Melbourne holiday sketching

I have just returned from five days in Melbourne. It was 44 degrees for four days in a row – the four days I was there ! Very hot

A lot of the time during the day I met with some of the Melbourne Urban Sketchers, which I have written about in a separate blogpost.

The rest of the time I sketched alone or when I was with my friends Louise & eon, who I was staying with. My sketchbook pages for my time in Melbourne are journal of my days. They are reminders of what I ate, where I went and events that occurred and the people I was with.

I carry the one sketchbook a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook 13 x 21, my watercolour pencils in a wrap and Lamy Safari Joy ink pen – note to self – Always bring extra ink. I ran out with two days go. Not a tragedy and I could have bought more. Instead it just meant that I used other pencils and left the writing until I got home.
 
I starting with my traditional airport sketch – with extra excitement this time when the departure lounge was cleared.

 

 

Some iconic Melbourne – Flinders Street & tram

 
 
other sketches  – a motorbike parked outside State Library
 
 
 
 
 

A building in Flinders Lane. It is on the last page of my sketchbook, so has some scribbles. I show people how watercolour pencils work on this last page – scribble scribble scribble, splash splash
 

I did sketches at my friends – lettuce in pot that was sitting in the sink . I later printed it at home on a card and sent it as a thank you card for having me as their guest. We did eat some of the lettuce.

We also ate out.Brunch at Mossgreen tearooms in Armadale on Saturday.  I have a page of notes next to write next to this sketch about our wonderful experience there. I sketched my breakfast while we were there. Scrambled eggs with salmon and dill.

The waitress watched and chatted to us as it was nice and quiet and early. She also loved to sketch and we left her inspired and with the contact details for Melbourne Urban Sketchers.


I took a photo of the tearooms from across the street and sketched it at home. I like to sketch on location, but I did not have the time and it was too hot.

DINNER

My friend Louise was cooking dinner from a simple recipe form the internet (she searched for something with spinach as she had a lots in the crisper) it was untried, but simple, so she tried it, I have no enthusiasm for cooking, but was happy to chat in the kitchen while she sliced, chopped and baked.

I was inspired by their home grown garlic (small but very strong smelling) and had an idea to draw the ingredients, spreading over two pages.  It then moved to drawing all the ingredients and the finished results, which would hopefully be mouthwatering .

As I have used my watercolour pencils for the past five year I am very aware of the colours and how to apply them and what will happen when I add water (some colours change a lot !) I also know how textures can be achieved, although I am still learning all the time. That is why I am passionate about using them …

 

I then the decided to leave space to add the list of the ingredients and recipe.
The pressure was on to draw the ingredients before they were added to the pan. Some were drawn after the pie was in the oven (an onion is an onion). I grabbed some spinach before it was added and other being chopped. I could make a whole blog of this.

I realised that I would have to add tasting notes, as we were all a little disappointed at the bland taste .

The next morning I was up before the others, in the kitchen, had take the left overs (just as well there was some) out of the fridge and drew them before the others were up for breakfast ! This was the day I was leaving……


My plane to go home

Sketching with USK-ers interstate

Urban sketchers is a global community of sketching, sharing the places we live and travel to online. It is also a global community of people that you can meet and sketch with all over the world. There have been many stories and sketchers of people meeting up with local urban sketchers in a country they are visiting.

This page is about my experiences in the last month. I live in Sydney I had the opportunity to connect with urban sketchers in Brisbane, Newcastle  and then Melbourne in the Australian Christmas holiday break. In each city I sketched with the locals (and some other Sydney travellers). I had met some of them previously but also met new people. I initially contacted them online via facebook or their blogs and let them know that I was visiting and the dates and they arranged place to meet and sketch. Often an event was organised around my visiting dates !

This is a bit of a long post with my sketches and a some notes. I filled many more pages of my sketchbook in Melbourne, but they are not Urban Sketches. They will all get scanned and put on my flickr page. I will also write a separate Melbourne blogpost on my site with those adventures soon.

