Hi everybody,

We just came back from our annual summer holiday in Cornwall (sorry for not yet supporting Team Dorset, @Olly Pyle - next year, though, for sure!). After spending a week in and around Falmouth and Charlestown, we also spent a few more or less lazy days in London, including a not so lazy walk in Richmond Park, which was absolutely wonderful. Anyway, I tried my luck with some outside sketching for the first time, huzzah! Didn't bring my paints and brushes, just a sketch pad and a couple of pencils, trying to maybe capture something or the other that my phone camera can't. Did this purely for "field practice", as I usually draw in a much safer confinement, behind my desk at home, with all kinds of supplies and drawing aids at hand. But I enjoyed doing these exercises very much, and I even got a "nice one!" from a passer by, when I was sketching the Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. I'm glad he didn't see my first attempt!

A couple of questions for the more experienced pencil sketchers in here, though:

• How do you handle skies and clouds in small sketches like these? Leave the sky blank, or do you fill them with some kind of generic value?

• How do you avoid/limit smudging? I use a sheet of paper as protection at home, but for this size, outside, and often standing, it's a bit awkward.

• I find sketching foliage, especially on clumped distant trees, very challenging. They easily become gray blobs without any kind of definition or recognition. I find this much easier with ink (and watercolour), for instance. Any quick tips for that, other than "keep practising"? 😄