Come with me on a sunny, breezy stroll along the Northumberland coast of England, south of Cullernose Point and Dunstanburgh Castle.
South of Cullernose Point, Northumberland
This sketch is done looking northwards while I sat on the grass. I used one water soluble “Inktense” pencil (Ink Black) by Derwent, ; after doing a light sketch I wet it with my waterbrush to create tonal values. It’s like doing an ink wash sketch, great for quick sketches and you can go back over it later with color. The inktense pencils are relatively permanent once dry, so I’m experimenting with using the black then coloring later from photos. These colors of Inktense are very intense, so you need to practice and go lightly with your pressure. You can also achieve very black areas which I like.
Drawing near Cullernose Point
Here I am with my field sketchbook, what a view! (click on the picture to see it as a note card with a quote by Pablo Picasso)
Enjoy the many photographs I took below, they show the things we discovered as we walked and some I used later to do sketches from at home.
Brown Lipped Snails on Cowslip Leaves
It’s funny, once you learn about something you start noticing it more and more, as is the case with snails for me. Now when we walk I see them everywhere!
Brown Lipped Snails
These are Brown Lipped Snails; notice the brown line at the edge of their shell. I just love the striped patterns they have.
Pool with Grey Heron
This is looking down from the coastal path we walked on, there is a Grey Heron in that pool down there.
Grey Heron
Well spotted! He’s a beauty; we watched him fish in the pool as I took pictures from afar.
View of the coastal rocks we explored
Here’s another view of the coast where we walked. You can see two figures walking on the path ahead, that’s where we’ll be going.
Common Limpets and a Sea Slater bug
When we ‘clambered’ down to the shore, (hey it’s an old word but it fits here!), we found lots of Limpets, snails and Periwinkles. It wasn’t until I looked at my pictures on the computer later that I noticed the bug, a “Sea Slater”, how interesting! The Limpets are living creatures that cling very tightly to the rocks, you’ll see a watercolor sketch below of one I did.
Yellow Scales
This is called Yellow Scales, a type of lichen that grows near the coast on rocks. It’s very beautiful along with the whitish lichens and grey rocks.
Southern Marsh Orchid
When we returned to the top of the cliffs, we found these small unusual orchids growing here and there. I was surprised at how tiny they were and may have passed them by if Gary didn’t point them out. As near as I can tell they are Southern Marsh Orchids, if anyone knows better, please let me know!
Me Drawing near Cullernose Point
This photo will show you how tiny they were, the orchid is just in front of my sketchbook. I just lay in the grass and did a tiny light, sketch with a pencil. (click to see this and other photos like this, in my shop)
Shell and Flower studies
When I got home I downloaded my photos and did these studies from the laptop. I used watercolors for these, but using Titanium White this time for the white highlights and ‘wet’ look. I don’t usually use white paint, I rub or scrape off to create lights, but I quite liked using the paint for the glaze look. You can read my list of things we saw while there that day on my page.
Studies of Grey Heron
The little studies at the top of the page show my experiment with “Inktense” and just a black watercolor pencil, using watercolor pencil to color it. I wanted to see how much the blacks would lift or blend, hoping they wouldn’t. As I thought the Inktense didn’t lift as well and that’s exactly what I wanted.
The heron studies are also done from the laptop, just painted without sketching him out first. The little one in the left corner was an experiment of painting solid blue water then lifting color and using white paint to add the heron after. I’m not thrilled with how it came out but you should always experiment!
I hope you enjoyed coming along on this walk by the sea. Get outside and bring a small sketchpad with you, you’ll be surprised at how much you’ll see when you sit and start to draw things around you; a whole new world opens up before your eyes.
Here’s a little video clip of the waves washing over the rocks where we were, enjoy!
NOTE: Many of the photographs in this post have been made into beautiful glossy note cards and gifts and are in my shop (home page link). There are many more besides the links in this post, I hope you have a look and please pass it on to friends!
