La Dolce Vita

Some random sketches

My first works on canvas

Something a bit more involved than my usual sketches. Each of these took a full day to complete. Gouache on canvas. 12.5cm x 12.5cm

The first is a view of a client's conservatory (she has a wonderful eye for design and I fell in love with that set of shelves), and the second is a display I snapped a quick photo of at the Chelsea Flower show 2009.

SketchCrawl #26

Well, had to go to work this morning but made the most of it. A little sketch at work, then headed to the canal on the way home, but was driven back into the van by more bloody rain after only ten minutes. Gave up and went home!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Matt left for his sponsored cycle ride (Vietnam to Cambodia) on Thursday, so I took the opportunity to fill up the last two pages of my book with sketches done at the airport and on the tube.

Faces on the Underground

I haven't done many sketches of people this past year, so I thought I would try some more quick sketches on my way to and from the football today. My favourite is the lady on the bottom left.

The end and the beginning

I'm nearly at the end of my sketchbook - so it seemed like a good time to do a little housekeeping. I removed the block of pages from the old book and put those to the side while I worked out how best to repair the vintage cover; as you can see, it had become even more worn and tatty over the course of the past year. In the end I decided upon a simple strip of leather to reinforce the spine. This should make it more durable and give it a new lease of life for the coming year. A block of new pages was bound in, and it's now ready to go!

The old block of pages presented me with a puzzle: how best to bind them? I opted for a very simple look, with tan leather covers. I thought that the sketches should speak for themselves and not be overshadowed by a flamboyant cover.