This morning I spent four hours sketching at Melbourne Zoo. I am posting the photos of the sketches. I am taking an old, lined ledger to sketch in at the zoo. It is light and a bigger size than my everyday sketchbook. I used watercolour pencils, without adding water – no time!
There were many animals that were too far away or not around, so I choose those close. Some even stayed still for me !
Here they all are. There is so much I could write about sketching each of these, but this blog is two days late already.
The wombat was asleep and my absolute highlight of the day. Wombats are nocturnal, This one was in a zoo-built underground borrow. Right next to the glass viewing panel. They have never been there when I visited previously. There was low light, but I could sketch and observe up close. He was in the deepest of sleeps.
It was a busy week for art for me, and not all of it was sketching.
art exhibtion entry
My entry was accepted into Blarney Books and Art Biblio prize, This week I got my drawing framed and will post it tomorrow.
Here is my watercolour pencil sketch” The Previously Undiscovered Ern Malley Letters “ for the Exhibition at @blarneybooksandart After entering, participants were allocated a book at random to read and visually respond to – they are all books by Australian authors that have been released in the last year and therefore their launches and sales were all affected by covid restrictions or lockdowns. Fantastic concept by Jo at Blarney! The book I was allocated was Sincerely, Ethel Malley – by Stephen Orr. This watercolour pencil drawing is of the Malley letters from Australia’s most infamous literary hoax. This book blends facts and fiction. I read it three times. The first time to read it, the second time to try and understand it and the third time to try to identify images I could draw or pages I could draw on. This year was different for me as I usually draw in the book I am given. It is just what I do! But I just could not find the right words on the pages for my idea, The Ern Malley affair, is Australia’s most famous literary hoax. Ern Malley, was a fictitious poet whose poems and life were created in 1943 by two writers in order to hoax the Angry Penguins, a modernist art and literary movement centered around a journal of the same name. Angry Penguins declared Malley as a genius. The hoax was revealed soon after, Harris the publisher was put on trial, convicted and fined for publishing the poems on the grounds that they contained obscene content.
The Biblio Art Prize 2021 will open on Saturday 11 December and run until the end of February at Blarney Books & Art in Port Fairy. a few hours from Melbourne. All work will be for sale
Christmas markets
I have been accepted to have a stall at a local Christmas Market in Melbourne. It is part of the slow return to normality for me. I have started promoting locally with posters and have found some wonderful locals who have a trestle table that I can borrow and they can deliver to use on that weekend. The last market I did was in between lockdown last year in November. I sell my Greeting Cards, which are also available to purchase on my ETSY store. In the last month, I ordered a new print run of my Christmas cards, and envelopes to put them in. I bought a new tap and go payment system so that people can pay by card or cash. (it is called Square) and hopefully, they make lots of impulse purchases on the day !
Here is the video link. Press the arrow and see a show of some of the things to buy at the markets
and in case you cant see the video here is the poster
everyday sketching
I took a walk in the local Gardens today.
and it was the final zoom life drawing session as all go back to in-person. Themed Phantom of the Opera, The soundtrack and other opera music played as we sketched.
Life drawing
and ready for a cup of Advent Christmas tea. All ready for Summer – chilled or with a spritz. Hibiscus, cloves, spice, raisins and cinnamon from Gewürzhaus Spice House in Melbourne.Now, if only Melbourne weather would decide it is Spring not winter
This week I have been spending time “drawing in books”. I have two London A-Z Street and Index’s that have fallen apart. They were both published in 1971 and they were about to be discarded. These were books that did not make it to the Charity shop shelves.
HYde Park
Black London cab
They have very unforgiving paper and do not take much water on them. They often do not like too many layers of colour added. So it means I have to choose the right color as there is no chance to blend colours. There are some grounding mediums that can be applied as a base to put a light seal on the page, but I have not had much success with these.
