Yesterday I had the joy to hold TWO Nature Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes at Dromkeen homestead at Riddells Creek, an hour out of Melbourne. This was part of the Macedon Ranges Autumn Festival. Dromkeen also had a Wonders of Nature art exhibition with 130 pieces of art by amazing local artists. I visited for the opening two weeks ago and was very excited to meet and talk to some of the artists involved. It continues for another two weeks.

In the photo are a small suitcase with sketchkits for those who have purchased them. They contain a pack of 12 FaberCastell watercolour pencils, a Pentel medium waterbrush, an A5 Art Spectrum 210gsm smooth watercolour sketchbook (draw and wash), an Albrecht Durer watercolour pencil, a hints and tips sheet and a serviette ! all have a purpose.

I also have a backpack of some of my sketchbooks to show examples. I take a pull-up banner which I display at events. I also have done some swatches of the colours in their kit.

My class was held indoors. Autumn has decided to arrive in Melbourne and the day was drizzling. This is not good for watercolour and watercolour colour paper (or people). I made a decision to hold my class inside when I arrived on the train from Melbourne. This was Plan B. The class was held in Garden Room which is a separate room from the homestead, as there was so much happening in Dromkeen tea rooms and Art Gallery.

I collected some autumnal leaves. branches with lichen, nuts and a few peacock feathers (there used to be peacocks on the homestead property) for attendees to sketch.

Autumn leaves sketching video

An email was sent to participants with the following links.

• The 26  watercolour pencils I carry everyday http://alissaduke.com/2022/03/the-watercolour-pencils-i-use-2.html
• My top 12 http://alissaduke.com/2022/03/top-12-watercolour-pencil-colours.html
• Hints and tips  http://alissaduke.com/2014/03/five-watercolour-pencils-tips.html
• Practical hints and Tips http://alissaduke.com/2017/05/practical-blog-posts.html

Happy sketching every and let me know have any questions.

Easter Greetings 2025.

I am enjoying a lovely long weekend. Lots of Easter sketching!I have two videos for you of sketching a hot across bun in watercolour pencil and step by step photos of an small soft toy rabbit.

These are my annual Easter sketches that I have been doing for at least 10 years. I get to try our new hot cross buns each and practice my rabbit after his emergence from the cupboard where he lives for the rest of the year.

• Warm Grey II
• Payne’s Grey
• a Pink Madder Lake – nose
• Black

and then onto the serious stuff…

• Ivory
• Warm Grey II
• Burnt Ochre
• Paynes grey
• Dark Sepia
• Black (coloured pencil) – I use for the lines where I dont want the pigment to dissolve or blend. This is the only non watercolour (in coloured pencil) pencil that I have in my sketchkit.

And a second video. What happened next…

new colours of

• Light Cadmium Yellow
• Cream

Farewell from the Easter Bunny

note: the darker the colour around his tail, more white it appears becasue it stands out more.

and he left a colourful Easter Egg for me to sketch in my Zoom catchup with UK sketching friends Sue, Jules and Jean.

The Melbourne Urban Skechers had their montly catchup on Sunday in Fitzroy Gardens.

It was a summery Autumn day and about 40 sketchers turned up at 11:00am , spread around the park and met up again at 1:00pm for a “throwndown” where we spread out our books onth ground. We can then see the amazing vaierty of markmaking and colours. Each sketch is different and no two are the same.

I sketched the sketchers! They stay still !

I focused on the trunk of this Moreton Bay Fig. I got in close as I am always fascinated by the lichen and scars and textures that make each tree individual.

I also wanted to sketch Nature, which was easy in the Gardens. I have two Nature Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes on 26 April at Dromkeen homestead, just outside of Melbourne. See more details here.

It is part of their Autumn Festival, which began with a pop up art show last Saturday.

150 beautiful art works by Macedon Locals. One of many events over the next few weeks.

I quickly sketched at the launch!

I received a lot of lovely comments on my timelapse watercolour pencil sketch of vegetables last week. I was asked if I could show one in real-time.

This is a 15 minute video. Next time I may figure out to have appropriate music playing in the background.

A container of mixed olives. I chose this as I wanted to use an obscure colour that I do not carry in my everyday sketch kit. Olive Green Yellowish. You can see it is perfect for olives, but probably not much else in life.
I used a few other colours from my daily sketchkit:

• Caput Mortum
• Black
• Cold Grey V (for the plastic container)

I put the pencils out on the table beforehand. I began by sketching the different olives in each colour as I changed olives,

I used a serviette (offscreen) to squeeze water from the waterbrush to clear the colour from its tip between colours.

Let me know if you have any questions.