I travelled to Sydney for the Easter long weekend. It was a time to catchup with many of my Sydney sketching friends. There were some friends from when I lived in Sydney and others I knew on the Urban Sketchers Sydney facebook page, so I could finally put faces to names.It was a full on sketching holiday with 23 pages of sketches over the four days in the beautiful sunny weather. It was a slow paced holiday with lots of talking. I have just complete scanning and have added all my sketches to my flickr site and you can view them all there . I am including a selection of quick sketches and slower drawings in both ink and watercolour pencil in this blog.

and then there was the food….

Inspired or curious ? If you are in Melbourne, join my Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes

I arrived for lunch and after lunch sketching with Melbourne Urban Sketchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was a beautiful day and lovely place and way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We were so very fortunate to be offered a cruise on a Punt by Ayami
from Punting on the Lake on the Ornamental Lake.

Ayami told us so many bits of information about the lake, punting, plants and the wildlife on the lake. She is font of knowledge and has a passion for the lake and wildlife. She took us past Cobi (cob) , a male swan sitting on a nest, while Penny (pen) his mate was nearby on the water. Two days later she sent photos of the little fluffy cygnets.

Punts seems to glide slowly over the Lake – and they do, unless you are sketching and then objects and scenes go by very quickly. My sketches are very quick !

I highly recommend taking the 30 minute cruise with Punting on the Lake when you visit the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. Melbourne residents and visitors will both learn so much from a cruise in one of these elegant wooden boats .

This weekend I have starting putting watercolour pencil to paper as I work on a commission. I have been asked to draw a family home that is being sold. I am doing a second drawing of six objects and scenes from around the house that have special memories to the owners. I love the combination of the two.

I visited the home and took LOTS of photos. We decided which objects would be drawn and the size and format of the final pages.

I have sketched the drawings in HB pencil. Yesterday I started drawing with watercolour pencil. In this instance it is important to get the colours correct, so I spent some time at the art shop playing with watercolour pencils and combining them on the page to get the right shade.

I actually bought two more greens, which I did not have already – Leaf Green and Light Phthalo. AS you can see (below) I have many greens already. The greens are for the wooden house and the red is for a rose in the garden. You can also see how when water is added to the page, the colour can change its intensity, and tone.

Riddells Creek, just outside of Melbourne. Saturday 30 March . I was honoured once again to be invited to sketch at Dromkeen LitFest 2019: Stories connect us to the past, the present & the future’. It was a day of celebrating Australian Children’s Literature.

Talks and readings by children’s authors and illustrators
Author/illustrator discussions on writing, reading and picture book making
Hands on workshops
Viewing of original illustrations
Author/ illustrator book signings and sales

Authors and illustrators included Trace Balla, Clare Saxby, Corinne Fenton and Marc McBride. The talks I attended were fascinating and the speakers provided so much insight into their books and the process of the creation of the book.

It was cosy and warm inside the beautiful historic Dromkeen homestead, just outside of Melbourne. The rooms were comfortably filled with adults and children moving between activities and events, A quick walk took you through to the Garden Rooms for more talks. The blacksmith, bush furniture makers, children’s pets zoo and Sand Sculpting Exhibition – Enchanted Forest Adventure were outside in the chillier outside weather, but worth the visit !

The Craftroom was a hive of activity, with many young (and older) children painting and making crafts, enthusiastically guided by Donna & Karen. For the sketcher, the children don’t stay still for long, so these are very quick sketches. Sometimes I sketched in one colour, others I sketched in black and added the colour of the clothes. There is one longer sketch in ink, and I added colour after, and a bit of water.

Storytelling sessions were popular too !

Illustration with Deltora Quest series illustrator Marc McBride. He used an airbrush and gave a fun talk about colours, character and art tools. He also touched on many other subjects including creativity, imagination and activity. Marc shared how his pictures are created and inspired us all by creating an artwork and showed exactly how it is done.

And booksales of the books and book signing as well.

Making bush furniture with Rob and Blair. They demonstrated the craft of making a bush-stool using traditional hand tools, along with a brief history of this quiet yet physical art form.  

Dromkeen Homestead was built in 1889 as the country estate of Victorian Supreme Court Judge Arthur Chomley (1837–1914). Dromkeen was named after his mother’s family home in Dromkeen, in County Limerick in Ireland.

From 1973, Joyce and Courtney Oldmeadow used the homestead as a private residence and educational bookshop, with a public display of original artworks and manuscripts from Australian children’s picture books. It became a home for Australian children’s literature. Scholastic Australia purchased the homestead in 1985 and continued to maintain the Dromkeen Collection until it was moved to the State Library in 2012.

