On Saturday I went to the National Gallery of Victoria to the Escher x Nendo exhibition. There were many well known Escher drawings and various sorts of prints of lithographs. mezzotints, woodcuts etc of this extraordinary artist . They were complemented by designs by nendo studio. It was a great exhibition and made even more interesting by going on a guided tour, which explained a lot that we would have missed out on.

I sketched the tour group and guide. The rooms were darkened and so I used the first pencils that I took from my pencil wrap. At art galleries and exhibitions I tend to draw the visitors or the frames of art on the walls, rather than attempt to reproduce any art on the walls.

Many people stopped to take photographs of the Nendo tunnel, which was a cross between an optical illusion and the tunnel actually getting smaller. They were taking photo of the empty tunnel, which was strange, because it is when people are in it that you really see the illusion.

It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday and I must visit the art gallery more often.

On Saturday I held my “Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil: Food & Drink” class in Melbourne. Sketching the food and drink that you encounter when travelling is a unique way to capture some of your experiences. This is a class for people who are interested in or curious about using watercolour pencils for travel sketching. 

The class begins with an introduction to watercolour pencils and the watercolour brush, sketchbook and ink pen. It is followed by sketching,  drinking tea  and eating the food. 

I have been sketching my food all week to show examples of the variety of styles and approaches that are available when using watercolour pencils and ink pen. 

Melbourne Urban Sketchers end of year event was held on Saturday. A full day of sketching was organised by Evelyn (a big thank you) . It was the first day of Summer and 30 degrees. 

The top of the shops. We have a Melbourne Urban Sketchers stamp to stamp our pages with at events.

Melbourne trams . Acland Street is also the end of the 96 tram line, so there were always trams to draw.

Sketching the sketchers

Some locals in the mall, sitting next to us . They provided to our passive smoking for the week. We moved away after a while.

The roller coaster of Luna Park

The roller coaster from another view. I was sitting quietly in the shade on my own after lunch to sketch this.

We met at St Kilda at 9am, sketched til 11.30am then stopped for a group photo, some left and others joined us as we had lunch in the park and continued with an afternoon sketch until 3pm. I left then as some continued on up Acland Street for coffee and cakes. 

A great day, catching up with friends and meeting new ones.

This weekend I held my first “MORE Travel Sketching with watercolour pencils” class. It is aimed at people who have done my “Travel Sketching with Watercolour pencils” or used watercolour pencils and want to know more about using them. They offer so much potential, I am still learning after using watercolour pencils for 10 years . 

One of areas this class covered was blending colours and adding texture . I really had to think hard to articulate what I do (and to remember to take photos along the way).

As an experiment during the week I drew the face of my teddy bear Bentley.  On Sunday, we sketched food – Danishes and Scrolls from Laurent. The theories are the same. 

There are two main colours for the fur 

• Burnt Ochre
• Burnt Umber

the other three – Black for the eyes, Orange Glaze for the nose and a bit of Ivory.

You can see the step in stages.

It involves drawing the basic areas on the page, in the colour that it is going to be. I do not draw in HB or 2B pencil first, but go straight in with colour. If you are travelling , there is not time to do things twice – jump straight into colour. Be Brave.

We spent a bit of time on the day over the next stage which is building up the layers.  By building up layers of colour in different areas of the page, you can create depth. It does involve patience as you wait for areas to dry. However, you can work on other areas of the page while you wait for one to dry. I tend to move around the page.

There are different ways of making marks on the page with watercolour pencils and this will affect the way the colour can be played with on the page. The other factor is the way water is added and moved around the page with the brush. Practicing and playing is the way to experiment and discover the possibilities.

The final stage is adding hard lines and finer details in some areas of the object. It is these details that give it character. 

This took about 20 minutes.

We spent most of the class time on colour and texture today. Once you understand and become more confident in making marks on the page and adding colour it is easier to apply the concepts to the faster, on the spot sketches you would do while travel sketching. 

and remember to sharpen your pencils along the way, especially before adding the finer detail. It does make a difference.

