Exploring drawing and painting...

The subject - Cherries. 

Biro sketch on basic typing paper. Cross hatching, a good technique for emphasizing the darker shades. I enjoyed sketching in pen. 

A dry brush test using a basic poster paint, 190gram watercolour paper. I think this would be a great way of mapping out an initial sketch. I like the vibrancy and look of this one. 

 Splatter: Watercolour initially, sprayed with cleaning solution. I redefined the red of the cherries afterwards with oil based crayon. 

Pastels and black ink on 190gram watercolour paper. I blended the colour, smudging.

Watercolour and Indian ink on good quality 300gram textured acrylic paper. I splattered the ink. This one is my favourite. It's playful. 

Felt brush pen on cardboard.  A basic colour range, so to achieve varying red tones I played with mixing a burnt umber brown pen and bright red pen on the page. I'm pleased that with such a basic selection, I could change the tone of red. 

Same felt brush pens on cardboard, however this time I applied the stippling affect. 

Oil paints on brown baking paper. I have never ever used oils and in honesty I found them very difficult. However, interesting to look at on a form of paper I would never have thought to use!

Oil paints on a small canvas board. This one proved to be so difficult. A complete beginner at oils and I found this one to be very stressful... Talk about setting myself up for a fall! However, despite the stress, once I had started, I was committed to coming to some sort of an end with it. A very challenging paint to use. It was lovely to work on a canvas board though. 

REFLECTION: I have spent some time on this exercise, playing and experimenting. I am grateful for the opportunity to try. I will most certainly be using the dry brush technique for the initial design stage of an idea.. And no doubt will try again at the oils, despite how difficult I found it to use them, I love the intensity of the colours and the gleam they give.