Some posts are practical hints and tips, others give some insight into what I sketch, why and how. And then sometimes it is ‘what I sketched this week”.
This still gives you a look at the variety of what I choose to sketch and how,
Beginning with a little cormorant drying itself in the breeze, On the walk to work. As soon as I saw him I grabbed my Black and Light Yellow Ochre watercolour pencil. It great to know all your colours and what they look like, so that you can make quick decisions. I did not add water to the page.
A discussion with Linda about the East Melbourne Library Community Garden and a sketchbook display to install next weekend. It will all tie in with the Seedbank Project that the Community is running. I plan to hold a class. Keep an eye on my Instagram or Facebook page for details and bookings!
a very quick sketch of some Buskers in Bourke Street Mall. Just a minute in and it started to pour rain.. Everyone ran for cover – the buskers, the audience and me.
a quick sketch of a popular coffee place in Melbourne city – Patricia’s. There are seats inside, but most people sit down the laneway, in the gutter or on milk crates.
I purchased some shoes for the gym. They are not colourful, but the packaging is !
and finally, ending the week on Sunday. I am very fortunate to hold Watercolour pencil sketching sessions at The Johnston Collection. I have written about this previously.
We explored watercolour pencils. These are in the Red Range (student grade) that they get on the day.
we then explored and sketched in the collection. You can see what a special place this is.
What sketching opportunities will next week bring ?
About 40 Urban sketchers met in Melbourne at the Mitre Tavern on a hot Summer day.
Mitre Tavern is the oldest pub in Melbourne (1837) and has quite a history!
I arrived before 11 and started sketching and chatting with some others who were also early.
We had just over an hour of outside sketching before it started to rain and then pour. Plans were quickly changed and we moved under the awnings of the Mitre Tavern for an early throwdown and group photo. So many different styles of mark making and interpretations of the space.
Many of us all moved inside into the Private Room at the Mitre Tavern and ordered lunch. It was quiet as many Melbournians and tourists were at the Australian Open tennis. A lovely menu – great fish and chips and a half pint of cider.
It was a great day with many new sketchers and I met some familiar online sketching names. The weather worked in our favour today.
Melbourne Urbane sketchers meet once a month on the second Sunday. The location is somewhere in Melbourne CBD. We will never run out of places to sketch.
I write a blog post at this time each year looking back at what I have done during the previous year with my art. I have found this is a very useful way of realising how much I have accomplished in a year, as I usually forget about some events or do not realise how productive I have been. It is a good reality check for me.
Below are my art projects and commercial activities in 2024. This year once again was a little different. There were more special projects and classes were at the end of the year.
Sketchbooks
Below is a photograph of my sketchbooks from this year. There are eleven 13cm x 19 cm Moleskine watercolor pencil sketchbooks. Some are in landscape format and some are portrait. I sketch every day and carry my sketchkit which includes watercolour pencils and sketchbook with me everywhere.
The numbers on the spine are the sketchbook numbers since I began my daily sketches in these Moleskine sketchbooks in December 2008. Can you tell that I am a librarian?
I usually scan every page of my sketchbook and put them all on Flickr (an image-sharing website). I add tags and group them into Albums of events Holidays or Projects.
I put sketches daily on social media Instagram and on Facebook. Facebook at Alissa Duke Art. I post daily on Instagram alissaduke1
I use Flickr as a depository of sketches. For example to locate sketches I have done of coffee if I am giving a class on food and drink. You will notice four of the sketchbooks are England Holiday. This was over six weeks around September. It was wonderful and I sketched all the time, just as I had planned. However, I have sketches from the holidays that still need to be uploaded. A project…
On Instagram I have 3246 posts and 2108 followers. It is interesting, but I am not really interested in numbers. I post to show everyone watercolour pencils, what they can do and also that everything is sketchable. Unfinished is ok.
Weekly Art Blog
I have maintained this, my weekly art blog. Thank you to the 78 followers of this weekly art blog. I hope that you find it enjoyable and interesting to read and full of information. Sometimes I write about hints and tips when using watercolour pencils, other times the blog will be about art events I am involved in and the rest are usually my sketches from the previous week. I hope that I can share a bit of my passion for drawing and watercolour pencils.
Please let me know if you have any questions or would like me to explain anything I do. If you would like to receive this weekly email you can Subscribe here.
Newsletter
I have 153 people who subscribe to my newsletter. The newsletter is for people who are interested in my art and would like to know when major events happen – new card designs, markets, exhibitions, and classes. They may not necessarily be interested in my Weekly Art blog, but still want to be updated.
