sketchbook

Ballpoint pen and sketchbook – January 2025 – Wednesday

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A simple subject to start the year but illness and cold weather kept most members at home apart from two. Patrick and Tracy chatted throughout the evening and found the hall heated up quickly using the warm aircon.

Patrick had sketched out his picture for the next session of a wintry scene, inspired by a Christmas card he had received. He used coloured pencils, pastels and water mixable oil for the snow and hopes to finish the picture next time.

Tracy enjoyed researching about the history of ballpoint pens and finding out about John Loud, László Bíró and Michel Bich. For the session she brought objects from home and drew the faux plants. Firstly in just black then using a Bic pen with four colours, using the green, red and black.

Three members tried the subject at home.

Susan drew a lovely detailed scene of Smarden in Kent in black ink and it includes the church where her daughter was married last year. For the sketches of the birds different coloured ballpoint pens were used.

Angela found a picture of an olive tree and drew it with a ballpoint pen in the style of Van Gogh. It’s a beautiful sketch and the swirls with the ink give a Van Gogh effect.

Dot used a blue ballpoint pen to draw these pictures of a little girl and a teddy bear. On the girl and the teddy she achieved a really good effect of hair and fur by following the shapes of the heads.

Using a simple ballpoint pen is a very quick way to sketch, especially if you’re out and about and only have a pen and sketchbook with you. Please do give it a try!

The next session is on Saturday 25th January from 10am to 3pm and the suggested subject is ‘Winter Wonders’. See the post published on 1st January for more details.

January 2025

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Here are ideas for January’s two sessions, but you are very welcome to come along and paint whatever you want to.

After years of bright, dynamic colours worldwide colour company Pantone has chosen a soft, mellow, comforting brown as its colour of the year, called Mocha Mousse. Instead of a whole session on this colour try and add it to your paintings throughout this year.

Click here to learn more about this colour… www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year/2025

Wednesday 8th January 7-9pm – Ballpoint pen and a sketchbook

A simple start to the year to bring along a sketchbook and ballpoint pen and sketch some ideas of what you plan to draw and paint in 2025 or bring items from home to sketch. We usually use pencils to sketch but ballpoint pens are often overlooked yet are so versatile. Handy too if you’re going out and just want to pop a pen and small sketchbook in your bag.

Originally patented by John Loud in the USA in 1888 the first ballpoint pens were clumsy and not a success so the patent lapsed. László Bíró developed the idea decades later in Europe and patented his idea in 1938 as Biro pens. A few years later Marcel Bich bought Bíró’s patent and the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen became his first product in 1950. The four-colour ballpoint pen followed in 1969 and both designs remain almost unchanged since then.

Saturday 25th January 10am-3pm – Winter Wonders

Before recycling your Christmas cards have a look through and see if any will inspire you for this session. A wintry landscape, place, people, domestic or wild animals. With watercolours leave the white paper unpainted to represent snow or with acrylics or oils layer the paint on thickly with a palette knife. Or you might see many colours in snow, it’s not just white with sunlight and shadows. A broad subject in any media, come along and enjoy an arty day with friends.