I write a blog post at this time each year looking back at what I have done during the previous year with my art.  I have found this is a very useful way of realising how much I have accomplished in a year, as I usually forget about some events or do not realise how productive I have been. It is a good reality check for me.

Below are my art projects and commercial activities in 2023. (they pay for my pencils) This year once again was a little different. Classes began slowly again and there were more special projects.

Sketchbooks

Below is a photograph of my sketchbooks from this year. There are ten 12cm x 19 cm Moleskine watercolor pencil sketchbooks. Some are in landscape format and some are portrait. I sketch every day and carry my sketchkit which includes watercolour pencils and sketchbook with me everywhere.

The numbers on the spine are the sketchbook numbers since I began my daily sketches in these Moleskine sketchbooks in December 2008. Can you tell that I am a librarian?

.I scan every page of my sketchbook and put them all on Flickr (an image-sharing website). I add tags and group them into Albums of events Holidays or Projects.

I put sketches daily on Instagram and some on Facebook. but these are social media sites, not searchable repositories. I use Flickr for example to locate sketches I have done of coffee if I am giving a class on food and drink. However, I have sketches from the holidays that still need to be uploaded, A holiday project…

Some go onto Facebook at Alissa Duke Art. I post daily on Instagram alissaduke1

• 2,942 posts (since beginning)
• 1,986 followers

Weekly Art Blog

I have maintained this, my weekly art blog. Thank you to the 209 followers of this weekly art blog. I hope that you find it enjoyable and interesting to read and full of information. Sometimes I write about hints and tips when using watercolour pencils, other times the blog will be about art events I am involved in and the rest are usually my sketches from the previous week. I hope that I can share a bit of my passion for drawing and watercolour pencils.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like me to explain anything I do. If you would like to receive a weekly email you can Subscribe here.

Newsletter

I sent three newsletters this year to the 153 people who subscribe to my newsletter, in February, July and September. The newsletter is for people who are interested in my art and would like to know when major events happen – new card designs, markets, exhibitions, and classes. They may not necessarily be interested in my Weekly Art blog, but still want to be updated.

Melbourne Rare Book Week

I sketched at Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW) when I first moved to Melbourne in 2015 and since 2016 I have been the official sketcher on location for the week of talks, culminating in the Melbourne Rare Book Fair on the final weekend. I have met so many interesting people and made lots of friends through this event.

Melbourne Rare Book Week days 1-3

Melbourne Rare Book Week days 4-7

You Can’t Draw in Books? by ME – I gave a one-hour talk about the books at MRBW – the books that no one wants. I draw on the pages of books that are about to be discarded. I had a good audience of 44 people and it went well. This was a talk where people could come up and handle the books and ask questions. They are for sale on my ETSY online store.

I also had a display at my local Library and gave TWO radio interviews !!!!! They were only ten minutes each and I think they went well. One was on Community Radio 3MRD with Jules Vine in her “Classically Saturday” show and the next was with ABC Victoria with David Astle. I have learnt that he has a wide audience and is famous for crosswords. Tim Finn was on his show later that night !!

Auckland Urban Sketching Symposium

I attended the Annual Urban Sketchers Symposium in Auckland, New Zealand in April. It is three days of Workshops with 600 attendees. I stayed for 10 days holiday and sketched all the way.

Watercolour pencil classes

I started to run my “Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil” classes. I had 12 classes at East Melbourne Library. They are a two-hour class and involve a local walk to sketch. The people attending have the option of purchasing a sketchkit.

Other classes were at Dromkeen homestead, outside of Melbourne. At Dromkeen I also Offered a Nature Sketching and two High tea Sketching

Clunes Booktown Festival

A highlight. I feel like this was made for me. A whole weekend of books at Clunes Booktown Festival. Read about my time there here.

I was there last year and hope to be there next.

and an extra from Clunes. Two of my “drawn in” books were purchased by Libraries Tasmania for their Book Art collection and have been catalogued with my name in the catalogue field notes

Victorian History Showcase

Victorian History Showcase

I was invited to be the official sketcher on location at the Prahran Mechanics Institute (PMI) Victorian History Showcase in Melbourne. This was an all-day event. I sketched the various local history groups at their table and visitors chatting to them.

Blarney Books and Art Biblio Prize

I enter each year, not to win, but to be involved and support Jo at Blarney
Books and Art, which is in Port Fairy, a few hours from Melbourne, This is the
14th year, You pay the entry fee and receive a random book title of a recently published Australian book. You then creatively interpret the book in any format.
People knit, make installation art, weave or paint. Of course, I draw in my book. My book was The Sitter by Angela O’Keeffe. My book was chosen to go on display at Blarney until the end of February 2024.

http://alissaduke.com/2023/10/blarney-books-and-art-biblio-prize-2.html

Commissions

In 2023 I was approached and completed four private commissions. They were all of the buildings. I had to look at my invoices to remind me of this. It has been such a long year. I also declined a few commissions that I was approached to do as they were all outside of the scope of what I do. However, it was lovely to have been considered and asked.

