Weekend sketching extremes

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This weekend was full of variety, in both experiences and sketching subjects.

Saturday

Yesterday I held my second 2018 Travel Sketching class with Melbourne Library Service. 

Last Saturday I took my own group out on a Travel Sketching walk through East Melbourne in perfect weather and we sat on nature strips in in the centre of the road to sketch. This weekend I woke early to the following rain radar (below) over Melbourne and the heavy clouds in the sky.

Thankfully, by 1pm the steady rain cleared, although the class of nine started the walk from under the East Melbourne Library entrance, sheltered from a bit of rain.

After 20 minutes we walked up the block to the next shelter of East Melbourne Cellars for another 20 minute stop to sketch whatever attracted each person.

I spend the first 20 minutes of the class introducing everyone to watercolour pencils, the waterbrush and paper. From then we walk three blocks and back again, arriving back for coffee, biscuits and discussion. Once again everyone grasped and enjoyed the concept of travel sketching and capturing the essence of what they see in just a short amount of time.

I can say that I had my youngest class attendee, at nine days old ! He was there with his dad carrying this little bundle and his mum sketching, as well as visiting sketching grandparents from Canada. Everyone who comes along is keen on learning.

Sunday 

On Sunday I had extremes of subject matter in my drawings. I worked on two fun commissions – a gothic theme – this is inspired by the raven from Edgar Allan Poe. This page is a draft version. 

I alternated between the black page of the raven on A3 paper to the prettiness of a lacy pink parasol drawn in a paperback book. 

Happy sketching everyone!

Travel Sketchwalk in East Melbourne

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Today I ran my own Travel Sketching session for East Melbourne residents. For the first time, I organised the room, bought the sketch kits and emailed potential interested locals. 

The day was the same format as the sessions I have with my Melbourne Library Service Travel Sketching classes. But this time people purchased the sketch kits to keep.

  • Faber Castell “Red Range” Watercolour pencils 12 pack 
  • Pentel Aquash Medium Waterbrush 
  • Draw and Wash Pad 210 gsm A5 sketchbook
  • Micron waterproof ink pen 04
  • Travel Sketching Hints and Tips sheet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was beautiful as we walked a few blocks, stopping for 20 minutes at three places to sketch whatever attracted each person. Sometime it was the feature of a building such as a lamp or window, or the whole building or the phone lines.

Everyone ‘got’ the concept of Travel Sketching and captured some amazing lines and colour on the page in just two hours. I was so inspired by their enthusiasm.

 

We hope to meet up again to sketch.  I also plan to continue to grow the Travel Sketching sessions in East Melbourne and broader Melbourne. Today was a great positive experience and the comments from everyone who was there were so positive, They all had fun and were so happy to be introduced to the potential of travel sketching and using watercolour pencils. !!

Email me through the website if you would like to be on the mailing list for future Travel Sketching sessions. 

Lost Trades Fair 2018

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It is the weekend of the Lost Trades Fair at Kyneton, an hour or so from Melbourne.

Lost Trades “celebrates the art of skilled manual work,ancient crafts and rare trades,..These trades and the incredible artisans and real makers who continue to pursue these trades as a career deserve a platform to showcase their skills, incredible craftsmanship and share their knowledge.”   

Lost Trades was founded in 2011 and has over 15000 visitors through the gates over two days . There are over 120 stall of fascinating trades and amazing artisan, all passionate about their skill and happy to share it.

I stopped and sketched at a few stalls and listened to the demonstrations and the audience questions.

After the first warm up sketch, I decided to sketch with my Lamy Safari ink pen and then add colour to the tools or craft or sometimes the maker. All done on location. I also decided not to continue the sketch when I got home. I am interested in capturing what I did on the spot.

 

I will however, look up the details of the person and their trade and add that information to the page. I am interested in knowing what I sketched. 

 

This is my third (or fourth) visit and I will be back !. 