Sometimes when you don’t feel like painting or don’t have the time to work on a painting, it can be helpful to just play with color mixing; this is also great for a beginner in watercolor (or any medium!) or if you haven’t touched them in awhile and feel rusty.
Watercolor practice mixing - pages 1+2 of sketchbook
Here is my small field sketchbook opened up to show you my color studies. I wanted to experiment with greens and then various blues for landscape painting. It can be great fun to do this, it’s relaxing and loosens you up with the paints. I find it good practice to try to copy from life, that is the landscape right in front of you, but also from pictures of paintings you like in books.
Watercolor - practice mixing - pg 1
I made this nice and big so you could read my notes, I abbreviate the names of my colors and put (+) plus signs where I mixed a new color in.
Watercolor practice mixing - pg 2
The blues at the bottom of this page are from looking at watercolor paintings and trying to copy the color and study how the artist (A. Heaton Cooper) made it look like water.
Having these pages in my field sketchbook is great reference when I’m in the field painting or at home in the studio, you can refer to your color notes when searching for the right color. This was a great exercise and glad to share it with you, give it a try no matter what your level of experience, remember even virtuoso violinists warm up and practice their scales everyday!
I’ve been studying my snail Cuthbert, and really learning a lot of interesting facts. I know they’re slimy, strange little creatures that eat your garden plants, but they still merit study in my opinion. So I went outside the strange thing was I just walked over to a huge Sycamore tree and felt directed to look right at it’s base in the long grasses, tucked between some big roots. I pulled the grass aside and there, lo and behold two snails! I must have felt the “Snail Vibes” hahah.
big snail photo
One of the snails was this big guy (or girl!) that has now been named “Jabba the Hut”! He’s munching on some sweet corn here. Enjoy the simple stages of painting in watercolor shown below, to give you an idea of how I paint them.
big snail stage 1- ink
First I did drawings using light pencil, then go over it my micro permanent pen, keeping it simple and cartoon-like so I could add the detail with watercolor.
big snail stage 2
Then I look at the snails to see what pale color I see ‘underneath’ the other darker colors. I make a wash of this color and put it on, and while it’s wet, sometimes I drag a bit more of the wash or color into areas I want darker, with the tip of my brush.
big snail stage 3
Here you can see I’m just adding a bit more details and colors, keeping it simple. Look for dark patterns and be careful to leave light or white areas alone.
big snail stage 4
Sorry my stages kind of jumped here, I think I got busy and didn’t photograph any more stages! But all I did was kept looking for pattern, colors and shapes, let areas dry before adding new patterns so it doesn’t all blur together. If it does, take your paper towel tip and push it on the area to blot it, rub with brush tip and repeat until you get it lightened. You can add dappley marks with your brush tip for texture.
big snail stage 4 + paint
This is my sketch book along side my pan of watercolors, this is what I used to paint them.
This morning was sunny so I headed up the country lane to walk above the little village of Edlingham in Northumberland, England. Here’s a watercolor painting I did while sitting in a field, see the pictures following it and ‘come along with me’ on my walk. Enjoy!
"Fields above Edlingham"
After walking as far as I thought I had time for, I picked a corner of a nice field, not far from the road to work. The painting above is almost all done sitting in the field, I added details to the house and changed a few little things on the hills once I got home. There’s a picture later showing how it looked when I came home, before details were added.
Rock possibly from Roman times
This is the very interesting rock I sat on, I keep a pad in my bag from an old diaper bag; it’s great to sit on cold damp rocks or ground. I’d like to learn more about this rock, there is an old Roman fort right at the top of a nearby hill; we feel this looks Roman made.
my sketchbook with 3 page layout
Here’s a picture to show you how I worked, my sketchbook is on my lap clipped to a small board with watercolor pan handy. I had a small container of water on the ground within easy reach and I’m holding the only two brushes I used to create the painting. One round and one flat, it’s the first time I ever used a flat with watercolors and I’m very happy with what I could do. It was great for making the bush and tree lines on hills.
