I write a blog post at this time each year looking back at what I have done during the previous year with my art.  I have found this is a very useful way of realising how much I have accomplished in a year, as I usually forget about some events or do not realise how productive I have been. It is a good reality check for me.

Below are my art projects and commercial activities in 2023. (they pay for my pencils) This year once again was a little different. Classes began slowly again and there were more special projects.

Sketchbooks

Below is a photograph of my sketchbooks from this year. There are ten 12cm x 19 cm Moleskine watercolor pencil sketchbooks. Some are in landscape format and some are portrait. I sketch every day and carry my sketchkit which includes watercolour pencils and sketchbook with me everywhere.

The numbers on the spine are the sketchbook numbers since I began my daily sketches in these Moleskine sketchbooks in December 2008. Can you tell that I am a librarian?

.I scan every page of my sketchbook and put them all on Flickr (an image-sharing website). I add tags and group them into Albums of events Holidays or Projects.

I put sketches daily on Instagram and some on Facebook. but these are social media sites, not searchable repositories. I use Flickr for example to locate sketches I have done of coffee if I am giving a class on food and drink. However, I have sketches from the holidays that still need to be uploaded, A holiday project…

Some go onto Facebook at Alissa Duke Art. I post daily on Instagram alissaduke1

• 2,942 posts (since beginning)
• 1,986 followers

Weekly Art Blog

I have maintained this, my weekly art blog. Thank you to the 209 followers of this weekly art blog. I hope that you find it enjoyable and interesting to read and full of information. Sometimes I write about hints and tips when using watercolour pencils, other times the blog will be about art events I am involved in and the rest are usually my sketches from the previous week. I hope that I can share a bit of my passion for drawing and watercolour pencils.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like me to explain anything I do. If you would like to receive a weekly email you can Subscribe here.

Newsletter

I sent three newsletters this year to the 153 people who subscribe to my newsletter, in February, July and September. The newsletter is for people who are interested in my art and would like to know when major events happen – new card designs, markets, exhibitions, and classes. They may not necessarily be interested in my Weekly Art blog, but still want to be updated.

Melbourne Rare Book Week

I sketched at Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW) when I first moved to Melbourne in 2015 and since 2016 I have been the official sketcher on location for the week of talks, culminating in the Melbourne Rare Book Fair on the final weekend. I have met so many interesting people and made lots of friends through this event.

Melbourne Rare Book Week days 1-3

Melbourne Rare Book Week days 4-7

You Can’t Draw in Books? by ME – I gave a one-hour talk about the books at MRBW – the books that no one wants. I draw on the pages of books that are about to be discarded. I had a good audience of 44 people and it went well. This was a talk where people could come up and handle the books and ask questions. They are for sale on my ETSY online store.

I also had a display at my local Library and gave TWO radio interviews !!!!! They were only ten minutes each and I think they went well. One was on Community Radio 3MRD with Jules Vine in her “Classically Saturday” show and the next was with ABC Victoria with David Astle. I have learnt that he has a wide audience and is famous for crosswords. Tim Finn was on his show later that night !!

Auckland Urban Sketching Symposium

I attended the Annual Urban Sketchers Symposium in Auckland, New Zealand in April. It is three days of Workshops with 600 attendees. I stayed for 10 days holiday and sketched all the way.

Watercolour pencil classes

I started to run my “Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil” classes. I had 12 classes at East Melbourne Library. They are a two-hour class and involve a local walk to sketch. The people attending have the option of purchasing a sketchkit.

Other classes were at Dromkeen homestead, outside of Melbourne. At Dromkeen I also Offered a Nature Sketching and two High tea Sketching

Clunes Booktown Festival

A highlight. I feel like this was made for me. A whole weekend of books at Clunes Booktown Festival. Read about my time there here.

I was there last year and hope to be there next.

and an extra from Clunes. Two of my “drawn in” books were purchased by Libraries Tasmania for their Book Art collection and have been catalogued with my name in the catalogue field notes

Victorian History Showcase

Victorian History Showcase

I was invited to be the official sketcher on location at the Prahran Mechanics Institute (PMI) Victorian History Showcase in Melbourne. This was an all-day event. I sketched the various local history groups at their table and visitors chatting to them.

Blarney Books and Art Biblio Prize

I enter each year, not to win, but to be involved and support Jo at Blarney
Books and Art, which is in Port Fairy, a few hours from Melbourne, This is the
14th year, You pay the entry fee and receive a random book title of a recently published Australian book. You then creatively interpret the book in any format.
People knit, make installation art, weave or paint. Of course, I draw in my book. My book was The Sitter by Angela O’Keeffe. My book was chosen to go on display at Blarney until the end of February 2024.

http://alissaduke.com/2023/10/blarney-books-and-art-biblio-prize-2.html

Commissions

In 2023 I was approached and completed four private commissions. They were all of the buildings. I had to look at my invoices to remind me of this. It has been such a long year. I also declined a few commissions that I was approached to do as they were all outside of the scope of what I do. However, it was lovely to have been considered and asked.

