Musings after #Sketchfest with Art Safari, 6/n

Sketching Walk: we wandered in a group along the quayside, pausing in a couple of places to paint or sketch, and the tutor (Ian Sedge) came around, offering encouragement and advice. He seemed slightly stunned that I chose such different media in the two places, but experimentation is very much part of #Sketchfest!

Musings after #Sketchfest with Art Safari, 5/n

Sketching Cruise: This was another I was very keen to do, although I must admit, I hadn't quite anticipated the sheer terror involved!

Not because of the boat - a retired RNLI lifeboat, diesel engine replaced with an electric motor, whisper-quiet and beautifully stable - no, because speed sketching is a new adventure to me. I filled nearly an entire sketchbook with some very variable sketches, but I did feel that during the cruise I began to be better at it. Next time (note, I enjoyed it enough to contemplate a Next Time!) I'll take a different size of sketchbook, with less thirsty paper that accepts fibre tip more easily.

I added the colour afterwards, on dry land!

Musings after #Sketchfest with Art Safari (in no particular order) 3/n

Gestural Figure Drawing with Alice Angus: strictly speaking I can't all this useful for embroidery, but it was very useful for speed of observation, and for understanding how vividly even an inaccurate drawing can bring a subject to life. The challenge to paint forty figures in the forty minutes of the workshop induced almost frantic concentration. I used watercolours and a small squirrel mop, thinking that the floppy brush would help me to be gestural rather than finicky. I think it worked!

Musings after #Sketchfest with @artsafari (in no particular order) 2/n

Vibrant Colour and Line, with Ian Sedge. This one was fun, energising, very much not in my usual style. The idea was to put the colour in roughly the right place, and the lines also, but not care too much if they didn't coincide. The colours are not as bright as I hoped they'd be, but the paper, gorgeous Two Rivers handmade paper, is creamy in colour rather than bright white, and my transparent watercolours were a bit knocked back. Ian approved, so I must have been getting something right!

I am a little afraid that this one might become gimmicky if pursued to excess, but it's a fabulous reboot, especially for anyone with a tendency to become over-careful.

Musings after #Sketchfest with #artsafari (in no particular order) 1/n

Concertina Sketchbook for the Visual Storyteller with Maxine Relton: I was hoping it would be helpful, because I think in terms of storytelling in stitches. And it was helpful, but not quite as I envisaged! I wasn't comfortable with subject or time, or the concertina sketchbook, which I found a bit unmanageable.

However: I've realised that for all I am an avid reader of stories, I don't tell stories in a linear fashion. And for all I wasn't comfortable with what I was doing, and didn't feel I conveyed anything of the atmosphere or happenings, there are elements here which are pleasing, and I did very much enjoy experimenting with the Fude pen.

Here's some of what I was doing at #Sketchfest this last weekend. This is an event which is run in Woodbridge in Suffolk every year. There are demos and workshops, but for me, the free time to do more painting and sketching is almost as valuable. I try to work fast, make more mistakes more quickly, and move on. I can work slowly back home in the studio.