Have watercolour pencils , will travel !

BRISBANE

A day in Brisbane in early January included a group of JJ, Asuka, Leeanne, Geoff (who sketched with us in Sydney recently) and Chris (also from Sydney) .

Asuka, Leeanne, Geoff Chris, JJ and me (in a circle left to right) at Steam Café, Southbank. Thanks to JJ for the photo
We met for coffee and quickly moved into discussion of art materials and looking through each others sketchbooks. It is so different to see the sketchbooks in reality and turn the pages. JJ and I had a discussion on drawing feathers.
 
  
 

  
 
We sketched at Southbank in the shade of the trees looking over the river to the city. It was very hot and we were outside in the morning and headed for airconditioning from lunch onwards.



I revisited the same area later in the week to draw some more.

 



NEWCASTLE


Newcastle was an organised USK event where Sydney Urban Sketchers visited Newcastle. I have written the day up separately  http://australia.urbansketchers.org/2014/01/newcastle-alissa-duke.html.

It was a wonderful event and so good for many of us to connect with Urban Sketchers we had met online and for the Newcastle sketchers to meet us (and vice versa) and show us their city . Thanks Phil .



Thanks Judy for the photos

MELBOURNE

Both of my visits interstate coincided with extreme heat. It was 41 degrees in Brisbane and 44 degrees (for 4 days in a row) in Melbourne. But still we sketched, finding shade in the morning and then air-conditioning. A hardy bunch !

I was in Melbourne for a week and fortunate to have all my days free , so lots of time to line up sketching activities with Urban Sketchers in Melbourne.  Kym, Evelyn and Angela – combinations of the three, and others as well. I had met them two or three times before, so it is like meeting up with friends (which is actually what it is). We took every opportunity to meet and sketch: before they started work (a 7am start one morning!) their lunch hours and any other time. My visit also coincided with another Sydney sketcher travelling. Chantal was in Melbourne and visiting her sister Suzette. We had a morning with them too.

DAY 1

Sketching with Kym before she started work. The staff at The Quarter on Degraves Street  took our photo and put it on instagram. We received lovely reactions and had some great conversations everywhere we sketched. In most cases cafe staff love it when you sketch their food, cafe or coffee. I think that it is because you are taking the time to appreciate on paper the food they have taken time to prepare and look at it in a way that other people do not.  

 
Breakfast with Kym at The Quarter café in Degraves Street

 
Old Treasury Building – historic museum and exhibition




with Angela and Evelyn at The Old Treasury building

with Evelyn at Time Out Café in Federation Square

with Evelyn at Time Out Café in Federation Square
DAY 2 
 
With Chantal, Suzette, Evelyn at Koko Black cafe where they let us sit all morning and gave us a sample of chocolate

 

 
 After farewelling Suzette and Chantal, Evelyn and Angela and I ventured outside into the heat.The joy of sketching with locals is they can suggest places to sketch and it is often an opportunity for them to sketch something that they have been meaning to do for ages. They took me to Town Hall. There are a number of pianos in public spaces called “Play Me I’m Yours” – which is what it is. A piano is there (all painted colourfully).  You can sit and play them. I do not play, so sketched them !
 



with Evelyn and Angela at Town Hall “Play Me I’m Yours” piano

 

I then found another piano and player outside State Library of Victoria


another “Play Me I’m Yours” piano. State Library. on my own

DAY 3

The earliest start 7am, for a prework sketch with Kim & Angela in one of Melbourne’s laneway cafes. Plenty of time for continuing conversations that we had started the day before !

