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Halloween

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When my coffee came in a black takeaway cup on Friday  I knew I wanted to draw on it for Halloween.

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The white gel pen I was planning to use did not like the cardboard  that the cup was made out, so I ended up drawing with a coloured pencil (Faber Castell Polychromos) and using an image available on a copyright free online site. It is a cat on a pumpkin.

A few years ago I drew a few Halloween themed pictures.  (Watercolour pencil in my Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook)

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I hope everyone enjoys their Halloween  parties and costumes !

 

my first markets

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This weekend was my first time of selling my greeting cards at markets.

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It was a very low key entry as it was a fundraiser for a local church’s Community Pop Up Preloved Markets. A neighbour offered some space at the end of her table and I helped sell her jewellery as well. We were one of more than 30 stalls in the church hall and around the grounds. There was a steady stream of people from the moment we started to set up at about 9.00am ‘til about 3.30pm.

I had no expectations, so was pleased to sell 15 cards.

More importantly were the conversations I had and the people I met.

It was a chance to meet other locals (I have been in Melbourne for a year) and to get to put names to some familiar faces.

I met:

  • someone who lived in my apartment block in the 1960’s and whose daughter has just moved to my home town in Queensland
  • a barrister who uses the library (Supreme Court Library of Victoria) which features in my drawings. It was lovely and surreal to meet someone who has actually been there, and probably knows it better than I do
  • someone who would like to commission me to draw a car
  • a lady whose son studies birds and may help me to identify the birds nests I have been drawing
  • a few people who said ‘you’re the lady with the library display’. So nice they saw the display I have in our local library this month of my sketchbooks (and in August of my drawings and cards)  and connected me with that

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I learnt a lot about having a market stall. I had about a week to organise this and had great display ideas which I did not have the time to put together. It  was a good experience for a future craft/artisan market I hope to have a stall at early next year.

A wonderful but tiring day and I slept well last night !

 

 

 

New Greeting cards for sale!

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I have just collected my new set of Greeting cards from the printers. The four new cards feature drawings of books and a scene from the Supreme Court Library of Victoria (In Melbourne) where I work.
They are for sale on my online Etsy shop

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These four new designs join the 16 cards and 5 envelopes that are already there. They feature books, libraries, nests. feathers and snails !

They are all drawn in watercolour pencil.

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Once again Print Together has done  amazing scans of my drawings, replicating the original colours and have printed them on beautiful cream card. I have the envelopes and cello bags purchased and ready for a night of packaging !
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chocolate cake birthday card

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Today I drew a birthday card for my brother . Happy Birthday Keith for the 14th October !

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I thought that you might like to see it as a “work in progress” and I made a point of taking photos along the way. Usually I have great plans to do this but always forget once I get caught up in the moment of drawing.

Ingredients :

Watercolour pencils  (Faber Castell) Burnt Umber, Walnut Brown and Burnt Sienna on Fabriano Hot Press 300 gsm paper.

Time: about an hour

Method : draw outline in Walnut Brown

Add layer upon layer upon layer, adding water as you go

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Two strange ironies

  • I am printing and selling greeting cards and would love other people to buy them from my Etsy shop , but I have not purchased a card for years, as I always draw them.
  • I don’t have a sweet tooth and don’t eat sweets and cakes, but love to draw them ! see more of my drawings of them on flickr

New exhibition of my sketchbooks

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In August this year I was fortunate to have the opportunity to hold my first exhibition at my local East Melbourne Library. At the time, I also booked the space for my second exhibition for this month of October. Today I set it up with my friend and curator extraordinaire, Louise. This exhibition features 24 of my sketchbooks open at pages displaying a variety of themes. I hope to show people the wide variety of things that can be sketched and open their eyes to the concept of sketchbook journalingL1100103a.
The themes on the opened pages include people, travel, food, drink, Melbourne, tools, everyday things and medical – as you can see, a wide variety. Anything is sketchable! Some are quick sketches and others are studied drawings. I carry my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook, watercolour pencils and Ink pen with me every where, and draw everyday.

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It was difficult, but fun to choose 24 pages from 55 books with sketches capturing the last 8 years of my life. I had help and advice to choose pages that had strong images in landscape format so that they would be interesting to look at in the glass display cabinets in the library. So many choices !

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My exhibition is on for the month of October. If you are in Melbourne, I hope that you get the opportunity to come and visit.

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drawing on a coffee cup

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I had not decided what to write about in this weeks blogpost.

Until I drew on a coffee cup and posted it online on Instagram and Facebook.

I was overwhelmed with number of ‘Likes’ . 500 plus in only a few hours.  I have never had so many Comments and Likes.