I have had technical issues this year and have not been able to send a Newsletter since February.
in 2024
Melbourne Rare Book Week
I sketched at Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW) when I first moved to Melbourne in 2015 and since 2016 I have been the official sketcher on location for the week of talks, culminating in the Melbourne Rare Book Fair on the final weekend. I have met so many interesting people and made lots of friends through this event.
see all 35 sketches on Flickr and read my blog posts:
This year, some of my sketches were used in promotional posters for Melbourne Rare Book Fair.
Below is the entry to Melbourne Rare Book Fair.
I did have a non artistic events in Melbourne Rare Book Week, by presenting a talk The Oldest Book in the Supreme Court Library. where I am a Librarian . We invited people to sit amongst the historical collection of the magnificent Supreme Court Library and learn about the oldest book in the Library, Statham’s Abridgment, which was printed in 1491. Discover what it is, and how this book came to be in the Library. Hear about its place in the history of law reports and how this five-hundred year old book relates to law reporting in Victoria today. You can listen to the presentation.https://www.lawlibrary.vic.gov.au/events/oldest-book-supreme-court-library
Royal Historical Society of Victoria – Artist in Residence
From RHSV :
Through a donor we’ve been able to commission talented artist, Alissa Duke, to do a series of sketches of life at the RHSV. So, if you come in to the Drill Hall over the next few weeks you might see Alissa sketching corners of our library, our volunteers lunching together, books (of course!), suitcases, manuscripts etc These sketches will appear in our 2023 Annual Report and I hope they’ll end up in the book shop as ‘merch’.
the drawings below are from the Annual Report. See all of them and learn about the RHSV in the full report.
Melbourne Athenaeum Library – Artist in Residence
Over twelve months I identified and drew some unique items and features that are part of the Melbourne Athenaeum’s history and current life. I wrote about it in January and then again, when I gave a presentation about my year in November.
Watercolour pencil classes in 2024
I have run a number of classes in 2024. I did not run my own private classes as in previous years, but through relationships with other organisations. I have been a member of these organisations and was approached by them to hold classes.
I held two classes at The Johnston Collection, which has a superb collection of English Georgian, Regency, and Louis XV fine and decorative arts, and objet d’art which was a gift from William Robert Johnston (1911-1986) to the people of Victoria. The Collection is displayed in a constantly changing domestic setting, in his former residence, Fairhall, This was a special event as you usually can book guided tours of this amazing collection, but you can’t stop and sketch along the way.
This event is supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust”
In the session the house was rearranged for the exhibition of Fit for a King. The class was just before Christmas and we titled it “Festive sketching.”
Athenaeum x 3 classes as part of Artist in Residence
North Gold Coast U3A
Coinciding with my visit to friends at the Gold Coast and Brisbane in Queensland (2 1/2 hours flight). I was invited to give a in-person class to North Gold Coast U3A in their final Advanced Art class for the year
Private commission x 1
Greeting Cards
My printed greeting cards with my drawings of the Supreme Court and the Library books and shelves were on sale to the legal community in Melbourne. At Law Books at Law Institute of Victoria and Ludlows.
East Melbourne Community Seedbank
I contributed to the establishment of a free seed library at East Melbourne Library by drawing images of the plant of the seeds in the packets. Read more about it here. https://alissaduke.com/2024/04/seed-bank-drawings.html
I have a variety of greeting cards printed from my watercolour pencil drawings on my ETSY online store. I also have my “drawn-in books” available for purchase there.
Local Markets
I was happy to have a market stall with my cards and books at One local Christmas event. It was so lovely to catch up with local friends and meet some more!
… and looking forward to 2025
I have plans…
Melbourne Rare Book Week – the dates have been set. I have applied for the week off work.
Clunes Booktown Festival, I have been accepted to have a stall for my Drawn in Boks at Clunes. The weekend of 22 & 23 March.
The Johnston Collection. The new reimaging of the collection is “Inspired by Women. An amazing collection and presentation. The next class is on Sunday 19 January “Summer Sketching with Alissa Duke” This event is supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust”
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. There will be a class in Summer. watch this space!
I hope that you have had a creative year and continue into 2025 Thank you for your support and questions.
