Sketchbooks

These are pages from my sketchbooks which document my travels by bicycle and motorcycle and are drawn on location.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An unusual departure from my usual style, adding inks to capture bright autumn colours

The following series are a selection taken from my visit to northern Spain and the Picos mountains. 

Evening refreshment while out strolling around St Quay Portrieux, France, one evening. It was too dark to draw the harbour so without composition or arrangement I just drew what was in front of me.

From the steps of St Pauls, London. Cities can be a daunting prospect to capture on paper, but it depends how you approach the subject. My usual style is to note the detail but an important part of a drawing for me is to capture the essence of the scene. This is reflected in the busy lines, but why, if this is London, are the streets empty? On this morning,  the road was unusually quiet, so I emphasised this by eliminating all life from the scene. This is how I remember it.

I was out cycling with the family around the mountains in the Auvergne among some spectacular scenery. Sometimes though it's little details that catch my eye. This unusual, low dilapidated gate into an untended field was my subject as we stopped to rest.

This is a Gite we stayed at in France in a small village called Goudelan, Brittany. Basic, solid, no-nonsense, the cottage and the drawing.

My son and I were motorbike touring and we stopped off in Glastonbury for a welcome break on a boiling hot day. This is the shop opposite our cafe, drawn only because it was there. It was a tall building and this is reflected in the way it reaches from the very top of the page and runs off the bottom.

Cycling along the local canal I stopped for a break by Goytre Wharf, (South Wales). There were a number of boats around but I chose this one because I liked the compact, oval shape, accentuated by the reflection in the still water. 

If you decide to draw a motorcycle and want to capture the feel of a brand or style, you have to ensure you observe what features are present that represents a particular marque. The defining feature of a Harley Davidson is the v-twin engine, as much as it's distinctive styling. Here, the engine is only just visible, so hopefully the style is enough to show at a glance what brand of bike this is. This custom build was seen at the Bike Shed CC show in London in 2016.

Just sipping tea in a little cafe in Treguier, France, this shapely chair caught my eye

These people were standing in front of us while we waited for a firework display to start one cold November evening. It can be tricky to draw people even standing still, because they never actually do stand still - people constantly alter position or direction, so you have to be quick, often moving between subject. As each person returns to a previous position that you started drawing them in, quickly go back to them.

A custom motorcycle seen at a London show, (BikeShedCC). I felt the subject was more at home on the coarse, hand-made paper. 

One year we had an early holiday in a cottage overlooking Morwellen Quay in Devon. There were plenty of drawing opportunities in this peaceful location, and this was the view from the garden. Symmetrical and balanced in composition it was an obvious subject.

The seaside is always an inspirational place to draw, and there is always the contrast between the sea itself and the shoreline. These beach studies, from along the South Wales coastline, try to capture the contrast between the smooth rolling waves and the rugged, stony shoreline. I used a brown pen and a bit of colour.

This is the beach at Beer in Devon, visited on a motorcycle trip. It was a hot day, there was a seat available and this is the view I had. I don't often use colour, much preferring the starkness of line to show the subject, but I had some pencils with me so I used them. The brightness of the beach scene seemed to ask for it, but I'm not that happy with the picture. Underneath is a small drawing of detail of the Youth Hostel we stayed at. It's a curious composition with the big window in the middle of the picture, but playing with the rules of composition occasionally can create interesting dynamics. 

This is Bridge Cottage at Flatford Mill, probably the choice of endless artists. I was sat next to the cool water on a roasting hot day which probably helped me to concentrate long enough on the detail, which I really wanted to depict in this scene. The grey shading added with a brush pen is a useful alternative to shading techniques with pen alone.

This is Beddgelert, when touring North Wales by bicycle. The drawing was completed after the trip by photographic reference, and relies on painstaking attention to detail, which, while being an exercise worth undertaking occasionally, is not necessarily artistically satisfying. Less is more would have produced a more pleasing finished result.

Bianchi Cento Strada. One of my favourite bicycles, seen here at rest leaning against a tree and drawn only with larger nibbed pens rather than the small liners I usually use, in black and grey. Using different pens, sizes, types or indeed any different implement to create line is always worth experimenting with to create completely different results of the same scene.

The bike shed at Cheddar Youth Hostel. The subject was chosen just because it was in front of me while I rested after a lengthy cycle ride on a hot day and had just finished eating a welcome meal in the garden. This is one thing I like about sketching - you need the minimum of tools and can quickly draw any subject around you, at any time. They don't even have to be finished, every sketch can be a work of art.