Exhibitions

It was exciting to  have my  “You Can’t Draw in Books” exhibition at Dromkeen over September and October and give a presentation

I had a similar display and talk as part of Melbourne Rare Book Week at East Melbourne Library. I even gave 

I have been told that there was a lot of interest in both the local communities and visitors. 

ETSY online sales

I have a variety of greeting cards printed from my watercolour pencil drawings on my ETSY online store. I also have my “drawn-in books”  available for purchase there. 

Local Markets

I was happy to have a market stall with my cards and books at two local Christmas events. It was so lovely to catch up with local friends and meet some more!

… and looking forward

I have plans.

I have two local Artist in Residency commissions, Melbourne Rare Book Week, watercolour pencil sketching classes will begin again, hopefully a stall at Clunes Booktown Festival and a long planned holiday (was supposed to be in 2020) in the UK.

I hope that you have had a creative year and continue into 2024. Thank you for your support and questions. 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2024.

I will be back next Sunday with my annual Year in Review.

It is the week before the week before Christmas. There seems to be a red and green theme emerging… and a little bit of food.

I practiced sketching some sweets for the following weekend’s class at Dromkeen.

Saturday was my last watercolour pencil sketching class for the year, It was a Christmas High Tea at Dromkeen homestead, just outside of Melbourne. Once again. I forgot to take photos. Bernadette and Denise had prepared a beautiful festive table. It was even more impressive when the food was brought out!

And a final sketch today. I occasionally arrange a sketching session for East Melbourne locals to get together and bring along any art gear they have and chat and sketch or paint.

I wonder what I will blog about next weekend, the day before Christmas?

Happy sketching and creativity everyone.

It is that time of the year when many people are baking special treats or meals.

Those of you who know me know that I do not enjoy cooking (I can cook!). However, I love to draw food. Instead of drawing food that has already been prepared, sometimes I have drawn the ingredients of a meal or a recipe for baking.

All with watercolour pencil , of course.

I use the word “drawing” instead of “sketching”. This is a self-imposed description I have. A drawing is more studied and a sketch is more impression of a moment. However, they are interchangeable!

The drawing does not have to be done when the cooking is actually taking place. Perhaps when preparing or gathering ingredients on the bench. I sometimes sketch ingredients while my host is cooking and we chat. Or you could give the recipe with the baked treat as a present.

Things to think about:

• where you place things on the page.

• you have control over the individual ingredients, which ones you choose to draw, and what to leave out. Some things are just not as interesting on the page!\

• do you write the recipe as well as the ingredients for someone else to be able to cook it.

I hope this inspires you to pick up a pencil and sketch a recipe. Let me know how you go !

USK is Urban Sketchers. Today the Melbourne Group had a very special final end of year catch-up. They usually meet once a month at place oragnised by one of the wonderful Admin team. We chat sketch, have a throw down (ie lay our sketchbooks out on the ground to see what everyone has done) a group photo and then go. I usually can’t attend as I have other events on the weekends,

I put this one in my diary when it was announced. About 60 people registered. a few sent apologies. In the end, there were 43 (?) .

Helen organised an AMAZING day. We thankfully had great weather, avoided protests, and everyone had a great time.

Met at 10:00 at St Pauls. The challenge – we were given a list of 30 things to sketch on the route down Swanston Street to meet at GPO at 12:00pm. There was no right or wrong, they did not have to be in order and open to interpretation.

The more sketching, the more raffle tickets you got for a draw at the end. It was quantity not quality. As you can see from my sketches below.

The only two I did not get were “someone reading”, a protester

When we met at 12 we tallied up sketches, handed out tickets, and then had a break for lunch.

On re-meeting back on the stairs at the GPO we had a new afternoon challenge.

Sketch a portrait of as many of the 24 people in the group that came back after lunch.

We had one hour.

Two rules

It must be a continuous line for each sketch. That means when you put your pen down and make the first mark on the page you can’t take it off the page until you finish that one. AND you must ask their name. This, of course, led to lots of conversations. People gathered in a few groups moving slightly and staring at each other for a short amount of time.

You got more raffle tickets depending on how many people you sketched.

Then we had the group photo and the raffle was drawn. Lots of prizes as many people had donated their unwanted art supplies.

It was such a fun day of quick silly and fun sketching. I got to catchup with friends and meet some people who I had only seen as names online in Melbourne Urban Sketchers facebooks group.