We bought a dome ‘tent’ to allow us to sit out in our little field if it was too breezy or raining. It’s been great as the Scottish weather has been a bit on the wet side this summer. It had a but of a shaky baptism as it blew away in a storm. However, apart from one small tear it survived and I’ve moved it to a more sheltered spot.

It’s been a handy place to sit and read in, have a glass of wine of an evening. I’ve also used it as a quiet place to attempt to do some ‘real’ drawing. I’m not good at drawing. It’s just a hobby but I’ve got all the gear. Paints, brushes, pastel pencils, coloured pencils the lot. So, I should be good but it’s hard.

Last week I watched some vlogs of artists drawing food so I thought I’d get my Faber Castell pencils out and give it a go.

I started off taking a photo from a cooking magazine then used a simple cheat I’d seen an artist use where you place a graphite sheet between the photo and a piece of watercolour standard paper. That gave me this.

I then bailed out and imported a photo of the sketch to Affinity Designer. I then coloured it digitally..

It was ok but I wanted to try a pencil drawing. So, using the same tracing technique I created a cheeseburger outline sketch.

I then sat in the dome and got my pencils going. You would think it straightforward but you have to choose the right colours, burnish away, know when to add or stop. Anyway after a while I ended up with my cheeseburger.

Not a bad effort 🤗

This week I’ve added an airbrush and some coloured markers to my toolkit as I try to improve my skills. Wish me luck!