I spent two days at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) for the Boxing Day test of international cricket. The test match may go up to 5 days, but I will watch the rest from home. I am not a big sports fan. but I grew up watching the cricket on tv with my brother in the 1980’s. This was the days of Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh, I also live across the road from the MCG, so it seemed a shame not to take up the opportunity to go when a sketching friend Meegan, bought tickets.
I took my sketchkit of watercolour pencils, ink pen, 13 x 19 cm Moleskine watercolour sketchbook
I also took a broadbrim hat, a big bottle of water, sunburn cream, sunglasses and sandwiches for lunch.
Day 1 40 degrees, sellout crowd of 90000, slightly more Indian than Australian supporters.
There was an amazing atmosphere- even walking up to the game, as the number of people getting off trams increased, and people gathered for the food and entertainment outside the grounds. You could play cricket, bowl, get photos taken and write on signs to take in. I had my health checked at the free Shane Warne Legacy Health Check. All good! There was Indian food, henna painting, face painting, and other entertainment.
Day 2 was much cooler at 25 degrees, The photo above was taken early on, before the match started. The ground filled out quickly by the first ball at 10.30am.
Still a full crowd. We were in a different part of the stand on Day Two.
I did not sketch all the time. If you take your eye off the field, something happens!
It was difficult to sketch the players, as they are in the middle of the field, which is quite a distance away. The large screens around the ground make it easy to follow the game, but not great to sketch from.
The audience is always interesting – both entertaining and occasionally not !! A bit different from watching it on TV ! Plusses and minuses there. I learnt a lot about cricket culture !
Two big days. So glad I went and experienced it and could capture a bit of it on paper.
If you have been following me on Instagram or Facebook you will have seen a few Jane Austen-themed sketches. I have attended some talks, been inspired by costume and social history.
Sketching at a fascinating talk by Chris Brown at The Johnston Collection. , Melbourne. Dressing Up : the depiction of fashion in magazines in the 18th and 19th century. An explanation of Coloured lithographs and hand-coloured engravings from his collection. The talk was about. the history of the depiction of fashion, and also the courts and publishing. Sketch on location and copied from plates at home
A mince pie and twist stem wine glass drawn at home after a Christmas with Jane Austen talk and tour at The Johnston Collection, Melbourne. Lise Rodgers gave fascinating performance talk based on the letters and novels of Jane Austen
I was re-reading my copy of Pride and Prejudice (after watching the BBC production) and came across some pages that I had drawn in! It must have been in my last Jane Austen stage.
In 2017 Melbourne Rare Book Week there were a few presentations about collecting Jane Austen Books. 2025 will be the 250 Anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, so expect some more!
Christmas is coming up and I will be posting irregularly over the break. But I will be sketching all the time ! Happy sketching to you all !
In the past week I did two sketches on location. Both are very similar and yet different.
Similarities
both in my 13 x 19 cm watercolour sketchbook, which I carry with me everywhere
in each case I sat at the back of the room.
I am a member of both organisations and many of the staff and volunteers know me and remember me as the sketcher when set myself up at the back of the room.
At this event they launched both the exhibition and Dr Judith Buckrich’s latest book, which is the first comprehensive illustrated history of the Yarra Birrarung from before European settlement to the present day, a 200 year story, examined through the lives of its creatives.
This book is an illustrated history of life on the Yarra. Through the lens of artists and writers, the book explores how life has flourished on the river, including recreation, industry and land use, as well as infrastructure, natural history and social history.
Despite much despoiling, our river remains the vital artery of the city and beyond to the Yarra Ranges. Just as it was the fulcrum of Wurundjeri life, it continues to inspire and fulfil our lives. From the Heidelberg School to the MCG, the river has been a centre of Australian arts and culture for decades.
over two pages
ink then watercolour pencil
30 minutes
i did not know how many people would attend. They kept coming and it was standing room only. I stood at the back and tried to give an idea of how full the room was
Sketch two
Dressing Up: The depiction of fashion in magazines in the 18th and 19th centuries with Professor Emeritus Chris Browne
The development of both men’s and women’s fashions from the later part of the 18th century until the end of the 19th century has been perhaps surprisingly well documented. Surviving colour lithographs and hand-coloured engravings can show us today what was in fashion at precise dates throughout that period. Professor Browne will describe the history of these illustrations and the magazines that first published them in both England and France.. The lecture will be illustrated by examples from his personal collection, some of which will be on display for direct inspection after the talk.
on one page
watercolour pencil
one hour
a set number of chairs in a small room for this smaller presentation
In each I have made choices on
what to use
what to sketch
where to add the colour
I usually make my decisions on the spot with no plan!
