Poppy pages

I love poppy seed heads for their colour, shape and structure. Here are a couple of pages from my sketchbook just showing you some of the drawing practise that I do and some playing around - mostly these things are just for my own amusement although every now and then I do a finished painting.

On these pages I printed out some photos I'd taken and played around with on the editing program on my lap top. You can see the notes I made to myself, I often have conversations with myself to fire my imagination or give me ideas in my sketchbooks as I know I will look back on them later. I find it really useful to make colour notes and techniques for individual paintings.

I've got lots of sketchbook pages like these, some will never see the light of day again, others will be picked up maybe years later and played with again. Sometimes a whole body of work can come from a few pages of play from years before. I'm definitely the kind of painter that can mull an idea over a long period of time.

Quick sketches for compositions that I might try out at some point in the future. These few pages were an afternoon that I let myself have off to play, I hope it gives some indication of working methods that I use and that you've enjoyed a peek in my sketchbook. In case you have missed my post the other day I've updated my flickr account to show lots more sketchbook pages if you would like to see.