A five-day holiday in Brisbane, Queensland, spending time with friends, visiting libraries and sketching all the time. I completed about 20 pages in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook. I also went to a Monster Life Drawing session. That will be another blog post!

I have a regular set of sketches that I start with when I go on a holiday. I feel like I am on holidays when I sketch these AND I get into the sketching mode. Because I sketch these regularly, I don’t have to think as hard about shapes and sizes and lines.

The first sketch is usually on the Skybus, the bus to Melbourne Airport from the city. I usually sit on the upper level and sketch the backs of heads of people in front of me. This time, I was downstairs opposite the luggage rack. It was colourful.

on the way there

There is always time for a plane sketch at the airport. It is usually not the plane I am going on, as it will not have arrived yet.

Planes are unusual shapes. I still cut the long wings off the side of the page, as they are so long. There is lots of relative measuring ie what is the size of plane tail compared to the length of the plane.

And then we had a delay and waited… for an hour, so I sketched… People moved around a bit, but in general, I could get down on the page the impression of a group of people standing around, I just added a hint of context with the Gate Number.

on the way home

Brisbane airport. A different plane view…

On the plane home…

These sketches are mainly in ink pen. Sometimes I sketch with watercolour pencil. It can depend how I feel on the day and whether the situation suits bringing out pencils.

Happy sketching!