I did not get the opportunity to post to my Blog last week. I had great intentions, but ran out of time.That means that that this week I am posting a lot of sketches on location.

The first was at the Melbourne Athenaeum Library at one of their wonderful Friday night events. I always attend theitr string quartets and in this case the fantastic Ultrafox – French Gypsy Jazz , inspired by Django Reihnhart – you would know the tunes.

I took photos of my page as I sketched, standing in the shelves with my wine and cheese. The concerts go for one hour, just perfect for a sketch and total relaxation.

And then in the last 5 minites I did a very loose sketch , so full of energy!

The next week I went to Royal Exhibition Building for a session titles “Drawng Under the Dome” , organised my Melbourne. A group of about 100? sketched in the vast empty space of this grand historical building. Usually it is only open when there is an event on such as Finders Keepers or Big Design Markets, so to have the whole ground floor to ourselves was a treat. We also had excellent guidance guidance from Artist Richard Payne. He explained the concept of urban sketching, perspective and vanishing points, We were also informed about the history of the building and all its uses. I think it is good to know about the context of what I am sketching,

We then had a warmup two minutes and then turned around and two minutes in the other direction and then we were let loose !!

i sketched the sketchers while we were listening tot he introduction.

All of the above were in my usual 13cm x 19cm watercolour pencil sketchbook.

I then used the A3 paper provided. A bit outside my comfort zone!

The rest of the week was normal. Sketching on the chilly commute home in the evening.

and having a coffee

I have two more Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes in East Melbourne coming up on 28 May and 20 June. Book HERE. I probably won’t have these classes again until the end of the year. HOwever, I do have other classes through other organisations. See My classes tab on my blog.

Happy sketching.