Frost and fog have tilted the garden's colours to grey, just a hint of leaf here and there and a flash of flower pink. Everything looks iced – shaken over the roses, glittering on the spiders' webs, so I draw with a muted palette and add dots of white with a marker.
Three sketches later, by evening I'm ready to assemble this blog post.
Then it snows...
Today, duvets of snow over shrubs. Great big clumps of it balancing on branches and topping a plant pot like a soufflé. At night I would draw dark to light, on a wash or on coloured paper. But here, it's all about where I'm leaving colour out and putting line and texture in. For snow glitter and the newly shown structure of the hydrangea bush, I get out metallic inks.
So now, two views, a day apart.
After I've drawn the snow sketch I dart out to the compost bin and spot fox paw prints. Sketching those is for another, hardier day.
Ballpen, watercolour, fineliner, highlighter, watercolour pencil, wax crayon and household candle on handed-down watercolour paper.
Visit my Teemill shop for sketches on t-shirts and tote bags.