Sketchbook Update and a New YouTube Channel

It's well into February already and the sketchbook continues to grow,  I haven't  updated for quite some time, probably since the final entry in book 2, which was June 2022! So here goes with the story up to date. I'll begin with my latest page, which was a little different for me, then I'll tell you about my new sketchbook channel and share a few images from last year. 

My latest entry from January 26th 2024. I had to ask myself why I didn't draw this beautiful oak tree before... the answer is that sometimes the obvious things can be 'too close to home' to see, and this reminded me that there is no need to travel the earth to find special things. that said, my underlying interest in drawing the whole tree probably came from painting the autumn oak branch for the Irish Society of Botanical Artist's, Irelands Native tree exhibition, which was held in October 2023 (image below). I've drawn a few trees or partial trees in the past few years and ventured into drawing trees through keeping a sketchbook.

The featured tree is the largest of three oaks (Quercus robur) that can be seen from my window,  the age is unknown but after a chat with the landowner, the assumption is that it must be 200 years old, maybe more  ... but now that it's stirred my interest I want to know more. That's the other great thing about keeping a sketchbook, you become invested in the subject, you build a relationship and when it's so close to home you can document it throughout the year. There are many oaks around here, including ancient ones at Trentham Woods. Many of the ancient oaks in Britain were planted by landowners for the purpose of ship building, the most famous ship being the HMS Victory, built in the 1700's it is said to have been built from 600 oak trees! The ships survival  is testament to the strength of the oak timbers.

Pencils used in the Oak drawing: from left to right, Rotring 600 0.5 mm HB, Faber Castell TK- Fine Vario HB 0.5mm, Faber Castell clutch TK 4600 HB, and 2B (2mm lead) and Faber Castell 9000 HB - 2B.  It's a fairly loose drawing, so I kept the range of pencil grades fairly small but if I was making a final larger drawing I would use a wider range, probably 4H to 6B.   

This page is mostly graphite page and gave me an opportunity to play with a few different pencils. I used the good old Rotring 600 mechanical HB grade for the outline and smaller branches, I do love the weight and balance of this classic Rotring pencil, it suits me and it's beautifully engineered, its more expensive than most mechanicals but the mechanism seems very stable, unlike others which break with heavy use. I also played with the Faber Castell TK-Fine vario, which is and unusual mechanical pencil because it has a hard and soft setting, the soft setting is sprung so that eases pressure on the paper for the heavy handed. I'm not sure it really took off as a concept and got a bit of bad press but it's a novel idea, and I like novel ideas. For the tonal work I used the trusty Faber Castell clutch HB and 2B 2mm leads, which always do the job and a few FC 9000 wooden pencils. I'll write more about other pencils in a different blog post.I added the budding branches with an enlargement in watercolour for additional info about the tree at this time of year, and a little colour lifts the page

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Here's the tree alongside its two smaller neighbours, note the photo distortion at the outer edges of the image, which has greatly enlarged and distorted the right side of the tree, this is the reason why these things shouldn't be drawn from photos. I'd like to write more about the perils of photo distortion... but there's no time just now, sometimes we have to use photos to support work but drawing should be from life. 

Below is a detail from the Autumn oak branch painted for the ISBA exhibition October 2023 

My other news is about the new YouTube Channel, which I launched late in 2023.  This channel is dedicated to the sketchbook and is titled, the Botanical Sketchbooker. It's a simple concept, which I wanted to make easily accessible and free, so YouTube is as good a place as any. I do hope to encourage others to sketch from nature and their local surroundings, basically it's just me sharing what I do, my materials, practice, plants and thoughts on the process. There are a number of amazing artists who keep similar books of their native plants and I love them all. 

BUT remember that you can do whatever you want in your sketchbook, it's entirely driven by your own interests, it can be native plants, flowers in your garden, houseplants or even the things that you've been collecting in a box or on a shelf, such as dried seed-pods, leaf skeletons and branches etc. There is no award, certificate or market to bow to with this activity, it's just for you and that can feel quite liberating! (probably the take home point here). 

The sketchbook channel is new so you won't find lots of content yet, it's a bit of a slow approach and to be honest, sometimes it feels a little awkward to share my personal sketchbook but I'm sure that I'll grow into it. On the channel talk is about materials and practical things but also about plants, choices, reasons  and general thoughts on nature.   

My first page for 2024 began January 20th, it includes some found things, a lichen encrusted branch, a tuft of mossy bark and an old crow's skull, that's been sitting on the windowsill forever! This was great to do at this time of year because it can be completed from the comfort and warmth of my desk... I'm a fair weather person and trailing around in the cold isn't for me! I do like to start early in the morning though and the thought of a good sunrise is alway motivation. Morning is definitely the most productive time for me but I don't impose any rules on when and where I should complete my pages, so occasionally I'll work into the early hours of the morning, the only broad rule I have is not to spend much more than a day on the pages but this can be split across two days.  
 

