Summer colds. Not much fun. I spent the week feeling like I was wading through tapioca, so I don’t have many sketches for the week of August 9.
The week was also busy with a student for the week, the latest freelance article, and other things going on. A couple of days ended with no energy for even the simplest sketch.
But I did get six sketches for the week; and that’s my weekly goal.
My Sketches for the Week of August 9, 2021
Branch Study in Derwent Drawing on Canson Mi-Teintes
The sketching week got off to a fairly good start given the circumstances. It was late in the day before I got to sketching, and I really didn’t feel like picking up a pencil, but did it anyway.
This branch was sketched with Derwent Drawing Olive Earth on Canson Mi-Teintes Fawn. Not the best color combination, perhaps, but not bad either.
I drew this from memory and imagination, combining interesting twists and turns, and other features seen in real life branches.
Mountain Landscape with Derwent Drawing on Stonehenge
With no particular goal in mind this week other than sketching, I used whatever paper was on the top of the stack. The first sketch for the week was Canson Mi-Teintes. Both of the next two sketches are on Stonehenge Fawn.
It was very hot and humid on Wednesday, so when I sat down to draw, I decided to draw something cool and not so humid. A mountain landscape with a lake in front seemed like the perfect subject.
I drew this scene from memory, but it was heavily influenced by two of my favorite landscape painters. One works in oils, and the other in acrylics, but they both do a lot of mountain landscapes.
So I did one, too!
And I’m very pleased with it.
Blue Mountain on Stonehenge
Derwent Drawing colored pencils are great sketching pencils. They work on every paper I’ve tried, though they’re better on traditional papers.
For this sketch, I chose Derwent Drawing Smoke Blue and focused on drawing space and form with line and limited values.
The mountains are imaginary. I simply sketched and shaded until I thought the sketch was finished.
Mountain Landscape with Derwent Drawing
This is a more complete sketch than what I’ve been doing. I used almost all of my Derwent Drawing pencils (I have about eight colors) to draw this landscape. The paper is Stonehenge Fawn again, which proved not to be a good color for the light blues in the mountains.
It was perfect for the rest of the landscape however.
This sketch is very loosely based on a photograph sent to me by a reader. I started a more “serious” piece late this winter, but have never finished it. So now I can say I’ve done something with that photograph!
Tree Branch with White Derwent Drawing
Back to Canson Mi-Teintes Fawn for this sketch, and back to just one color. Derwent Drawing Chinese White.
Instead of drawing a subject by drawing the shadows, I decided to try drawing just the highlights and reflected light.
It’s not quite as finished as I would have liked, but I was interrupted. One of my rules for this sketching habit is not to go back so something once I’ve put it down (unless I have to sharpen pencils or something like that.)
Still, I’m quite happy with the results.
By the way, I drew this from my imagination.
May in Kansas
The final sketch for the week was drawn with Derwent Drawing Sanguine on Canson Mi-Teintes Fawn paper.
I revisited a scene I drew last week. This week, however, I drew the main tree much as it appears in the reference photo, with leaves.
This is the sort of scene that makes me think I’ll some day do a more serious piece based on it. Neither this sketch nor the previous one shows the atmosphere of this morning time scene.
And atmosphere is one of the things I enjoy about drawing landscapes.
Comparing Stonehenge and Canson Mi-Teintes with Derwent Drawing Colored Pencils
I used either Canson Mi-Teintes or Stonehenge paper for this week’s sketches, and I used Derwent Drawing pencils on all of them.
Derwent Drawing colored pencils are a great sketching pencil. A full set of 24 colors is definitely on my wish list. The earthy colors are great for nature subjects as well as sketching.
And as I mentioned before, they’re ideal for traditional drawing papers.
Both types of papers I used are 98-pound papers, but they feel different. Stonehenge has a sturdier feel, but it’s also much softer. Canson Mi-Teintes is a nice paper for sketching and more serious drawings, but it’s best for colored pencils if you use the back side!
Those are My Sketches for the Week of August 9
And that’s my abbreviated report on my sketches for last week. It was disappointing not to have drawn more, but I’m pleased to have drawn any at all! It was just one of those weeks.
I hope you’re week went more smoothly, and that you were able to do some sketching.
If you have, I hope you’ll join me in developing your own sketching habit. I invite you to share them. I’ll be happy to add them as a reader’s sketch gallery to this post!