A Moto Guzzi motorcycle, seen parked up visiting a motorcycle show in London. The rough, off-colour paper works well with the subject, and leaving the guiding pencil marks on the page adds to the feel of the image.

The following two sketches were from the same vantage point, one to the side of me and one behind, on the beach at Aldeburgh in Suffolk. In the beach scene below there are three areas - the contours of the waves, the smooth sand on the right and the main detail running up through the middle. Quite simplistic. The tower on the other hand, I drew with determined effort on capturing detail, and getting all the proportions exactly right. Two very different approaches to a drawing.

A breakwater somewhere on the Suffolk coastline. Drawing something like this is an excellent observational exercise because the angles when you look closely to actually commit to paper are nothing like what you expect them to be, and often can be quite surprising. The breakwater looks like it's sloping steeply down, but the top runs parallel with the edge of the page above it.

A footbridge on the Strawberry Line cycle route. My son and I were on our way back to Wales after a cycle tour of the West Country by tandem. We'd just crossed this bridge and looking back I saw the perfect scene present itself just asking to be captured in my sketchbook. It was a very sunny day in the middle of summer and the sun was directly overhead, creating the intense central dark area under the thick undergrowth. The surrounding area was almost completely bleached out. 

The old church in Bristol, UK.

 'Arthurs Stone', burial chamber on the Gower in South Wales. It's a wild setting up on a moorland hill, though I chose to focus on the subject and its immediate surroundings rather than the view of the landscape that it was in as I decided it would detract from the impressive archaeological monument. 

A tour of the West Country about 30 years ago saw my friend and I climb the Cheddar Gorge. This was drawn later from photographic reference. It's not the easiest place to draw for most of the year because it's choked with tourists. You won't often see it like this with no cars or people, and I wanted to leave those out to concentrate on the lone cyclist battling against the ascent of the gorge. The space given to the road at the bottom of the picture attempts to accentuate the length of the climb, set against the vertical lines of the gorge cliffs. 

 A boat at Chepstow, on a cold, bleak day in winter. It was cold too, hardly ideal for drawing beside a freezing river. This helped me, however, to draw differently by working quicker and larger, with broader strokes. It covers two pages of the sketchbook.

 Chinon in France, as seen from the river. We'd cycled there along the Loire and stumbled on a medieval fayre. The castle and town underneath stretching down to the opposite bank of the river was quite distant so I chose to draw the castle only as this longitudinal image almost floating on a sea of tree-tops. 




A church porch in Brecon, sketched while having a coffee. It's a squat, solid shape and I decided to soften the image by triangulating the walls of the church to reflect the roof of the watch.

The Severn Estuary always seems a bleak, colourless and drab landscape. So adding colour to this pencil sketch was a challenge, as visually it was grey and uninspiring. Its only redeeming feature is the rich archaeological history. There are 3,000 year old oak tree stumps to be seen, and I once found an auroch's tooth.

One of those scenes that seems to attract me - old stone steps and a dilapidated wall, with a small bridge still intact. I concentrated on the zig-zag shape across the page.

Looking across to Swansea from the Gower peninsula in South Wales. I'd cycled from the campsite that we were staying at and looking over the water while I sipped my coffee. The subtle, vague distant view of the mountains with the buildings of Swansea just visible could only be drawn with soft pencil.

My first tour, many many years ago, took my friend and I up to Anglesey.  The central Welsh countryside presented some fantastic, and challenging scenery to ride through, but also endless opportunities for sketching. This is the Dylife valley, drawn from a photograph later.  

 This is a farmhouse on one of my regular cycle rides. The receding image of the building means something to me because it reflects the long, winding road that I follow stretching away over the low hills just alongside the wall. I had colour with me so used it, but I have a preference for black and white. 

 Drawing this farmhouse near Borth (on the West Wales coast) from a distance across fields helped to simplify the amount of lines I used. However, using a thicker pen reversed the distance effect and created a very graphic, solid image, which best describes the squat, ancient farm building.

Another farm on my regular ride. This on the Usk flood road in South Wales. It was the dead tree that attracted me to the scene. The farm below is also on my often ridden route around the Usk, Raglan and Abergavenny area, and it was the bright red post box that attracted me to the scene, but I should have left the rest of the picture uncoloured for a better effect. Experimenting and making mistakes are the only way to learn and progress.

