Monthly Archives: August 2018

bon voyage

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I will be on holidays in the United Kingdom for the month of September. So my blog will be taking break from this weekend.

I will be sketching all the time everyday and plan to instagram my travel sketches daily (wifi permitting).My instagram account is alissaduke1.  Follow me there.

I am travelling with my mother , who lives  interstate. This year (as in previous years) I have drawn on envelopes of the letters that I have been posting to her during the year. I have drawn things and places in the UK. 

Here are just a few:

will we see badgers? I dont think so, but you never know…

 

 

 

Goodwood Revival Motor Racing

Hegdehogs ! The plan is to visit Mrs Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital and see hedgehogs there

I watched a documentary on the Great Fire of London. So we will be visiting Monument

a dormouse – so very English. but I do not think that we will see one.

Big Ben – under scaffolding and not working. Luckily we have seen it before

 

I often drawn on envelopes . See more mail art projects on my Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/alissaduke/albums/72157628133709960

 

In the meantime – Happy sketching !!!

Blarney Books and Art Biblio Art Prize entry – more drawings

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Here are some more drawings from my art competition entry to Blarney Books and Art Prize entry. I wrote about the particulars last in last week’s blog and posted some initial drawings. I have now drawn on forty nine pages. They are almost all complete and I will send the entry in the next week or so . I will be scanning and adding them all to an album on my Flickr website

Here are  pages . Enjoy! I am having great fun doing the drawings.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and some others

 

 

 

Blarney Books and Art Biblio Art Prize

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If you have been following my art for a while you will know that I have had several projects where I have drawn in books about to be discarded.  See the end of this blog for links to my previous projects .

The current project is for entry into art competition. Blarney Books and Art are holding their annual Biblio-Art competition. The brief : create an artwork which is clearly inspired by a book you’ve known, in any medium. 

I had left over books from my Drawing in Books exhibition. I had never knew what to do with this particular book, as there were so many potential pages to draw on. For this competition I get to draw on them all ( or as many I want to) . 

My book is Teachers’ Notes on “Nature Study: Plants and Animals” published 1910 by Blackie & Son Limited in London and Glasgow.  hardcover, 233 pages. 11.5 cm x 18.5 cm .

Purchased at Kyneton Church Book Sale in a bag of books. Stamped inside book Mary L Norman, The Studio, Ararat . Inscription in pen C.E.G.S 1920

Reading the teacher notes for this 1910 book is fascinating, It is amazing how many lessons require a live object and also the way they incorporate English and Maths into the Science lesson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have drawn in watercolour pencil on 43 pages so far, illustrating the animal or plant on discussed on the pages. This blog post has just a few of those I have done so far. I will put them all into a Flickr album over the next two weeks . It has been great fun to illustrate, as I am under no pressure, doing simple drawings. The print on the page takes away the need to go into too much detail in the drawing.The paper of the pages are a decent weight, so it takes the pencil well, but stops me doing too much. 

I have another three weeks before I need to submit my entry. Up to sixty selected entries will be chosen for display before judges make decisions. All works are for sale (including this one!) .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My previous “drawing in books”

The first was an exhibition You Can’t Draw in Books as part of Melbourne Rare Book Week in 2016. This exhibition was also shown at East Melbourne Library  and Blarney Books and Art in Port Fairy. some of the drawings are here . There are some of them available for purchase on my ETSY online store 

I drew in a recipe book as a special birthday gift for a friend.  see all the pages here.

I will be adding more of these pages to my flicker website…

sketching with friends

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This weekend I sketched with some students that have been on some of my recent travel sketching classes. We met at the local Kere Kere Green cafe in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens and spent a  few hours talking art. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blackboard sign in the cafe seemed to have been written just for us.

“The best way to relax is to do what you love”

I brought along a lot of watercolour pencils that I own, but do not use as part of my daily sketch kit in my customised pencil wrap and the 26 colours I use.

It was a good opportunity for them to see the range of colours that are produced (in this case by Faber Castell) and play to see what colours that they would and wouldn’t use. I don’t have the full range of colours  but it was  a good insight into the sort of colours available – and there are some strange ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed inside and sketched our food and surroundings, As this was not a class, I did not impose a 15 minute limit on sketches. This session, we ate cold food and drank cold coffee, as we were too busy sketching it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was such fun just to sketch and chat and to be able to share my knowledge of watercolour pencils with people who have been introduced to a fun new medium. For some it has also been their introduction to sketching . I think that we will be having more of these play days.