Tag Archives: sketchbook

Totnes & Lyme Regis holiday diary, part 6: in which we break everything and go home

This is the very final episode in our Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday. If this is the first page you’ve seen, you probably want to start at part 1, actually.   Ha! I only wrote that page (above) out a few days ago, and several new things have happened in politics. It’s as if someoneContinue reading “Totnes & Lyme Regis holiday diary, part 6: in which we break everything and go home”

Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 5: Beatrix Potter’s windswept hair

This is part 5 of our holiday in Totnes and Lyme Regis. If you haven’t seen prior episodes, you’ll want to begin from the beginning, so start here. We’re nearly at the end of the holiday now: just one more installment after this. As before, click on any image and then click again to seeContinue reading “Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 5: Beatrix Potter’s windswept hair”

Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 4: cows, worms, moles & other animals

The image at the top of this post is a happy accident which happened on Photoshop, as I was trying to clean up the picture of the bookshop that appears in the third page below. I like it better than the actual painting, so here it is as a header. Part 1 is here, partContinue reading “Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 4: cows, worms, moles & other animals”

Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 3: my baby steampunk gets a taste of celebrity

This is the third section of a holiday sketch diary covering a week in Devon and Somerset. Part 1 is here; and part 2 is here. Enjoy! Click on the images below, and then click again if you would like to see them at a larger size.   Part 4 is here.

Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 2: otters, steam trains and Ballardian dystopias

This is the second part of a holiday sketch diary in which we stayed in Totnes and Lyme Regis. Probably best not to start on day 2: you can read part 1 here. As ever, click on the images below, and then click again if you would like to see them at a larger size.Continue reading “Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 2: otters, steam trains and Ballardian dystopias”

Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 1: one man and his gluestick

So, here it is! Every time we go on holiday I swear I’m not going to bother with a sketch diary — and every time, I end up spending more time and attention on it. I suppose I have to admit that there’s no escape now. This is what I do. So here’s part 1Continue reading “Totnes and Lyme Regis holiday sketch diary, part 1: one man and his gluestick”

A week in Barcelona, final part: rainbows, closed doors and iconic pavements

Here’s the final pages of my Barcelona sketch diary. You can see part 1 here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. And part 4 is here. As always, click and click again to see each page at a larger size. Now read on…

A week in Barcelona, part 4: giant heads, small press comics, and food colouring

This is part 4. Part 1 is here Part 2 is here Part 3 is here Click each image and then click them again to see them at a larger size. That blue sketchbook ends up being the one I did my Clovember drawings in. Tomorrow: the final installment.

A week in Barcelona, part 3: flea market, Parc Guell and a gypsy’s arm

Click each page and then click again to see bigger. This is part 3 – part one is here and part two is here Tomorrow: an incredible stationery shop and a nice bit of Miró.

A week in Barcelona, part 2: Gaudi, selfie sticks and a rainbow of shoes

Here’s the second installment of our holiday in Barcelona. Part one is here. Click each image and then click again if you’d like to see them in more detail. In case you can’t see that very clearly, I learned that Peppa Pig is Peppa la Cerdita in Spain – Peppa Piggy. Tune in tomorrow forContinue reading “A week in Barcelona, part 2: Gaudi, selfie sticks and a rainbow of shoes”

Madrid/Freedom of Information sketch diary, part one

Did you know that in the UK, as well as in many other countries around the world, you have the right to ask for information from public authorities, and by law they must respond? Wait, you’re thinking, isn’t this a drawing blog? Well yes it is, and hold tight for quite a bit of drawing:Continue reading “Madrid/Freedom of Information sketch diary, part one”

Snippets of conversation overheard on the walk to school

Our daily walk to school takes just ten minutes, during which we join the stream of other parents and kids stomping up the hill. Sometimes—well, quite often—I overhear little bits of conversation. I thought they were quite nice all collected together. That’s all. I almost added a third page, which would be about the conversationsContinue reading “Snippets of conversation overheard on the walk to school”

Drawing everything that was in my daughter’s Christmas stocking

[Click to see larger] Father Christmas did a really good job this year – it’s almost as if he knows my daughter personally. Her stocking contained, amongst plenty of other things: a suffragette brooch, detangler spray for long hair, a glasses case – ideal for this newly-bespectacled girl – and patches spelling out her name.Continue reading “Drawing everything that was in my daughter’s Christmas stocking”

People-watching and people-sketching on the Level

Have you ever tried to draw while your pages are gently splattered by the spray of a water pistol? Me neither, until last week. Here in the UK, we’ve had an unusually consistent, hot summer, and for residents of Brighton, one obvious place to find some relief is at our new playground, the Level, where,Continue reading “People-watching and people-sketching on the Level”

More plants that grow by the sea

Photoshop is such an incredible luxury for illustrators – it’s no longer the end of the world if you make a blot, or a line goes awry. The one on the left is written over the top of a clapping game that my daughter came home reciting: it must be a fairly recent variant, asContinue reading “More plants that grow by the sea”

Sketch of plants that grow by the sea

Click if you’d like to see it bigger Scanning doesn’t do full justice to the white and lumnious yellow inks. But anyway. I enjoyed drawing something other than my comic strip. I wonder if those blobby leaf shapes are under the influence of the Matisse cut-outs exhibition that we saw last Thursday.

More about sketch diaries – from Katriona Chapman

Since finishing my Chile sketch diary, I haven’t drawn a thing. That’s partly because I am thinking through exactly what I am going to do for the Cape/Comica/Observer graphic story competition. For the first time, I am very consciously examining where my ideas come from, too – it’s hard work, creating a cartoon world outContinue reading “More about sketch diaries – from Katriona Chapman”

Santiago, Chile: sketch diary, installment 3

This is part three of my Santiago sketch diary: you can read the first installment here, and the second installment here. Finally, after “just” three weeks, I have finished the Santiago sketch diary.It’s been a real eye-opener to see how much longer it took than the Bath diary- only because I had to fit it aroundContinue reading “Santiago, Chile: sketch diary, installment 3”