For the past week, I have been in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, an island state off the southern coast of Australia.

I was away for seven days, the four were holidays, and the next four for a work conference. I sketched continuously filling over 40 pages of my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

It felt like a plug had been released and I could not stop sketching. I felt that could have sketched everything in sight. I sketched from the moment I started the holiday on the bus to Melbourne airport to the airport bus on the way home a week later.

I am sharing just a few of my adventures here, See The Hobart adventures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/alissaduke/albums/72177720301640212 and my Australian Law Librarian Conference sketches from Hobart at https://www.flickr.com/photos/alissaduke/albums/72177720301643377

Once I arrived and settled at my grand hotel on the Harbour I explored.

I then went to the Farm Gate Markets in Hobart CBD. I was not there on a Saturday for the famous Salamanca Market, but I think I did better.

I stayed for about three hours exploring, eating brunch, having coffee, and then sitting in the sunshine and sketching. A busker entertained and I people-watched locals and tourists.

A bus trip up Mt Wellington to the top at 1270 meters. There was a bit of snow and it was -13 degrees.

Another day exploring. I caught the hop-on hop-off bus to the Cascades Female factory to hear about the harsh history of the female convicts.

and after a week I fly back home. I have not included my ALLA conference sketches here. I will create a separate album to share on Flick5.

In Melbourne. the winter days are slowly getting longer. It is still cold (relatively). I am walking to and from work, This week I decided to stop and sketch at the same place each day (it ended up being two places). There were a few reasons I did this and achieved them all.

I wanted to get some pattern back into life. This included walking to and from work, instead of catching a tram.

• get into a pattern of sketching every day

• a return to being more spontaneous in my sketching choices

• exploring what can be sketched in 15 minutes

• using my watercolour pencils to capture a scene quickly

• preparing myself for an upcoming work conference/holiday interstate. I have a few days to explore Hobart and will be sketching it all!

This week I stopped at the corner of Spring and Collins Strreets onthe steps of the Old Treasure Building. There is a wonderful choice of urban sketching scenes to sketch. What do I choose??? In this week of urban skerching I decided I was giving myself 15 minutes to sketch and this included the time to choose the scene. The pressure is on !

However once you get that concept in your head it is easier. Juat choose something that attracts you, no matter how obscure. They are never ‘finished pieces’ on the page. It is just your impressions. I usually try and put some context, with the outline of buildings behind.

I sketched this from Town Hall, across the road from Regents Theatre (not OTB) . The building had been lit up in pink.

On the way to work this time.

Sometimes you don’t get to finish a sketch and that’s ok. This is part of the narrative and your story on the page. I had the whols of the Old Treasury Building steps to sketch. Then two wedding parties emerged from the Marriage Registry Office, and were obvously going to use the area for photographs. So I moved on. I was tempted to sketch the group, but stayed focus on my building sketch. I had 7 minutes on the sketch below.

My final sketch of the week is below. I am really please with ths one. My initial concept was to sketch the old building as a background and the grat big telephone/electricity pole in front of me as the feature. I changed ideas, A lot can happen in your mind in 15 minutes.

I think that I will continue this project this upcoming week as I am ‘in the zone’ for urban sketching and having such a fun time with my watercolour pencils.

I am taking a rest from my weekly blog this week. Life is busy and full of good things, I feel the need to get in control of a few things.

A few things I am doing are

I need to do an audit of my watercolour pencils. I have all the FaberCastell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils. I bought these two years ago at the beginning of Melbourne’s long lockdown. I carry 26 of these with me every day and have written about them recently and have also talked about my Top 12. However, I have run out of some of my favourites and didn’t realise it until I went to get a new one from my supply ! Now that I am out and about a lot more I am using my usual colours. I need to go through them all, see which are missing and how many are duplicates/triplicates.

another project

On the spur of the moment, I bought a piece of equipment. I would really love to be able to film my page as I sketch. Ideally, this will be for on-location sketching to let you “look over my shoulder” as I sketch. I thought I would start with this. It is for controlling lighting for overhead shots and multiangle filing. I will start at home and then try on location later, maybe with another piece of equipment. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I have got it out of the box, and that is a major step.

I have no idea what I am doing!

Now that life is returning to normal, events are going into the diary, up until March and April next year!