The branch in this page was blown my way by recent storms and this page followed on from a previous page of broken twigs, painted in December, which you can see further down the page. As you can see I dropped a second branch behind the main one but painted it in lightly, so using aerial perspective which is useful when trying to create depth and separation, whilst creating a little more interest, the branch looked a little too stark without it. 

I strongly belive that the sketchbook is good for an my development as an artist, it improves  observation, allows me to learn more about plants, to experiment with approaches, techniques and composition and importantly I feel it is good for the mind.  The plants that I paint are chosen for the simple reason that they capture my interest and make me think about my surroundings..... and how wonderful nature can be. Often I discover something completely new that amazes me and usually read about each subject in the evening.  Most recently I've been adding information about the weather which is very relevant considering that all of the twigs and branches in my recent pages arrived courtesy of the January storms. Comparison between years between weather, flowering times and conditions can be very useful over time and provide an important snapshot of our local environment - such sketchbooks books could even turn out to be a valuable ecological insight in years to come

Beginnings, pencil sketches and working on each branch 

Four twigs: December 23rd 2023: I had been in Paris for a few days and delayed home by storm Pia, when I finally arrived home  an array of material was scattered on the Lane to choose from, So I chose the most diverse selection of twigs. Ash with moss, the second one I was unsure what it was, but it had a large lichen, third was the dark was hawthorn with the wet bright green lichen and finally a silver birch, these poor trees were pretty smashed ups by the storm. 

The seasonality here in the uk is always a reminder of time ticking away as is the blooming of any plant,  my advancing age is certainly changing my perspective on what's important. For years I worried about whether I was painting the right subjects, and contemplated whether I should paint more commercial subjects, like big flowers or maybe should try a different medium, eventually I just settled into my own skin and found that the things I love, which are reflective of my interests, maybe they're not so commercial but I've actually found that much paid work came my way from the sketchbook too, and that was a surprise, so doing the things that you are passionate about can pay too if you are consistent, lets face it we all have to earn a living and and committing to being an artist isn't always easy.

 The past few years of sketch booking, I have enjoyed it immensely and feel very fortunate, I am forever grateful to my dear friend Debbie Crawford who suggested that we should have a weekly sketch date during the Covid pandemic, that's when really indulged in the book, in more recent years, as things returned to normal, I have time for a weekly entry but try to create a page every couple of weeks, sometimes I'm too busy with other work but that's ok too...and I always look forward to getting back to my book.  Below is a seasonal selection from 2023, I picked one to represent each month here.

November 2023 Mistletoe

October 2023  Fly Agaric 

September 2023, Wild Strawberry

August 2023, Scots Thistle

July 2023 Wild Raspberries

June 2023, Flag Iris 

May 2023, Creeping Buttercup

April 2023, Forget-me-Not

March 2023, Goat Willow

February 2023, Cyclamen coum

January 2023, Ash tree, back to trees again at the lean times of year

One other thing that's worth a mention is artists block. A times artists can be afraid of the white paper and the quest for perfection dominates, yet this only seems to hold us back, maybe my perception is wrong but being a 'perfectionist' can make it hard to actually get anything finished or even started because of this self-inflicted pressure - but that pressure can also come from over-thinking what you 'should' be doing as an artist.... I've been there. Not everything has to be perfect, not everything will be perfect, it goes wrong, its normal, its part of the process of learning and learning never stops. Not that much helps when we feel that way and sometimes I think a pause can be part of a process of re- emergence.  

Today pressures are different than they used to be, yes we are more connected but also spend a lot of time alone, endless scrolling of social media can at times be off-putting, especially if we make the mistake of comparing ourselves to others. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love social media and think it has transformed the artists' world making the globe a much smaller place. In fact if it wasn't for social media I wouldn't know Debbie or all my other botanical friends and neither would I have such an effective means of communicating, for me it nurtures ideas, its like a giant library, but only if you look in the right places -  on the downside, constantly seeing the progress of others when we're feeling a little low on inspiration, with daily reminders of successful memberships, certificates, awards, accolades and being accepted into exhibitions, can make us feel like we are failing and it's depressing for some. Being or feeling rejected can feel harsh and defeating. Of course all of these thing are just what happens, and rejection and failure is also part of the artists life, but feeling unsuccessful or not as good as others can  contribute to creating a block. In addition, life can throw in other challenges, such as health or relationship problems, this means it's not always possible to achieve what we want, sometimes we fail, at these times the sketchbook can be an amazing safe place to retreat and reflect. 

