The View, east, from The National Gallery of Scotland – Mainly Pencil on a plain Moleskine Sketchbook
This looks along East Princes Street Gardens towards the Balmoral Hotel formerly the North British Hotel, the main “Railway Hotel” for Edinburgh. The hotel sits above Waverley Railway Station. Its clock is always a few minutes fast to help passengers catch their trains.
I visited the National Gallery today to see a large exhibition of works by Turner, painted during his trips to Italy. The exhibition was superb and was made all the better by the fact I managed to save £16.00 by obtaining a couple of free tickets. (There is no more joy than that of a canny Scotsman who gets something for nothing). I must have been elated for I sat for some time sketching this view despite only having a pencil, fine nibbed pen, eraser and a paper stump for blending
b.tee 7:30 am on May 27, 2009 | #
Very nice Trebor, and thanks for the link to the pens.
trebor61 1:02 pm on May 27, 2009 | #
You are welcome b.tee. Thanks for this feedback
Mhuire 1:56 pm on May 27, 2009 | #
Nice. I love the way you draw the trees.
Oh, and I think we catalans and you scots must be related. We are known for be to thrifty. Very, very thrifty. Some say we are kind of miser. Well, it is just a cliché, of course, but… we like free things, too
Sophie Brown 3:36 pm on May 27, 2009 | #
Don’t the passengers know that the clock is fast? I try that ploy with my own alarm clock and my watch but pretty soon I just blow it off.
trebor61 5:54 am on May 28, 2009 | #
Thank you Mhuire. Drawing the trres like this is fairly easy. Just shade in the different areas, making sure that lighter parts are adjacent to darker ones then “subtract the highlights with an eraser. Its quite a complement to be compared with the proud folk of your area even if the similarities are due to thrift. Perhaps we should say that we are “careful” with things.
trebor61 5:58 am on May 28, 2009 | #
Ah Sophie! LOCALS know the clock is fast. We just don’t tell visitors. (Sounds as if we are trying to get rid of them but not really true). If you set your watch and clock fast then set it some more fast, and so on, then you will soon be so unsure what the real time is so will err on the correct side and turn up for appointments WAY EARLY. Does this make sense? What have I just written?
Margie 3:18 pm on May 28, 2009 | #
lovely sketch! it makes me sigh an exhale of relaxation.
trebor61 6:09 am on May 29, 2009 | #
Thanks Margie but you wouldn’t sigh from relaxation if YOU had sat on the grass for an hour sketching this. Must be getting old as a young (younger) couple helped me up when everything went numb.