I could not have asked for better weather for my full day Travel Sketching Workshop on Saturday (especially after the last two heavily overcast classes and a week of cold weather).

An enthusiastic group  of six  – Lily  Beryl, Don, Bernadette. Denise and Trishia joined me at Arts on Burgundy in Heidelberg, Melbourne. 

See the end of this blog for links to my blog pages on practical sketching and watercolour pencil hints and list of sketching books I had today in class.

Today I followed the same format as my previous Workshop in January, but spent more time before we went out  explaining and using watercolour pencils. 

“Scribble hard on the page, HARD , HARDER.” This is because the more colour (pigment) you have on the paper, the more intense the colours will be and the more you can use them on the page. If you add water to a faint line it can disappear. I wanted everyone to understand this concept before we started out. 

I used the example (above) which I sketched on the bus on the way to the Workshop, to show how I use the ink, then the watercolour pencil and then the waterbrush on the page to achieve different effects,  

We then walked out of the studio to put theory into practice. We walked up a block , stopping for 15 minutes at Heidelberg Primary School to sketch, then walked a few blocks to the beautiful Heidelberg Park, doing two 15 minutes sketches.

 

Back to Arts on Burgundy for lunch in the studio and talk of travel and drawing. After lunch I gave a short talk on things to think about when composing a page, before a 30 minute sketch at St Johns Church. There was a wedding on, with people gathering before the service. They went into the church and the bride arrived and she didn’t stay long at all outside.

Then back to the studio for final talk and coffees and sweets provided by Sarah !

Links to other blog posts

In a  previous blog posts I talked about the practical part of my art .

I have written them under four headings

•  Watercolour pencils, pen and sketchbook
• Thoughts and processes 
• travel sketching
• Step by Step examples

Travel sketching classes

I have vacancies in my upcoming two hour Travel Sketching classes with two levels of charge – purchase a sketchkit or bring your own watercolour sketchkit. See more details here.

Contact Sarah at Arts on Burgundy to ask about more full day Workshops.

Books

Below are some books that I had on display (as well as my own travel sketchbooks). 

They are not’ how to draw’ books, but rather show different people’s sketches and styles. I’ve put links if you are interested, I will often borrow a book from my local library before deciding to purchase it.

An Illustrated LIfe by Danny Gregory

Reportage and Documentary Drawing by Veronica Lawlor

London You’re Beautiful by David Gentleman 

Taking a Line for a Walk by Christopher Lambert

Drawing Paris by David George Holm

Manchester Sketchbook by Manchester Sketchers

An Eye on the Hebrides by Marie Hedderwick 

A great book to start drawing is Danny Gregory’s book  Creative License .   It will open your eyes to creativity and drawing. I return to it regularly to refocus and relearn.

 

Urban Sketchers

Anyone interested in sketching on location with  Melbourne Urban sketchers, (facebook page) see their next events and see what other people are sketching in Melbourne. 

Happy sketching everyone. Contact me if you have any questions about my watercolour pencil sketching  or anything I mention on my blog.