And so, although a sketchbook may have no obvious or instant reward in material terms, it may seem even pointless to some (yes I've heard that before) it can be surprisingly rewarding with much to be gained and it might surprise you what can come from it. 

Thanks for reading, having returned to my blog again I see there have been over 1 million views! I suppose it's not a lot as blogs go but I guess people are still reading....so thank you. I will try to write more. 

Sketchbook Update, March - June 2022

My last update was early spring, so it's time to add more about the sketchbook. I've not completed so many pages this year but that was expected as we come out of the pandemic, and, with other work to do it's a big ask to complete a page every week.  The aim this year was a page every two weeks, which is achievable, given that  23 are completed to date. There are too many for one post so will do this in two. So here goes with March to June, entries 7 - 13: 

I left off in the last post with the promise of Celandine for entry no. 7, and it was indeed completed, but I completed another painting first, it was the wild daffodils at the ancient woodland  at George's Hayes, Longdon,  Staffordshire. It was March 11th and the day before my 58th birthday, so thought I'd take a bit of a trip out. A bit of a rushed page painted in situ because it started raining.... so that was the end of that. 

Narcissus pseudonarcissus, wild daffodil at Georges Hayes Wood. March 11th  2022

Beautiful sight and the largest stand of wild daffs in Staffordshire 

No. 7. Heres the Lesser Celandine, yes yet another yellow flower. This was early April and at that time of year Celandine is everywhere. 

Ficaria verna, Lesser Celandine April 2nd 2022

Roadside down the Lane in Checkley, my old stomping ground

No. 8 Next up, its yellow again! with Cowslip. I planted this on the edge of the garden and it's doing well this year, I also had a few in pots which is always handy, it was a lovely sunny day so I sat out and drew it, then finished it off indoors, because it was way too bright outside. It seemed complicated to draw but was much easier than I thought and took about an hour. I try not to spend more than one day for each page but often this is split into and hour snatched here or there.  

Primula veris, Cowslip. My garden, April 2nd 2022

No. 9 Spot the odd one out, not a British native plant for the next page because I took a holiday to Malta! and of course the sketchbook came too. I have to paint this gorgeous little Barbary iris. A walk to the cliffs at Sannat in the morning, revealed the presence of the dead long leaves, like little snakes but the flowers don't open until later in the day, it was extremely hot and a swarm of tiny flies descended, which filled my hair, eyes, nose and clothes...its was pretty awful but didn't stop my return later that day to paint this little beauty. 

Morea sisyrinchium, the Barbary Nut, Sannat Cliffs, Malta, 25th April 2022 

See how tiny it is! 

No. 10 Back home again and back to dandelions, I became slightly obsessed following the realisation  there are so many species. This one was at the SSSI at Allimore Green, Haughton, Staffs. I think its Taraxacum faeroense, very cute little dandelion. 

Taraxacum faeroense, Allimore Green SSSI Haughton, Staffordshire, 8th May 2022

The bracts are all important in identification

Allimore Green, a rare piece of land the wasn't drained and has been preserved that way, a designated SSSI 

No. 11 Another dandelion,  one from the Hamata section I'm told, T. lamprophyllum, it seemed too small but that's not always important. anyway it was in my garden, so not much effort required for this one. A lazy option when there isn't much time available but goes to show that there's always something to paint. 

Taraxacum lamprophyllum (maybe), in the garden,  16th May. 2022

No 12, the last full page in the book before starting a new one is Silene dioica, Red Campion. It's one of my favourite flowers and as the name suggests it has separate male and female plants. There was an abundance of females but barely any males. I'd saved some seed podss from last year and added them to the page. When I went to finish the painting the lot had been strimmed, so I took some home and painted finished it off overlooking the field.  

Silene dioica, Common Lane, Stone. 21st May 2022

So that marks the end of the second sketchbook and will stop there apart from one more end piece, no. 13  Comfrey with a bee, bit of a rush job! 

Symphytum officinale, Common Lane Stone, 

For the next book I have more pages and its back to Saunders Waterford hight white paper. I'll  post the next batch soon. 

This project has been ongoing since February 2021 and I have been doing it with my good friend Debbie Crawford from the US. You can see all of our entries on Instagram under the hashtags botanicalsketchdates, which got hijacked by lots of folk, which it fine, so we started another with the hashtag botanicalsketchdates2022. 

Also on my own IG and Facebook page Dianne Sutherland Artist, where there's lots of other artwork too. 

