Beautiful Britain: Piccadilly Circus and the Albert Memorial

 So, in my last post I explained how I found it difficult to make the last painting, of the Shambles in York, partly because I was using acrylic paper. The paint was drying very quickly on the paper, which is great if you don't want the colours running into each other and mixing, but not so good if you do. I ordered a watercolour pad, which arrived today, but not until I'd already started. So these were made on 110 gsm cartridge paper. 

Albert Memorial

This first one is the Albert Memorial in London. The memorial is one of hose buildings that loads of people know, but relatively few take a really close look at, which is a shame since there's a lot to actually look at with it. I laid down the vertical bands of yellow, orange and blue first, and them started applying ink, brush pen and more watercolour. It's okay.

I followed this up with this painting of Piccadilly Circus.

I began by painting the fountain and the statue fist of all as a direct watercolour. This went surprisingly well, and I didn't apply any ink to the fountain itsel until I was well underway with the background buildings on either side. At the moment I really rather like this one - it's closer to what I was trying to achieve. 

Beautiful Britain: The Shambles, York

 I likes an old, narrow street, don't you? The Shambles, in York, has some of the best in Britain, and the most famous. I think it was used for some of the exteriors in the Diagon/ Knockturn Alley scenes in the Harry Potter movies. I first visited in 1977. I was mad keen on trains at the time, and so my parents took us on a special excursion train day trip to York to visit the National Railway Museum. Which was absolutely great, but I loved the city of York generally just as much, with the Minster and the Shambles. I remember that it was the day that Red Rum won the Grand National for the third time. We went into a supermarket to buy some refreshments for the journey home, and they had a big sign up saying Red Rum has won, or words to that effect.

I made this after watching a demo video on Youtube made by the master, Ian Fennelly. I just tried to follow some of the method he used. Hence this underwent a number of stages, and has pencil, watercolour, ink and brushpen used in it. One thing to mention - I'm out of watercolour paper, and so I made this on acrylic paper. The problem with this particular Reeves pad is that absorbs the paint incredibly quickly, so you have to move very swiftly to get the colours to flow into each other at all. Live and learn.

Beautiful Britain - Blackpool Tower

Off Prompt: Today's British landmark is the Blackpool Tower. For non UK readers, Blackpool is the premier coastal resort in the whole of England. (Sorry Brighton - I love you as well, but for me, Blackpool is number 1) It's a great place to visit, and its most iconic landmark is this. it was inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and was built in 1894. I last went up the Tower about 5 years ago, and absolutely loved it. Inside that complex is the most famous ballroom in England, and an interactive exhibition. Love it.

Beautiful Britain: Stonehenge

 

Stonehenge

I think I ca safely say that Stonehenge is the oldest building that I've sketched in my beautiful Britain series, and will probably remain so. I drove past it. many years ago now when my kids were very little, but that's as close as I've ever come to it. I'm quit pleased with the drawing and the use of shading to give texture. I haven't applied any watercolour yet, but I may well do so . 

Beautiful Britain: Brighton Royal Pavilion

 Yes, I returned to Brighton for yesterday's beautiful Britain drawing. This completely mad piece of architectural exuberance is one of my favourite 'just for the hell of it' buildings.

Of course, some of its appeal lies in the fact that it was built for the Prince Regent, later King George IV. I've always found him a fascinating character, an opinion that was reinforced when I studied his life in some detail as a Mastermind subject. George was somewhat taken with Brighton when he visited one of his royal uncles, Henry Duke of Cumberland, there. His first Brighton home was a rented former farmhouse, which he had the architect Henry Holland rebuild into the Marine Pavilion. This was a far more conventional, classical structure than the Royal Pavilion. It proved to be a home conveniently far away enough from London for the Prince to be able to enjoy playing house with his illegal wife, Maria Fitzherbert.

The Prince assumed the regency in 1811, when his father George III, poor man, was incapacitated by the dementia which would afflict him for the rest of his life. In 1815 he engaged architect John Nash to remodel the Pavilion into its current form. It took a good 7 years. 

William IV, George's brother and successor, would stay in the Pavilion in fairly regular visits during his reign. His own successor, their niece Victoria, really didn't care for the place at all. The Pavilion was sold to Brighton, which helped pay for Osborne House, the royal family's new summer house. 

When I'd finished this one it was crying out for watercolour, and I applied washes of four colours. The bending of yellow, purple and blue in the sky above the main dome for once wasn't a clumsy accident, but a deliberate choice to let it happen and see what effect we could get. 

