Alwyn Crawshaw - Collins 30-Minute Painting

I used a 2B pencil to make a quick sketch of a deckchair on a beach while I was on holiday. It was done purely for enjoyment.

The aim of this book

In this book I will take you by the hand and show you how to enjoy your sketching without too much historical and technical information to complicate things. When you were at primary school you would draw or paint without any thoughts of whether it was good or bad – you had no inhibitions, you did it just for your own enjoyment. This is how I want you to approach sketching.

Remember that the 30-minute time limit is a guide only. We all have our own natural speed of working, but in all my 50 years of painting and teaching I have found working to a limited time one of the most inspiring and exciting exercises to do and some of my students’ best work has been done this way. So have a go – I know the 30-minute clock will help you.

▲ Valletta, Malta

20 x 28 cm (8 x 11 in)

This watercolour enjoyment sketch may look more time-consuming, but notice how the distant buildings are done very freely.

ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT

▲ Morston Quay, Norfolk

20 x 28 cm (8 x 11 in)

I painted this on location, using the minimum equipment needed for sketching outdoors.

For a beginner, going into an art materials shop must be very confusing. There are hundreds of brushes, many different papers and a bewildering choice of sketchbooks, pencils and paints, all invitingly displayed.

However, help is here: on the next two pages I will show you the basic simple materials you should buy. You don’t need a large range of equipment for sketching, and for working on location you certainly won’t want to carry a lot with you. Keep things simple with your materials at first and get used to them – if you want to try different ones, experience will guide you as you progress.

Pencils

▲ A basic pencil sketching kit: 2B, 3B and 6B pencils, a putty eraser and sketchpads.

Pencils are available in a range of grades. The most familiar one, which you will find in any stationery shop, is HB. The letter ‘H’ stands for hard lead, and the range covers 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H and 6H. The hardest pencil is the 6H. On the other side of HB are the ‘B’ (soft lead) grades – 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B. The softest pencil is the 6B.

I use a 2B pencil for most of my sketching, but there are occasions when I turn to a 3B or a 6B. These are the three pencils you need for the exercises in this book. You will also require a putty eraser for rubbing out your pencil marks. It is impossible to get everything correct the first time, so an eraser is as important to you as your pencil.

Paper

Unless otherwise specified, all the sketches in this book are on cartridge drawing paper; the remainder are on Bockingford Not watercolour paper. Both can be bought in pads. There are a number of other watercolour papers available, in different weights and surfaces. When I am working outdoors, most of my sketching is done in a Daler-Rowney A4 or A3 cartridge sketchbook.

QUICK TIP

To stop your sketchpad pages flapping when you are working outdoors, just slip an elastic band round the outer edge of the pad.

Watercolours

▲ A basic watercolour sketching kit: a water jar, a paintbox, three brushes, a 2B pencil, a putty eraser and sketchpads.

Watercolours come in pans or tubes. I recommend that you don’t use tubes, as you can control the amount of paint you put on your brush much more easily from a pan, and a paintbox of pans is much more convenient for sketching outdoors. There are two qualities of paint: students’ and artists’. I use artists’ quality, but Daler-Rowney Students’ Aquafine are very good and less expensive. The seven colours I use are discussed here.

Brushes

The best watercolour brushes are manufactured from sable hair, and they are the most expensive that you can buy. However, there are excellent synthetic brushes on the market that cost much less than sable, and they are used by many professional artists (Daler-Rowney Dalon is one example). I use a No. 10 round brush as my big brush, a No. 6 round as my small brush and a Daler-Rowney Dalon D99 Rigger No. 2 for thin lines. The higher the number, the larger the brush.

PENCIL TECHNIQUES

▲ From Donna and Andrew’s Garden

20 x 28 cm (8 x 11 in)

For this sketch I used a 2B pencil, which allowed me to draw thin branches on the trees.

The most versatile and convenient sketching tool is the pencil, and it is ideal for making quick 30-minute sketches. Pencil sketching has been done for centuries by world-famous artists; John Constable, England’s most renowned landscape artist, took sketchbooks as small as 5 x 10 cm (2½ x 4 in) on his travels.

The best thing about pencil sketching is that if you haven’t got any equipment with you, it is always possible to get a pencil and some paper to work on no matter where you are. I have sketched on the back of envelopes and even a long till receipt! In this chapter I will show you how to get the most out of your pencils.

Using pencils

To get the most variety of line and shading from a pencil when you are sketching there are a few simple things to learn, the most important of which is how to hold your pencil. With the three methods of holding it shown below, your pencil will do whatever you want on your sketch. However, your pencil must be sharpened with a sharp knife to give you a long point, not with a pencil sharpener.

Following the simple exercises shown here will help you to use your pencil effectively. As you do them, practise varying the pressure you put on the pencil to give stronger or lighter lines.

You can also use your eraser as a drawing tool, creating lighter areas in your pencil shading.

▲ The short holdposition that you use when writing gives you most control.

▲ The long holddrawing position allows more freedom over a large area.

▲ The flat holdposition allows you to work large shaded areas with fast, free, broad strokes by using the long edge of the lead.

▲ These exercises show definite strokes, made with a 2B pencil. When you can control these, practise more irregular strokes such as the ones in the sketch opposite. Scribble away and enjoy what a pencil can do.

▲ These lines and shading were done with a 6B pencil. Compare the effect with the exercises done with a 2B pencil opposite.

▲ A plastic eraser can be used to rub out a thick line from shading made with any pencil. An eraser can be as important when sketching as a pencil.

▲ I made this sketch of a windmill with my 6B pencil, which allowed me to work quickly when shading areas but was not suitable for putting in any detail.