This week I filmed sketching a cup of tea!
Very quick, unfinished, but complete.
I sketch my tea and coffee all the time. It becomes easier with practice as the are so many ellipses’ involved.
Happy sketching !
The Johnston Collection is an exhibition house of exquisite British and European fine and decorative arts in a historic East Melbourne townhouse. They have guided tours, amazing lectures, and events. I have presented a number Watercolour Pencil sketching classes in 2024 , 2025 and continue in 2026.
This is a unique opportunity to learn to sketch ‘on location’ at The Johnston Collection. Become familiar with watercolour pencils and how to use them. Then test your new skills as you explore the ground floor rooms of The Johnston Collection’s exhibition house, Fairhall. Have a look at their Special Events to book and see what else is on offer. Anyone can book for my event, you don’t have to be a Member.
These are all on location 15 minute sketches in watercolour pencil.I had not sketched any of these previously. Keep in mind I have been sketching daily since 2008.
Book HERE
Your ticket includes a welcome tea or coffee, watercolour pencil class, an on-location sketching experience in Fairhall, and a sketch kit to take home (comprising: sketchbook, 12 Faber-Castell watercolour pencils, and a waterbrush).
Class size limited to eight participants.
No equipment or previous experience is required – just bring your enthusiasm.
Taste & Temptation
This wonderful description is from The Johnston Collection wesbite:
Food and drink in the 1700s was more than mere sustenance. A table could display wealth, style, and luxury, be the setting for gossip and social intrigue, and reveal powerful political allegiances.
This autumn and winter, each room of historic East Melbourne townhouse Fairhall, has been theatrically reimagined to evoke the lavish art of eating and drinking in Europe in the eighteenth century.
Experience The Johnston Collection transformed into a series of atmospheric, period- appropriate tableaux.
Explore a haven for political rebels; a stylish Continental Kaffeeklatch where women enjoyed coffee and conversation; a sumptuous dessert setting; a baroque dining room laden with silver; and an elegant morning room for the rituals of dressing and hot chocolate.
View exquisite fine and decorative arts from The Johnston Collection in an exciting new arrangement, and discover the taste and temptations of eighteenth-century drinking and dining.
About the Guest Curator
Dr Matthew Martin is a specialist in European luxury arts of the 1600s-1800s. For 13 years, he was a curator in the Department of International Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria and is currently a faculty member in Art History and Curatorship at the University of Melbourne.
There are many fascinating presentation to attend, Have a look at the EVENTS.
See you at one of them.
Happy Sketching
Last Thursday night was the launch of the annual Melbourne Rare Book Week (23 July – 1 August) and bookings are now live! via the website https://rarebooksmelbourne.com/ You can view the program online or pick one up at various places around Melbourne. They will be at the the City of Melbourne Libraries as well as being distributed through cafe etc in the suburbs, Let me know where you see them !
The launch was a meeting for thorganisers, organisatioons hosting event, and speakers. I have been involved since 2015 and it is wonderful catchup with so many familiar faces and meeting some new people too.
I sat at the side of the room for a short time and sketched,
I am very honoured to be part of the MRBW family. My sketches are on the website and throughout the program (not the cover) and in the promotions for Melbourne Rare Book Fair, which is at the and of Melbourne Rare Book Week.
We had an interesting and entertaining talk by Simon Plant about Barry Humphries as a book collector..
I take the week off work and sketch at as many events as I can attend. I have looked tnrough the program and i will be at at least 21 events.of the 43 . The talks usually go for one hour and I stand at the back of the room and sketch the audience and room.
I am presenting a talk (so I wont be sketching at it) on the rare and historic dictionaries in the Supreme Court Library collection! There will also be a displayfor the month of July. I am going back to writing that as soon as I press the Publish button on this!
Many of you may have seen this on my Instragram and Facebook site during the week.This blog is for those family and friends who are not on social media.
Let me know if you have any quesiotns about Melbourne Rare Book Week.
I held a Travel Sketching with Watercolour pencils class on Saturday with two lovely people, Tanya and Darren. I can have up to eight people, but the smaller numbers meant they had a very customised class and I could spend lots of time chatting to the,
A bonus was blue skies in our chilly Autumn weather, which meant we could take a walk out of the Library to sketch on location on the streets of East Melbourne.