As you see I was also wearing gloves because it gets very chilly when you just sit still for one plus hours; these are thin kidskin I think, a dress pair that I decided would serve better on my sketch hikes. They’re thin so I can feel what I’m doing still and the leather helps me with grip.
writing on clouds
Please click to read better, these are the thoughts I wrote before I started to paint.
Close up- left side of painting
Here’s a close up of the left side of the painting, just to show you more of the details. I touched up the house, posts some of the road and if you notice the tops of the clouds I softened them up. I’ve also totally removed a treeline somewhere…can you find it? (compare to the pic below)
Fields above Edlingham watercolor unsigned
Here’s the painting just as it looked when I left the field to go home.
country cat
A friendly cat I met while walking up the hill, I caught her with her tongue out! I LOVE the note cards, mugs and stickers I made from some cats I’ve met…including this one and a gorgeous black cat on the castle wall. (Go here to see their pictures!)
country lane
The beautiful lane I wandered along…it was great.
Sheep resting
There are many different breeds of sheep here in England, this one I still have to learn. My favorites are the black faced sheep. These moms and lambs are really enjoying the sun. (Go here to see more photos of sheep in fields I’ve seen in England, you can order note cards if you like.)
country lane
The hedges here are of Hawthorn, when they’re in bloom not only are the pretty but they smell great.
Field view
The riding lesson
Here’s a girl getting a riding lesson, walking on a long line then sometimes off.( Here’s some note cards and gifts with my horse paintings, drawings and photos I’ve taken.)
I hope you enjoyed taking this stroll with me and seeing my painting. Please visit my shop on Zazzle to see many of these photographs as note cards and more, here’s Landscape Photos and Landscape Paintings.
Well my snail has been named as I said before, “Cuthbert”, after St. Cuthbert the patron Saint of Northumberland. I did some more studies of him as he’s growing.
Cuthbert close-up, in color
This is a close up of the watercolor study I did, it’s shown below first as a black and white ink.
Pages 2 + 3 studies in ink
Click on the images to read my notes. Cuthbert has already grown a few millimeters; the dark part on his shell is new growth.
Page 2 of colored studies
Here’s the same studies colored in with watercolor.
Page 3 of colored studies
This is the last page of my studies. I added to these pages on different days until I filled the two pages, but most was done in the first sitting.
Well Cuthbert says hello and goodbye, time to go and eat more carrots! Don’t worry, more snail sketches coming again! Don’t forget to visit my shop to see glossy note cards and other gifts with my sketches, paintings and photographs on them.
Today is a tale of meeting a snail, hmm…I feel a poem coming on…maybe later.
We went to Alnmouth and explored all around the dunes and on the beach. As we walked between the great high dunes to reach the beach, I couldn’t resist stopping to pick up so many pretty coiled shells. I didn’t have my usual field painting bag with me so I ended up filling my little purse! Those that were packed with sand I plopped into a dish of water to soak once I got home. Imagine my surprise when the next morning I found one of the ‘shells’ crawling up my coffee pot! (Lucky it wasn’t on!)
Well I quickly made his acquaintance and before you knew it he had food and shelter. At first he lived in a little plastic jar with the lid on very loosely on, but now he’s in a glass jar on it’s side with nice mosses to hide under. Click on the page below and read the notes I wrote as I painted his picture that day.
Snail Studies pg 1
My set up with the Model
Here’s my set up while I painted him, he was on the little plate with lettuce etc. but then slide off, and went up the brass lamp about halfway, this is when I took a bathroom break! When I returned I put him on top of my waterbottle, for this picture. I’m using the watercolor pan I take in the field with me all the time, it’s got a good selection of half pans. I used permanent ink marker to draw over my penciled sketches then used watercolor with regular brushes to color. On the right side you can see a rectangle shaped silver thing, that’s my little light up magnifier for reading maps; it’s great for field work.
Close up of snail studies
Here’s a close up of two of the snail studies with notes.
"Escargo Escapee!"
This painting makes me laugh, I did it with just watercolors. He was escaping from the plate…so I called it “Escargo Escapee”…he didn’t want to give me any ideas when I was hungry! The funny thing is I think he’s a copse snail…so a copse snail is escaping…but shouldn’t he be a robber snail then? (Oh gosh I know that’s corny!)