In 2013 Dromkeen was purchased by the Joiner family and reopened as a centre for Australian children’s literature. Dromkeen is once more host to hundreds of visitors, including school and tertiary groups, offering the opportunity to take part in workshops run by Australian authors and illustrators and also to view original picture book illustration.

I am excited to be holding three classes at Dromkeen in the coming months . to see dates and sessions go to www.trybooking.com

I have been working on a commission of a drawing of a bear. I created him from a number of different online images to get the fur colour and body angle I had in mind.

I remembered to take photos step by step. (some of the photos are a little out of focus and others with the shadow of the camera.) The bear was drawn over a long weekend and has been handed over to the group who commissioned him. I will share with you the final version on a poster when I receive it.

I always start by drawing the eyes . If I don’t capture the character on the page then, the rest of the drawing is not goingto work, no matter how good it is.

Watercolour pencils are so wonderful for the creating texture of the bear’s fur. I can get a lot of depth and detail.

Faber Castell watercolour pencils

• Light Chrome Yellow
• Light Yellow Ochre
• Raw Umber
• Bistre
• Walnut Brown
• Burnt Umber
• Schwarz
• Warm Grey II
• Burnt Ochre
• Orange Glaze

I took a break from my blog last week as I was drawing a series of five posters commissions that will be shared at a later date . This week’s blog includes some local everyday sketches in my sketchbook from the past two weeks. I carry my sketchbook and watercolour pencils with me everywhere and take and make opportunities to sketch in spare moments.

I will usually sketch my coffee or food. The more you sketch something, the more practice you get and build your confidence and technique.

Then there are the everyday sketches (above and below)

And every now and then something out of the ordinary happens in the everyday and I take the opportunity to capture that on the page.

I was walking to work and looked up to see three hot air balloons above Melbourne, one very close by above Captain Cooks cottage in Fitzroy Gardens. They actually move quickly, so I got some initial sketches down on the page to get the comparative size of the balloon to the buildings and then added details of the trees and building after the balloons had left. watercolour pencil.

We have a local Community Garden built out the back of our local Library. I had been told that they were ripe for the picking and collected these wonderful foods. Well done everyone who was involved in the creation and maintenance of this wonderful community resource. watercolour pencil

Interested in Sketching with Watercolour Pencils? I have a series of classes on Travel Sketching classes held in Melbourne. You don’t have to be travelling to join the class, as you can see it is the same as keeping an everyday sketch journal. No art experience necessary as it is all about capturing the moment of your life on page. see more details

I have been invited to run a series of classes at the beautiful and historic Dromkeen homestead, outside of Melbourne. On Sunday I spent the day at Dromkeen, exploring the house and grounds for places for the classes to sketch.

There are three classes planned, two hours each – all using watercolour Pencils. You can enroll for one or all three classes. All classes are about using watercolour pencils to capture your travels and experiences on paper. See details for times and dates and to book see Dromkeen’s Trybooking site

• travel sketching
• nature sketching
• food & drink sketching – a High Tea, where you get to sketch your cake and eat it too

The classes are all about sketching with watercolour pencils. After taking time to understand and play with the pencils ( You can achieve SO many effects with them on paper) , we go and sketch in the grounds., learning hints and tips along the way.

I was inspired and slightly overwhelmed at the choice of potential subject matter to sketch at Dromkeen (and there are also wet weather alternatives indoors). My day involved walking around the house inside and out, making various maps and marking out potential places to sketch that would give lots of options and opportunities .

I completed a number of 15 minute sketches of the house, trees and scenes to provide examples of what you can capture in a short amount of time.

The sketching Food and Drink class will be held in the beautiful dining room. On my test run I sketched my coffee – although there were plenty of lovely sweets I could have sketched in the tea room. The High Tea will be wonderful. Sketching your food and drink is a great way of capturing and remembering an event, time, place or travels.

I also collected some objects from the grounds to sketch later, as we will on my nature sketching class. Two of the drawings below were completed on the train back to Melbourne and the others at home

About Dromkeen: Dromkeen (built in 1889, for  Judge Arthur Chomley) is a historic homestead, featuring original Australian book illustration. The tearoom serves delicious home made food and quality coffee and tea. They  provide educational programs for visiting schools, gallery tours for other groups and also provide facilities for business functions, weddings, birthday parties & other special occasions.

I look forward to meeting you at the classes. Stay on after or arrive early and enjoy food and a cup of tea at the Tea Rooms, browse the Gallery, featuring Australia Children’s book illustrators.

I am also running Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes in Melbourne. See times and dates on my Trybooking site