Another busy week. Most of most non-work (I have a full-time job) time has been spent drawing in books for my stall at Clunes Booktown Festival in just three weeks!

Last week I started by celebrating swimming by drawing my goggles.

Thsi was mirrored in the goggles I drew in a book

My other sketches were very quick.

A quick lunch break sketch. fire hydrant . Red watercolour pencil . unfinished . I won’t go back and complete it. I am happy just to have done some sketching on the day.

Drawing a pencil in Pitman’s Shorthand Instructor 1930s. I love to draw my pencils and pencil shavings, so this was an excellent opportunity.

I did not do Shorthand at high school, but it was still part of the BP (Business Practices ) subjects you could choose.

Drawing an owl on a page about birds in “The Camera in the Fields: a practical guide to nature photography” by F.C.Snell (1905.)

Each book I draw in has different quality paper pages printed in different years. I never know what it is going to be like until I add pencil to paper and then add the water. It is always different. This is slightly glossy. Adding water with a small paintbrush the colour gets richer and darker. But the colour slides all over the surface. I will see what I can do with this one ! I also used water soluble crayon on the black and white parts of the page. The colour is thicker and darker, but it quite waxy. so I can’t use watercolour pencil on top of it.

I have 53 books drawn in at the moment and ready to sell. I have 16 almost complete.

And 10 to be complete. I have decided on the page to draw in and what image to draw.

Work in Progress.

Drawing in Herbs, Spices and Flavourings by Tom Stobart 1977 .