Fritillary in Coloured Pencil

Fritillary Snake's Head
Derwent Inktense Pencils on grey paper

It's a year since I've sketched anything in my little multicoloured Fabriano Artist's Journal. I had resolved to use it to record everything that bloomed in our garden. Well the garden's blooming away and I'm way, way behind! I have painted a few flowers since but usually in watercolour sketchbooks.

I bought a tin of 12 Derwent Inktense pencils quite a while ago because so many people love them. I've hardly touched them since because they always look so gaudy to me when I add water. I was so disappointed in the sketch above I was really regretting that it was in my garden journal. I think I've rescued it slightly by adding some touches of white gouache.

Does anyone else have reservations about these pencils, or is it just me?

Watercolour Poppy

The poppy I painted for my darling daughter's birthday.

Today I posted Lindsay's Flying Pictures Sketchbook on to Casey. Below is a peep at what I got up to.

You can follow the adventures of all seven traveling sketchbooks here.


Editors Note: Since a lot of people seem to have the idea that I came up with this clever collage concept in Lindsay's book I had better explain.

You will see from my previous post that all congratulations are due to Lindsay. She created the collage of the little canoes traveling along a mountain river and then left me half a page with some river, a sun and half a canoe. As a transition to the two pages I was adding, I simply added a Tuscan flavour with a couple of pieces of paper Lindsay had left over.

Flying Pictures First Sketchbook Exchange

Lindsay's sketchbook has arrived in Tuscany. I thought it was going to take forever as most of our incoming mail does. Lindsay resisted the temptation to decorate the envelope so it couldn't be termed 'package' and end up in that Poste Italiane black hole in Milan.


What a surprise to find not only a beautiful collage by Lindsay but an envelope full of treasures for my own artistic adventure.


I love the little canoes passing through the mountains of beautiful Japanese printed paper.

Lindsay's Cover

Now I have to carry on Lindsay's water theme into the two pages I will add to her book before sending it on to Casey.

You can follow the journey of all seven handmade Flying Pictures sketchbooks HERE.