As it was a Travel Sketching class I talked about my approach to travel sketching. I start early, when I am doing my research. In the past I have sketched my electricity convertors, phones. luggage. I have sketched money. I still take money , but not as much as it is on a card or the phone.
I mentioned to them that on my last six week holiday in 2024 I filled four sketchbooks. It suddenly struck me that it is only three months til I leave to go to England for four weeks. All of the main flights and accommodation are booked, but I will have to put aside four sketchbooks. I will start with a map and any purchases I make. I also must start sketching in preparation.
For look at what I do, see some of my previous UK travels in 2018 , 2016 London and York (and getting there and going home)
Looking at these, I am immediately taken back to the place I was sketching.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Happy Sketching
I did not get the opportunity to post to my Blog last week. I had great intentions, but ran out of time.That means that that this week I am posting a lot of sketches on location.
The first was at the Melbourne Athenaeum Library at one of their wonderful Friday night events. I always attend theitr string quartets and in this case the fantastic Ultrafox – French Gypsy Jazz , inspired by Django Reihnhart – you would know the tunes.
I took photos of my page as I sketched, standing in the shelves with my wine and cheese. The concerts go for one hour, just perfect for a sketch and total relaxation.
And then in the last 5 minites I did a very loose sketch , so full of energy!
The next week I went to Royal Exhibition Building for a session titles “Drawng Under the Dome” , organised my Melbourne. A group of about 100? sketched in the vast empty space of this grand historical building. Usually it is only open when there is an event on such as Finders Keepers or Big Design Markets, so to have the whole ground floor to ourselves was a treat. We also had excellent guidance guidance from Artist Richard Payne. He explained the concept of urban sketching, perspective and vanishing points, We were also informed about the history of the building and all its uses. I think it is good to know about the context of what I am sketching,
We then had a warmup two minutes and then turned around and two minutes in the other direction and then we were let loose !!
i sketched the sketchers while we were listening tot he introduction.
All of the above were in my usual 13cm x 19cm watercolour pencil sketchbook.
I then used the A3 paper provided. A bit outside my comfort zone!
The rest of the week was normal. Sketching on the chilly commute home in the evening.
and having a coffee
I have two more Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes in East Melbourne coming up on 28 May and 20 June. Book HERE. I probably won’t have these classes again until the end of the year. HOwever, I do have other classes through other organisations. See My classes tab on my blog.
Happy sketching.
A sketch a day. Sometimes less, sometimes more. If you follow me on Instagram alissaduke1 or Facebook Alissa Duke Art, you will have seen these sketches this week..
There are others that are not on social media, and so these will be new. It is interesting to see a week’s sketches next to each other. It is different again to see them in my sketchbook, as you turn the page and a narrative unfolds.
I have used a number of different styles and themes. Yesterday I went back and added the name of the day to the page, bringing them together with some consistency.
I will try and add some notes above each.
Thirty minutes in the park on a lovely Autumn day. Watercolour pencil.
a very quick sketch. I quickly grabbed my Light Purple Pink and Paynes Grey & Cold Grey V grey pencils. I sketched the shape quickly, as they kept moving. I then added heavy colour and then finally more pink to the one bird. I added water from the waterbrush, with a final few marks of pink.
A one hour zoom to listen to Jackie Morris and Delphina at Seven Fables bookshop. (at 5am) The Book of Birds : A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane Jackie Morris. I did not start sketching until the end.
Here is a description from the publisher: The Book of Birds is a compendium of forty-nine bird species, all of which are presently declining or endangered in Britain. With lyrical precision and playfulness, Robert Macfarlane evokes each bird’s habits and habitats –– their patterns of flight and of song, how they hunt and gather, how they nest and raise their young, the stories and myths which attend them, the threats which shadow them, and how their wild lives intersect with our own. And on every page we encounter Jackie Morris’s exhilarating artwork, painted in watercolour and gold and animated by an extraordinary attention to detail and sense of life.
Quick sketch. I started with the main figure and then added others as they came and went. As the main person stayed, I added colour and heavier lines. When I got home, I added water to the page and after it dried, added more of the same colour on top. My final lines were the hair.
