Last week I decided to use (and sketch) one cup only – my Old Country Roses cup by Royal Albert.

The week before I had really enjoyed doing this sketch of it while enjoying a yummy slice of Lemon Drizzle cake (on a Royal Albert) from my local cafe Goodfields Eatery.

It’s a very popular pattern and for good reason… it’s very pretty with a lovely rich combination of colours and I knew that I wouldn’t get bored sketching it! The goal for the week was to see how experimental my sketching would get. I didn’t quite achieve what I was hoping for (maybe a second week is needed – ha!) but I did have a lot of fun.

Tuesday: A watery start to the challenge… using a combination of my 1/2 inch 772 and a Casaneo 480 brush. I’m always trying to push the boundaries of working wet-in-wet and describing the pattern as loosely as I can. I have no desire to sketch the roses and every leaf neatly.

A spread that I worked on for 3 days… and it includes some colour swatches and a neat (for me) side view of the cup. This is a good example of what I do when I make a very obvious mistake… accept it and have a little laugh at myself.

Wednesday: More crazy wet-in-wet but this time I pulled out my watercolour pencils as well.

Friday: Using a small dagger (3/8 inch) is working well for me at the moment… but looking at this sketch now I think it needed a little work (at the time) with the shadow wash. But hey, I do these sketches in only a few minutes while drinking my tea and rarely touch them afterwards… so this will stay as it is.

Saturday: An extremely quick and loose version…

Monday: This morning I did my cup sketch for yesterday… and now I’m thinking about what to use and sketch this week.

Well, that was a lot of fun… even though each sketch felt as if it was a different adventure, the end results are all similar.  Despite my comment above about a second week, I’m not going to continue with this cup. I need a change!

And finally, thanks for all your suggestions on possible themes last week. I’m probably going to have a non-pressure theme-free week this week as we enter our 8th week of lockdown. But I hope to get back to ‘themes’ soon.

Also… I’ve still been sketching through Palladio’s villas at a consistent rate and will update you on that on Wednesday.