Bought some craft knives when we were out at High Street Ken and cut out the stencil in the evening, which went OK, except I didn’t have a paint roller, so brushed on the paint (white acrylic thinned with a little water), but somehow it all messed up a bit and the paint leaked under the stencil and because I didn’t remove the stencil straight away (I was concerned about smudging the wet paint), the stencil stuck to the paper and ended up removing part of the surface of the paper when I tried to remove it I’ll have another go later, maybe with a simpler image – at least I know what not to do!

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At Danny Gregory’s behest (in The Creative License). Porridge with dried cranberries and cinnamon with oat milk (no sugar, barely any salt).

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Or possibly spring onions, depending on where you live. They were left over from the corn chowder and just flopped on the bench, so I figured I might as well practice my pen-drawing. Then played with the coloured pencils trying to capture the right greens for the leaves. Fun!

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What a strange man he was. Hmm. Quite the personality. I feel I have Learnt Things.

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In Switzerland. Walked in the other direction from the last walk, along gentle inclines in the sun. Most of the snow had melted away and the ground was almost dry enough to sit on (almost = I sat on what seemed to be a dry tussock and then had to brush a fair lot of mud off my jeans afterwards, once it had dried enough to do so). So I sat in the sun and drew mountains and a chalet in front of me in my composition notebook with my new sepia pen.

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In Switzerland. I did a couple of watercolours in my Moleskine watercolour notebook when we were in Copenhagen but didn’t quite get the time to finish them, so polished them off in the morning. Good to have them settled, even if they’re nowhere near Great Art. I just don’t like unfinished stuff. It unsettles me.

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Sticking with my trying-to-draw-more-stuff-in-pen-without-pencil-underdrawing resolution, I dashed off a teaspoon that was lying folorn post-breakfast.

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In Switzerland. I got up with the others (not being a skiier this trip due to wobbliness in the left leg) at the crack of dawn and the light over the mountains was so stunning that as soon as the others had gone I fetched my new coloured pencils and coloured pastel paper and repaired to the comfy outdoor couches to draw them. Quite pleased with the result. Anna seemed to like it and they’re her mountains, so I guess that’s good.

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In Switzerland. I’ve been reading Simon Schama’s Hang-Ups (and that got me some funny looks when I asked for it in the bookshop!). I’ve had it a little while but had put off reading it because I was worried I’d find it a little heavy, but it’s just fantastic. Really fascinating, and somehow Schama manages to talk about paintings that aren’t reproduced in the book and still make you feel like you’ve seen them. Great stuff.

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I’d started designing a pattern made up of wide snaky lines before we left home and ended up with a chunk of time in the hotel in Troyes late at night in not a terribly good mood, so instead of the merry reds, oranges and purples I’d imagined for it, it ended up all dark blue and black and not quite how I’d planned. Was nice to mess about with the pencils though – they do work very well in the moleskine, in spite of the lack of tooth to the paper

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