with Kym and Angela and No 5 Café
 

Then moving onto a tearoom that Angela had wanted to sketch. We sat outside looking in


with Kym and Angela at Hopetoun tearooms. the Block Arcade

My final sketch with a Melbourne sketcher was as Evelyn & I sat on the steps of the Parliament of Victoria. She sketched the panoramic view and is determined to bring the Urban Sketchers group here. I sketched the building for another project I am working on (which is another blogpost on another day) . We were sketching when a camera crew and others came out and were interviewing a politician/spokesman from Emergency Services about the ambulances coping with the demands in the extreme heat. So I sketched them !



on the steps of Parliament House. with Evelyn

 
 

Urban Sketchers in Newcastle

Yesterday, on a lovely sunny day around 26 sketchers met in Newcastle for our first regional Urban Sketching event. Quite a few of us caught the early train from Sydney for the 2 hour 45 min trip. We all met in a carriage and it was a great opportunity to catch up before arriving. Phil in Newcastle had done an amazing job in planning and organizing the day, with a map and photographs of potential buildings to sketch!

 



I started my day with a coffee sketch and a map

 



Urban sketching in Newcastle
After an initial introduction by Phil and Liz, and a look at the map we headed off in different directions to meet up again in two hours time.
 
 
A few of us walked a few blocks to the former Post Office building, now boarded up. I sat across the road with Ethna, Lorna and Diane and then with Deb and Lisa. The building may be boarded up and ruined inside (I later saw the consultants report online – scary) but exterior looks spectacular and I was fascinate by the shape and colour of the copper dome. My plan was to draw a small quick sketch in ink and then spend the rest of the time drawing some of the architectural features in more detail. But unfortunately I made the drawing too big on the page and got caught up in the detail. At a certain stage I said “enough” and moved onto the drawing the Dome , which is what attracted me in the first place!

Lots of green coloured copper and rust. Beautiful ! The FaberCastell Earth Green watercolour pencil is the perfect colour. I was enjoying this. It is very useful colour for many drawings. It is a very good for eucalyptus trees too.

Then it was time for lunch and a show and tell of our mornings sketches

Such a wonderful variety of styles and subjects. Some amazing use of colour too.  It was inspirational to be sitting and sketching with so many people that also enjoy sketching
 

 
After lunch we continued, deciding to head in a different direction. Phil suggested along the water to the Wharf. Once we got to Queens Wharf, we found new topics to sketch. I was taken by the skyline of the industrial area. Cranes, bulk storage for grains and a coal loader. Next time I would like to look closer at this area. Newcastle has a long history. It was one of the original convict settlements and then based on the coal industry. Some of this has moved away and Newcastle is re-inventing itself, although the coal terminals still play a vital role in the region.
 
 
I walked down the wharf and found my next subject ! An old rusting sign on an unused section of the wharf
 
I wanted to include enough of the sign to read the words, but also get a chance to draw the rusty cement wall. I was later able to add context by drawing the barnacles and the water. I stayed far too long in the sunshine drawing this. Even though I had hat, sunglasses and sunburn cream, I still felt the effects of the day that evening.
 
It is not the most beautiful sight in Newcastle and not one that the locals would prefer to be shown to the world. But I had such fun drawing this, and it is part of the urban landscape.
 
 
 
 
 
An extra treat was a cormorant bird emerging from the water and gulping down a fish in front of me !
 
and then at 4.35 we caught the train for the journey home.
 
It was a great day out and so good to meet with Newcastle sketchers that we had only met online.  Everyone would like to return to sketch here again.
 

Christmas day . a baby possum

Christmas morning


A special day was made even more special for me by a little adventure that my mother and I had in the morning.
I had travelled home for Christmas to Toowoomba (regional Queensland – population (150 000)  from Sydney and had promised myself to do more nature sketching when I was there. I wanted to go out into nature to draw, rather than drawing nature objects , such as feathers,  in my apartment.

I had my chance before I knew it (although it still was sketched at home) !