Below are some works in progress. I find a page with iconic landmarks or streets and then find an image to suit the page. In the A-Z there are only a few pages that do have iconic places mentioned. The rest of the pages are just normal suburbs,
Hampton Court Palace
Harrods
Dr Who Tardis in the centre of London
Below are some that are already available for purchase on my ETSY store They are usually two separated pages but would look great framed together. Some are framed in black matt that I had entered in an art show. They have D clips ready for hanging.
Finally, after months of lockdown, Melbourne restrictions eased and the Zoo opened for ticket sales. I was in an online queue for an hour and joined as 4995th.
The Zoo opened Tuesday 26th October and luckily everyone wanted weekend tickets. The capacity was capped at 3000 a day which was 25% of normal numbers. My sketching friend Kaz & I got tickets and planned our day. I had been singing this childhood song all week. Click the forward arrow to START it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FSqxFQlSGk
I wanted to draw in an old ledger book which I used last time at the zoo. This time I decided to use watercolor pencils, but not add water, as the paper is quite thin. I also wanted to try a few other pencils I had. On the day I ended up just using Black watercolour pencil, a Black coloured pencil and a few with my new multicolour pencil (just for fun).
I did lots of quick sketches, and there was not a lot of time for studied observations. It was a matter of being flexible and making the most of opportunities, Some animals were just not visible and we did not wait for them to turn up. I filled many many pages. Here is a selection
Red Tail Black Cockatoo. It was once and close and moved a lot. Spoonbills – right below us on our walkway, It was hard to get a good angle to sketch them.
I have never seen koalas so close and so active. They are usually a shape in a tree that I can’t spot. And they sleep 80% of the time. What a treat! One of the zoo staff was there to tell us all about these two. But as you can see, there were lots of false starts as they moved around.
Just three sketches with my multicoloured pencil.
I did ten sketches of elephants. I have sketched elephants for a project in 2009 (The Sketchbook Project: Elephant in the Room) and it sort of came back to me. I had to look where parts of the head intersected. Thankfully, there were four elephants and they returned to specific poses as they were feeding.
I also sketched kangaroos, swans, orangutang (from a distance), and a tortoise.
I think the key for me is no expectations. be flexible,
Get the shape of the face right, maybe even the eyes and nose, A few basic shapes or key features of the body.
I had such a great day and I am really looking forward to my next visit.
I have been exploring the full range of Faber Castell watercolour pencils.
I am up to the final few pencils in this blogpost. I have tested Payne Gray, Black, Silver, Gold, Copper, Ivory and White. I carry some of these is in the pencil wrap that I carry with me daily and that Ivory, Black, and Paynes Gray. These are frequently used colours.
You might wonder why I would use some of these, especially Ivory and White. Ivory makes a big difference on my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook pages. It adds warmth to the white page.
The Gold, Silver and Copper can add a hint of metallic. with highlights on the paper at some angles. However, you can see in the tests below that using the pencils on different coloured papers can make a huge difference.
This paper is an envelope I received in the mail. It is sort of like a thin Kraft paper.
I don’t use coloured papers. If you did want to explore in this direction, there are so many to choose from, and the pencils will look different on each.
Below are links to all of the colour tests in the full Faber Castell Water Colour pencils. Explore and enjoy
On Saturday I attended a zoom online life drawing session.
There are two different life drawing sessions I attend, (they are not classes). Both are based in Melbourne. One of the few things that lockdown has allowed me to attended these online.
Both life drawing sessions follow a traditional format and start with a few quick poses 2 minutes or 5 minutes, then a few 10 or 15 minutes, and then two longer poses 20 or up to 45 minutes. Logon into Zoom. You keep your video and mute your sound, At the end, you hold up to the screen camera and show your art if you want to and can share on social media – usually Instagram. When people hold their art up you can see LOTS of completely different styles, art materials, and sizes of paper (some are huge on easels) or a few on ipads. I sketch on A3 size paper.
However, they are run differently. I like them both.
The first is at The Art Room. They are usually on Saturdays, which is when I usually hold my own watercolour pencil sketching classes and so I have not been able to attend. I had attended a few at the studio before lockdown. In the online life drawing session, they provide wonderful high-quality photographs that were taken of the models before lockdown. Nude. male and female, all sizes, shapes, and ages. The photos are on the screen for the set amount of time.
