How I've Missed This

Getting outside to sketch

The view across the Leven Estuary towards the Cumbrian mountains with daffodils

My first day back in my favourite place, Holker on the Cartmel Peninsular in Cumbria. We are so lucky to have a caravan here, overlooking the Leven Estuary. The site re-opens 1st March but it’s been so wet I’ve not made it back until yesterday evening.

The Daffodils

For my first day I packed up some paper and pencils and went out to sketch the daffodils in the woodland.

It was an effort.

It feels like such a long time since I did any plein air sketching and I was both rusty and a little anxious that my first attempt would be disappointing. Not that it matters to anyone. But it matters to me.

The weather was dull and cold and my brain said, leave it today… go out next time. It would have been so easy to give in and stop inside with my book. Excuses come easily, my brain is a master at them and they’re all SO plausible..

• It’s cold outside

• It might rain any time

• You don’t draw ‘things’ so why bother?

• You haven’t got the right tools you want… watercolours and brushes and inks

• You could……….. (insert just about anything here) instead!

• What’s the point?

The Point is

It’s joyful.

Once I’d dug out my big winter coat, my walking boots and a bag of limited supplies I was out the door and walking. The air was bitter but I was warm. The daffodils everywhere were nodding away in the wind. A formation of geese flew overhead. The rooks were back and forth adding to their impressive sky high nests. I could hear a chiff chaff and blackbird. And very little else. Bliss!

I tried out a couple of spots in an a small area of woodland between lodges and caravans. Settling on my spot, I took out my pad and pencils and began.

Fighting Myself

It was hard at first. My know-it-all brain was loud, telling me to quit before I’d started. But I was determined. I made tentative marks with a 4H pencil, lamenting the absence of my watercolour set that was back at home in Lancashire. I mapped out the areas I’d decided to focus on. Feeling a little bolder I pulled out a darker pencil and scribbled some areas with the flat of the lead, laying down patches of tone. This felt good. I’d begun to loosen up already. Sharper marks were added to bring in some structure, drawing leaf shapes and brambles in the foreground and strengthening the trees in the background. and then some dark tone beneath the daffodil flowers, using a negative method of rendering.

Sketching outside ‘en plein air’

All my ‘bones’ in place

Once I had all the ‘bones’ in place I packed up and headed back home. I could’ve stopped here. I’d managed a loose sketch. It described the scene well. I’d finally started my plein air season. I was really happy with this.

But I’d really enjoyed myself and I didn’t want to stop. Brew made, I spent the next hour or so tightening the whole sketch up.

I am actually aiming to loosen up, not the opposite, but it didn’t matter. The point was I was having fun. I lost myself. My mind was completely absorbed. All my worries slipped away and there was just me and my pencil. When I finally finished. I went on to fiddle around with some pieces I’m doing for my #100 day project, I’m very far behind with this but I’m doing it in my own time.

My finished sketch of the daffodils in the woods

Getting started is the worst. It’s the same with anything you’ve not done for a while. Actually taking action and spending that couple of hours was the best therapy. I felt really good about myself, a sense of achievement. A confidence that I can tackle the river next time… an urge to get out there again, and soon!

Why sketch realist scenes when I no longer paint them?

My paintings revolve around flora and fauna and the fragility of the planet. Sketching helps me to connect to all of this. To really see and absorb the details, yes, but the atmosphere, the sounds and smells too. It makes me slow down and really see. And this feeds my paintings.

Over the winter I’ve hardly sketched at all, outdoors or indoors. It’s a skill and one I need to practice much more. The benefits to my mind are myriad. Plein air painting and sketching is challenging, it takes all my concentration and I end my sessions feeling lighter, refreshed and happy. I’d forgotten just how good it feels.

Rooks roosting, high in the trees. As I type this, the wind is gusting outside and I wonder how they are up there and hope they will still be there in the morning. I also wonder about the baby rooks - that’s a long way down for your first ever flight!