On Christmas morning, Mum and I went for an early morning walk. Up the street we came across a dead brushtail possum on the footpath, just off the road. This is not unusual, as possums live in the urban community and can be pests (especially if there is one living in your roof). This one must have been knocked by a car and wandered onto the path to die. There were no visible injuries. But she was definitely dead. We looked closer and saw movement. 
There was a baby possum in her pouch !
The tail was the only thing poking out from the pouch, and when I touched the pouch he moved more.  (I shall call it a he rather than it or she) . Movement was a good sign!
But we did not know what to do! Thankfully, I remembered the name of an organisation that takes care of injured native wildlife and phoned to get their number. I left a message on voicemail and we walked home, as there nothing we could do.
I sketched what I had seen from memory, not knowing how the day would turn out or if I would see it again
 

 

Trish, the volunteer carer from Wildlife Rescue, Rehabilitation and Education Association called back (she was out feeding 12 baby joeys) and gave us instructions. This was all before 7.30 am on Christmas morning !!!

The volunteer lives 35 minutes drive away and still had some animals to feed. We walked very quickly back to the possum, hoping that nothing had happened in the meantime. We had been asked to see if he was off the mother teat, but he did not want to move away from inside the pouch. So we picked up the body of the mother (about the size of a small cat) with joey  still in pouch. She was so light. I expected a heavy body.
A quick walk home and followed more instructions. The mother’s body temperature would be dropping so we filled a drinking water bottle with warm water and laid it against the pouch.

 

 

It was an anxious wait to see if he would stay alive. Every now and then I would go in and stroke the pouch, the joey would wriggle inside and I would sigh with relief that he was alive.

I also had the chance to sketch a special moment. I have sketched animals taxidermed at the museum before, but was not sure how I would be about sketching a recently dead animal. I felt ok as the little baby was still alive. I am not sure how you all feel about this?
I guess I am an inner city Sydney girl, who does not have much interaction with nature. 

Trish arrive at 10 am. She removed the joey carefully and put him in a little soft material pouch. If he was taken off the mother’s teat too quickly it would have torn the inner membrane of his mouth. I am so glad I did not try to do that. Mum took one quick photo as Trish held him. We would have loved to take more and look longer, but it was not the right time or place. Getting the little possum into proper care was most important.

He is 15 weeks old and nice and healthy.

His skin is velvety and he is about 15 cm long,


Trish will feed him every three hours at first . He will stay in her care until maturity.  

I felt a huge sense of responsibility for this little vulnerable animal. It made my day that we assisted in saving his life.  and on Christmas Day it seemed even more special. I will be making a donation to Trish and her volunteer carers who do such wonderful work in helping our native wildlife.

 This is what a possum looks like (with and older baby on her back)

 

 

 

Christmas drawings

The countdown to Christmas is on and I have been drawing Christmas objects and scenes over the last few weeks. I thought that I would gather them all here on one page to share the festive joy. Season’s Greetings to everyone.
 
It began in early December when I made brooches from my used pencils. – the red and green ones – to wear in December. I only wear two or so at a time but decided to do all of them . I had gathered them together on the table when completed, and decided to draw them as they sat
 
drawings of brooches
 
 
The sights around Sydney also provided wonderful opportunities to sketch. This gorgeous Christmas tree dress in the QVB Building had  to be drawn. This gets lots of comments
 

 
The large floating Santa’s in Darling Harbour are also very festive and hard to miss
 

I then began to draw some presents that were waiting on my table to be wrapped.

and made a Christmas card . I drew some sweet handmade Croatian biscuits that I was given by a neighbor for Christmas and I will give the card to her

 
On the weekend I drew on letter writing paper and an envelope I am posting today. Those of you who know me will know that I enjoy drawing on envelopes. I have a lovely time drawing and someone enjoys receiving it in the mail.

 
and finally – on the top of a friend’s tree. I was sent a photo and had to draw it ! 
 

