Not so Simple Sketching.

 I bought this old book for £1.50, published 1958.

Sketching may have been simple to L.A. Doust, but it's a challenge to me! 

This was the subject, the week before last, at my drawing class. A basket of cyclamen. 

 l looked at it and thought to myself, how am I ever going to draw that, where do I begin?

 But somehow, once I started I produced something that resembled a basket. 

There's something not right about it and I haven't figured out what it is yet. 

I'd hoped to continue last Thursday but the basket went walkabout.

Instead, my tutor brought in this Aloe in a pot to scare me off drawing even more.

I feel happier with a pencil in my hand, but we are encouraged to use charcoal and I wanted to try it.

 I was given a buff coloured page to draw on.

 But where to begin, I didn't have a clue and I did have a bit of a panic. 

 Anyway, I got started and this was my view of the Aloe plant.

My drawing below after two hours of concentration.

I used charcoal and some shading pastels. 

My tutor talks about dark tones, mid-tones, light tones, but it's all Double Dutch to me.

I was putting in the detail long before I'd done the basics.

I took a photo of the plant so I could finish my drawing at home.

Once I looked at it more closely I began to understand. I could see the dark and light, the reflections in the pot -  but that didn't help me in knowing how to put them in to my drawing.

I wore away my rubber and this is how my drawing looks now.

I needed a new rubber after all that rubbing out and decided we would go in to Belfast at the weekend and have a look in the art shop, Bradbury Graphics, now called 'Bradbury Art' . It was nothing like the shop I remember.

 Then we went to North Street as I'd seen on the internet that there's an art shop there called Ink Monkey. The shutters were down, 2pm closing on a Saturday.

 I was pleased to see the second hand bookshop was still there, but it wasn't as I remembered it either.

I used to pick up some good craft books there.  The first book I bought when I was getting interested in creative embroidery was from there, 'Creative Wall - Hangings & Panels by Audrey Babington.

Now on the shelves it's mostly cross stitch books. I love these bird sketches in my new book.

On the way back to the car we passed St Anne's Cathedral bathed in gold.

Now wouldn't I like the skill to draw that!