Fifteen minutes in a waiting room at a doctors check up (all is ok). I know I had time between tests, sitting in a little cubicle, with old magazines to read, so I sketched.
Traditional Friday night bubbles.
Saturday lunch
More Saturday sketches. In the morning, I started a sketch before my Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil class. I then stopped when the class arrived. The blue was a test swatch on the page as we tested the colours.
The pen sketch was at the end of day, waiting for the tram. People came and went.
You can see how a story builds up as each page is added. I have one more page inthe sketchbook before I start Sketchbook 143 since 2008. They are Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook 13cm x 19 cm.
Happy sketching everyone. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you to AAADA Melbourne Antiques Fair for inviting me to present a talk on Saturday You Can’t Draw in Books, where I talked about why and how I draw in old books that are about to be discarded. Thanks also to the curious and interested who attended, asked questions and the lovely conversations afterwards.
At the Fair you can step into the world of decorative arts and design at Malvern Town Hall. Discover pieces for purchase, enjoy talks, guided tours, talks and expert appraisals.
Here are some introductory sentences from my 45 minute talk.
You may wonder why I am here and how I fit in. In this technical world, fast paced world, books are physical objects that you can pick up and hold touch and turn in your hands, like the antiques and art s in this hall. They can also have a collectable aesthesic value. Some have a story to tell as well as telling a story – they have a history and a narrative and some of these are unique and different. I am adding to that story. The first part of the talk is about my decision to draw in books and then I will talk about the actual process of drawing in the book.
The books can be purchased on my ETSY website. See the link in my Bio or www. https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlissaDuke
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico 1950
A Tour by Car Through England Scotland & Wales by Jessie Sisson published by Bank of New South Wales 1953
The Fighting Fourth by E.M. de Foubert 1934
Parts of the talk were filmed and on the AAADA social media.
I was also thrilled to see the first promotional material for the Melbourne Rare Book Fair in July – flyers on the tables – some of my colour sketches from last year’s Fair!
Life is busy and full in a very good way – Travel Sketching classes next Saturday if you are in Melbourne and curious.
Step by step photos taken on location in Fitzroy Gardens as I sketched a tree.
I got to the fourth one and realised that I have left my waterbrush at home.
I would usually add water to the page now to spread the colour across the page.
I had to leave this til I got home.
Happy sketching eveyone.
My past few days were a wonderful days with lots of sketching and sketching based activities.
I had a few days of sketching in preparation for a Nature Sketching class on the weekend. A work colleague gave me a bunch of herbs from her garden.
My weekend started with a Nature Sketching with Watercolour Pencils class at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. I teach a class each season. Spring is in the planning.
I then caught a taxi to the Prahan Mechanics Institute. I was going to the Biannual booksale and market day. I bought 17 books, 5 quinces, a pumpkin, 2 relishes and two cooking salt blends. Here are some of my purchases.
I really visited to see some of my sketches that had been printed as large decals in the stairway. Absolutely overwhelmed to see my sketches in real life in a full length mural at Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Victorian History library. I had seen them on a Reel by PMI, but it was surreal to see them as a permanent walk feature. I knew what they were planning, but did not realise what it would look like. AND the staff and library community love it !
These were from some of the sketches I did for them in 2023 at the Family History Showcase, an annual one day event featuring local history societies.
On Sunday, I did a few quick sketches on location at the Melbourne Regency Picnic, held at the historic Rippon Lea homestead. In hindsight, I would have sketched in pen and added watercolour pencil to highlight some areas.
yes, I was in costume and yes it was fantastic. Another surreal experience
Happy sketching everyone.
Each year, I sketch my Easter hot cross buns with watercolour pencils. It is a tradition. I also have a very soft jellybelly rabbit and he sometimes gets sketched.
Last year they both got sketched and I also filmed my hot cross bun sketch, so I will include it here for anyone who would like to try it.
I was a bit ambitious to sketch this real birds next ( I have a collection of about 20) and paper eggs that I purchased from Two in a Teacup in Tasmania
I also bought myself some lovely flowers. They are so detailed, so I did not even try to capture that
Happy sketching.
Please let me know if you have any questions!