It’s forty years since I did any sketching

I gave up sketching forty years ago. The reasons are complicated, and I won’t go into them now, but as a child I sketched incessantly and then, I just stopped.

This summer I was given the opportunity to go on a full-day sketching course funded by the North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme.

The North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme (NILPS) has been specially created to support life in Orkney’s North Isles, while conserving and raising awareness of their distinctive identities, heritage and culture.

The workshop was run by Willie Watt, who appears as thearchitectssketchbook on Instagram. We got free materials including a set from ScrawlrBox, professional tuition from Willie, and even a decent coffee to begin with at Jerry Wood’s B&B No1 Broughton. ScrawlrBox is a subscription service which sends out a new box of mystery art supplies each month to help artists of all abilities get creative.

Our group task was to explore the vernacular buildings of Westray with fineliners and paper. I loved it. The feeling of standing in front of a building and concentrating on its form and tone was wonderful and took me back to how much I used to love sketching.

Afterwards, I ordered my own sketchbook, a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, and was straight out on my bicycle sketching some of the ruins of Westray. Here’s a favourite of mine, with a ruined car as well as a ruined building:

I soon learned some of the perils of sketching outdoors when a large campervan came and parked in my scene and then it started to rain.

It didn’t dampen my enthusiasm.

And then this sketch had to wait to be completed because I didn’t take any red with me.

I’ll get the hang of what materials to buy and what colours to take with me soon, I’m sure.

In the meantime, expect more sketches from me as well as the photography.