 A stile, not used very much, and a typical view that I find fascinating. Nature reclaiming the man made environment is a constantly fascinating subject for me - disorder and decay. 

This scene was barely viable as a subject for a sketch, but I hadn't drawn anything else that day and was nearly home so, determined to do something, I chose this half hidden farm. 

 I spent longer on this than I usually do when doing a sketch, adding the colour as well. This is the lanes around Iron Acton, north of Bristol (UK). An example of too much detail and a constant fault of mine. One day I will revisit and draw it again in a much quicker style and then compare the results.

 A place I regularly cycle through, As can be seen it was a very sunny day,and while there was shadow in the scene, the straggly conifer on the right was particularly dark.

Llanidloes,  mid Wales. 

The Mellengriffith Water Pump, Cardiff, South Wales on the Taff Trail cycle route. It was a complicated object to draw on location, and as were only passing I lazily opted to draw later from photographic reference. I put a lot of effort into the right balance of light and dark to bring out the water pump from the foliage, and decide on the outer boundaries of the sketch to give it a balanced feel.

Curious fishing platform at Tharon, near St.Nazaire in France.  There were many of these here, like something out of War of the Worlds. While the structure is the dominant feature here, the sea was actually the actual scene - deep blue, warm, loud and splendid. As the sea isn't shown in all its majesty in the sketch it therefore doesn't remind so much of the place. This is the difference between catching the essence of a place, scene or thing, or just drawing a thing because it's there. If I returned here I would give equal weight to object and location.

The Taff Trail, near Tal-y-Bont reservoir, South Wales. Drawn after the event from a photograph. Not the best way to learn drawing from life but an excellent method to practice your pen skills.

My old cycling shoe, worn out eventually into oblivion.

The coast at Oxwich Bay,  Gower, South Wales. A drawing of shapes and contrasts.

A small 'penny-farthing' at the 'Shuttleworth Collection' in Biggleswade near Bedford, UK. This as a wonderful collection of flying vintage aeroplanes, and they also have a selection of other historic vehicles on display. On flying days they parade their vehicles, so it's a real living museum. Despite the acrobatic looking nature of the bicycle the man riding it was most relaxed, so I tried to capture this in his face.

Pontygwaith Bridge, on the Taff Trail, South Wales, UK. (If you're going to ride this route, it's probably best to ride north to south. You'll only have one big climb over the Brecon Beacons, and it's all downhill from there). It was drawn later from photographic references. 

This is a typical scene that attracts me - a few rambling old sheds gradually into the fields. The barn was ramshackle, the field scruffy and untended and only the central tree looked permanent.

On a camping trip to Suffolk one year I cycled to a coastal pub one evening and sketched this peaceful view of the estuary.

It doesn't take much detail in a sketch to see that this is France - the shutters, tiled roof, shape of the buildings. Drawn while sipping a coffee in Sauge.

Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, UK.  It was a brilliant tour, even on a cheap, heavy steel bike with cheap panniers. It was all I could afford at the time all those years ago. You don't really need all the best kit just to get out there and do it. The light makes the hill look strangely placed in the field, but I copied is as it was, and in a way this reflects the mystery of the ancient monument.

St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, UK. We cycled across the causeway for our visit. By making the subject the cyclist riding over the causeway across the surrounding low-tide landscape, the famous often represented landmark is an incidental feature in this drawing. 

One of those little scenes that catches my eye - old stone as part of the landscape, and a rickety old swing gate leading to where? I left out the background as there was no need for it.

I'd just arrived in Stratford-on-Avon on my bicycle and had a rest here beside the river before heading off to the Youth Hostel. I liked the way the receding bridge was framed by the two trees.

This is one of my favourite Youth Hostels - at Street, near Glastonbury, UK. Wooden, rickety and full of character, which this drawing completely fails to capture authentically, but I had a go. As there was so many straight lines I used a ruler. Never, never use a ruler in a sketch.

Just a bike and a field, just somewhere to stop and rest on a searing summers' day while touring and draw the scenery. 

A tower on the Santiago de Compostela route at La Clauze, France. We cycled there from our Gite and picnicked here which afforded me the time to capture the dimensions accurately. Drawing tall subjects can be tricky t fit t your page and should be measured for height against width first to make sure you don't run out of space. 