Cuthbert the snail with the shells I found
One more picture for now, more to come soon. I love this shot of him with the empty shells I found…poor thing, he’s probably crawling around them saying,”Where’d everybody go?” I decided to name him Cuthbert after the Patron St. of Northumberland, we found him near the cross for St. Cuthbert in Alnmouth.
Here’s a great website I found on snails, this page has a diagram on shell parts and helps with identifying your snail:
I have already drawn more pages of sketches and I’m recording changes in his shell growth. Please come back soon to see what happens to him! I have created some really neat gifts with these snail images on them, please have a look and pass the link to my shop onto your friends!
Today we had such a great walk that we really didn’t expect. The weather turned out nice in the late day as we drove to Alnmouth on the Northumberland coast just north of Warkworth Castle. I wasn’t expecting to go on much of a walk so I didn’t even have my field kit with me! Makes me feel bare, but I did have my camera and my purse which always has a small handmade sketchpad in it.
Road to beach at Alnmouth
I really can’t resist putting so many pictures in my post because it’s hard to pick and choose, leaving one out when I feel they are all beautiful! All of these will be in my shop as note cards and gifts, please visit the links at the end.
Dunes at Alnmouth
As we walked from our car, this is looking back through the dunes at the Rape Seed fields. The sand dunes here are quite impressive and filled with interesting shells. I picked up a bunch, so many that I had to fill my purse pocket. I have a story about that on my next post make sure you check back.
Beach at Alnmouth
This is the gorgeous beach at Alnmouth, the sand was fine and light colored, a great beach!
Cross at Alnmouth
This is St. Cuthbert’s Cross, that’s the name carved onto the base of this cross. Here is a great link about St. Cuthbert explaining more about the patron St. of Northumberland. This is the view as you climb up the not very high hill, to a windy spot that gives you views inland and out to the North Sea. We saw many sea birds and a heron ‘behind’ the hill, as the waterways wind around behind it as tides come and go.
Alnmouth from 'cross hill'
This is the view of Alnmouth you have from the top, it’s really great. I just love this photo with the sweeping clouds and quaint buildings.
Me drawing on hill
So you must have known sooner or later I’d have my sketchbook out! I had my tiny field sketchbook in my purse and tried to whip out a quicky sketch with watersoluble graphite pencils. Gary took this photo but my photographer friend Mark Baker did some editing to perk it up, Thanks Mark! ( www.mhbaker.com)
Alnmouth waterfront sketch in water soluble graphite
I had to touch it up at home as it was getting late and we needed to go home. No sitting and sketching time today 🙁 I used a waterbrush on it to do the washes. (I took a photo of the sketch with my camera to upload it.)
Cross at Alnmouth 2
Well I’ll leave you with this last view, though there were many more I had to choose from.
To see these wonderful photos as note cards and other gifts, go here to my shop. Just scroll down the page to see all the photos from Northumberland.
Come with me on a walk up into the Ingram Valley in Northumberland England, land of unending vistas and wildlife. I know that sounds ‘corny’ but its true, Northumberland is so beautiful and wild.
Mama sheep and 2 lambs
As Gary and I began our walk, right away we met a proud and healthy mama black faced sheep with her two little lambs. Walking the hills in lambing season is so much fun, the little ones prance, bounce from all fours like they have springs in all hooves and they join up in little gangs to play king of the hill. When they can they run to their moms and push under for a feed, their tails wag like little flags of victory!
Ingram Valley -shepherd's road
We turn our attention towards the uphill walk in very chilly wind, but with the sun it was bearable. This is a small track used by the shepherd with his quad-bike, to visit the various hills with sheep on. (I’m actually taking a look ‘back’ downhill here).