Beautiful Britain (Take 2)

 In the few weeks since I last posted, I've been concentrating on extending my range of Beautiful Britain prints. There's a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, as I'm sure that you know if you've been following the blog for any length of time, I just love drawing. In particular I love drawing buildings with a fineliner. Secondly, after a slow start, business in my Etsy shop has started picking up, so I wanted to extend the range of prints on sale. 

So, here's the drawings from December so far: - 

Brighton Pier. I did a mental inventory of cities in Britain, and I know that Brighton and Hove became a city maybe 20 years ago. My first thought was to do the Pavilion, and I may well yet end up sketching that. My second thought, though, as this, Brighton Pier. When I first visited it in the 70s, this was the Palace Pier, as compared to the derelict Victorian West Pier. Well, sadly the West Pier is now gone. but let's at least celebrate what we have left. I have actually painted this pier before (one oat of primer and two coats of whitewash guv, I thenk yow.) and sold an acrylic painting of it a few years ago. 

Liverpool Roman Catholic Cathedral. I made a drawing of Liverpool's iconic Liver Building in the first set of beautiful Britain sketches. It has a drawback - it's not very good. I just didn't get it right. You can see it in my beautiful Britain gallery if you so desire - but it's not a drawing which is good enough to make prints of. So I really needed another drawing representative of the great city of Liverpool, and settled on this iconic building. Nicknamed Paddy's Wigwam, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Liverpool is a stunning modern building, opened during my lifetime in 1967. 

Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower and Skyline. I see this on the horizon every time I drive to visit my mother who lives in Worthing. I don't think that I quite caught it, and this is one of the least successful of my recent drawings, in my opinion. Still, allow me to gloss over that by offering you a choice piece of trivia about Portsmouth. It is the only city in the UK o be completely built on an island. 

St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall. Okay, not a city for once. I made a sketch of Mont St. Michel earlier this year, and thought that it's a shame that it's on the border between Normandy and Brittany in France, which means I can't include it in beautiful Britain. However, its sister establishment is in Cornwall, and this is it. I like this sketch - it came off for me, and I think that the shingle on the sides of the causeway works well. 

Cardiff Bay. I have sketched - and painted similar views before. but I wanted to make sure that I included Cardiff, Wales' capital, in this sequence of drawings. I like Cardiff, and the Bay is terrific, and really well worth a visit if the opportunity ever presents itself to you. 

Clifton Suspension Bridge.

So, to the largest city in the West of England - Bristol. Let's be honest, when I was weighing up which landmark to sketch, it was always going to b this iconic bridge, designed by IK Brunel. Every time I have any reason to go to Bristol airport, I always drive under it. It's a beautiful bridge in its own right, but it's situation spanning the Avon Gorge means that it is nothing short of world class. 

Edinburgh Castle

Yes, I've already sketched Edinburgh once, with a view from Calton Hill. But I just fancied having a go at the castle. What I like about this sketch isn't actually the castle, but the crags of the hill on which it sits. 

Leeds Town Hall.

This is one of the buildings in the series that I have actually visited. On my first ever appearance on Mastermind, it was filmed in the Yorkshire TV studios in Leeds. (The following year, when I appeared again and actually won it was all shot in Manchester). I was blown over by this piece of baroque neo classical. 

Now, having completed the drawing, I decided that, for the sake of variety, I'd have another go at applying a watercolour wash or two to an ink sketch. This was the result.

I have to say that I really rather like this. This is as close to what I was trying to achieve as I've ever got. I have to say, it actually looks better than this scan has made it - the colours aren't quite as washed out. Still. it encouraged me to have another go with the next drawing. Which was this one:-

The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University. This is possibly Oxford's most famous landmark, forming part of the world renowned Bodleian Library. This is the plain drawing,

And this is the watercolour wash version. Again, I', not unhappy with the results, even though, again, the original does look a little bit better than it comes across in this scan. 

Lincoln Cathedral. This is the most complicated drawing I've made in December, and I simply haven't found time to apply watercolour yet. I guess hat Cathedrals are something of a fallback for me - if all other inspiration fails you can always go back to cathedrals - we have so many impressive ones. I think I once read that Lincoln Cathedral was, at one time, the world's tallest building, although I do stand prepared to be corrected on this one.

Finally, the sketch I made this morning, of the Roman baths in Bath.