Goldfinch Sketch in Watercolour pencils

Sketch painting of a goldfinch bird using watercolour pencils

A little family of 5 goldfinches were feeding and exploring outside my window this morning. They were rummaging around in some rough ground, one was outside my window playing peek-a-boo. They’re small birds but you can see they have a lot of attitude. They wandered around for a few minutes then as a group they just walked off round the corner. I managed to get a photograph of one finch and drew a quick sketch with watercolour pencils.

Sketch painting of a goldfinch bird using watercolour pencils
Goldfinch sketch with watercolour pencils

Painting Apple Blossom with Lily

A small dog sits alongside a sketchpad with a painting of some apple blossom

My dogs are usually nearby when I’m drawing or painting. I make a cuppa, they get some chews and we all settle down together. I have dog beds all around the desk so my feet are always cosy. Sally also pokes her way onto the seat behind me. And sometimes Lily gets on the desk. There is a lot of mischief at first – Lily likes to play with my stuff, flinging the odd pen or bit of paper. Then she’ll settle down for a snuggle and look out the window.

So here we have a work in progess shot with Lily “supervising”

A small dog sits alongside a sketchpad with a painting of some apple blossom
Lily supervises my painting of some apple blossom.

And here’s the finished picture.

Watercolour painting of some apple blossom
Apple blossom in watercolour

The iRat

Cartoon of a rat dragging a toy rat onto a charging pad. Drawn in ink with watercolour pencil. A6 sized.

For an art theme of energy, I present the iRat. A rat grimly struggles to drag his battery-powered mate onto the charging pad for a re-charge.

You could read all sorts into this – maybe I was trying to say something about Apple device battery issues, or predicting some grim society where even the rats need a virtual buddy. Truth is, I just had this image pop into my head with a rat dragging his mate by the tail, started laughing and doodled it.

This is a tiny A6 sketch using watercolour pencils and ink on some card. The colours came out softer than I’d have liked, but they still work.

Cartoon of a rat dragging a toy rat onto a charging pad. Drawn in ink with watercolour pencil. A6 sized.
iRat – a rat grimly drags his mate onto the charging pad. A6 watercolour pencil on card.

Happy little shelves

Illustration of two shelves with books and assorted cute decorations.
Illustration of two shelves with books and assorted cute decorations.
Bookshelf watercolour illustration (A5)

The walls round my desk are painted in a colour perfectly named “happy yellow”.  I have some lovely shelves stained dark and covered in books, notebooks, many bottles of ink, paint and other goodies. They’re just above my computer so I rearrange things and change what’s on display to keep it interesting. Some things are there to make me smile, my supplies are close and lure me to play. There are books I want to read and a backlog of journals and notebooks remind me to write too.

Sliding Scale of Cat Stability

Illustration of a cat sliding off a table with a sliding scale noting th different expressions as it falls.

An A5 watercolour cartoon illustration. That moment when your cat suddenly realises it didn’t quite manage to jump onto the table. You see a range of expressions followed by the denial face as they swiftly exit the scene.

Illustration of a cat sliding off a table with a sliding scale noting th different expressions as it falls.
Sliding Scale of Cat Stability. A5 watercolour.

“Nigel hasn’t been the same since he visited the bat colony”

Three little birds cartoon

I sketched the idea for this cartoon a while ago, and thought it would be fun to work it into a cartoon illustration. After playing with different pencil sketches of the composition, I simplified my doodle and the final composition focuses right in on the birds.

I haven’t used fine liners for inking before, I prefer brush and nib strokes, but it’s fun to play with a different outline style.

Squirrels

Sketch of a squirrel eating, pencil on A5 paper

Two more drawings from my sketch book. The first was a close up of a squirrel eating. Around here the squirrels seem to divide their time between eating food, burying food, performing acrobatics to acquire food and playing daredevil with other squirrels and cats. Probably trying to guard their food!  I wish these were red squirrels but I find it hard to dislike grey squirrels in London, they are such entertaining little creatures. Especially when they perform acrobatics above our garden at full speed.

A squirrel eating, pencil sketch on A5 paper
A squirrel eating, pencil sketch on A5 paper