Books on shelves in the Library

Another drawing of the library I work in. I have not included any of the library ladders that I have drawn previously. This time, I wanted to focus on the ‘bookishness’ of the library. This particular area with the book shelves above the doorway, leading into another room of books seems to exemplify this. These are the Commonwealth Law Reports above the door and on the surrounding shelves.

This drawing was done over a week of lunch breaks and probably took about 2 1/2 hours. It is drawn in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook 13 x 19 cm. I stood up, leaning on a bookshelf with my pencil wrap open next to me .(See more about my pencil wrap at http://www.alissaduke.com/2013/07/customised-pencil-wrap.html)

Step 1

I knew from the first sketch that it was going to work and have the look and feel I wanted. I first marked out the lines in 2H Pencil . Then I started drawing with the watercolour pencils. Watercolour pencils allow me to draw and then add water with a brush to the page to blend the colour. I can then add more colour with the pencil. Detail works best if I have remembered to sharpen the pencil !

Step 2

Step 3

I used a lot of brown shades in this drawing, I might try a colourful object next !

The main Faber Castell watercolour pencils used were:

Walnut Brown
Burnt Umber
Burnt Ochre
Light Yellow Ochre
Orange Glaze
Ivory
Payne’s Grey
Burnt Carmine

Read a bit more about me, my watercolour pencils and drawing in one of my first blogposts

Pacific Black Duck – Australia

Fitzroy Gardens , Melbourne

I am fortunate that the first part of my walk to work in Melbourne city is through the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens, with its traditional English plantings and ponds. I have discovered here are a few families of birds that live there : two Australian wood duck families, one with ducklings that are just past their fluffy stage, peewees (mudlark), a kookaburra and magpies, crows and my favourite duck…

the Pacific Black Duck.

I liked the descriptions online that call it a sociable and a dabbling duck.

The Pacific Black Duck is found in all but the most arid regions of Australia. Outside Australia, its range extends throughout the Pacific region. The Pacific Black Duck is one of the most versatile of the Australian ducks. It frequents all types of water, from isolated forest pools to tidal mudflats. The Pacific Black Duck is closely related to the Mallard (Source http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Anas-superciliosa)

I know where to find them by the pond and how close I can get to them on land before they dive into the water. The more I draw them the more familiar I become with the shape of their body and head – the curves and subtleties that give them their form and character.

I also know immediately which colour of watercolour pencils (Walnut Brown. Burnt Umber and Ivory mixed with a little Yellow) to use to draw them. I can pick the colours out of my pencil wrap and start straight away !

It has a dark body, and a paler head with a dark crown and facial stripes. There is an iridescent green patch on the wing. This is when the Derwent Inktense Teal Green comes out of the box !

ANOTHER Library ladder

Another beautiful library ladder and bookshelves in my workplace (see my previous library ladder sketch HERE)

This time I wanted to include a bit more context, with some of the surroundings.

I drew this in my lunch breaks. Five days, of half an hour each for drawing time.

As a work in progress….

You might be able to see a second ladder in the foreground in the drawings below. While I was drawing the first one I decided I could not draw another – too much perspective and counting. I was a little tired of library ladders by then.

I drew light lines and marks in pencil first to get the perspective right.

The following watercolour pencils colours were used to draw this . All are Faber Castell except where noted.

and a waterbrush

Madder Carmine(Derwent)

Burnt Carmine

Payne’s Grey

Schwarz Black

Ivory

Light Yelow Ochre

Burnt Ochre

Walnut Brown

Burnt Umber

Raw Umber (Derwent)

I will give ladders a break for a while and go back to drawing books

Urban Sketching in Boroondara – Exhibition

There was a wonderful turn-out at the Melbourne Urban Sketchers group exhibition launch on Saturday at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. It was amazing to see all our works, framed and professionally arranged on the wall. I am very proud to have the opportunity to be part of the event.

I’ve only been in Melbourne for 2 months and in that time I’ve been sketching with Urban Sketchers Melbourne on Saturdays. We have been capturing the local scenes around the Boroondara area of Melbourne (i.e. Camberwell, Hawthorn, Kew etc). Now we get a chance to share our work with our family, friends and the community. I have had a great introduction to various Melbourne suburbs and sketch the people, architecture and scenes with my watercolour pencils. Because I knew that some of the sketches were going to be for the Exhibition I have been challenged to draw on larger (A4) sheets of paper instead of my usual 13 x 19 cm Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook.

The exhibition runs 4 November to 6 December 2014.

A big thank you to Evelyn Yee whose initiative and organisational skills made this a
reality.

Here are my three entries up close.

