This is a party pig from www.barearts.com – the only nude art gallery in Todmorden (or possibly the world?) who also have a license to brew beer.  He sits cute and fat on our kitchen worksurface and squeals happily when Rick pulls a pint by pressing his red nose (the pig’s red nose, not Rick’s).

My train was cancelled this lunchtime, so I had a half-hour wait at the station.  Luckily I had a sketchbook in my bag.  I have to say, though, my hands did get cold!

I asked Rick what to draw.  ‘A bulb of garlic’, he said.  The results were not fit to be seen.  So I drew a pepperpot, using colour pencils.  Some people do wonderful drawings with colour pencils.  Mine look like colouring-in.  Still, it’s fun to use different things, and I’m finding out what works well for me and what doesn’t.

Also today – we tried the new Green and Blacks 85% dark chocolate.  Oh, my!

The stem of this is dark metal, and the t-light holders are glass.  I’ve sketched this with a simple black rollerball pen on the reverse side of my watercoloured bowl – which is why the scan shows wavy bits where the paper has warped.

I fancied having a go at drawing with an ink pen.  I don’t have a proper drawing pen (the type with a nib) so I used a Parker fountain pen.  I quite like these quick sketches.

We visited Dean Clough galleries in Halifax at the weekend (well worth a visit) and I saw some drawings there done in biro.  Inspired to have a go, I came up with … this.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.  Let’s face it, I don’t like writing with a biro, so why would I enjoy drawing with one?

I want to keep using different media, so tried charcoal and chalk on sugarpaper (just a cheap scrapbook from Wilkos).  I feel that I need to work on a bigger scale with these materials.