The park looked far more interesting this morning, with loads of strong shadows and golden light. I haven't attempted any colour work, but I tried using pencil instead of pen (since I'm putting myself through the Alex Milway/Philip Reeve Landscape Course 101, and Philip uses pencil). Alex recommended I look at work by Caspar David Friedrich, John Constable and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. That's really helpful. (Thanks, Alex!) I know these guys' work, but it's a totally different thing to get a book with some good prints in it and take it drawing with me, so I can be sitting there drawing a tree, and turn a page to see how one of them did it. I still have a very long way to go.
Yesterday I sat on a damp tussock (undoubtedly widdled on by countless dogs), but today I sat on a bench and sketched in palatial grandeur. When I used to work from home, I sometimes used to take a packed lunch to this colonnade between the Queen's House and the National Maritime Museum. I only ever saw old people sitting there, but some of them had great stories. My favourite ones came from a retired merchant seaman, and I wished I'd had a voice recorder with me.
A couple more picture of the National Maritime Museum in the morning. Have you seen their Toy Boats exhibition? It's fabulous. (I made two blog posts about it, here and here.)