 

Urban Sketchers – Cockatoo Island

 Yesterday, about 15 sketchers met at Sydney’s Cockatoo island (a quick ferry ride in the harbour)for the final Urban Sketchers Sydney event for the year. The weather was all blue skies and sunshine, as summer has finally decided to arrive in Sydney. We have visited Cockatoo Island regularly as is so full of inspiration and potential sketching opportunities
 
 
I always like to arrive  a little early to start sketching before everyone arrives and I start talking. I sat the café with Phil & Chris and looked back to Sydney, sketching the panorama in watercolour pencil. Is was so peaceful.
 
 

 
Often when I visit Cockatoo Island I feel the need to draw BIG-  the buildings are big, the cranes are big . I draw everyday on a 20 x 13 cm moleskine watercolour sketchbook. So this time I came prepared with some larger sheets of paper, Unfortunately, I was in the mood for drawing small….so the papers were left untouched this time. But I will return in the New Year to experiment with size and equipment

 

The Drawing Office is one of my favourite buildings on the island. And that was even before I knew that it was called the Drawing Office and then that just made if more special. The Drawing Office was established in 1914 as part of the dockyards of the Royal Australian Navy, which were based there.I love the colour and textures, the greens and the rust .I have sketched it a few times previously. We only had about half and hour for this one before meeting everyone for lunch.

 
some of the sketchbooks from the morning
We chatted, compared notes on what and where we sketched and the experience of the morning.

 

Liz Steel reminded me that Cockatoo Island was the first place we met and sketched together way back in 2008. It was an International Sketchcrawl and we were the only two that turned up. How much has changed in our sketching lives since then! So many wonderful art adventures, meeting some interesting and inspirational people. There have been opportunities in the art world that I never would have dreamed of.

Certainly my sketching has changed. I think that I am more confident in my line and colour. I feel like I am capturing a lot more character of the object I am drawing. Below are my sketches from 2008.

I can see that my subject matter has not altered at all, and I could have chosen the same objects this weekend.  That would have been interesting!
 
I am still using watercolour pencils, as I had only just discovered them then and am now a complete aficionado.
 
I was using Pitt pens and Micron pens then, whereas now I love my Lamy Safarfi Joy ink pen. The flow of ink off the nib is so smooth and suits my drawing style.
 
I also drew on castoff sheets of A4 card stock then, and now I am up to Moleskine watercolour sketchbook number 37 since December 2008. I will be starting on sketchbook number 38 as I fly home for Christmas in a short time. I sketched at the airport for my Christmas flight in 2008 in the first pages of my first Moleskine. I am getting nostalgic thinking about it!

Cre-art-tive weekend

 

The Cre-Art-tive weekend of Kaz, Meegan ,Lisa & Alissa  .

 
 This weekend was weeks in the planning, coming out of a suggestion a few months ago – to take a whole lot of art gear, go away to the mountains or beach, hire a house and experiment with the equipment ! The vast majority of the gear was bought by Kaz and Meegan who both own an amazing amount of art equipment. There were paints, pencils, gels, liquids, papers, and tools. So we had the opportunity to do lots of layering, blending, and a bit of collage. Lisa & I bought along paints and art materials that we had at home, but never used. It was good to find out what it did and whether we would ever use it again.
 
We had a carful !
 
 
We decided it was best not to go to someone’s house, so that no one had the responsibility of being the host . We all agreed to  finding a house that would suit us, with  lots of light and tables. This house in the Blue Mountains, two hours from Sydney (in Friday night traffic) was perfect.
 
The only strict rules (which were happily agreed to) were for Lisa & I. We were not allowed to use sketchbooks and watercolours. And we had to draw big. You may be aware I usually use watercolour pencils and Lamy safari joy ink pen in a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook. 
 
We used the benchtop, dining table and a table bought in from outside  (all carefully covered with plastic sheet – no spills all weekend). Even though it is Spring in Sydney, the weather was cold and foggy, but it was cosy and warm inside. We did not have a reason to go  out,  as we had good music and food.
 