Exhibitions

It was exciting to  have my  “You Can’t Draw in Books” exhibition at Dromkeen over September and October and give a presentation

I had a similar display and talk as part of Melbourne Rare Book Week at East Melbourne Library. I even gave 

I have been told that there was a lot of interest in both the local communities and visitors. 

ETSY online sales

I have a variety of greeting cards printed from my watercolour pencil drawings on my ETSY online store. I also have my “drawn-in books”  available for purchase there. 

Local Markets

I was happy to have a market stall with my cards and books at two local Christmas events. It was so lovely to catch up with local friends and meet some more!

… and looking forward

I have plans.

I have two local Artist in Residency commissions, Melbourne Rare Book Week, watercolour pencil sketching classes will begin again, hopefully a stall at Clunes Booktown Festival and a long planned holiday (was supposed to be in 2020) in the UK.

I hope that you have had a creative year and continue into 2024. Thank you for your support and questions. 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2024.

I will be back next Sunday with my annual Year in Review.

It is the week before the week before Christmas. There seems to be a red and green theme emerging… and a little bit of food.

I practiced sketching some sweets for the following weekend’s class at Dromkeen.

Saturday was my last watercolour pencil sketching class for the year, It was a Christmas High Tea at Dromkeen homestead, just outside of Melbourne. Once again. I forgot to take photos. Bernadette and Denise had prepared a beautiful festive table. It was even more impressive when the food was brought out!

And a final sketch today. I occasionally arrange a sketching session for East Melbourne locals to get together and bring along any art gear they have and chat and sketch or paint.

I wonder what I will blog about next weekend, the day before Christmas?

Happy sketching and creativity everyone.

It is that time of the year when many people are baking special treats or meals.

Those of you who know me know that I do not enjoy cooking (I can cook!). However, I love to draw food. Instead of drawing food that has already been prepared, sometimes I have drawn the ingredients of a meal or a recipe for baking.

All with watercolour pencil , of course.

I use the word “drawing” instead of “sketching”. This is a self-imposed description I have. A drawing is more studied and a sketch is more impression of a moment. However, they are interchangeable!

The drawing does not have to be done when the cooking is actually taking place. Perhaps when preparing or gathering ingredients on the bench. I sometimes sketch ingredients while my host is cooking and we chat. Or you could give the recipe with the baked treat as a present.

Things to think about:

• where you place things on the page.

• you have control over the individual ingredients, which ones you choose to draw, and what to leave out. Some things are just not as interesting on the page!\

• do you write the recipe as well as the ingredients for someone else to be able to cook it.

I hope this inspires you to pick up a pencil and sketch a recipe. Let me know how you go !

USK is Urban Sketchers. Today the Melbourne Group had a very special final end of year catch-up. They usually meet once a month at place oragnised by one of the wonderful Admin team. We chat sketch, have a throw down (ie lay our sketchbooks out on the ground to see what everyone has done) a group photo and then go. I usually can’t attend as I have other events on the weekends,

I put this one in my diary when it was announced. About 60 people registered. a few sent apologies. In the end, there were 43 (?) .

Helen organised an AMAZING day. We thankfully had great weather, avoided protests, and everyone had a great time.

Met at 10:00 at St Pauls. The challenge – we were given a list of 30 things to sketch on the route down Swanston Street to meet at GPO at 12:00pm. There was no right or wrong, they did not have to be in order and open to interpretation.

The more sketching, the more raffle tickets you got for a draw at the end. It was quantity not quality. As you can see from my sketches below.

The only two I did not get were “someone reading”, a protester

When we met at 12 we tallied up sketches, handed out tickets, and then had a break for lunch.

On re-meeting back on the stairs at the GPO we had a new afternoon challenge.

Sketch a portrait of as many of the 24 people in the group that came back after lunch.

We had one hour.

Two rules

It must be a continuous line for each sketch. That means when you put your pen down and make the first mark on the page you can’t take it off the page until you finish that one. AND you must ask their name. This, of course, led to lots of conversations. People gathered in a few groups moving slightly and staring at each other for a short amount of time.

You got more raffle tickets depending on how many people you sketched.

Then we had the group photo and the raffle was drawn. Lots of prizes as many people had donated their unwanted art supplies.

It was such a fun day of quick silly and fun sketching. I got to catchup with friends and meet some people who I had only seen as names online in Melbourne Urban Sketchers facebooks group.

On a quick four-day visit interstate to my hometown, I sketched a lot. Today’s page is all about a two-hour sketching catch-up with an art friend Anna from Shiny Happy Art. I have only known Anna for a few years, but we talk art for ages when we catch up. Our meeting place is the delicious ParisiAnn where we eat and sketch Ann’s amazing creations.

