Gardens and buildings

29th Sep 201929th Sep 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ Leave a comment

Some more drawings from my sketchbook, in coloured pencil on watercolour backgrounds. The locations share a theme: a historic building set in gardens. The first two drawings here – each pair of drawings is actually one continuous image in a concertina sketchbook – were done recently at Newnham College, Cambridge. The ones below that were done at Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, West London. This was the country house of architect Sir John Soane, and I tried to capture some of the characteristics of his architecture, such as the use of coloured glass, and the rounded brick arches.

Watercolour experiments

18th Sep 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ Leave a comment

This month’s challenge has been to paint some quick watercolour experiments at home. I wanted to paint in a freer, more expressive way, and also to use some of the kit I have already but rarely use. I combined the watercolour with watercolour pencils, crayons, salt (for texture), and used different brushes. I found it easier to do quick experiments at home rather than when I was in front of a location subject which seemed to need a more complex approach. I ended up painting mostly from flowers I had bought – an advantage was that I have continually had fresh flowers in the house. Next, I need to take some of this further in more developed pictures.

More urban sketching

16th Sep 2019 ~ Jo Dungey ~ 2 Comments

This weekend I have been sketching in London. Above is a drawing I did on Saturday of the ever-changing City skyline, drawn from near Tower Bridge. It amazes, and sometimes worries me how quickly major developments take place in key areas of London. A couple of years ago, Norman Foster’s ‘Gherkin’ building on St Mary Ax dominated the view of the ‘new’ City. Now new buildings have shot up which dwarf it.

On Sunday, I was helping run a sketch crawl with Urban Sketchers London at Trinity Buoy Wharf. This is further east, across the Thames from the O2 in North Greenwich (originally the Millennium Dome). Trinity Buoy Wharf has the only lighthouse in London, surrounded by other older industrial/nautical buildings. It is now a centre for cultural activities and related businesses, surrounded by very new high-rise housing and offices, with great views of the river. My sketches take different elements of this and put them together. All sketches are done with coloured pencil on prepared but random backgrounds in watercolour, on a concertina sketchbook. Below are the drawings from Trinity Buoy Wharf: