Pacific Black Ducks in Treasury Gardens. He was not asleep but stayed very still for me
coffee on the way to work
sketching at a concert
more sketches from the concert
Urban Sketchers Melbourne met at State Library of Victoria (1856). The statue is Sir Redmond who instigated the Library with Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe
The venue was an old factory (I think) in inner city Melbourne and had a good vibe, even when there were quiet moments. There were about 30 stall holders including jewellers, ceramicists, textile artists, print-makers and more all retailing their handcrafted wares.
I went with the expectation of no sales and taking this as a learning experience. At the end of the day I did make some sales, met some amazing stall holders with a passion for their craft and willing to share their experiences and knowledge. I also had conversations with some interesting people visiting the market . A few friends turned by to lend their support and also an instagram follower visiting from interstate introduced themselves.
I sketched a few times during the day but forgot to take any photos of the room in full swing.
Visitors seem to come in waves s throughout the day, giving time to talk, tweak the stall, eat snacks and take it all in. I handed our business cards, talk to some people about drawing and gathered a few names for my mailing list. I now have am occasional newsletter which will be sent out to subscribers when I have upcoming events or exhibitions or new card designs It is a separate sign up than this weekly blog. Sign up on the right had side of the page if you would like to receive this. I plan to email the next one out tomorrow.
Craft Hatch program supports emerging makers and who have never had their own market stall before. The program includes mentoring and professional development guidance, and is a perfect way to get a face-to-face experience. It lived up to all of that !
I arrived home at the end of the day inspired and motivated but exhausted!
I am working on four projects at the moment – a commission, an exhibition, workshops and a market stall.
I thought I would give you a glimpse into the behind the scenes of my first commercial market stall. In April I applied and was accepted for Craft Victoria HATCH market. HATCH are markets for emerging makers in Melbourne. Since then have been to a mentor session, asked questions in their Facebook group and received lots of support.
In the last two weeks I have been very busy working through checklists that have been provided, with lots of hints and tips from previous stall holders. Last weekend I did a mock up to see what would work on the day.
Things I needed to do
The BIG day is next Saturday and I am looking forward to the experience, the people I will meet – the other stall holders and the market customers. It is predicted there will be about 500 on the day. Drop by if you are in Melbourne
It will also display this sketchbook, which features my impressions of East Melbourne.
So that it can be viewed on display, I chose to use an accordion (Japanese) fold sketchbook, I have had this particular one in my cupboard since it as given out in a sponsors bag at 2013 Urban Sketching Symposium. It is a Sennelier watercolour sketchbook.
In keeping with urban sketching guidelines, each sketch is done on location. I made a decision that sketches would take 5 to 35 minutes. In that way I would not spend ages on a drawing , when it is supposed to be all about impressions and sketching to capture a moment.
I am using my FaberCastell Watercolour pencils and Lamy Safari ink pen.
It is not purely spontaneous, like my everyday sketchbook. I have planned my pages in advance, creating a mock-up. I am balancing close up and distant views over the pages.
I will be writing more about this closer to the event in June.
I have written it under four headings
These first three links are the key ones to read about what equipment I use and how I use them daily
Me and my watercolour pencils This was my very first blog post I wrote and it is still current today ! It was the first time that I thought and wrote down the steps of how I use watercolour pencils and the equipment I carry daily.
Five watercolour pencil tips – a must read !
Customised pencil wrap How I carry and use my pencils everyday
My studio where I sketch at home and my table layout
My travelling Visconti ink pot travelling with ink
New and old pencils changing colours for changing cities
New city new pencils changing colours for changing cities
Testing watercolour papers – when I had to find the equivalent of my Moleskine sketchbook in a large size
Writing on sketchbook pages – someone asked why I wrote on my sketchbook pages and I wrote my thoughts down
My different styles of sketching Examples of quick sketching and slower sketches
Sketching while walking – really quick sketching !
Sketchbook travel journal – my original ideas – A 2012 blogpost with my thoughts on what I wanted in a travel sketchbook journal
Sketchbook travel journal – the reality In 2013 I had the opportunity to put all of my thoughts and ideas in practice. This post review what worked (most things) and what didn’t (a few things) in reality.
Travelling with a sketchbook I considered further some of the practicalities of travel sketching .
These are blogs where I remembered to take photographs as a I drew an object. They are not a ‘how-to’ guide but a look at how I use my watercolour pencils to build up lines and colour to create a finished drawing.
Feathers and a small nest
Chocolate cake birthday card and Biscuits
Books on shelves and Library ladders
I have been writing a blog since March 2013. That means I have been posting an art blog for four years. It is now weekly and I share art adventures, my weeks sketches or my other sketching and drawing experiences.
I hope that my musing and sketches provide inspiration, motivation, curiosity about watercolour pencils, urban sketching and sketchbook journalling.
Looking back through each month I also realise that my blog is a valuable for me to refer to and remember and reflect on my art life.
On Friday I gave a very belated birthday gift to my friend Louise, who I have known since childhood. I drew on pages on an old book “Hand-and-Eye Training Book II for Boys” that Louise gave me (specifically to draw in). The pages are falling out, but in good condition to draw on.
I knew that I wanted to draw woodworking tools on the pages, as that is the subject of the book and an interest of Louise and her family.
I think that I spent longer on putting that page together than the actually drawing. I had to decide on which tools to depict and then research the images online and changing them to suit the angle I wanted them to sit on the page. The pages did not take much watercolour pencil on them and I had to be careful not to cut through the page.
I enjoyed getting the gleam of the wood where I could.
Faber Castell water-colour pencils used:
Light Yellow Ochre
Light Chrome Yellow
Bistre
Burnt Umber
Walnut Brown
Schwarz Black
Dark Sepia
Paynes Grey
Cool Grey IV
A gift made with thought is always appreciated by friends.
I planned my visit to spend some quality time with friends, and I did, I had some lovely conversations and sketching time. It was definitely a sketching holiday and so relaxing. I filled twenty five pages of my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook (13 x 19) over the four day break.
I’ve included a few on this blog. If you would like to see them all they are on my flickr site from 13 to 17 April 2017.
I started sketching as soon as I left work on Thursday and was officially ‘on holidays’ – on the bus to the airport, at the airport. I sketched the view from where I stayed each night, food I ate and scenes along the way. Some sketches are in ink and some in watercolour pencil and some a combination of both . Sometimes I can visualise what I would like a sketch to look like on the page, and I “know” (inside) that it will work in pen rather than watercolour pencil. On another day or another time I may have chosen different material.
I am usually very happy with what i put on the page. Every now and then I am exceptionally pleased. I felt that this sketch of the cruise ship in Sydney Harbour really came together when I added the figures, The Sydney Opera House is in the background and it is a temptation to make it the focus. However it did not fit on the page, so my decision was made.
I like to combine a feature of a building and the larger building to give it some context. This is beautiful The Russell Hotel where I stayed on Thursday night. I could spend some time on the interior, as I was leisurely eating my breakfast, and not meeting Chris and Liz til 10 am. I tried not to get caught up in the detail of the staircase, The exterior sketch was done quickly, as once again I did not want to get caught up in the detail. I have been trying to figure out which room I was in and where I sketched from the Sitting Room Balcony, but it is a confusing building inside, with little staircases and rooms everywhere.
Catching the ferry to Manly from Circular Quay. I sat on the top deck at the back. I watched as the city disappeared into the distance. This couple sat for a short amount of time on the bench in front of me. I got the lines of their heads and his arm down very quickly on the page, and was really pleased with the flow of the lines and getting their position down on the page. I can look at this and feel where his weight is and how she turns her head,. I ,quickly added some colour with my watercolour pencils, which was just as well, as they moved. I decided not to add the colour of the sky and water.
Classic Manly on Easter Sunday. The Manly ferry , the coastal pine trees and Easter Eggs.
I sketched with about 12 few of Erin’s sketchers at Manly. I had met two when I was in Sydney, and had a lovely time chatting and sketching with them all.
and home again.
At the airport I decided – no more sketching – (I did have a book to read) UNLESS I sat behind someone with fantastic hair, There was no one on the plane – but on the bus, there was a young girl with wonderfully braided hair AND bunny ears. How could I resist???? I’ve never drawn braids before and it was a challenge ! It keep me very busy on the way into Melbourne city. Once I figured out the pattern, I could continue it while I waited for another bus.
I hope you have enjoyed my holiday.
Please let me know if you have any questions about my sketching, using watercolour pencils, or my sketchbook journalling. I love to share my passion/obsession with sketching and the joys of watercolour pencils.
Colours
Grass Green
Chrome Oxide Green
Earth Green
Hookers Green (it is too bright. I am going back to Derwent Mineral Green)
I love a combination of a sketch on location and then finer details of smaller objects. This works for travel sketching, as I will have a ticket, or souvenir (or leaf) that I can sketch at home. Trying to capture the autumnal colours that are coming through after our late summer. A sunny 26 degrees today. Perfect for outdoor sketching.
I also used a lot of Light Chrome Yellow, Light Yellow Ochre and Bistre ( a new colour in my pencils, replacing Raw Umber, which had too much yellow in it).
A combination of old and new, looking through trees to a modern building in Clarendon Street.
A family picnic across the park. I am not sure if I am finished yet. Maybe some more colour and detail. Alternatively I may move onto my next project……
All in watercolour pencil and also Lamy Safari Joy ink pen in Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook.
my maternal line . drawn from family photographs Faber Castell Dark Sepia watercolour pencil is perfect. I was tempted to use colours with the current generation, but liked the old world look.
It was a gathering of over 130 descendants of two migrants in 1850’s. Our family line stayed in the area until 1953, so there is close connection.
This is my art blog so it is all about the sketches from the weekend.
I took my customised watercolour pencil wrap and Moleskine watercolour sketchbook (13 x 19 cm) with me, as I do everywhere I go. There is always an opportunity to sketch !
But first I had to get there – My journey began with a bus ride a, two hour flight then a two and a half hour drive west to outback Queensland.
The Cunningham Highway is a long flat road. Not as brown and barren as I thought it would be.
Some time was spent visiting places which brought back memories for some of the family.
Meet and Greet at the Goondiwindi Bowls Club on Friday night. So many new faces.
I sketched this in the open hot, dry heat of 33 degrees. I did not stay out there long, heading back under the trees for conversation and food.
Group photos at Goondiwindi Boars Rugby League Playing Fields – one of everyone and then the separate families. The photographer was really quick and did not stand still for long.
Lots of social gatherings . But I did not sketch at them all, as I wanted to socialise, ask lots of questions and try and soak it all in. The long weekend was very well organised, with names on coloured tags for which line of the family you are descended from. Great introduction and talking points. I met some lovely and interesting people.
It was a very special moment to stand in front of the graves of the ancestors who began life here in a strange foreign land over 150 years ago. It is difficult to try to understand the difficulties and challenges that they encountered.
and then the return journey home…..
… to start writing down some of the family stories that we were told and fill in the gaps on our family tree with the new relations we discovered.
Below is part of that history – Nana’s tennis trophy from 1941. The town of Toobeah now has a population of 42. I think it was about 250 when she visited, There are quite a few tennis courts around the district, and it must have played a big role in the social life of the district
I sketched this in 2014
I arrived the day before to join the group of volunteers who were setting up.I swept the courtyard of leaves, peacock poo and feathers !!
Dromkeen Homestead has became a home for Australian children’s literature and in 2013 it was purchased by the Joiner family and reopened as a centre for Australian children’s literature. To read more about Dromkeen please visit their website.
The theme is Books Can Take Us Anywhere
There was face painting, storytelling, cartooning demonstrations, puppetry and book mural art. The blue skies and sunshine saw families picnicing on the lawn when they were not going to workshops, talks, book signings and demonstrations .
Some of the guest presenters included Gabrielle Wang, Mark Wilson, Claire Saxby, Marc McBride, Glenda Millard and cartoonist Brett Cardwell.
.I am looking forward to next year !