That made my decision to share it with everyone. I drew on this paper coffee cup today to put in my sketching exhibition NEXT WEEK (that will be next weeks blogpost).

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Melbourne. Flinders Street Station drawn on my coffee cup.

I did some other coffee cup sketches today. And I have done it in the past too.

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another coffee cup – close up sketch of features

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St Pauls Cathedral, Melbourne and my Lamy Safari Joy ink pen

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Sydney. Erin’s sketch class at lunch

Sydney. Crane on Cockatoo Island

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Sydney. Cockatoo Island serviette and wooden takeaway cutlery (I drew the Sydney Harbour Bridge on it).

Linden Postcard Show 2015

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Friday 18th Sept was the opening night of the Linden Postcard Show 2015 at St Kilda, Melbourne. I entered three drawings again this year.

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This is an open entry exhibition and all entries must measure 8” (20cm) x 10” (25.5cm) .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 the artwork is reproduced on a Postcard for Linden to sell during the year.

Here are my entries. They are all drawn with watercolour pencil. The feathers are on 210 gsm watercolour paper. The airmail parcel works are on heavy paper, chosen for its weight and colour. It had to look like the sort of mail you would receive in the post. As an added extra , it is actually folded like an envelope, with a back flap that you can open and put things in. I am not sure how Australia Post would cope with it !Airmail Parcel #1 100dpi

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Airmail Parcel #2 100dpi

All artworks are available for sale ! contact Linden New Art

If you like the feather I have a very similar drawing printed as a Greeting card. See my Etsy site to purchase.

Opening night was great fun, meeting with other friends to see all the artwork.

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Prizes are announced

If you are in Melbourne, please visit. It is open until 21 NOVEMBER 2015 .

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Louise and me in front of my feathers drawing.

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The Black room (all black and white based images)

a sketching tea party

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Lots of pretty things to draw at Evelyn’s tea party. The six sketchers were requested to bring something pretty to draw.

Today’s post has a few pretty things to look at and not many words.

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The 2 pm photograph of our sketchbooks and some of the food.

 

an open book

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An old open book has so much potential – what do you see written?

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This is my dilemma.

I have drawn a beautiful old book with yellowed pages, brown spots on the page (known as foxing) and a worn spine.

The book is open , inviting you in to read. However I do not want to use the original title page of the book as it is Ecclesistical Cases law reports published in 1703. I have drawn this on a loose sheet of A4 paper and may want to have it printed as a card or print in the future. I would like to have a wider audience than lawyers.

I ask for your suggestions on what you can visualise written on the opening pages of  this mysterious book  …

The thoughts so far – please comment and makes suggestions

  • leave it blank
  • Once Upon a Time
  • an illuminated letter or elaborate image or frontispiece

I look forward to reading your ideas and will let you know what happens in a future blog post .

*this was drawn with watercolour pencils in my lunch breaks at work . Warm Grey II, Burnt Ochre, Paynes Grey, Ivory, Raw Umber, Sketched lightly in HB pencil first to get the perspective and proportions in place.

 

 

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looking back at my sketches

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 Spring is almost here

September is Spring. a time of growth, renewal, looking for with new momentum to what can be achieved. In this post I am looking back at sketches done in the first few days of September over the past few years. It was interesting to see where I was at the time and what I  was doing and  also how I was sketching. I began sketching in my Moleskine Watercolour sketchbooks in December 2008 and sketching in Sketchbook Number 52 at the moment. Before December 2008 I was drawing on loose sheets of card and different sketchbooks of various brands and qualities.

These are all sketches from life. They are part of my adventure and growth  in sketchbook journaling.  I have drawn from photographs since high school (remember those days Janet Mayes (colour pencil artist)) . However drawing from real objects and scenes is very different although many of the skills were transferable (especially measuring relative distances).

The following sketches are from September 2014 going back to 2007.

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A year ago I moved to Melbourne – Looking back it has been an eventful and productive year.

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2011

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I looked through lots of old sketchbooks in cupboards to find earlier sketches. I found many drawings. Many were not dated and had no notes on the page. I write a lot more now and the pages are more of a journal.

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2007

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I can see a BIG difference between the 2009 and 2007 sketches and how I would sketch this now. In Jan 2011 I started using the Lamy Sarafi Joy ink pen. It is a calligraphy pen with a fine nib and refills with ink. (I use Noodlers Bulletproof ink). I feel as though my pen travels across the page smoothly. It replaced my Micron, Pitt and Staedler pens. My skill with using my watercolour pencils and my especially my pen has increased over the last 6 years. I draw daily and that helps a lot ! I have become a lot more confident in drawing people and crowds and scenes and buildings…. and everything.