Creative colour… sketching with brush pens


On Monday I enjoyed a few hours sketching and walking at Thornham, north Norfolk. It had been a few months since I'd last sketched here and this time I'd decided to try out a batch of newly acquired Pentel brush pens, which are convenient to pack and use. With a small clip on metal dipper filled with water, I was able to achieve some of the wet-in-wet effects I like to play with. I love their versatility so I'll definitely be packing the brush pens on my next sketching holiday.

Because the colours I'd bought were limited (vibrant pink, bright yellow!) it forced imaginative use of what I had with me, but the resulting quick brightly coloured sketches of the beach, for me, more effectively captures the heat, the warm wind and the liveliness of the waves.

No photos this time, I took my camera but halfway along the walk discovered I'd forgotten the batteries!

Below are studies I made of light-filled creeks in the marsh from the sea defences, before the tide went out, with water soluble graphite pencil and with the brush pens again. Some sea lavender still bloomed.

from Venice to London…

I’m off to London by train tomorrow to deliver these 3 recent paintings for final judging for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Exhibition 2017 at the Mall Galleries, London.

I was fortunate to get 2 through the final selection last year (which I wrote about in this post), so I’m delighted to have had 3 through the preselection process this year. These are from my current series of works inspired by the Venetian lagoon and its islands. You can see others in the series on my website here.

Wish me luck!

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‘Neither land nor sea’, water-based mixed media on board. © Mari French 2017.

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‘The crossing’, water-based mixed media on board. © Mari French 2017.

'Resonance', water-based mixed media on board. © Mari French 2017.

‘Resonance’, water-based mixed media on board. © Mari French 2017.

 

splashes and scribbles …

Experimental studies © Mari French 2017Recent markmaking and loosening up exercises helped me get back into painting after limited studio time over the new year, and overcome the dreaded artist’s block. The result was these little studies in acrylic and ink on paper. I used just 3 colours (plus white), watching the interesting colour mixes emerge. 

By working on a group of smallish papers fixed close together I could use big gestures to make the marks, skipping from one to the other with my implements or media as instinct took over. The trick with this method of loosening up is not to think too much about what you’re doing.

It’s great playing around like this and it does seem to feed into later work in certain ways. Above I’ve used everything from eyedroppers, ink pencils and several types of brush to fingers and the side of my hand to push and pull the paint around, scribing into it with the end of a small paintbrush.

Tonal values experimental study © Mari French 2017

Tonal values experimental study © Mari French 2017

I then did something similar but on a larger sheet and just using monochrome acrylic paint/ink to practice tonal values. (Above). These are great warm up exercises to get you going and deal with artists block. 

Experimental study (detail) © Mari French 2017

Experimental study (detail) © Mari French 2017

Experimental study (detail) © Mari French 2017