 

We arrived Friday night. After dinner, we spread out our Art gear over two tables to see what we had to play with. We couldn’t help ourselves, and had to try something out straight away and make some marks on paper. We made a decision that the next day we would start the day by each trying three materials we had never used before. We made ourselves go to bed by midnight, but only so that we could be up early and have a whole day of art, not waste time sleeping in.

 
 EXPERIMENTS  

 


trying soluble pens. I also tried a
parallel pen
– a new discovery and used again

liquid ink – with a dropper from a bottle
, then a watercolour wash




 I was determined to try a watercolour
wash and contrast colour of ink




THE CICADA SERIES

On Saturday morning I went outside to explore the backyard an found a shell, shed by a cicada beetle. This is my normal subject  – a small object drawn realistically – a study on a page. But by using something within my comfort zone (the subject matter)it allowed me feel at ease using other things outside my comfort zone. This was the key for me ! and I had a wonderful time and am really pleased with these results

Once I had my subject I began experimenting with materials and colours.  Most are on A3 paper and a few on old book pages



experiments for background



experiment with Tim Holz Distress Stain
 to see the colours for my cicada

 




A3 paper. Golden Liquid Acrylic background. I think the sketch is in crayon . I should have made more notes as I went
 
Derwent soluble graphite XL block and Pilot parallel pen on A3 paper
A3 paper. Derwent soluble graphite XL block background. I first painted an old newspaper with Distress Stain in a few brown colours, dried in , ripped roughly into strips that could fit into the pencil outline. Matte Medium to stick down & seal. The next morning it looked like it needed some intensity to pull it together – I  added scribbled lines with a thin marker




gold pen on A3 black board – unfinished. I am not sure where this was heading
 




smaller than A4 – old book , Rough texture liquid,mixed with acrylic colour. painted and scraped over the page It dries with a texture of course sand. I thought it was too rough to draw on for what I had in mind. I asked for suggestions. I drew and coloured cicada on transparent paper and stuck it down with that wonderful Matte Medium  . I really like this one
smaller than A4 – old book , face-on cicada

 
Cicada on Gestetner or Roneo

BEGINNING OF A GESTETNER SERIES

 
Meegan tried drawing on Gestetner (or it is Roneo paper ?) – remember it from school in the 1970’s, before photocopiers were around. It had lovely smelling purple ink. I really liked the effect it had on paper and tried my own experiment. I wrote on the paper, pressing though to make a copy. I then used the copy, adding water with a brush (it turns bright purple) and then stuck the Gestetner tracing paper over top.
 
 



twig covered in lichen

twig covered in lichen
  
OTHER ART

 
 There was heater, so we could lay painted sheets of paper out on the floor in front of it to dry while we started another page.  We were all working on a few projects at once, I tried some collage. My new favourite best friend is Matte Medium. I bought some on return to Sydney and will use this in the future


I created this one over the weekend .gluing scraps of paper down. finding images. The only real realistic drawing I did was the keys and then I stuck them down on the page and added the shadow.  This took a while to come together. It looked nothing at first and Kaz kept encouraging me to add more. By the end of the weekend I was so pleased with it.

newspaper . I sealed the page with matte medium and then painted with ink

 

 

AT THE END OF THE WEEKEND

I was inspired and motivated by letting the creative juices flow. I think that I need this sort of time (even a day would be good, but a weekend is more like a holiday) every 6 months or so . It is great to try a different sort of creativity for fun, with no pressure. It is also good for me to discover that I can do other sorts of art.

me !
 
 
Kaz 
Kaz’s art

 
 
 
 
 
Meegan
Meegan’s art
Meegan has a wonderful indepth blog of the weekend too  
 

Enjoy!
 

Melbourne sketching

 
 A weekend in Melbourne provided me with an opportunity to sketch.


