watercolour paper, alcohol blender and Polychromos...

Sketchbooks aren't the cheapest when you're going for decent quality paper. And I'd recently purchased The Langton (10x7ins) by Daler Rowney which cost just under a tenner. I'd gone for the rough version instead of the smoother and that turned out to be a mistake. 

I really didn't like the texture although I could see how it would be good for watercolour paints. Tried drawing a bumblebee but just had to give up. It was more than my simply not persevering, it was that the paper didn't suit my use of colour pencils. Back to the art shop! This paper won't go to waste though as I can dig out my watercolours.

The alcohol blender marker worked a treat. It created a smoother blending of the Polychromos pencils than water does with the Albrecht Durer pencils. Both pencils are by Faber-Castell. 

At this stage I stopped working on the Langton paper and went back to my sketchbook (Winsor & Newton Heavyweight) and instead began working on a swimming turtle. During the eye drawings I posted on Instagram last month I acquired a lot of turtle-loving followers - it was in my head (the power of social media). I used the blender after the first couple layers of Polychromos pencil and applied more pencil.

I had thought about making the background more abstract but instead went with an impression of sea. I had sourced a photographic image to work from online and I think the photographer may have used a flash which lit up the underside of the turtle...cross looking turtle

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