Drawing outside - in the parkland

This was another sketch-outing with Katherine Owen (The Walking Sketchbook). We had planned to meet somewhere to draw the previous week, but Storm Eunice appeared and scuppered that plan. 

This outing was just up into Brampton Bryan Parkland, on the Herefordshire Way footpath, not far from my studio.

It was cold but there was a bit of February sunshine which was lovely when out of the breeze.

We had lunch and a natter before both getting engrossed in our separate things. 

As per usual, 2 hours vanished and we both had some creations to go home with.

You can see Kath's creations here on Instagram.

This is the kit I took with me on this outing. I wore waterproof trousers to try and keep me warm as the breeze was quite cold. They ground was also damp! The little seating mat is perfect and lives in my drawing backpack (when it's not drying out!). An A3 clipboard, some postcard size pieces of paper fastened with masking tape, an A3 sketchbook. Then some black ink and water. A range of pens and paintbrushes, my small watercolour set and some colour pencils - which I didn't actually get around to using - time went too quickly.

I liked the idea of doing a series of small drawings and so taped three bits of paper to the same board so that I could do this easily and not have to wait for pages to dry before turning sketchbook pages etc.  

I started by sketching the cedar and the view, just quickly in black pen and an inky wash.

I then drew this fallen branch -in the background. I think it looks like a Komodo dragon and it makes me smile whenever I walk past it, so I drew it.

I then started working on this one. Truthfully I could have probably spent another hour working away on it but we'd decided a time that we would pack up by and this is where I got to with it. It was really useful at reminding me how long a bigger, more detailed landscape could take. I loved playing around with different pens here, and am keen to keep playing with other mediums to fill in expanses of colour - bolder colour. Perhaps brush pens, coloured pencils, or pastels... I'll have to experiment with these next time.

Kath has now announced the date for Sketch Across the World 2022 - do pop over to her website to find out how you can join in!