I went to Melbourne to visit my four sketchbooks I had entered in the Sketchbook Project. Read all about it here. They were on tour in Australia from 1- 9 November. I visited with friends on the final day in the final hours. They had to kick us out. http://www.alissaduke.com/p/sketchbook-project.html

But my Melbourne adventure started from the moment I left work on Friday, and arrived at the airport to find my plane delayed an hour. Sketching time !!!

baggage on the tarmac

and then on the plane

passengers on the plane

On arrival in Melbourne there was time for iconic sights as well as the iconic Melbourne weather (four seasons in one day !) Sydney does not have trams, so I was determined to draw one while I was here. I looked for the classic yellow and green trams, only to discover that they did not go down the street I was on – just very old grey trams and ones with flashy advertising



Skybus from the airport and a Melbourne tram

How could I not sketch the Flinders Street Station ?- a stunningly beautiful building

 
 
 
 
I met Evelyn and Kym , Melbourne sketchers at 11am and we sketched the historic Melbourne City Baths from across the road. We just sat down and started sketching, then it started to rain. We could (an perhaps should have) moved under shelter , but just put up our umbrellas for an hour and a half. We had our photos taken by many groups of Asian tourists walking down from the Queen Victoria Markets.
 
 
 
 
 

The rain has an interesting effect on  watercolour paper and watercolour pencils.
I spent a very long time on the pencil set up. We each  considered whether to add colour tour pages. I sort off wish I had not. It would have been difficult in warm, dry weather on a dry day as I could but find the right combination of colour. But added challenge of damp changed the way colours and lines reacted. In the end it actually stopped me from being fussy about the result, as it was so uncontrollable.

Were those Melbourne sketchers testing me with the weather elements or was I testing them??? Either way, we all passed!




Sketching in the rain just sketching in the rain, a Glorious feeling I’m happy again. Kym & Evelyn



me & Evelyn. Thanks Kym for the photo.

 

Then the rain got heavier, we decided we were cold and went to find lunch !

 

and then to The Sketchbook Project exhibition at the Victorian College of Arts.

Fabulous concept, amazing books ,wonderful atmosphere and the creative juices are flowing !!! We shared the books we borrowed and got to see a lot of books made by other Australian Sketchbook Project entrants of all ages.

 
 
 



  1. get a library card, choose a book, get a random book as well and enjoy!



with Evelyn & Kym
Halina, Louise & I browsing through my Paris travelogue sketchbook. The sketchbook is based on the holiday I took with them in 2007, so we were reliving our holiday

 

sketching the Sketchbook Project

the next day it was cold , but not raining! the famous coffee shops of Melbourne laneways beckoned. I was talking to much to draw more than my coffee, and even then it was cold.

 
and after a days adventure I was back to the airport again

Erin Hill’s travel sketch workshop

Today I travelled to Manly to give my third (or is it fourth) guest presentation at Erin Hill’s Sketch Class. (Scroll down to the bottom of her page for today’s class photos and sketches). I had the privilege of sharing my enthusiasm and excitement about sketchbook travel journaling. I talked about how and when I sketch and why. I hope that is provided a little insight into the world of travel sketching.
 
 
I sketched my day from the start to finish , so that when I arrived at the class I already had sketched on the ferry. I left a space for the map, which I completed at home. I penciled in a heading, and completed at home, to match the colours I used on the page during the day.
 
leaving Circular Quay on the Manly Ferry. A classic view of the Opera House and Sydney  Harbour Bridge
 
 
 
Arriving at Manly Wharf and sketched at the wharf
 
After my short chat we did our own travelling from Erin’s Studio at Manly to Shelly Beach. It is a 15 minute beachside walk . Just perfect on a sunny day. We stopped twice along the way to sketch the scenery, sculptures on the way, plants and people. It was a chance to try and capture the essence of a moment or place on paper.
 
