Monthly Archives: July 2023

One Still Life and another

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The week started well. Get hold of a good book and there’s no stopping me; waking early and reading for hours until the clock reminds me it’s way past getting up time. I’m talking about Sarah Winman’s novel Still Life. A warning; there is nothing still about this narrative. It contains great characters, settings, and themes like unrequited love that keep you turning the pages to find out, do they? Or don’t they? until the end; or if you are a lover of art, then this is for you, as there is plenty in here to keep you enthralled. Especially in Florence, where a good deal of the action takes part. To quote from Patrick Gale who writes on the cover: ‘Harnesses big-hearted storytelling to a dizzying historical sweep to celebrate love in all available colours.’  

 So, with Still Life of one sort on my mind, the other Still Life beckoned to me, or rather, I spotted the large bowl of fruit on my table and knew what I must do and that was to sketch a still life to accompany the little rant above.  Less is more sometimes, and thinking this I selected two pears and a small apple to comprise my Still Life. 

I have used Faber Castell artist-quality coloured pencils, a combination of Apple Green, Cadmium, Yellow Ochre, Brown Ochre, Van Dyke Brown and Dark Sepia. I love nothing better than starting with a fresh sheet of drawing paper and seeing how my marks become solid forms through the rendering of colour and tone. I was pleased that this sketch took just an hour to finish, and not three days like the book. However, I love both versions of Still Life! 

Still Life was first published in Great Britain in 2021 by 4th Estate

One I shouldn’t post perhaps

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This past week or so I’ve been attempting to build the word count on my novel, and I have done reasonably well – a small pat on the back for that. However, I decided I’d take a short break and do another sketch. When I took the photograph a while back, I thought ‘that’s nice’, and with that mediocre response I chose to work up a sketch from the photo. Probably not a good premise to begin with. Or, was it the new phone, with the new camera which is brighter in colour than my last one?

Anyway, I kept going with this sketch, and kept adding this and that, then trying to remove this and that. I guess I should have given up at this stage.

The this and that were the various mediums I tried. I am not a watercolourist but sometimes I can play around and have something turn out okay, but this wasn’t one of those times. I used Aquarelle pencils too, and remembered how bright they were once I put water through the pigment. I used water-soluble ink pen, too and the ink spread too far! So I kept adding and taking away until I came up with the next version of messing stuff up.

I added more pencil across the sky and hill, not adding anything in my opinion except to make the sketch muckier. But I decided to show the sketch regardless, as it just goes to prove work doesn’t always turn out as well as it might.

I am not going to beat myself up about this one, but really, I have been making the same ‘mistakes’ so long, you’d expect that I’d learn when to stop, wouldn’t you? I could have just got out a new piece of paper and done something different. Left the watercolour bit for another time.

Better luck with your work. All the best, Vivienne.