That should be the title of a book

A little voice in my head says that frequently when I see or hear certain groups of words. So many phrases sound like book titles.

I'm sure that making titles for books is a more arcane form of witchcraft than just thinking a bunch of words sound good or clever, but it's a little thing that keeps me amused.

Are you going to tell us the title of your latest bestseller Awa Rich?

Sketching with Olivia.

This week we went to Merton Abbey Mills as it's easy walking distance and midway between where we both live. It's the site of William Morris's Liberty Print Works. You may have seen Tony Robinson snorkelling in the Wandle  - is that another book title Awa Rich?  - when the Time Team excavated the area looking for any remains of the works, before the site was developed.

We found a shady bench opposite the water mill. Olivia did an A3 (A4 double page spread) in fineliner and watercolour. She was a bit doubtful whether she'd post it on her blog. I thought it was great, bold lines and colours compared with my rather ticklish pencil and wash.

Funny how we're far more critical of our own work than other's. We both sat there telling each other what was wrong with our own sketches whilst praising each other's.

The Water Mill as Merton Abbey Mills

Once again, I used A4 200 gsm cartridge paper, a 3B 2mm mechanical pencil, Rembrandt watercolours (cunningly disguised in a Winscale and Newtron Bijou Box) and a Pentel Waterbrush - though water and spillages were not a problem today.

I hope you didn't use any of those wicked cadmium pigments. T'would devastate the ecosystem Awa Rich.

Nope, just raw Sienna, burnt umber, Prussian blue and alizarin crimson.

Whoa! Now that's what I call a limited palette Awa Rich.

Well, limitations can make you more creative and a big box of colours can encourage you to make mud. I bought a book recently, called Journey - now that's a good title Awa Rich - by Aaron Becker. It's a wordless story about a bored and lonely young girl who draws a doorway into another world.

After looking at it for some time I reckon he used a similar palette, or at least, I could mix the colours in the book from just those four colours. The printers may have cranked up the saturation a bit and the girl's red crayon is probably cadmium red, but it's surprising what you can do with so few colours.