This week’s blog post is the nature sketches that I completed in England on my recent holiday.
I have not finished my holiday sketching books yet. I plan to add more notes about the plant to each page.
I will not be adding any more detail to the sketch. I like to consider these to be capturing the moment when I sketched them. A journal rather than an illustration
Some of these were completed on location as I sat in the fields in the lovely England countryside.
I had to look most of them up online to see what I was sketching.
Others I took cuttings of and placed in a glass of water. I later sketched them at my own leisure in my lovely cottage.
I was familiar with some of the plants as we have them in Australia. Others I had to check on, and some I had not heard of at all.
I learned to take scissors out with me on my walk, as many of the plants were very spiky.
I hope that you can see how much I enjoyed discovering the plants of the English countryside,
On Saturday I presented at the Melbourne Athenaeum Library. This marked the end of my year long Artist in Residency, I last wrote about this in January, when it was just beginning.
My brief for the Artrist in Residence was “12 illustrations of various aspects of the Athenaeum Library and Archives”.
I gave a one-hour presentation and had lots of questions from the audience. I knew many, but not all, in the audience, either from The Athenaeum events, friends or my own classes. It was a very friendly, relaxed talk.
I explained the commission and my approach. I talked about how I use my watercolour pencils and then the objects I sketched. I then discussed my on-location sketching at events and how that translated to a final drawing.
There is currently a display of the commissioned pieces. On the day I also had my sketchbooks for people to look through.
I am holding two classes on watercolour pencil at the Library.
It was such a wonderful experience and I was honoured to be invited to interpret the collection and add to its history through my Residency.
Due to technical difficulties, I was not able to access my blog until now. This is a last minute post with sketch done this evening at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria book launch.
I had left my sketchbook at home on the scanner and attended an event with my watercolour pencils and ink pen only. This was no excuse not to sketch! I borrowed some sheets of photocopy paper from the front desk.
I used my ink pen to draw across the A4 page, and onto a second page. I decided not to add watercolour pencil, but leave it in pen.
If I had forgotten my sketchkit, I would have borrowed a blue pen.
The book is Melbourne Ghost Signs by Sean Reynolds, published by Scribe. Amazing photographic documentation of stories of ghostly ads, aged signs and iconic architecture of Melbourne. Read more and purchase it here .
It looks so interesting and I can”t wait to dive deeper into my copy and discover Melbourne.
I had such a wonderful holiday in England. I was continually observing the sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touch of the England I experienced.
I had many exciting and fulfilling days in London, but the majority of my time was spent in a small English village in the South Cotswolds. I don”t drive, so arrived by train to a nearby city and the property owner collected me, helped me get groceries and dropped me off at the cottage, explaining how to use everything. From then on I walked everywhere and caught the local bus a few times.
I was happy to walk down English country lanes, past bramble hedgerows and drystone fencewalls. There were squirrels, robins, and everything I hoped for.
I soaked it all in and there was so much to sketch at every corner. As I was there for three weeks, I knew that I had time. I had to time take things slowly, revisit places, and look closer. I also had time to talk to people, ask questions, and read about the places I was sketching.
I only had my phone to use to record, and had not (then) figured out a way to record as I sketch. I did not bring my larger filming setup, even though it is in theory portable. I have since discovered a small attachable device that I could have taken with me to film as I sketch. A future experiment.
Here is the only sketch filming I did. It is watercolour pencil, and captures a special moment on my English holiday. Sketching in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, in Wotton Under Edge. The first record of Wotton Under Edge appears in 940AD as Wudetun, Settlement in the Woods, It is known that there was a church there at the time. This church was consecrated in 1283. Many changes have taken place over the last 700 years, but the basic layout has remained the same.
The organ was originally presented to the church of St Martins in the Fields in London in 1726 by George I who engaged Handel top play at its dedication. Installed here in 1800.
I walked passed this church most days and through the churchyards.
The bell tower, from which those wonderful bells tolled has eith bells, originally cast in 1756,
I was fortunate to be there for the Church Fete. and I went up the very very steep stairs to the bell tower and listened to the Bell ringers explain what they do. Fascinating. I could not sketch up in the bell tower itself, but did sit in the pews.
Below are those sketches.
Writing this page and adding the sketches has brought back wonderful memories.
There are more to be shared in future posts, although life returns to normal here. I start back at work on Monday and am sketching in my everyday sketchbook and giving some talks and classes. These will be added to my website soon.
