnicked at Borth beach - and I sketched

    Posted in Alice Draws The Line, Drawing a Day, Outdoor sketching, Seaside, Sketchbook, Sketching

  • A Creative Adventure with The Walking Sketchbook

    by Alice Savery
    So far this year I have done quite a lot of very neat, considered work. Yesterday I went on a creative adventure with my friend Katherine Owen (aka The Walking Sketchbook) and it was the perfect way to mix up my creativity. 
     
    We had the date in the diary for weeks and I was really looking forward to getting outside and sketching somewhere on location.
    Posted in Drawing a Day, Green Sketching, Nature connection, Outdoor sketching, Seasons, Sketch Across The World, Sketchbook, Sketching, Sketching The Seasons

  • It started with a New Year's Resolution...

    by Alice Savery

    'It started with a New Year's resolution...'

    Someone asked me how Alice Draws the Line began recently and this was my response. And it's true, in 2008 I made a New Year's resolution to do a drawing a day in a sketchbook. I missed a few days but I did it, a directly observed sketch for the year.

    Posted in About Alice, Alice Draws The Line, Sketchbook