Looking back over 2016

I wrote a blogpost this time last year, looking back over 2015. Reading it now, I had an amazing year then, but this one has been just as extraordinary.

I have been involved in many events and projects in 2016, some planned, some serendipitous, all due my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook, Faber Castell Pencils, Lamy Safari Ink Pen and an absolute passion for drawing and sketching.

These have included”

• Cathy Johnson’s Book – Artists Sketchbook: Exercises and Techniques for sketching on the spot.  I was invited to invited to contribute and am proud to see my name and sketch (p 57) 

• Lost Trades Fair  Once again I sketched a few of the stall holders. Earlier this year I met Lisa   the organiser and I was invited to sketch and to become involved in it in a greater way, I wrote two blogposts about my day Part 1  and Part 2
• New Cards – I decided on  six new drawings to join my range of  greeting cards for sale in my Etsy online store. They were picked up by new stockists and also in current stockists, some who restocked during the year . My snail mail range expanded to include cards insert in side snail mail envelope.  

• Law Institute Journal article – I was interviewed and a two page article  was published in the Law Institute Journal. It  is the publication for solicitors who are members of the Law Institute of Victoria. They have a page on the interest of people working the law. It is a beautifully written article that captures by life and working at the Supreme Court Library and my art outside it and how they have joined together.

• Etsy Sales – I have an Etsy online store selling my Greeting cards. This year I had 17 online orders, most with multiple card orders from California, New York, Ohio, Germany, Washington DC, Illonois and within Australia – from Toowoomba, Cranborne South, Sydney, Maroubra, Pyrmont, Melbourne and Kingston Beach  and also 11 directly from friends and family and  9 from organisations.

• MRBW – Melbourne Rare Book Week . I was Urban Sketcher at 22 of the 56 events over one week. An exhilarating and exhausting week ! The sketches were  used in the AANZAB report and shown internationally . I received some lovely generous feedback from those involved. I wrote a blog post each day . Read them here  and see all the sketches here

• MRBW You Can’t Draw in Books? Exhibition . As part of MRBW I was invited to hold an exhibition at Melbourne City Library. I drew in books that were about to be thrown away, or that I bought for a few dollars.  The next step for them  would have been the bin.I gave the books a new life by drawing on the pages with my watercolourpencils. The image I choose to draw, reflected the words on the page. 

• East Melbourne Library Exhibition You Can’t Draw in Books . I was fortunate enough to be invited to display my exhibition of You Can’t Draw in Books? at my local library, sharing it with new and local audience. It is lovely to read what people wrote in the Comments book that I left near the exhibition.

• Urban Sketching Symposium in Manchester, England  –  A three week holiday including one week in Manchester. It is too big to describe in a sentence- You’ll have to read my blog and see my three weeks of sketching

• Royal Historical Society of Victoria.  I attended a conference on the 175 year of the Supreme Court of Victoria (which I work as a Reference Librarian) hosted by the RHSV and sketched the speakers and audience. This is what I do . I was very pleased to be able to share the sketches with the organiser and was mentioned in the RHSV , who mentioned me in the July 2016 History News (p5)

• and this led to some of the panelists asking for prints of my sketch and one of them using the sketch as their twitter icon. 

• I was commissioned to illustrate a family cookbook, with recipes from the 1800’s to the 1960’s. It was a fun and challenging experience.

• I filled 15 Moleskine sketchbooks of sketching memories of my day to day life. I scan every page of my sketchbook and put them on Flickr (an image sharing website) 

• Maintaining my weekly art blog

Thank you to everyone who follows my weekly art blog. I hope that you find it enjoyable and interesting to read, full of information. I hope that I am able to share a bit of my  passion and obsession for the joy of drawing and watercolour pencils.  If there are any questions you have about my pencils or drawing, please ask.

People

I have been provided with opportunities because of my sketching. It has introduced me to some of the most amazing and interesting people, some in the sketching world, and some  not, through my involvement with events. They have fascinating lives and stories to tell. I am touched that that they find my drawing of interest. I finally got to meet some of my online art friends at the Manchester Urban Sketching Symposium.

2017 – the first six months

What is coming up?

February – My “You can’t Draw in Books/” Exhibition is travelling to Port Fairy, Victoria.

March – Lost Trades Fair – I will be involved sketching,  somehow.

April  – I have another exhibition planned at East Melbourne Library 

July – Melbourne Rare Book Week is on again. I will be involved as an urban sketcher and will be involved in events. These are to be decided but will be exciting and challenging.

