This is a very short post just to share a quick pencil study I did on March 2, 2023. We were out driving and Gary pulled up for a bit so he could go talk to a farmer and I stayed in the car where it was warm! Since he took longer than expected I got out my sketch pad, water soluble pencil and waterbrush then did this very quick study. The sky was stormy and dark in the distance and it was windy. Those are very old Hawthorn trees that look like they used to be part of an old hedgerow.
This is the Old Castleton Farm located in the Scottish Borders not far from Newcastleton. There used to be a village called Old Castleton located here, you can still see the areas where the buildings were, but the whole village was moved to what is now Newcastleton. This sadly happened as a result of the land clearances in the 1790’s when people were forced to move from their homes! Here’s a link to Wikipedia with a bit more information about this area.
It’s great to use a dark water soluble pencil in winter for quick studies in the field, and keep your sketchpad small.
This is how it looked to me from the car, but it was a bit darker in the sky. You can see how far away the trees were so I just sketched what I saw and kept it simple. It’s good practice to catch sketches anywhere you can, that’s why I had my small field bag with me, ‘just in case’!
When the weather is nicer we’re going to go and explore the old ruins and area where the village was.