Next year I will stay overnight in Kyneton and go to the Lost Trades Fair on the two days.  

2016 part 2 

2016 Part 1

My burger at Lost Trades Fair

Lost Trades Fair 2015 Part 1

Lost Trades Fair 2015 Part 2

 

Local house sketch – commission

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I am very happy to be able to reveal a recent drawing commission that I have just completed. It was given as a birthday gift and now that the birthday has passed I am excited to share the final drawing and my ‘work in progress’ photographs.

It is a local East Melbourne house built in 1890. East Melbourne has a long history and a wide variety of architectural styles, all with great character.  

It was completed over three weeks in the evenings and on weekends. I took about 50 photos and visited three times to take those photos. The last visit was to photograph some details and get colours right. Although it was on portrait size paper, I drew in a square as the house fitted in that shape , I decided early on not to include a sky .

The watercolour pencil drawing was done on A3 watercolour paper (about 210 gsm weight).

This blog post shows it as a work in progress. I remembered to take photographs on my ipad and phone along the way. I wish that I had decided to purchase an A3 (instead of A4) photocopier/scanner when I purchased a new one only a few months ago. 

The first few sketches were on A3 photocopy paper. I was trying to figure out how big to draw the house on the page and what to include.

 

          I started with the outline and then built up the easiest blocks of colour. 

   

 

 

 

 

The owner suggested to add the crab apple tree in flower and nastursiums peaking through the white fence. These additions really give it a lot of a balance and interest, They are also a true reflection of the house in its many seasons.

It was wonderful challenge. I have only done a few drawing commissions and this was slightly larger than my usual drawing in my sketchbook. The larger drawing allowed me to focus in on some interesting detail and character of the house. 

Travel Sketching – Melbourne Library Service

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On Saturday I held the first of three Travel Sketching walks in conjunction with Melbourne Library Service at my local library. My previous  Travel Sketching with Melbourne Library Service  was in June last year. The three walks are all booked out. 

After a short introduction inside to watercolour pencils and the idea of travel sketching, we headed out – drawing trees, cars, houses, fences, signs and whatever else attracted each person. They only had 15 minutes at each of the three locations, so it was all about getting marks and an impression down on paper.

Rain was predicted all day on the Bureau of Meteorology website and threatened in the skies throughout the day. There was only one short downpour, which occurred the moment we walked out of the Library door ! So we sketched under the shelter of the building for 15 minutes before moving on .

This short time of rain was a great time to talk about travel sketching and about being flexible, and going with the moment. Great plans go astray but create other opportunities. The fact that we have to sketch under cover and that people got big splotches of rain on their page is part of the story of the page and of their day.  

 

We headed back to  East Melbourne Library for biscuits, coffee and to chat, share and look through some other examples of sketchbooks (my own and published books) that I had brought in.  The sketchers had lots of questions and it was exciting for me to be able to share my experience with them. Some questions were about the techniques of using watercolour  pencils, and other were about the practicalities of travel sketching. 

Below are some books that I had on display (as well as my own travel sketchbooks). 

They are not’ how to draw’ books, but rather show different people’s sketches and styles. I’ve put links if you are interested, I will often borrow a book from my local library before deciding to purchase it.

An Illustrated LIfe by Danny Gregory

Reportage and Documentary Drawing by Veronica Lawlor

London You’re Beautiful by David Gentleman 

Taking a Line for a Walk by Christopher Lambert

Drawing Paris by David George Holm

Manchester Sketchbook by Manchester Sketchers

An Eye on the Hebrides by Marie Hedderwick 

A great book to start drawing is Danny Gregory’s book  Creative License .   It will open your eyes to creativity and drawing. I return to it regularly to refocus and relearn.

 

Any questions about travel sketching or watercolour pencils ? Just ask !