Please join me again in 2017 

Greetings to everyone who reads or follows my blog . I really appreciate that you take the time to read it and send comments. It has been another amazing year and next week am going to look back over my year.

This week I wish you all safe and festive Christmas season. 

Last weekend I spent a delightful weekend away in the delightful Port Fairy, four hours from Melbourne . The historic seaside village of Port Fairy is a unique example of a perfectly preserved 19th century shipping port. The little township has retained its old world character and there is an extraordinarily rich variety of architecture.   

POPULATION 3100 – peak periods > 10,000 – Folk Festival > 40,000

(Source: Port Fairy Moyne Shire : Official tourism website of Port Fairy and Moyne Shire )

I was visiting Port Fairy as I am having an exhibition there in next February at the wonderful Blarney Books & Art  and wanted to look at the gallery space and meet the lovely owner Jo. 

I caught the train to Warnambool and then a short connecting bus ride to Port Fairy. I carry my Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook, Lamy Safari ink pen and watercolour pencils with me everywhere. This blog is my journal of sketches from the weekend. It includes my different styles of sketching and drawing, depending on time, opportunity and inclination. I feel like I have captured my weekend on paper and looking back at it will bring back memories of the time and place.

I walked around  the nearby Griffith Island. The lighthouse and bird (above) were sketched on location. The shells and seaweed drawn back at my cosy accommodation at Hanley House Edwards Den in the evening. It was an idyllic day.

The Port Fairy Lighthouse was built in 1859 (41 feet above high watermark) and is on Griffith Island. Griffiths Island is also home to a large colony of muttonbirds, who nest in burrows in the ground. 

I saw the dead Muttonbird (Shearwater) on the beach at the end of my walk and sat on the beach to draw its angelic wings as it was buried in the sand. I had seen a few dead muttonbirds on the island (thousands roost live there in summer) but this is the first one I wanted to draw.

On Sunday I met with a sketching friend, Angela who took me on a tour of Port Fairy and we sketched some of the sights. It has so much to offer visually and historically. I am returning in February and will do more sketching then. 

As well, as seeing the sights, we visited a local Church fair, where Angela’s friend Val was face painting. A group of four small girls arrived with parents and Angela offered to lend a hand. It was an unexpected and delightful time of the day. The young girls were very happy with the results of the newbie face painter! I was happy to sketch the painters.

I am really pleased with my captures on paper from the weekend.

It is only 4 weeks ’til Christmas and this weeks blog is a shameless self-promotion of my range of Christmas Greeting Cards ! Please spread the word .They are available for purchase online on my Etsy store. for $5.50 each Australian dollars .www.etsy.com/au/shop/AlissaDuke

OR you could give the gift of a set of Greeting cards from my drawings of feathers, nests or library books and  ladders to write in or give in a frame.

Not long now….

How to make a Christmas pudding (card)

This is my ‘recipe’ of how  I made my new Christmas Pudding greeting cards  The cards are available for purchase on my Etsy online store  at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AlissaDuke .

Here is the finished pudding ready to consume (or write on as a Christmas card)

 The first step was to decide on the recipe. Once I decided to draw a whole pudding, with cream and holly, I gathered my ingredients together.

There was no real recipe – I added a bit of this colour and a bit of that , constantly adjusting intensity and colour. The left hand colours are in the pudding. Some are obvious, “main ingredients”, such as the browns and oranges. The blue ? – there  is just a hint in the darkest shadows.  
Christmas puddings are traditionally made months in advance. This sketch was begun in September, to have my cards scanned and printed in October and have for sale in November.

Start with the basics

Add more

 Almost finished, but the few final touches make the difference.

Good enough to eat !!  or purchase and give at Christmas !   I hope that this whets your appetite !

In July I had an exhibition as part of Melbourne Rare Book Week called “You Can’t Draw in Books?”  where I drew in books that were about to be thrown away, or that I bought for a few dollars.  The next step for them  would have been the bin.

I gave the books a new life by drawing on the pages with my watercolourpencils. The image I choose to draw, reflects the words on the page.

“You Can’t Draw in Books?” is now installed as exhibition again at my local library East Melbourne Library  until November 26 2016

One of the books I drew in was Memoirs of a Geisha, a fascinating novel. It was a best seller when it was published, but now you can now find a copy in any charity shop in the  book section.
Below are the steps of drawing the geisha on the in the book.

I choose the geisha drawing for my flyers, which I have pinned up in local cafes.