The sketch below is with a new pencil. It is a multicoloured pencil from Daiso (a two dollar shop). It changes colour as you go. A few friends had talked about it and one posted me one. Fun.
So while I sketch, and my Audio is on mute I can play whatever music I want to listen to. Usually ABC Classic or Jazz.
Today it was a combination of close-up hands and feet and some full-length body poses. For me, it was one of those sessions, where everything just came together and worked on the page, This does not always happen. I always have fun, it is always challenging
Top Secret Life Drawing is run by another organisation via their Facebook page and I have never been to their live drawing session. During the lockdown, they are held on Thursday nights. I could never attend these in person at this time.
The models are live and also on zoom from their respective cities and countries. There is usually a theme- a director’s movie’s (Quentin Tarantino), a singer (Madonna), This month there is a theme of horror movies. am not attending any of those,, The model (or two) have props and sometimes clothed in something from the theme. So there is a bit of time spent as the model sets themselves up for their camera, getting body angles right for viewing and sketching,
Music is played that suits the theme. From 7.30-10.00. So I am all lively and awake at 10pm on a Thursday night and have to wind down and sleep soon as I have work the next day.
I am looking forward to going back in person, however, I am appreciating what I have now.
Over the past year, I have been exploring the colours in the full set of Faber Castell watercolour pencils. I have written about other colour ranges previously and have put links below. There are so many reds, too many reds and each a little different.
I seem to have misplaced my terracotta pencil
The watercolor pencils that I use in my everyday sketch kit are:
I hope this provides an insight into the colours. It is important to note how the colour can change when water is added. Being aware of this factor is key to knowing which colour to choose and take out of your sketchkit quickly.
Let me know if you have any questions and share your watercolour pencil experiences.
A busy two weeks in a strange continuing world of lockdown, Days seem to blend together, however, there are also so many highlights.
I bought myself a lovely bunch of ranunculas.
A walk in the park in my lunchbreak. The local gardens have a cafe, which has remained open for takeaways.
I also bought myself a beautiful tea cup and saucer from an online vintage store.
I attended a zoom National conference for Law Librarians. I made a note on the page, that is was a strange experience to be listening to an online talk on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a set 1841 & 1836 La journals infront of me, which are also available online.
Here are my watercolour pencils drawings of the Law Journal Reports as a work in progress
The results of wild wilds, not the earthquake. View from my window looking at some very large pot plants near the apartment pool.
…and that was just some of my week. I also catchup with sketching friends inthe UK and Sydney and Melbourne onthe weekends.
Last week I had started sketching parts of the gourmet hamper I ordered from the local Life’s Too Short Wine Bar. I had the main parts on the page and the colours. I ate most of it and left some sad pieces of salad etc on the plates so that I could look at the shape and colours.
I really wanted to focus on lettering on the page. I don’t usually do a lot of writing and or create labels on the page. However, I had a vision in mind and am pleased with what I ended up with. It can be refined more. It is really just my own writing style in different sizes and colours. I did not want to do anything too different.
Below are last weeks sketches shown next to the finished page. The line down the middle is the middle of the double-page spread. I decided not to try and remove it in Photoshop. The pages did get a little messy over the week as I rubbed out the lettering to try and make it fit around the drawings.
And then some cheese, crackers, nuts
salad
the main – salmon
dessert
All in watercolour pencil and the writing is a Faber Castell PITT (SMALL) in Dark Sepia.
Today I am posting lots of half-finished sketches. I hope to post the finished pages next Sunday. I want to finish the drawing and add some lettering describing the food on the page.
I ordered another gourmet food hamper from a local wine bar. A special lockdown offering, It was a cold seafood feast for two. This is going to last me three meals and pages and days of sketching with my watercolour pencils.
DESSERT – still to be drawn – crepes !
I want to add special lettering as I usually just dive in and write on the page, without thinking. see you all next week.