Melbourne Urban Sketchers is a diverse group of people united by a passion for sketching.
Urban Sketchers is a global community of artists that draw on location in cities, towns and villages they live in or travel to and then share with the world ! Our motto is Seeing the world one drawing at a time

Linden Postcard show

Last Friday 24th October was the opening night of The Linden Postcard Show at St Kilda, Melbourne. This is an open entry exhibition that welcomes entries from all artists but all entries must measure 8” (20cm) x 10” (25.5cm) .

I entered three drawings and so did some of my Melbourne sketching friends Evelyn and Jodi. This is a very exiting event for me as I have not entered many art exhibitions before. Opening night was great fun, meeting with other friends to see all the artwork.

Evelyn Yee and me in front of my Orange Cream biscuits drawing.

There are over 900 small format artworks adorning the gallery walls at Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts . Why is it called Postcard show ? One of the prizes is that artwork reproduced on a Postcard for Linden to sell during the year.

If you are in Melbourne, please visit. It is open until Saturday 6 December 2014. Here are my three entries. All are for sale !

and then we all went to dinner and I sketched my food

me in action drawing ! casual photo taken by the amazing art photographer http://www.mariacolaidis.com/ who also had entries in Linden (and sales on the night !!)

a library ladder – a work in progress

I work in a law library. As well as up-to-date legal databases in our beautiful old 1884 building there are shelves of old books and tall library ladders to reach them. Yes, I have had to climb the ladders to get books down!

I have been drawing this scene at work in my lunch hour, over four days (a half an hour each time). Here is the final (most probably) version.

These are sketched in my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook with my lovely watercolour pencil.

Stage one

Stage two

Stage Three

Some lovely old books

New city – New pencil colours

After a few sketches in Melbourne, I realised that the Faber Castell watercolour pencils colours that I had used to draw Sydney buildings in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook were not going to capture the buildings of my new city.

It was only a subtle difference, but I could tell and was very aware of it. Often I feel that getting the colour just right can make or break a sketch for me. And sometimes colour makes an object or building recognisable, even if the actually drawing is way out of kilter!

SYDNEY

St Stephens Uniting Church

Sydney hospital and eye hospital

The sandstone of many of the historic buildings in Sydney gives the city some of its personality. It is called Yellow block and is known for its warm, golden straw colour. The main public buildings in Sydney, completed from the 1850s until the 20th century were built in sandstone from Pyrmont where some 50 quarries operated. Pyrmont yellowblock was hard, and had good texture, and colour, and it was also suitable for carving. By coincidence Pyrmont is the suburb I used to live in in Sydney . No quarries now, just streetnames, pub names the landscape continue the history

In Sydney I used to following watercolour colours to sketch buildings:

Ivory

combined with either

Burnt Yellow Ochre or

Light Yellow Ochre or
little Raw Umber (which is a Derwent colour)

The other colour I used in Sydney was Magenta on the ironlace and rails of buildings.

Magenta

MELBOURNE

In Melbourne, the city buildings have more grey than yellow to the stone. There are also other building materials such as the completely different bluestone.

I made a quick trip to explore a new art store where I tested a few new Faber Castell watercolour pencils for their colour, with and without water, and I came away with a few potentials.

My new watercolour pencils are:

Warm Grey !

Warm Grey II

and for the red ironwork

Burnt Carmine

I have only had the chance to try out my new colours a few times, but I already feel a lot more comfortable with the colours and I think they are going to work just fine. I will still continue to use Ivory and just a touch of the other colours, but now have a new set of colours for my new city!

Supreme Court

Melbourne Town Hall

and here are the tested watercolour pencils drawn on a page together

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Hello Mebourne

I have been in Melbourne for two weeks, after moving from Sydney, and have found it easy to continue my normal sketching patterns. I carry my Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook and watercolour pencils with me everywhere. I have the opportunity to quickly capture my new daily life.

Corner of Collins and Elizabeth Streets . commuters on their way to work

At Flinders Street Station, looking at the timetables and platform notices

Fitzroy Gardens

I am also using my lunchtime to sketch the buildings around me. I have been very fortunate with the weather.

Supreme Court Library dome

Supreme Court Library window

On the weekend

I have sketched with Urban Sketchers Melbourne twice. At the moment they are focusing on sketching in the inner city Council District of Booroondara, which includes a number of suburbs including Hawthorn, Kew, Canterbury. It is in preparation for a urban Sketches exhibition at Town Hall Gallery Hawthorn in November. If you are visiting Melbourne, drop by and visit it. So I am getting to explore parts of Melbourne as well as meet new urban sketchers. I already knew Evelyn, Kym, Angela and Jodi from previous visits and am happy to be able to sketch and chat with them on a regular basis now.

This Saturday’s visit was to Maling Road, Canterbury. A charming shopping village with beautiful shops, cafes and the weather was perfect too.