I have been invited to run a series of classes at the beautiful and historic Dromkeen homestead, outside of Melbourne. On Sunday I spent the day at Dromkeen, exploring the house and grounds for places for the classes to sketch.

There are three classes planned, two hours each – all using watercolour Pencils. You can enroll for one or all three classes. All classes are about using watercolour pencils to capture your travels and experiences on paper. See details for times and dates and to book see Dromkeen’s Trybooking site

• travel sketching
• nature sketching
• food & drink sketching – a High Tea, where you get to sketch your cake and eat it too

The classes are all about sketching with watercolour pencils. After taking time to understand and play with the pencils ( You can achieve SO many effects with them on paper) , we go and sketch in the grounds., learning hints and tips along the way.

I was inspired and slightly overwhelmed at the choice of potential subject matter to sketch at Dromkeen (and there are also wet weather alternatives indoors). My day involved walking around the house inside and out, making various maps and marking out potential places to sketch that would give lots of options and opportunities .

I completed a number of 15 minute sketches of the house, trees and scenes to provide examples of what you can capture in a short amount of time.

The sketching Food and Drink class will be held in the beautiful dining room. On my test run I sketched my coffee – although there were plenty of lovely sweets I could have sketched in the tea room. The High Tea will be wonderful. Sketching your food and drink is a great way of capturing and remembering an event, time, place or travels.

I also collected some objects from the grounds to sketch later, as we will on my nature sketching class. Two of the drawings below were completed on the train back to Melbourne and the others at home

About Dromkeen: Dromkeen (built in 1889, for  Judge Arthur Chomley) is a historic homestead, featuring original Australian book illustration. The tearoom serves delicious home made food and quality coffee and tea. They  provide educational programs for visiting schools, gallery tours for other groups and also provide facilities for business functions, weddings, birthday parties & other special occasions.

I look forward to meeting you at the classes. Stay on after or arrive early and enjoy food and a cup of tea at the Tea Rooms, browse the Gallery, featuring Australia Children’s book illustrators.

I am also running Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes in Melbourne. See times and dates on my Trybooking site

On Saturday I held a morning and afternoon “Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil” class. Both were fun and filled with people interested in watercolour pencils and travel sketching. These are my great loves, and I am always happy to share my passion and knowledge.

They were two very different classes as we had pouring rain all morning and clearing weather in the afternoon. It was a perfect example of travel sketching, and how you have to be flexible in your plans and make the most of opportunities presented.

People can bring their own sketchkit or purchase one from me. My two hour class involves explaining watercolour pencils, watercolour sketchbooks, ink pen (waterproof) and waterbrush. Then playing with colour on the page getting an idea of what you can do with colour on the page. And then we go out and sketch !

morning class

The rain started at 9.30 and lasted all morning, It was obvious that we were not going out on an “inspirational walk around East Melbourne”, and instead stayed in Library, where the class is based. The class of eight broke into two groups, sketching the views looking out front and back. They had 15 minutes in each spot before changing. 15 minutes is a good amount of time, as it is enough time to get some marks on the page. It is also the sort of time frame you may have when travelling.

We then went back into the class room and I asked them to spend the final 15 minutes drawing their shoes! It was an unexpected subject for everyone, after drawing a scene and vistas. Shoes are an example of how sketching the everyday can be included as part of the narrative in travel sketching AND there is never ‘nothing to draw’. When travelling your shoes are part of your travels and become much loved or despised objects.

afternoon class

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The weather improved in the afternoon. although we were prepared to run back to the Library if it changed again. We were able to walk around a few blocks in East Melbourne, once again stopping for 15 minutes in each place. It is amazing how much you can get down on the page in 15 minutes, and also how quickly the time flies by.

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This is our final stop, next to Holy Trinity Church and opposite the Fitzroy Gardens. looking towards Melbourne CBD.

I think that I have quite a few inspired and motivated people, who know know more about watercolour pencils and are planning to go out and sketch!

If you would like to join in a class, I have a few coming up and am currently planning a new calendar of classes . There are a few places on Saturday 16 March class. Book on TRybooking

I am also excited to be holding a series of three watercolour pencil classes at the beautiful and historic Dromkeen homestead, just outside of Melbourne: Travel Sketching, Nature sketching and Food and Drink sketching. See details and book at Trybooking.

On Saturday, a group of my previous student & I met at the local Kere Kere Café in Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne. 

It was a casual, social catch up ‘just for fun’. For some it was the first time they had put pencil to paper since the class and they came along for motivation.  Others had been sketching and wanted to know more. They had questions that they had in their use of watercolour pencils.

As we were in the gardens, we had a number of twigs, bunya pine branches and leaves collected and put in the middle of our table.
There was also the option of sketching the food and drinks at the café or the surrounds.

The items I chose to sketch represent the morning. The bunya pine is from the gardens, the coffee is from Kere Kere Cafe and the playing card what you get when you order. As well as letting the staff know where to deliver food and drinks, you also use the card to vote on their Community projects, by dropping it in a box as you leave.

My friends/students  asked questions and I explained how I use watercolour pencils.

We had a discussion about how to add shadows  to an object.

Sometimes a shadow can ‘ground’ the object and show that it is sitting on the table.

If you are going to add a shadow, look at it carefully and don’t just put a generic shape underneath the object. The shadow assists to create depth and even the shadow can have different shades. It will be darker when an object touches the table.

Other times, adding shadow can overwhelm the drawing of an object. This poor little feather (above) should have been left alone.

And some objects don’t need a shadow and work as a stand alone sketch.

Happy sketching !