Moleskine Exchange update

Well, now I can show the drawing I did in Brian's moley.

With my recent pastel paintings of Donegal, I thought that I should share my favourite part of the world with my fellow moley exchangers.

I was wary of using pastels in the moley as the pages don't have a lot of "tooth" although Brian's pastels were lovely and he managed with the lack of tooth. I thought that I would use my watercolour pencils, which work well on the moley pages. I was pleased that I got quite a watercolour effect, by using a damp brush over areas of my drawing.

Now I'm excitedly waiting for Lindsay's moley to drop through my letterbox.

Same subject, slightly different media

I love pencils (actually I'm a bit of a tart when it comes to pencils) and a few years ago I bought some Derwent Drawing pencils.

I thought they were lovely, soft creamy leads, easy to sharpen and a range of soft subtle colours. However, I didn't use them much, so I've tried them on Ingres paper using my Donegal photos for inspiration.

I have to say, after using soft pastels, these pencils are a bit of a disappointment, I'm afraid the colours just don't cut it with me . I can't even use pastels on top of them, they leave a waxy film on the paper.

That'll teach me to not be so promiscious in my pencil purchasing.

More fun!

These soft pastels are rather addictive.

I love the fact that you can keep "the big picture"(no pun intended) in view and not fiddle and footer about with details. I can't wait to get back to Donegal after working on these scenes. Not long now, I'm due to head up there in about seven weeks.

What fun!

Although watercolours are my all time favourite medium along with watercolour pencils. I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying using soft pastels.

I like the way they force me to not fuss with details, but to get shapes and tones down straight away. I also like the way they can be blended or you can use broken colour to get the colours you want. I love the speed with which you can get a reasonably finished looking result.

These are my first three attempts.

New project

Since embarking on the Moleskine Exchange, I have thoroughly enjoyed the blogs of my fellow moly exchange group. So much so that I have decided to try using pastels, because I've noticed that the others use them.

I have gained much useful information from both Brian's and Casey's blogs (Thank-you guys!), so check them out if you are interested in pastels.

I got two sets of soft pastels the other day and an Ingres sketch book, I chose pre-selected sets as I didn't really know what tints to get. You will notice from the photos that I got a landscape set and a portrait set. So I dug out some photographs I took in Donegal last summer and I plan to use them as a starting point for some small pastel paintings, just to get me started!

The moly has arrived!

David received my moly yesterday, so now I can show my first drawing for the moly exchange.

My first drawing for the moly exchange.

I've just finished my drawing for the Moleskine Exchange International. I will not show the drawing until David, who is the next person on the list gets my sketchbook. My plein air painting companion Hamish has to give it the once over first.