Tag Archives: Melbourne Museum

Melbourne Museum Drawing Studio

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A few times a years the Museum invites people to register to attend the Drawing Studio and you can request a specimen from the Museum’s collection to draw. I attended this special event at the Melbourne Museum once before in February and wrote about it and shared my drawings from the day here.

 A Melbourne Museum staff member was in the room all day and if we wanted the specimens moved on the table to a different angle they donned their gloves and shifted these fragile objects. Some have also been preserved with arsenic,so they are hazardous too. Wet materials were not permitted, so I was not able to use my waterbrush in the room. I got around this by adding lots of marks and colour with watercolour pencil on the page and then leaving the room and adding water to the page with my waterbrush just outside the door.

At 10am I started immediately on my sugar glider.

The drawing is in a A4 Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook. I drew the shape lightly on the page to make sure I would fit him on the page. I worked on him solidly all morning. In hindsight, I probably should have done a few quick sketch from different angles, just to get in the mood. Next time I will take that approach. Yesterday I kept adding colour and detail til lunchtime.

I did not know how the specimen would be positioned when I ordered him. He is not in full flight. There is a membrane between the front fingers/paws and the back leg which allows the gliding between trees. In this specimen you can see all of the folded fur that would stretch out when gliding. His nose is a little missing and scrunched. They are usually pink, And I could not see his paws and claws on the branch.

I chose a sugar glider as we had seen them when I was young when we went on a camping trip at a National Park. I remember seeing them in the trees and feeding them, but I don’t think I saw them gliding.

  • This is the specimen

After lunch I decided to move to other specimens in the room that other people had requested.

This hare looked simple, but was very difficult to draw. Three of us were sketching him from different angles and all agreed that it was a lot more complex that we all thought it would be. Not sure why…

Above are some birds from the collection

And now some real life live birds. Sketched on the way to the Museum. These two rainbow lorikeets were loudly screeching on the street sign above me. They never stay still for long. I was going to take a photo and decided to try for a very quick sketch, So glad I did. I sketched this in only a few minutes. I then walked up to the Melbourne Museum to spend over two hours on my next drawing of the sugar glider. From one extreme to another.Both were immensely fun an satisfying.

Melbourne Museum Drawing Studio

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I recently learnt about the Drawing Studio at Melbourne Museum. A few times a years the Museum invites people to register to attend the Drawing Studio and you can request a specimen from the Museum’s collection to draw. I had no idea what to choose, so asked for a kangaroo or wallaby. I had no idea of the depths of the collection and what I could potentially draw.

There were twelve people in the room and two specimens on each desk. Most people stayed all day, drawing from the same specimen. In the afternoon, some us moved around drawing some of the other specimens. A Melbourne Museum staff member was in the room all day and if we wanted the specimens moved on the table to a different angle they donned their gloves and shifted these fragile object. Wet materials were not permitted, so I was not able to use my waterbrush in the room or my Lamy ink pen. It altered the way I worked and I had to plan my approach little differently, as I usually use my waterbrush quite frequently as I built layer or colour and detail. I got around this by adding lots of marks and colour with watercolour pencil on the page and then leaving the room and adding water to the page with my waterbrush just outside the door.

Parma Wallaby

I remembered to take photos along the way !

I took my usual sketchkit – watercolour pencils , waterbrush, Lamy Safari pen and 13 x 19 cm Moleskine watercolour sketchbook. At the last moment I add a A4 Moleskine watercolour sketchbook and so glad I did as I used this all day.

I spent most of the day on my Parma Wallaby, added laying and detail. In the afternoon I took a few short break by quickly sketching some of the other specimens (below) . I feel that these quick sketches have more ‘life’ then the slower studies sketch. On my next visit I may plan my day a little differently.

  • Cormorant
  • Lyre Bird
  • Peregrine Falcon
  • Toucan
Echidna

I had a wonderful day. I cannot begin to explain how special it was to have this opportunity. Thank you to Melbourne Museum and to Gemma for making me aware of this. So much of my daily drawing is quick sketching in my l 13 x 19 cm sketchbook. Even when I am working on a more detailed commission over weeks, I am still only working on it at night time for short bursts of time and usually doing other things as well. Currently. I am working on a series of five commission that have quite a bit of detail. But the pace and requirements for the finished result are completely different.

It was unusual and free-ing to know that I had the whole day to spend drawing one object. It was slightly overwhelming too, as I did not know how to plan my time. Next time I will have a better idea of what to expect, I also will think more about what specimens I want to draw and will order a skeleton as well.