I have been very busy adding to my ETSY online store.

As well as greeting cards (koala Christmas cards are the most popular this year), I also have ‘drawn in books’ available for purchase.

These are books that were about to be discarded. By drawing in the book, I am giving it a new life, introducing it to a new audience to appreciate. The drawing is an interpretation of the words on the page. I draw in watercolour pencil, and each book’s paper is different, some taking more colour or water than others. This means I can sometimes add more detail.

The book could be framed as a book, or the pages removed and framed.  The book could be displayed open on a shelf, or shelved for future reading with a surprise drawing for the reader to discover on one of its pages.

I created many for Clunes Book Town Festival in May 2022 and had not got around to putting them online. But Christmas has spurred me on.

I have also been accepted to have a stall for the 2023 Clunes Book Town Festival in March 2023. I have shelves of unwanted books ready to draw in. A weeks holiday at Christmas will keep me entertained

                                                                                       

People purchase a book because they have a connection with the actual book, or with the image that I have drawn on the page.

I think overseaas mail outside Australia is closing soon. I have even had notofcation delays for internal Australian delvery til mid – December. Get in early before the delays begin !

Enjoy !

I have been on holidays for a week in Queensland (two hours flight north).

In the past week, I have sketched with three Urban Sketching groups, Brisbane, Gold Coast, and then back home in Melbourne. Urban Sketchers is a global community of sketchers dedicated to the practice of on-location drawing. There are local chapters in over 60 Countries, in 374 Cities, with over 120,000 sketchers.

Not all of my sketches that you see in my blog, on instagram oiare urban sketches, many are objects, food, and people and I share these on other social media pages. The difference is:

This is the Urban Sketchers manifesto we follow:

• We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.

• Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.

• Our drawings are a record of time and place.

• We are truthful to the scenes we witness.

• We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.

• We show the world, one drawing at a time.

• We share our drawings online.

• We support each other and draw together.

The groups have Administrators who name a location and time to meet. The sketchers turn up and sketch in the area, either in groups, or on their own. They then usually have a meetup time (sometimes a lunchtime). In these groups there is a ‘throwdown’ where people display their sketchpage. This way you can see all of the different interpretations, mediums, and styles and what everyone has sketched. There is a group photo and some people continue to sketch.

My catchups were not organised events. I posted a message on their various Facebook groups and let them know I would be in town on certain dates. Whoever was available turned up. It was great !

see below

Gold Coast Urban Sketchers

Melbourne Urban Sketchers

Brisbane Urban Sketchers

It is great to know that when you travel you can contact a group and sketch with them.

I am on a week’s holiday interstate in Queensland, catching up with friends at the Gold Coast and Brisbane. I immediately started to sketch and relaxed straight away moved into holiday mode.

I always start with a sketch on the Skybus from Melbourne city to the airport and then at the airport, and on the plane. Each journey is different and offers different opportunities.

And then once on the ground, I journal my adventures.

Some were new and different, like a leisurely sketch over lunch while gin tasting… and then a quick sketch while being driven through the sugar cane fields in the Gold Coast hinterland.

On my first walk along the beach, I collected interesting fragments of shells on the beach. they are either interesting in colour, texture, or shape. I brought these back to where I am staying and started drawing them slowly. I will continue to add to the page over the next few days. I will return the shells to the beach and have this as my page of memories.

I hope that today’s blog brings a smile to your face, and inspires you to be creative and maybe put pencil to paper.

I enjoy many types of sketching on location, urban sketching, travel journaling, food sketching.

Last week I sketched at three different live events. Here is a summary of the known and unknown elements of each event.

Zoom life drawing online –

known – length of times poses. – there is a standard format. I control my surroundings – at home, so they are controlled, lighting. sound, food. drink.

unknown – poses

These are two of seven sketches from Top Secret Life Drawing online. Theme, the movie Leon: The Professional, a 1994 cult movie

Melbourne Zoo

known – been there before,

unknown – what animals I will see, how long they will stay still – see my zoo blog post

Victorian Historic car racing

Everything was unknown – as a first-time attendee to Victorian Historic Racing at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne.

At this race meeting you could walk (and sketch) just about anywhere

I walked around and got ‘the lay of the land.” I figured out very early that I could not sketch the cars racing on the track – they zoom by too fast! So I stood and watched and enjoyed that. However, I could sketch:

People

• standing, watching, chatting. But like all urban sketching, they will move,
• watching a race they will probably stay in the same place for a certain amount of time

Cars

There were lots of opportunities off the track.

• in the pits as they worked on their cars, before or after a race,
• cars clubs on display
• lining up to go on the track for the next race. – my favourite place to sketch them

I was there from 9:00am to 1:00pm, on a very warm day in Melbourne. After a few hours, I needed to seek shade to stand and sketch. There is a time to listen to your body. I then decided to leave at 1:00pm. The morning was practice laps for the different car types, The afternoon (and the next day) was the racing.

I completed nine pages of sketches and am still completing them now at home. I need to add notes about cars and the races they were in. I want to add colour to some of the pencil sketches. Some of the cars were some very strange paint colours that I could not make up on the day with my watercolour pencils.