Monthly Archives: April 2019

next weekend – Clunes Booktown Festival

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I am very excited to share that next Saturday I am travelling to Clunes Booktown Festival
(Clunes facebook page ) as official Social Media Reporter for the day . I am there to spread the word and celebrate regional literary festivals that sometimes not celebrated as much as urban festivals.  I will be sketching and posting continuously during the day on my instagram page at alissaduke1  and facebook Alissa Duke Art with the hashtags #FestivalsRoadTrip and #clunesbooktownfestival.

I applied for and was thrilled to be awarded the position as Social Media Reporter by UNESCO Melbourne City of Literature based on my Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW) sketches, where I sketch on location at events over the week.  I am very excited as this role combines my love of sketching and books – what more could I ask for ???!!!

Below are some MRBW sketches

Located approximately 90 minutes from Melbourne by car, the small country town of Clunes is a member of the International Organisation of Booktowns, the only one in Australia. The original is Hay-on-Wye in Wales.  A Booktown is a small, regional, community-focused town with a concentration of booksellers – mainly secondhand or antiquarian bookshops.

Each year Clunes (pop 2000) Booktown Festival attracts over 15,000 people across the two day event to the historical town, tempting book lovers with its sensational line-up of speakers and enticing weekend explorers with its culinary delights and surprises.  

Here are photos from last year . I am hoping the weather will be the same – The predicted weather is 16 degrees and possible showers . Fingers crossed for no rain.

I will be sketching everywhere all day – on the streets amongst the books and stalls, at the talks and everywhere in between. As mentioned I will be posting continuously during the day on my instagram page at alissaduke1  and facebook Alissa Duke Art with the hashtags #FestivalsRoadTrip and #clunesbooktownfestival.  I plan to do some very quick sketches 10 – 20 minutes and maybe a few longer ones of up to an hour . Some will be in ink pen, with or without colour and others may be in watercolour pencils.  I will see what happens on the day.  It will be a full on day of sketching walking, looking, sketching and..  sketching.  I will be engaging with the events and sharing impressions of the moment through my sketches. Follow me and see what I sketch on he day.

The Festival features Australia’s largest book shop, with the whole of the main street given over to bookstores, with festival-goers able to browse rare and collectible books, go inside heritage buildings, listen to live music while sampling local food and wine, watch street performers, visit exhibitions, and immerse themselves in stories,

Clunes Booktown Festival is on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 May at Clunes, Victoria. Tickets are $10 from clunesbooktown.com.au. and extra for  some speaker events.

Just going to fill my ink pen and sharpen my pencils now. !!!

sketching in Sydney

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I travelled to Sydney for the Easter long weekend. It was a time to catchup with many of my Sydney sketching friends. There were some friends from when I lived in Sydney and others I knew on the Urban Sketchers Sydney facebook page, so I could finally put faces to names.It was a full on sketching holiday with 23 pages of sketches over the four days in the beautiful sunny weather. It was a slow paced holiday with lots of talking. I have just complete scanning and have added all my sketches to my flickr site and you can view them all there . I am including a selection of quick sketches and slower drawings in both ink and watercolour pencil in this blog.

and then there was the food….

Inspired or curious ? If you are in Melbourne, join my Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes

Sketching on a Punt

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I arrived for lunch and after lunch sketching with Melbourne Urban Sketchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was a beautiful day and lovely place and way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We were so very fortunate to be offered a cruise on a Punt by Ayami
from Punting on the Lake on the Ornamental Lake.

Ayami told us so many bits of information about the lake, punting, plants and the wildlife on the lake. She is font of knowledge and has a passion for the lake and wildlife. She took us past Cobi (cob) , a male swan sitting on a nest, while Penny (pen) his mate was nearby on the water. Two days later she sent photos of the little fluffy cygnets.

Punts seems to glide slowly over the Lake – and they do, unless you are sketching and then objects and scenes go by very quickly. My sketches are very quick !

I highly recommend taking the 30 minute cruise with Punting on the Lake when you visit the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. Melbourne residents and visitors will both learn so much from a cruise in one of these elegant wooden boats .

working on a commission

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This weekend I have starting putting watercolour pencil to paper as I work on a commission. I have been asked to draw a family home that is being sold. I am doing a second drawing of six objects and scenes from around the house that have special memories to the owners. I love the combination of the two.

I visited the home and took LOTS of photos. We decided which objects would be drawn and the size and format of the final pages.

I have sketched the drawings in HB pencil. Yesterday I started drawing with watercolour pencil. In this instance it is important to get the colours correct, so I spent some time at the art shop playing with watercolour pencils and combining them on the page to get the right shade.

I actually bought two more greens, which I did not have already – Leaf Green and Light Phthalo. AS you can see (below) I have many greens already. The greens are for the wooden house and the red is for a rose in the garden. You can also see how when water is added to the page, the colour can change its intensity, and tone.