We have very different styles with our art. I sketch in my spare time with my watercolour pencils for fun and journalling. Anna is a full-time artist, art teacher and always has many creative projects on the go. But we both agree that anyone can sketch and anything is sketchable!

We chose our pastry treats from the counter display and have a great coffee.

Thankfully Anna took lots of photos along the way so I can share our creations in progress. The table started off tidy and then we took over.

Below is a video that shows the sweets off! I(I couldn’t figure out how to reduce it in size)

Below are my final pages.

At one stage Ann bought out a colourful cake for a client to collect (Andrew’s wife’s birthday). We had to sketch it quickly! it was not out long as the weather was so warm.

We gave ourselves 10 minutes. Then agreed on another two minutes at the end!

and then it was time to go…

This Saturday I held my last Travel Sketching with WatercolourPencil class for the year.

I do have a final “Christmas High Tea sketching with Watercolour Pencil” class in December at Dromkeen homestead, just outside of Melbourne. See their Facebook page for a link to booking in the next few days.

I thought I would give a little overview of my travel sketching class. My first sketch was at Southern Cross Station waiting for my VLine train. The journey takes about an hour and trains leave hourly.

I arrive early. Waiting time is Sketching time!

It is a two hour class. Participants can purchase a sketchkit from me or bring their own gear. Many people already have watercolour pencils and don’t know what to do with them. The waterbrush tends to create the most excitement. it is basically a tube filled with water and a brush at the end. It is used instead of paintbrushes and containers of water. It is perfect for travel sketching.

I introduced everyone to their equipment and we played and scribbled with the watercolour pencils before heading outside.

There are three 15-minute stops to sketch. Part of travel sketching is being able to choose your subject quickly and start getting colour and lines on the page. Travel sketching is all about seeing opportunities and making the most of them to document your travels. So, 15 minutes is a good amount of time.

I bring three of my own sketchbooks from my last UK holiday as well as half a dozen published books to look through. These sketchbooks show different people’s linework and colour – all very different. There is no right or wrong. I also have my current sketchbook and pencils.

Below are two of the more popular ones.

I was able to share a sketching hint which I had used that morning. Wearing sunglasses lets you look at people subtly and sketch them.

There are lots of art adventures leading up to Christmas and into the new year.

Happy sketching everyone.

Last weekend I spent just over 24 hours in Ballarat, an hour north west of Melbourne.

Friends and I went to explore this beautiful historic regional city.

These are the sketches I made during the visit. My friends are not sketchers, but are very happy with me sketching and disappointed if I don’t!

It is a different style for me as I added large titles to each page.

I woke up this morning to hear on the radio that it is National Wombat Day.

My non Australian friends may ask What is a wombat ?

I decided that I had wombat enough sketches to show you. All are sketched with watercolour pencil. I have noted which are from photos and which are in real life.

The sketches above were drawn as part of the Kate Johnson’s Watercolour Pencil Workshop in 2009. It was online and interactive with the wonderful Kate (Cathy) Johnson. This is when I really discovered watercolour pencils and have not used anything else since. I was very honoured when she asked to include this sketch (and a few more) in her book, “Artist’s Journal Workshop: creating your life in words and pictures” p 25. 2011 Noth Light Books

(above) Wombat burrows. On location at a friends property. I kept checking all through the night at intervlas, but did not see any wombats.

Happy Wombat Day everyone.

2023

I have submitted my entry in for the Blarney Books and Art Biblo Prize.

I enter each year, not to win, but to be involved and support Jo at Blarney Books in Art, which is in Port Fairy, a few hours from Melbourne, This is its 14th year, staying the same but changing slightly over the years. This year you pay the entry fee and receive a random book title of an Australian book published recently. You then creatively interpret the book in any format. People knot, make installation art, weave or paint,

Of course, I draw in my book.

This is my finished work. my assigned book and my Artist’s Statement .

The Sitter is the story of two women each narrating about themselves and the other. The Writer is writing about the life of Hortense Cezanne, the wife of Cezanne, and also reveals circumstances of  her own life. Hortense is with The Writer as she writes. Much of time, is in Covid-19 lockdown in a hotel in Paris. Hortense tells her own story and that of The Writer. They are each narrating, revealing secrets to us and keeping others.

My drawing in the book is of the two women looking out over Notre Dame in Paris. In my interpretation, Hortense is outside of the frame for once, and The Writer is the one framed.

So where did I begin?

I read the book three times. First, as a story, but being aware of what I might like to draw. The second read is very thorough and involves putting post-it notes on potential pages and writing lots of notes. The third time is spot reading, refining to just a few potential scenes.

When I have decided on my idea, I then start looking for images that will suit me.

I photocopy the page I am going to draw on a few times and then move ideas around.see below.

Below is how I built up the scene

I have submitted my entry and now wait. All entries go online and 100 or so get chosen to be in the exhibition at Blarney Books and Art in Port Fairy from December to February.