I was in a grump today, nothing was going right and all seemed to be going wrong.
I took a walk up the High street at lunch time, I needed to pick up a postal tube to mail an illustration. I ended up going to three shops before finding one, by which time I was late and had no time to send it. I was heading back to the office when I looked to see this view of Nelson’s Tower on Calton Hill, between two buildings on the Royal Mile.
Looking splendid this afternoon in the November sunshine, Nelson’s Tower was built between 1807 and 1815 to commemorate Nelson’s victory over the French and Spanish fleets at the battle of Trafalgar.
Short on time I took a photo and sketched this image later, just in black ink. Here is a close up of the tower to show the detail.
If you remember the film Ghostbusters then you’ll be scared silly of these giant inflatable snowmen now hovering over the main thoroughfare of Ocean Terminal shopping centre in Leith. They are pretty impressive though, and look great in a closed space, if a little menacing!. Zoe and James loved them.
A walk around the leafy suburb of Trinity yesterday with the Mrs and the little ‘uns. And just to show how leafy, here is my sketch oan Acer tree climbing a wall. Lovely colours mmm.
No pencil work in this one, straight into confident pen strokes on the paper. Finally adding colour to lift the leaves from the page.
I have left the edges in, I like how it shows a little background detail in to my sketching. Also it gives the image some scale, especially when I say the book is roughly A5 size.
Screen print one from Edinburgh Printmakers, whose open day today gave everyone the chance to have a go.
We cutout paper stencils and used a fine mesh press and a squidgy to print the ink down on the paper.
Great messy fun, and each one you do is slightly different. Very addictive. Now I just need to save the cash for the starter course.
I’ve been working on a new commission for a couple of days now. It’s for a Kindergarten in Australia, EdinburghSketcher goes global! Here is a wee closeup of how it’s looking so far.
Yesterday the sun shone, a distant memory now perhaps, as I walked across the Queen’s Park, lighting up this narrow stretch of parkland which runs along side of Holyrood Palace. The mighty trees are shedding their foliage, making a glorious blanket of orange-to-red leaves across the ground.
We enjoyed a lovely walk from Cramond today, along to Silverknowes and back with my sister, her boyfriend and his family.It’s a fantastic view out across the Forth to Fife, and along the road and rail bridges at Queensferry.
Although cold in the shade the sun shone down strong upon us, warming our backs as we talked about old times and future plans. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
A view of the huge Cuillins today as we drove through on the way to the Talisker distillery.
Unfortunately the recommended Sligachan Hotel was shut for the winter, so no coffee and cake.
Blustery rain continued to fall against the cottage today so nipping out was brief but I did bring a little of the Isle of Skye outside inside, in the form of these fur cones from a nearby forest track.
We arrived last night after a mammoth nine hour journey, to our beautiful wee cottage just north of Portree, on the Isle of Skye.
This is a pencil sketch of the road through Glencoe, as the rain fell and the mountain slopes merged into the darkening sky.
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