A New Year of Painting and Plants

Another year has passed and I've just completed the first of the 2022 sketchbook pages. This is a continuation of the same project as last year, 'Botanical Sketch Dates', which I've been doing with friend Debbie Crawford. My last post was up to week 38 of the book, there have been a few more entries since that time, so here they are. 

First entry January 2022 Corylus avellana, Common Hazel

The first for 2022 is Corylus avellana, Hazel. The catkins were out by the first week of January so seemed the obvious choice. It's a monoecious native tree which means it has separate male and female flowers on the same plant, being self incompatible it needs pollen from a nearby tree for pollination and to bear fruit. Cross-pollination is the preferred strategy for most plants because it increases genetic diversity but many plants can self- pollinate if all else fails, Hazel isn't one of those plants. 

The hazel nuts should be ready by July this year and I look forward to adding them. You can see that a  rough sketch of the Lane where the trees are located is included, this is something I may start doing on a more regular basis and first tried it in the Yew tree entry below, which included the medieval crosses at St. Mary's Church, Checkley. By the way, if you click on the images in the post I think you open a clearer image than the ones embedded in the blog post. 

Week 40 December 1st 2021, Taxus baccata, English Yew at the Churchyard, Checkley, Staffs. Featuring three medieval crosses at the site. 

With moving to a new year I did consider switching focus to garden plants, but in the end decided to stick with native, naturalised and some commonly found plants here in the UK. At the start of the project I had a broader scope but as the project developed, decided that native plants are my focus, they always have been really, and that's why I started painting plants all those years ago. With nearly 1400 native British plants and 1100 naturalised there are plenty to keep me busy. 

My interest is in learning about plants and habitats, so I'm sticking with the natives and hope to travel to a few new locations to paint this year, coastal plants would make a good addition and I'm definitely going to pursue some of the many dandelion species, this was something I learned about last year - did you know  there are over 240 species of dandelion! This doesn't mean I won't document the plants in the garden at a later date, they're certainly more colourful and easy access but I've hardly scratched the surface of our beautiful plant life to date! 

If you read my  previous post about sketchbooks and study pages, which included a video walk through of the book, you will know I also included fungi, this continued in November when I came across the wax caps at a local cemetery next to the Trentham Estate. The warm weather made it a good year for fungi, these little mushrooms are absolutely beautiful and very important too. The Parrot wax caps were found at Checkley graveyard the same week. I made a fun composition of them all together with some of the surrounding mosses and yew fruits, they seem to have an association with moss and I like to paint the substrate beneath - using a negative painting approach. Waxcaps are found in unimproved grasslands, but sadly I haven't seen them in too many other places, which says something about the state of our grasslands. The UK has lost 97% of its traditional meadow and grassland habitat and last year Plantlife ran a campaign with an app for people to look out for these beautiful little mushrooms, waxcaps are part of the species rich grasslands that are so important in carbon storage. Hopefully if Plantlife can find out about patches of remaining species rich grassland they can protect these areas.  

Week 39 November 14th - 21st 2021 Waxcaps: Hygrocybe coccinea (scarlet wax cap), H. chlorophana (golden wax cap) and Gliophorus psittacinus 

Christmas week I painted that old favourite, Holly, Ilex aquifolium, which is of our very few native woody evergreen angiosperms. Holly is dioecious, which means it has separate male and female plants, so you will only find fruit on female trees. It has such a beautiful glossy dark leaves and they take a while to paint because colour should be built slowly, I made use of aerial perspective to make the task easier and to increase the depth of the whole branch. The spikes are tricky to paint as they point forwards and backwards, so good lighting is our best friend when painting holly! That said the spikiness varies, young leaves and those low down have more spikes, no doubt to protect from browsing, the top of the plant has more smooth edged leaves. 

Week 41 December 23rd to 27th, 2021 Holly, Ilex aquifolium 

My final entry for 2021, was a simple dead oak leaf.  I look out on the oak trees from my window everyday as I paint, so it seemed a fitting end to the year. It also prompted me to start a small book of leaf paintings in a concertina sketchbook ....yes another sketchbook project! 

Week 42 on 31st December 202, a dried oak leaf, ready for the new year of plants and painting

Finally, here are the first few entries in the little sketchbook of leaves. I promised a post about leaves a while back -  haven't forgotten but still working on it....it's a big old topic. 

A sketchbook of leaves for 2022

So that's all, I painted 51 species in 2021 over a 42 week period, it was great fun and I learned a lot about plants and painting. 

Looking forward to completing some actual paintings this year too and developing the website with more new tutorials to share.  Also thinking of doing a short presentation on some of the sketchpages so will keep you posted here.

