british club

 UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

david collins

Portrait of David Collins driving us to the British Club in Bangkok. I can't look at this without recalling how nauseous I felt immediately after drawing this. Sketching travel sickness. Eugh.

UniPin fineliner in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

railay beach

An attempt to capture the stunning view from the beach. Trying to draw every single tree was always going to be time-consuming and time was something I quickly ran out of (as well as sketchbook space).

UniPin fineliner in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

red flower

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

zingiber zerumbet

I woke very early one morning and went for a run on the beach and a swim in the pool. Got back to the hotel room before 7am and, as it was still too early for breakfast, I went outside to draw. 

I was drawing the purple flower (above, left) when I became aware that a bird I'd been able to hear was suddenly very close to me. I looked around and about a metre away from me was the most strikingly beautiful bird drinking nectar from one of the red flowers above. It had a bright yellow breast, blue colouring on the head, and purple flashes on it's wings. Having looked on the internet subsequently, I think it might have been one of these – an olive-backed sunbird.

As I said, he was drinking from the red flower in the sketchbook spread above (which I've since discovered has the wonderful name of zingiber zerumbet or the rather more prosaic shampoo ginger). He stuck his long beak into the orange part of the flower then opened his beak, in the process opening the flower, in order to get to the nectar inside. Superb.

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

crab and coral

A dead crab and some bits of coral I found on the beach. I made a mess of colouring the crab – it didn't look at all like that. Colouring on the coral was more successful, although SOMEONE managed to find fault with it...

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

sick bag illustrations

Sick bag drawings made during flight from Chiang Mai to Krabi. A frivolous first drawing (left) took about five minutes. The drawing on the right was a little more considered. I was frustrated that I ran out of paper as I would have liked to capture more of the cabin and the other passengers...

UniPin fineliner on Air Asia, erm, sick bags.

pot plant

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

banana plant

Banana plant in the grounds of the Opium Hotel (!), Chiang Mai. Click on the image to see a larger version.

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

tuk tuk

Drawing of a tuk tuk outside Wat Pra Singh. A splash of colour would have improved things immeasurably but I made a few mistakes with the original drawing and had to tippex over them. Watercolour on top of tippex doesn't look so good...

Click on the image to see a larger version.

UniPin fineliner in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

hello kitty headphones...

...are one of those purchases you congratulate yourself on buying. Occupied child = stress-free flight = happy parents.

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

packaging

Various bits of Thai packaging I saw including the wonderfully named KOH-KAE (peanuts with crisp on the outside). There was also a brand of chocolate called COLLON but for some reason I didn't fancy eating that...

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

doi suthep

We went to the temple at Doi Suthep one day. I thought the temple was Doi Suthep but it's actually called Wat Phra That; Doi Suthep is the name of the mountain it sits on. Anyway, to get to the temple you have to drive up a long winding road that seems to go on forever. Then, at the drop-off point, you can either take a funicular up the last section or walk 300 steps to the top.

The temple itself is incredible – very elaborately decorated with golden statues of the Buddha everywhere, ornate carvings, murals, gongs and a row of huge metal bells which you can ring – but very, very busy with hordes of tourists swarming all over the place. Trying to draw anything was a nightmare. So many people stood right behind me or next to me to watch making me really self-conscious. Some even stood directly in front of me and completely obscured my view! I suppose people have got the right to stand wherever they like, but I was really pissed off and self-aware and couldn't concentrate on what I was doing. Embarrassed by the crap first drawing I made (left), I quickly rushed through a second drawing of the head only (right) and was much happier with the results, but by then, the rest of the party were agitating to leave, as we had other things planned that day. So, a rather frustrating experience all told.

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

more flowers

Hibiscus (left) drawn at Chiang Mai Zoo and orchids (right) from the Butterfly and Orchid farm. 

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

flowers

I usually use an A3 scanner at work to scan each double spread from my sketchbook, but none were available last week so I'm having to use my A4 scanner at home to scan single pages, then glue them together with digital PVA. In terms of accurately capturing the colour of the original painting, it doesn't matter which I scanner I use: something is always lost in the process. A shame, particularly with this image, as it's one of the best things I did during my time in Thailand.

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

barry collins

Faber Castell PITT artist pen  in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

cheesy hoops

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

thai fruits

A selection of fruits that J bought from the local market. I thought I'd give E's crayons another go but wasn't happy with the results (top), so drew a second version (bottom) which I intended to colour later using watercolours but never quite got around to it. I was probably busy fighting off the endless hordes of man-eating mosquitoes who'd discovered a taste for European blood. The bastards.

Click on the images for an enhanced visual experience.

UniPin fineliner and Crayola crayons in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

passport office

On the second day we had to go to an office in Nontaburi to sort out some documentation for J. This was the stimulating view I felt compelled to capture. 

Faber Castell PITT artist pen  in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

park at wat chalermprakiat

Someone – a jogger who'd over-exerted him- or herself possibly – had puked all over the bear. J swore I was getting funny looks from passers-by. There were Kimodo dragons in the lake but they refused to sit still long enough for me to draw them...

UniPin fineliner and Winsor & Newton watercolours in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.

first day in thailand

I returned to the UK on Monday having spent the last three weeks on holiday in Thailand. I kept a sketchbook whilst I was there and will be posting pages of everything I did in the coming weeks...

UniPin fineliner and Crayola crayons in 190 x 250 mm Seawhite sketchbook.