Ingram Valley-old stone wall and some lone Scots Pines
This is along the way up, an old stone wall like so many you see in England, with a few lonely Scots Pines playing sentinel on the lonely hills.
mama sheep
When we went as far as we wanted to go, we watched the sheep playing and running. This ewe and her lamb were all by themselves on the other side of the fence. The lamb looked so special that we couldn’t help but wonder if the shepherd had separated them on purpose. The mother was gorgeous with a coat like no other! (I loved them so much I created note cards of them, and the other sheep, in my shop!)
Wheatear in Ingram Valley, Northumberland
As we made our way down, I talked Gary into stopping for a sit down….of course this was my chance to try to do a watercolor study of the hills opposite! We relaxed, and sitting quietly as I worked, a little bird landed down the hill a bit and started to work it’s way up towards us. I got my camera slowly and started to shoot as he came closer and closer; the wonderful thing about nature sketching or plein air painting is because you’re so quiet, usually wildlife will come near. (keep your camera always handy!) I created note cards of this one too of course, I can’t wait to do a painting of it!
sheep on far hill
Now this is the hill we looked at on our way down and what captured my attention for painting. I wanted to show you first if you look closely, you’ll see tiny white dots on it, those are sheep! No kidding…see the picture below.
sheep on far hill-Zoomed in
This is a close up of the same hill, see the sheep walking single file along the steep hill? They are sure footed but Gary told me sometimes they do fall and get killed 🙁
The picture shows you the scale of the size of the mountain.
Ingram Valley
So I sat on one of many tussocks remaining from and old forest, (a tussock is a small hump covered with grass that remains from where a tree used to be) and used my watercolor pan and one water-brush.
Ingram Valley-watercolor
This is the finished painting; I used the photo I took and looked at it on my computer screen when I got back to finish it. It may have the wrong color cast as I don’t have a scanner to use while I’m away from home, I just shot a picture of it with my camera. Here is a note card of this painting in my shop.
I hope you enjoyed this hike with me, I enjoyed having you along! Remember when you’re out for a walk to look around with curiosity and you may discover something you never noticed before.
Remember for any of my note cards, if you order 10 or more you get a discount…and the savings increase the more you buy, they can ALL BE DIFFERENT CARDS TOO!!
This evening we went for a drive up towards Beanly Moor which looks over a gorgeous valley with the Cheviot mountains in the background.
Road by Beanly Moor
You can park your car on the side of the road here and just walk up to Beanly Moor, a beautiful and wild area filled with heather and bracken with wonderful views.
Shepherd and his dogs
I love seeing the shepherds with their dogs, they don’t go on foot or by horseback as they used to, nowadays it’s a quad bike or 4 wheeler as transport across fields and the dog seems to LOVE riding on back!
View from hill by Beanly Moor
We walked up the hill and watched the sun set here, I just love this view. I dream of having a house in a setting like this, with a view just as peaceful.
Cheviots from Beanly Moor + Rothbury biuldings
I pulled out my watercolors and used my water-brush to do a little sketch. It was a bit hard because though it’s sunny, it was cold! At the bottom of the page is a pen and ink sketch I did the next day, of buildings in Rothbury, a small town in Northumberland. I was freezing while sketching this, but I liked the windows and stones and though angles are tricky, I like to do them because it’s good practice.
Church in Rothbury, Northumberland, England
You can see the day was cloudy and cold, I sat on a bench looking out across the town square. You can see the hills right in the background, I love walking near Rothbury.
Rothbury church
I hope to get a nicer photo of this church on a sunny day then do a painting.
Well as the title says, my adventure to England started slowly. I got to the Buffalo airport in plenty of time, even after dropping my favorite polar fleece jacket in the hall and having to retrace my steps all the way back to the check-in point, I still wasn’t late to the gate. Yes, this does happen even to those of us who are SO careful, just pop into every restaurant and shop along the way and ask if anyone’s picked it up. Well there it was at the last one; I really need that for the plane ride!