Wishing you all a happy new year filled with plants and painting! 

New Year, Old Painting: Cupani Project

This week I finally finished off a commission which began last year. It's a painting of the sweet pea 'Cupani' on dark vellum, which will be making its way to its owner in Seattle this coming week.  It's been a long time in the making, as many paintings are - from buying the seeds and growing the plants in the garden, initial studies and sketches to the final painting all takes time.

Finished painting of Cupani Lathyus odoratus on dark veiny vellum 
 

This project began about one year ago, I think about the same time we first heard of Covid 19! I purchased the heirloom seeds of Lathyrus odoatus 'Cupani' from Chilterns Seeds in early February. Referred to as the 'original' sweet pea, it's believed to have first arrived in England in 1699, when Sicilian monk Father Francesco Cupani sent seeds from his home in Sicily to schoolmaster and botanist Dr Robert Uvedale. Father Cupani was a man ahead of his time and you can read more about  his work in this Acta Botanica Gallica Journal and also about other plants that bear his name and his publication on native flora of Sicily on Professor Hedghog's Journal, which is well worth following. Reading about these plants makes me want to visit Sicily to see the native flora.....maybe next year. 

Botanist Father Cupani Img. Wikimedia Commons 

Compared to modern day cultivars, this is a much more conservative looking flower, the hairy slender stems usually bear just two flowers, which are relatively small, however the colours are stunning with a rich red maroon, and blue/ violet wings with a paler keel inside, most outstanding is the perfume of the flower. Dr Uvedale succeeded in growing the flower which soon became popular in the 1700's, being given the name 'Cupani' and marketed commercially by around 1730. Our modern day cultivars descend from Cupani, so we have much to be thankful for. 

It's an easy enough plant to grow, and I started it off in seed trays in early February with a late second batch in early March (sow anytime Sept - March), they germinate quickly, within a few weeks, and the tips need to be pinched out to encourage bushy growth. Planting two batches meant I would have a longer flowering period to work with. Despite the Covid lockdown the weather from March and all summer was incredible and the Garden flourished, Cupani likes full sun so this was good. Much to my relief the first Cupani flowers appeared July 23rd, it didn't take long before they were scrambling over fences and up canes. It's best to remove most seedpods to promote longer flowering but I kept a few for the illustration purposes.

First flowers appeared July 23rd 

Within a couple of weeks Cupani is scrambling all over the garden 

I set to work on a study page once a few flowering stems were established, it's a lovely plant to paint, with such vibrant colour. I always complete a study page - this allows me to understand the plant...how it fits together and grows. For me this study page is a problem solving exercise in advance of the final painting and it's always good to have plenty of plant material to work with, that way I dissect and deconstruct to achieve the best understanding. Measuring and making notes as well as working out all the colour mixes is all part of the process. 

Studies, revealed that some stems have three flowers but most only have two, Later on I decided to stick with what is typical in the final painting. 

The finished study page shows different aspects of the plant, an enlarged dissection in graphite, notes about the plant, dates and colour mixes. This process makes composing and completing the final piece much easier. 

For the final composition, I wanted to keep a similar look to the study page but with a more square format, so made some drawings based on this arrangement but kept some aspects a little more spontaneous. 

The next task was to move on to the painting; the client wanted the piece on vellum and initially I though manuscript might be the best option because it has some delicate veining and is a clean and fairly white substrate, the flower has strong colour so I though perhaps the darker vellum might not work so well, however, despite starting on manuscript, curiosity go the better of me and I made a small flower stud on dark vellum, some adjustment was needed with the colour mixes and I made use of some body colour by using gouache to increase vibrance, to my surprise it worked well. 

On the light manuscript the colours are more vibrant and venation is still visible

 

The developing composition on manuscript before I had a change of heart 

Comparing surfaces, left study page, centre manuscript and right dark veiny vellum

A small study on a  scrap of dark vellum, after discussion with the client we decided this was the best option 

 After discussions with the client we decided that the dark vellum was the way to go, I'd had this beautiful piece of vellum from William Cowleys for some time, the strong veins complement the climbing stems so well and the warm colour gives a lovely vintage feel. Although I wouldn't finish this painting until long after flowering had finished, I had enough preparatory material and photographs to complete it at a later date. Sometimes it's good to change your mind. 

'Cupani' has been a wonderful project and I'll definitely be growing it again this year! Apparently the sweet pea is symbolic of goodbyes as well as for pleasure, I'm sure we'll all be glad to say goodbye to this current situation and can maybe get out into the wider world again in the not too distant future to do more plant hunting, but for now though it's time to begin the next 2021 project.