Two pictures,drawn quite a few years apart, of the Trellech ancient standing stones, in South Wales, UK. The top one is in the snow, the bottom was drawn in summertime. The same scene takes on different drawing challenges depending on the season. I used the faintest hint of blue in the depiction of the snow. They were drawn from slightly different viewpoints.

The Usk reservoir in the Black Mountains, South Wales. Stunning scenery in the summer, desolate in winter.

Waiting for the Tour of Britain Cycle Race on Caerphilly Mountain, South Wales, UK. Plenty of time to sketch people who, unaware they are being drawn, constantly move position. I concentrated on the capturing the shapes rather than any detail.

Boat sheds in Walberswick, Suffolk, UK. This was a scorching summer's day as we cycled through and I just had to stop and draw these fantastic old boat sheds, so full of age and character. I concentrated on capturing the harsh light of the bright sunshine with strong light and shadow and a wilting, wavering grey line.

Something about the shape of this lane as it twisted over the low hill made me stop and capture it in a sketch. I ride thousands of miles of lanes every year and sometimes there is an elusive element to a scene that demands to be given more attention. On a bicycle you are much more aware of the landscape as  you travel through it you are immersed in it - not just the view, but you smell of the grass, you feel the breeze on your face and experience every up and down of the road with your legs and lungs. So much detail goes by unnoticed when you travel in a car. 

The Worms Head, Gower, South wales, UK. I enjoy drawing rocky landscapes, so this scene was perfect. I chose to put the prominent rock of the Worms Head central to the scene, but it would have worked at three-quarters to the right.

The Wye Valley, Monmouthshire, South Wales. I wanted to capture the juxtaposition of the gently meandering river and the heavily wooded landscape tightly surrounding it. 

A footbridge over the Blaize Castle estate in Bristol, UK It was a bit tricky drawing on the narrow path beside the busy road, but a composition that I wanted to capture. 

Cycling up the local canal towpath one day, looking for something to draw, I saw this old, abandoned tractor in a field. It was a striking, angular contrast to the smooth fields in which it rested, and has since been removed.





The following picture is of an amazing ruined French cottage we came across during an extremely hard ride around the Gorges d'Allier near the town of Monistral in France. As I wanted to capture the feel of the old place it was drawn from a picture after we got home from photographic references. The illustration was chosen by composer Omer Barash to set the scene for his haunting composition 'Illumination' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4vgXI7bPMM

One tandem, one bicycle. We'd just been for a ride around the quiet Suffolk lanes from the Rendlesham Forest campsite.

Here is a drawing of a stretch of water on the Afon Rheidol not far downriver from the Devils Bridge, in Wales. I rode up to it from Aberystwyth a couple of years ago when I was staying at a Summer School at Aberystwyth University. It was a welcome relaxing break from study.

I frequently ride around the Bristol and Bath area, and the route up the Avon Gorge is particularly impressive. This was drawn from the cycle-track through the woods.

This was drawn near the end of my first day of a new tour a few years ago, shortly before finding my way to Bath Youth Hostel, which was a long way uphill from here. This picture will always remind me of the brilliant sunny weather I had, not just on this day but for the whole tour.

This was my 'winter bike', an old Ellis Briggs, but it was too big for me really. I recently swopped it for a smaller frame, a rare Dawes, which I've had some great adventures with recently. It's quite a satisfying experience to take out food and a sketchbook from tour saddlebag and appreciate the humble mode of transport that's taken me to distant places.

I drew this picture of Bishops Waltham Abbey (UK) on my back from a tour down to the south coast of England to visit a place called Thorney Island. I used to live there as a child, and it is from where I have my lasting memory of first learning to ride a bike. I went back there to visit the place and to take a photograph of the very path that began my two-wheeled adventures. The sun was low and bright creating these strong contrasts.

I always notice old, ramshackle buildings when travelling, as they sometimes become part of the landscape they are degenerating into. This one is in the Black Mountains in Wales, drawn very quickly when cycling by. 

Returning home from a tour, I saw this scene at a busy canal lock in Bradford-on-Avon (UK) and enjoyed drawing it as much as the rest I needed at the time.Beyond the arch is a canal lock gate. 

Bristol (UK) has held it's Cycling Festival many years in September, and it's a great event to celebrate cycling. It's the finale of a week-long celebration of cycling related events and art projects, cinema screenings and much more. Each person was drawn quickly at the time they were there, so it's a like a time-lapse picture as people came and went.

A more modern, urban view than what I usually choose as a subject. Not sure I captured the bare, featureless glass front of the offices. 