Then I get to the gate and they say the planes are all delayed because of rain in NJ, so the flight before mine hasn’t left yet, “would I like a seat on that one to get my into Newark early?” Um…YES! If they’re running late then better go early. It finally gets in, an hour late, and we board, but first I’m told my bag will be too big to fit overhead in the bins! Darn, just bought this bag because it was extra trim and I carry all my camera and laptop equipment in it, things I’ll never stow out of my sight. SO…..I went to the side and pulled lots of things out and stuffed them in my field bag that I was carrying on my shoulder, camera bag went in my hand. It’s only an hour flight to NJ…I can live with it all by my feet. Well as you can read on my sketchpage below, we were boarded, then sat on the tarmack, then pulled back into the gate and we had to get off for an hour. It was a bit confusing as to what was going on because everyone seemed to get into a huge long line at the counter. Well I just went back into the plane and asked the pilot, he said come back to this same plane in less than an hour, we may leave early.
Well I got to Newark airport finally, went immediately to see the departures board (learned from past experience that they can and do change gates at the last minute), I was SHOCKED when I saw in big red letters, “CANCELED”!! “Yikes! What is going on? What do I do?” It’s not like there are other flights to Scotland that night! I made my way to the gate and they said to go to the Service Counter to get help. Need I tell you there was a line stretching down the hall from about five other international flights that were canceled? We stood in line for 2 1/2 hours waiting our turn to be told simply that the Iceland volcano was erupting again and we had to rebook our flight to tomorrow night if we wanted. Thank goodness a nice Scottish family was in front of me, their daughter had an international cell phone and she let me call Gary so he’d know I wasn’t going to be at the airport in the morning. We all talked and decided that when we got our luggage we’d find a hotel together, it felt nice not to be alone in this!
"View from Terminal C Window, Newark Airport"
May 4, 2010
The sketches from Terminal C are from my second day of trying to leave, I did them while standing in line again waiting to re-check my bag and go again through security. Last night the woman at Continental said I could just leave my bag and it would be transferred to my new flight, but lucky I got it, when we went down to baggage we saw ALL the bags from canceled flights just lined up, no one checking the tags when people picked up baggage! It was really nice to have my sketchbook with me, like an old friend to keep me company; so boring standing in line like that.
Later I sat at a table to eat my soup and I colored the Terminal C with my watercolors. At 4:50pm I sketched the plane below at Gate 134, it wasn’t my gate at all but it had a nice view out the window of all going on. You can see the Air-Tran in the background, that’s what I had to take to get to P4 to get a shuttle for the hotel and then re-arrive at the next day. I think drawing airplanes and the other things around it, is difficult because of the angles. I was using a permanent pen so whatever mark I made was it, no erasing. I like the telescoping hood that meets the doorway of the aircraft where you board.
Well around about 6pm the attendant at our gate (flight to leave at 8pm) said that our flight had been canceled! Oh no!! Not again! Darn this volcano, what was I going to do? It was still cheaper for me to stay the night rather than take a flight back to Buffalo for $350 some dollars which is not covered by the airline. Anyways, usually the ash situation settles within a few days and I REALLY didn’t want to return home!
"Gate 134"
May 5, 2010
FINALLY~! I’m sitting on board, you can see the tiny sketch I did looking out my window. I was stuck at that airport for three days, two nights at a local hotel, but all day long at the boring airport. The canceled flights were to Scotland, Ireland, England and most of the people who were stuck like me, were from there and SO nice!! We always asked each other when we saw each other at breakfast at the hotel, or around the airport, what news we’d heard. The biggest problem was not hearing what was going on with the volcano on the news. We had to rely on talking to family or friends in the UK to hear what direction the ash was moving. Lucky my hotel had Wi-Fi so I could be online with my laptop.
“Sunset After Take-Off”
Finally in the air, after so much trouble and waiting. I did this quickly with one water-brush and my pan of watercolors.I find the sunset in the air so unusual, sort of like it’s upside down, the sky is so beautiful blue, the area below is just dark, dark and the glow just above it from the sun.
I’m looking forward to my summer of lots of sketches, photographs and paintings while visiting England and the rest of the UK.I hope you’ll tune in for more updates to see my adventures, just sign your email in the little box at the top right column, then click accept when you get the email notice.
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