I hope this provides an insight into the way I use watercolour pencils .There are no rules and this is just one approach to their use.

Happy sketching . Let me know if you have any questions. 

My world is  dominated by travel sketching at the moment, with so many exciting things happening.

Future – Travel Sketching classes 

I have released the dates for my Spring/Summer 2018 Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes, Book soon before they fill up !

Class One: Travel Sketching : Join me on an inspirational walk around East Melbourne, sketching with watercolour pencils to record your experience. Learn tips and techniques for travel sketching along the way

Class Two – MORE travel sketching with watercolour pencils : For those who have done a class and want to learn more. Exploring formatting, people, blending colours and creating texture

Class Three : Food and drink travel sketching : Food and drink often provide a unique experiences as you travel. Sketching them with watercolour pencil will create a memory of the places you go.

in East Melbourne, Victoria

visit my trybooking website for detail and bookings. Contact me if you have any questions.

Present – this weekend visit to Port Fairy

I travelled to Port Fairy this weekend for a long weekend. It was a weekend of travel sketching.

Here are some to inspire you to put pencil to paper and join me in a travel sketching class!

Past – London holiday 

I am still scanning and uploading my UK holiday sketches from my September holiday.  See them gradually added to my Flickr album . There are over 180 sketches.

I am slowing scanning two and a half sketchbooks from my September UK holiday.

This week I am featuring some of the food and drink sketches that I did with my watercolour pencils along the way. Some are quick sketches, due to limited time, or needing to eat ! Others were slower, more considered drawings.

I also often sketched the place we were eating  in my sketchbook, providing context and a background to the story. Sometimes it was a choice of the food or the place .However, today’s blog is just about the food and drink.

Meals on the plane. Quickly decide what to sketch, as there is only a limited amount of time until the flight attendants collect it all back. With the food on the fold down table it can be a little tight on space, but that never stops me.

Sketching on the train. Mid-meal sketch. There is no need to sketch the full meal, sometimes an empty plate tells the story. At some stage, hunger takes over.

Breakfasts – most days it was cereal, but how could I resist sketching one or two of these full English breakfast meals. I often don’t complete the full circle of the plate outline. Just the hint of the plate is enough.

Dinner and lunch provide opportunities to sketch food.

We had a few special occasions too. 

and of course, a cup of tea or coffee.

I am currently planning my Spring/Summer “Travel sketching with watercolour pencil” classes in Melbourne. There will be a class for Food & Drink sketching as well, as there is so much fun to be had and experimenting to do with colour and texture. 

I will be on holidays in the United Kingdom for the month of September. So my blog will be taking break from this weekend.

I will be sketching all the time everyday and plan to instagram my travel sketches daily (wifi permitting).My instagram account is alissaduke1.  Follow me there.

I am travelling with my mother , who lives  interstate. This year (as in previous years) I have drawn on envelopes of the letters that I have been posting to her during the year. I have drawn things and places in the UK. 

Here are just a few:

will we see badgers? I dont think so, but you never know…

Goodwood Revival Motor Racing

Hegdehogs ! The plan is to visit Mrs Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital and see hedgehogs there

I watched a documentary on the Great Fire of London. So we will be visiting Monument

a dormouse – so very English. but I do not think that we will see one.

Big Ben – under scaffolding and not working. Luckily we have seen it before

I often drawn on envelopes . See more mail art projects on my Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/alissaduke/albums/72157628133709960

In the meantime – Happy sketching !!!

Here are some more drawings from my art competition entry to Blarney Books and Art Prize entry. I wrote about the particulars last in last week’s blog and posted some initial drawings. I have now drawn on forty nine pages. They are almost all complete and I will send the entry in the next week or so . I will be scanning and adding them all to an album on my Flickr website

Here are  pages . Enjoy! I am having great fun doing the drawings.

and some others