Everyday Sketching, Urban Sketching

Holiday Sketching in Yorkshire

Holiday sketching in the North Yorkshire Moors, working with a sketchbook that isn’t taking watercolour paints as expected!

After Easter, we went to the North Yorkshire National Park for a few days. I took a brand new A5 Seawhite travel journal for my holiday sketching.  I also packed watercolours, fine liners and a few Inktense Derwent pencils for more watercolour pencil experiments.

Brinham Rocks - Pen and Watercolour sketch by Sophie Peanut
Holiday Sketching. My first drawing in my new sketchbook – I found the paper hard to work with!

Not all sketchbooks are equal

The Seawhite travel journal is made of thin paper but it seemed thick enough to take watercolour washes. And it was very cheap too. It is slimmer than the Stillman and Birn sketchbook I have been using and lighter to carry around. So I though it would be the perfect sketchbook to take on a short break… Maybe I should have tested it first!

We stopped at Brimham Rocks on the way. While the kids clambered about I opened my new sketchbook to draw.

The paper was sucking ink out of the pen and bolting. The line was slightly fuzzy and if I left my pen on the paper, it immediately started a blot. It turned out the paper quality was poor. Probably only meant to be used with pencil. Oh dear!

Lazy Sunday Cafe - Sketch in pen and watercolour by Sophie Peanut
I had never drawn a full cafe interior scene. I really enjoyed this and hope to get more similar sketches done soon!

Making the best of my holiday sketching tools

I could either forget about sketching or try and make the best of what I had. Of course I kept going. Watercolours sank into the paper. I had to layer the paint to achieve dark or saturated colours. But I managed to work with the paper and I am happy with the overall results. Travel or holiday sketching is about capturing a moment or mood with whichever tool you have on hand.

The Inktense pencils were perfect to block large areas of colour quickly or add texture. I used them with watercolours on most of my pages from the trip.

World class mountain bike course - Dalby Forest Pen and Watercolour drawing
Sketching some of the action on the World Cup Mountain bike course in the Dalby forest.
Darby forest Pen and Watercolour sketch by Sophie Peanut
Sat outside during a rare dry moment on a rainy day out in the Darby forest.
Holiday sketching in Cropton Forest Cabins by Sophie Peanut
Evening in playing dominos and relaxing. Look at the lovely floor to ceiling windows looking out in the forest!
Steam Train to Whitby - Sketch by Sophie Peanut
On the steam train to Whitby – plenty of time to draw and colour a detailed scene. Glued the ticket in after – I think it was designed to go there!
Whitby - Looking towards the Abbey - Pen and Watercolour sketch by Sophie Peanut
View looking towards the Abbey in Whitby.
Beach cafe Sketch - Sophie Peanut
Quick beach cafe sketch. I closed the book before the paint was dried. It created and ink blot style symmetrical effect of the red splattering…. and a  grey smudge on my younger son’s face  (the one with the hoodie).
Return train journey in pen and watercolour
Plenty of sketching time on the return train journey to Pickering.
Chilling before bed - Pen, Watercolour and Inktense pencils sketch by Sophie Peanut
Last night away. I used the Inktense watercolour pencils to block out large areas of colour and darks. I worked over the top with a waterbrush and watercolours.
Hot tub - relaxing on holiday in the Cropton Forest Sketch by Sophie Peanut
Trying to capture the fun of the moment with my holiday sketches – Kids in the hot tub.  I used my Inktense pencils to add texture to the background.
Breakfast in Cafe - Pen and watercolour sketch
Breakfast before the journey back home.

Related Posts

2 Comments to “Holiday Sketching in Yorkshire”

  1. Nick Tobin
    · Edit

    Hi Sophie,
    Seawhite now produce a watercolour travel journal in A5 and also have 3 other journals in A5 landscape with 200-350gsm papers for 2018, smooth and not finish – we do try and cater for every use; that said, we have had some great feedback recently for the journal you used with watercolour pencils, so I guess it depends on the amount of water applied on 130gsm.
    Your results look fantastic, in any case!

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.