Inside Story - FP Sketchbook Exchange

I sent off my handmade FlyingPictures concertina sketchbook, Different Strokes on Monday. It's now arrived safely in Casey's studio in France.



This has been the most beautiful Spring for wildflowers since we moved to Tuscany. I painted them in an olive grove outside the village, then added detail of the flowers.



I felt the painting turned out a bit too much like a chocolate box illustration but it's a weakness of mine, not knowing what to leave out. The bee was an attempt to show I'm not taking myself too seriously!



The book is 18 x 26 cm and I started it with 300gm HP watercolour paper. It is up to each artist in the exchange to choose the paper for the pages they add. The cover is a chocolate brown embossed paper. The bookmark lists the artists and their location.



Now it's over to Casey. I can't wait to see what she brings to Different Strokes.

Sketching in Val di Chio

Lamy pen and wash with W&N Sepia ink

This week Sarah and I walked and sketched along the Old Mills Trail in the Val di Chio. Sarah has a post graduate interest in the ancient Etruscan waterways of the valley and her art is influenced by all things Etruscan.

Sarah sketching

Sadly we didn't find any old mills still standing but we did find grape vines growing in the traditional manner wrapped around the trunks of maples.

Lamy pen & watercolour - Canson 17.5 x 24 cm sketchbook

I'm still having trouble getting anything but very diluted colour with my waterbrush. Next time I think I 'll try the coloured pencil approach inspired by Katherine Tyrrell's lovely drawing in a vineyard not far from here.

Old stone structure in Val de Chio

I had to balance on a rock in the stream to take the photo above, so I didn't risk a sketch.

All sketches look a little drab here because I've had to scan the sketches because the light isn't great for photographs at the moment. Does anyone else have disappointing results with scans?

Flying Pictures Takes Off

Sketchbook Cover

Flying Pictures is a sketchbook exchange with a difference. Initiated by Lindsay Olson and inspired in part by the current wonderful Moleskine exchanges, Flying Pictures sketchbooks will be constructed as they fly around the world.

Mine left for Casey Toussaint in France today. It consists of a front cover and four pages of HP watercolour paper. It also has two and a half pages of my art. When it gets to Casey she will take the paper of her choice and hinge her pages of art into the book before sending it off to Nina Johansson in Sweden. When it finally flies back to me, I will attach the back cover and treasure it for the rest of my life.

Inspired isn't it? I believe Lindsay came up with that great name as well.

I couldn't settle on a theme for my book so I've called it Different Strokes because by the time it returns to me it will be full of beautiful, different strokes by Nina, Glen, Vivien, Ronell, Lindsay and Casey.

In all, there will be seven handmade books taking to the air. You can learn about the rest of the Fliers and follow the adventures of the books on the Flying Pictures blog HERE.