This is the village of Chew Stoke in England, which I drew while on my way with my son on the tandem to Cheddar. It was his first taste of a touring holiday and he was glad of this stop. I drew, he ate.

This was a very cold day, and this is on the road between Chepstow and Monmouth, (Wales) up in the hills, and that's snow in the field. It's hard to stand still long enough in the cold to do a drawing like this, but I was very pleased with the way it turned out.

Sometimes I can't find time, or the weather doesn't allow me to draw, so instead I sometimes make up for it by doing a cycle related drawing at home. Here is a still-life study of a well worn mitt.

I was so lucky with the weather, again, one April, when I toured down to Beer in Devon. This was drawn in Seaton on the sea-front. It was the receding hills fading into the distance that caught my eye.

There's a little story attached to this picture. My favourite artist is Frank Patterson, who was a prolific illustrator through the first half of the 1900's. Amongst his work I saw a drawing of this street in a village in Herefordshire and I decided to cycle there to have a look for myself, to see what it looked like now. In the village I had a bit of trouble finding it, so I asked an old couple, who took a great interest. They showed me an old local history book in which was the same view in watercolour, by someone else, and both pictures were done from exactly the same spot. Patterson is known to have copied, creating his own pen & ink versions, and here was an example. The couple directed me to the street, explaining that it had changed due to some buildings being burnt down some years ago, and this is my modern version of that street.

This old building is on the Gower, (Wales), drawn when cycling back to the campsite from Swansea.  I drew the scene so as to frame the shell of the building with the encroaching trees and undergrowth.

This is Haytor Rocks on Dartmoor, (UK), and it was a fantastic ride with so many things to draw. However, it was November and quite cold so I had to choose one subject only. We'd climbed this the day previously, before being enveloped in thick fog. 

Cycling in Bedfordshire is great - rolling countryside, English villages and endless quiet lanes. As I rode into Ickwell I found an idyllic scene, with cricket being played on the village green in the evening sunshine surrounded by thatched cottages and old oak trees. 

This is Lavernock just past Penarth in Wales. A good place to stop for a break, with interesting layered rock strata to see. A quick, easy sketch.

I had a good ride up through the Forest of Dean (UK) and had a break at Lydney Harbour before heading back via Chepstow in Wales. This is the site of an old railway bridge that used to cross the Severn, but was demolished in a shipping accident in 1960. I wanted to capture the depth from foreground to distant coastline.

The tower is a Martello Tower, one of many along the Suffolk coastline on the east of England,  built in Napoleonic times. Many are empty now, but some now converted to living spaces. They can be found in many countries around the world. This one is at the splendidly named Shingle Street.

An old barn, somewhere in the lanes between Newport and Magor (Wales). This would have turned out well in black and white, but I felt I had to add the subtle tones of the rust and the subdued greens of winter foliage.

River Debin, Suffolk, (UK) while waiting for the foot-ferry to collect us and take us over to Felixstowe. This little ferry is very well used by European cycle-tourists. I find boats good drawing exercises in relative dimensions.

Another ruin, this one on the coast road between Newport and Cardiff inWales. As the years have gone by it's nearly completely vanished, being reclaimed by nature. It's not often I use colour, but I noticed the few red bricks in the doorway and couldn't show them in monochrome.

These are various saddlebags that I drew on a Veteran Cycle Club run during a lunch-stop at Shobdon airfield, (UK). It was January and very cold, but I couldn't find any inspiration in the cafe.

This was a cold, difficult ride, from Cwmbran across to Maes-y-cwmmer, down to Caerphilly, up through Radyr, where this was drawn, to St.Fagans and then through Cardiff back home. (Wales). As you can see, the conditions were less than perfect, with quite snowy, treacherous conditions on the roads. I wanted to capture the harshness of the winter trees and the way through, and under, the heavy overhanging branch.

In the summer months I can recommend the Old Station near Tintern in Wales for good food and good service. This is the old signal box. Often I will use a brush pen for shade rather than the more traditional pen & ink techniques for shading. It's always good to try and vary a style and tools.

This is a very friendly little cafe stop on the Bristol-Bath cycle track (UK) - one of my favourite rides. In the summer on the weekends the route is like a motorway for cyclists and this is a busy service station. 

This was one of those perfect winter days - cold, crisp and clear. This is the Welsh countryside, and one of the very few illustrations with colour, and watercolour at that. A medium I'm not comfortable using.