 

Church Fair book sale sketches

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 I cannot walk past a Book Fair or second hand book shop without going in. It is not as though I need any more books in my shelves. I am also a member of two wonderful libraries: my local public library through Melbourne Library Service and Melbourne Athenaeum Library (Victoria’s oldest subscription library, operating since 1839). 

 
This weekend my local church was having a Book Fair. I had a wonderful time browsing the wide variety of books and walked away with an armful for $30. I had eight non-fiction and four fiction books.
I then sat out on the nature strip under a tree and sketched the church.

Later that day I drew my stack of books. This time I remembered to take a few photos along the way. This drawing was done in one evening in my daily sketchbook, so it is not as detailed or realistic as it would have been if I had worked on it over a few days.

 
I love books. I work in a magnificent library and am surrounded by them. I have done detailed drawings of them which are available for purchase on my ETSY online store.


  But this drawing was all about drawing the books I bought that day . It is a record in my sketchbook. Below are a series of sketches of today’s as a work in progress.

 

Now that I have bought them and sketched them, I just have to read them !

 

Update Sunday pm. I went back today and bought another 20 books ! I saw about a dozen local friends and each one recommended books they found in boxes. It created lots of discussion. I was there two hours.

I don’t think I will be drawing them. I might actually just read this afternoon…

a weekend in the country sketching

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A relaxing weekend in the countryside outside of Melbourne with friends.

I wanted to try and capture part of my experience there.

 

Wonderful food fresh from the garden or produced locally. 

The property has wombats, koalas and echidnas – which we did not see…

and cows.. which we did see.

There were lots of birds coming up to the bird feeder and close to the house in the early morning and evening. King Parrots. Rosellas, Kookaburras, Blue wrens, Thorn Bills, Wood Ducks… the list goes on…

 


And part of the weekend was the traffic jam on the highway when I left work on Friday. However that was quickly forgotten once I arrived and was greeted by my friends.

Australia Day 2018

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My traditional drawing on Australia Day – Vegemite on toast. 

 

This year I added some gumleaves (not for eating) to the page. The gumleaves were picked up off the ground in Treasury Gardens yesterday. They will dry and lose their colour over the next few days. 

I drew the leaves last night knowing that I was going to include some sort of food. 

Lamingtons? Meat pie? Pavlova ? No – I added the vegemite on toast this morning of Australia Day .  It was cold by the time I got to eat it. 

Australia Day is a national public holiday. Celebrated annually on 26 January, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales. With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies, fireworks, music  and barbecues the day is celebrated around the nation.

 

  

 

 

Travel Sketching Workshop

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Yesterday,  I led a Travel Sketching Workshop at Arts on Burgundy in Melbourne .

My one sketch for the day was my traveling to the workshop. 

Ten enthusiastic people arrived and spent the day listening to me talk about travel sketching and then experimenting with sketching on location.

After a few days of very hot weather in Melbourne we were very fortunate to have a cool change come through to give us pleasant weather for travel sketching. 

The two things that I wanted to share with everyone on the day was my passion for the concept of travel sketching and to introduce watercolour pencils as a way of capturing the moment while travelling.  Some people were planning to travel and keeping a sketchbook, or interested in the idea.  A few had watercolour pencils,  but most were new to them. For anyone interested in getting the most out of their watercolour pencils I have gathered together a few practical blogposts based on my experience. 

After an hour talking about travel sketching we walked out for 1 1/2  hours, stopping at two places along the way. In a short amount of time at each stop, they captured the moment and recorded their own individual impressions of their experience. It is really interesting to see what people are attracted to sketching when they are given are wonderful array of scenes and objects to choose from. 

Then back to the studio at Arts on Burgundy for lunch, talking and air-conditioning. 

After lunch we went out again to the beautiful 1859 bluestone St Johns Catholic Church for another two sketches before walking back to the Arts on Burgundy studio for more discussion.

I had a wonderful day and I think that everyone else did too!  We hope to run the Travel Workshops again. Watch this space !