Tag Archives: castle

Daily Sketch

Happy 21st Birthday to Apex Hotels

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Apex21st VenueCastleLast week Apex Hotels celebrated being 21 years old and I was invited to capture the occasion in sketches.

A party was held at the magnificent Heights venue on top of the Apex Grassmarket, which has fantastic views over Edinburgh Castle. I have visited before for breakfast and here is a link to by previous sketch.

It was nice to be back as Apex Hotels, who now have 4 venues in Edinburgh, turned 21 years old. Other locations include Haymarket and Waterloo Place.

Apex21st Castle

I tried to capture the atmosphere, colours and movement from the night with my sketchpad and watercolours as I mingled with guests and staff enjoying a rare night off to mark their achievements.

Gifts were given out throughout the night, including a voucher for an Edinburgh Sketcher commission and head chef Tony Singh provided delicious canapes for those enjoying the party.

Apex21st VenueCake

If you would like me to capture your event in sketches email me here to discuss details.

All sketches drawn on the night with pen and watercolours, and my water brush. 

Apex Hotels website

Apex21st Cupcake

Daily Sketch

A limited giclee print of this new Edinburgh Castle illustration

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edinburghcastle-2016_blueMy latest drawing of Edinburgh Castle is available as a numbered (1 of 10) giclee print in either ‘original black’ or ‘saltire blue’.

Last night I attended the festive shopping evening at the wonderful Paper Tiger shop in the West End of Edinburgh. The stafford street store is one of my newest stockists and it was a pleasure to meet some of the customers and talk about my work which is currently on sale inside.

For the event I created a new sketch of Edinburgh Castle and had printed just ten copies in original black and ten copies in saltire blue, which I signed, numbered and mounted to fit frames of 400 x 300 mm.

The Mounted prints are available in 'original black' or saltire blue'
The Mounted prints are available in ‘original black’ or saltire blue’

The word Giclée (“g-clay”), is derived from the French verb gicler meaning “to squirt or spray”, Giclée, is used to describe a fine art digital printing process combining pigment based inks with high quality archival quality paper to achieve Giclée prints of superior archival quality, light fastness and stability. The results are amazing and hard to differentiate from the original.

The prints are priced at £50 each and available from the stafford street branch of Paper Tiger. To reserve one of these very limited pieces of Edinburgh art call them on +44 131 226 2390 or via the website below.

Paper Tiger website

Below are a couple of sketches from the shopping evening, drawn in pen with a watercolour wash.

papertiger-shopping-both

Daily Sketch

New pens for a familiar sight of Edinburgh Castle from Inverleith Park

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Castle from InverleithParkWhat better view to test out some new Chameleon blending pens than that from Inverleith Park across Edinburgh.

Recently I pedalled along to Inverlieth Park in the north of Edinburgh to try out some new colour pens. I had been asked to create a wee workshop or step by step guide to using the new blending pens which use alcohol based ink and a mixing chamber of toner to blend the markers colour as you draw.

 

They take a bit of getting used to but can achieve amazing results. Basically you start drawing with an almost a white shade of your chosen hue and then over a few seconds the pen turns darker and a more true colour is achieved. See the link below at Cut Out + Keep for my full tutorial and step by step guide to using the pens.

 

Cut Out + Keep website

Chameleon Pens website

Daily Sketch

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Blogmanay, Day 3

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Fireworks_blogmanay2014Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great night. I was sketching at the world famous Edinburgh Street Party with over 80,000 revellers from around the globe.

 

Armed with my torch light, pen and watercolours I set off into the crowded streets of Edinburgh to see what I could capture in my sketchpad. If you follow me on twitter, Instagram or facebook you may of seen quick snaps of my sketches in your timeline but here I have scanned them for better quality.

HotDubTM_blogmanay2014

With so much on offer this year it was hard to decide where to start. Thankfully the #blogmanay media centre was at the Assembly Hall right next to the Hot Dub Time Machine stage on the Mound. Anthem after anthem was blasted out over the cheering crowd which was jumping all the way down to Princes Street. The Sketch above shows the stage and behind it the Museum on the Mound. I could of stayed there all night very happy.

 

MainStage_blogmanay2014

Instead I made my way down the Mound and into the Princes Street Gardens concert just as Soul II Soul were singing ‘Keep on Moving’ underneath Edinburgh Castle. I positioned myself high up towards the back and sketched the stage with the castle above.

 

After a short break and a word or two from compare Grant Stott (who did an excellent job as ever) Lily Allen took the stage for the main event. Belting out her well known pop tunes Lily didn’t disappoint and as she left the stage for the countdown the crowd were going wild.

 

For the first time the Castle was lit with different colours for each second in the final moments of 2014 as thousands of people counted down together. The fireworks were amazing of course, truly spectacular and being in the Gardens it seemed like they were going off all around me. I sketched away trying my best to capture each explosion!

 

I’d like to thank the Edinburgh’s Hogmanay team for helping me with access, it was a great experience and a terrific way to start 2015. I hope you enjoyed my sketching 🙂

 

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay

Edinburgh’s Christmas

Hot Dub Time Machine

 

 

 

Daily Sketch

‘Jousting Spectacular!’ at Linlithgow Palace

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LinlithgowKnights I had an excellent time today at ‘Jousting Spectacular!’ at Linlithgow Palace. Super sunny vibe around the place and very funny commentator on the PA. Well done Historic Scotland and all involved. It’s on again tomorrow (Sun, 6th July) so ‘charge’ along if you can.

I’m off out in the Edinburgh sunshine now to take photos of my sketches from the day. More to come here soon

LinlithgowPhoto1

Daily Sketch

Tattoo arrives at Edinburgh’s Castle Wynd Steps

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CastleWyndStepsThere is a iron structure growing out of the Edinburgh Castle ramparts.

If you look up towards Castle Rock just now no doubt you will see a number of cranes reaching up to the sky. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is coming to Edinburgh once again and with it the mighty structure of metal work which will play host to a 1000+ cast as the 65th tattoo celebrates Homecoming.

 

This view shows the start of the seating going up in the castle esplanade from the Castle Wynd Steps. Over 200,000 people will attend the tattoo this August and I am particularly excited as for the first time I will be amongst them.

 

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo website

Daily Sketch

Just a glimpse

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They don’t all work out. This is a glimpse of the Castle through a housing estate from my journey to work.
This view caused me to stop my bike and pull out the pad. I liked the old of the castle with the new of the housing estate.
I’m not so pleased with the result, a little lob sided, a little messy and unfinished. But the daily sketch is what ever result I get that day, I’ll come back to draw this view another day, with a little more time.

Daily Sketch

Rain in the city

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Morning sketch fans, more rain showers forecast for today across the city so I thought I’d draw a photo I took from the bus a couple of weeks ago when a monsoon like downpour hit Edinburgh. Here we are at the top of Leith Street turning onto Princes Street, before heading left on to the North Bridge.

Have fun dodging the showers today 😉

Anyone know who the statue of the horse and rider is for…?