Sandstone cliffs on the Manly to Shelly Beach beachside walk
 
View to Shelly Beach as we got closer
 
Water dragons sunning by the side of the path
 
Our final destination was the Sand Bar café at Shelly Beach. We continued to sketch – I did my lunch of course. One of the newest sketchers had her priorities right – her lunch plate on her lap and sketchbook  on the table !
View from Shelly Beach and my lunch from the Sand Bar Cafe
 
It was all over to soon and time to say goodbye til next time.

 

and I sketched on the way home, finishing with the ferry ride home.
so many sail boats on the harbour

view of the sailboats from the ferry

Creation of a birds nest hat

I draw daily and have a few different styles, depending on where I am, how I feel  etc.

I am an Urban sketcher, I draw on envelopes, I am a nature sketcher, and draw objects .

They are ALWAYS in watercolour pencil, which I love to use, and sometimes use my Lamy Safari Ink Pen. I draw and sketch ALMOST ALWAYS in my watercolour Moleskine sketchbook 13 x 21 cm

I am going to share with you a project that I worked on last year. It is a hat that is a nest !
I created it – (not found in nature like this !!) 
I had put it away for a while, as I got distracted by other drawing projects. But now I have started drawing feathers again and have more nests to draw ( and another hat)
I spent a lot of time this drawing,  more than I have even spent on a piece of art . I was out of my comfort zone in terms of the size of the paper I was working on  (56 x 38cm). When working larger I also had to show more detail and came across a few other issues that perplexed me.

The finished (or is it?) drawing. It is too big to put on my scanner at home, so I have had to take a photograph

Below is how it evolved from an idea to where it is today (above)


In May 2010 I drew a hat that I owned for an Everyday Matters Challenge “Draw something old”. Years ago I was given an old hat box and inside it were two hats.

hat I was given

quail eggs from the markets

 

In 2012 I went to a local community art class and we were encouraged to draw a still life – thinking outside of the box. These are some quail eggs that bought from the local markets to draw.  I drew on a large on a large sheet of cartridge paper. It did not take the water very well, so I left it as watercolour pencil.  It is not very different from the final result

experiment on cartridge paper
 
 
I decided to take this on as a project. The hat/nest/eggs sat on my dining table for weeks on end over the course of the drawing
 
 
 
 
I did the first sketch in a large size on a spare sheet of paper .  
 
 
 
 
 
I bought a large sheet of paper Fabriano (56 x 38cm). (not sure what weight) and started on the hat

I had done quite a lot of work on the hat and realised that I had better figure out where the quail eggs were going to sit. They were hollowed out so were very light and I used blue tack to try and get them to stay in the same place. But a slight knock against the dining table sometimes had my careful arrangement collapsing


I had to experiment to try and allow for the light coloured hat netting to be seen against the dark fur. I used fluid masking fluid for the first time – varying degrees of success.  I experimented on a spare sheet of paper but the final version had varying areas of success.

You can’t add a lighter colour over a darker colour with watercolour pencils. I discovered that watersoluble crayons were successful for adding lighter highlights and lines. I could not add much contrast or detail, but they were useful

 
 
I then needed to add the branches where the nest/hat is sitting.
 
I photocopied the drawing in colour and did a lot of rubbing out and changing. Some branch placings just did not look right. There was a lot of experimentation again as the angle had to be just right so that it looked like it was actually sitting in the tree. This is something I should have thought of when I planned the page. It took a while and asking a lot of advice from friends. A good suggestion was to hold it up against a mirror to see if it looked ok.
where to place the branches
 

The next decision was to how to draw the branches – sketchy, detailed, coloured, graphite??

 I did some mock ups in each style and held them up against the hat/nest.

 My final decision was to a sketchy graphite, with a hint of watercolour . See the final drawing at the top of the page

So after many, many weeks it was time to put the nest and eggs back in the display cabinet, and put my drawing away for a while. But I have taken it out now and am a lot happier with it than I was at the time . I was too close to my work – like a university assignment that you have worked on for too long and makes complete sense to you ,but also no sense at all.

I will add a few tweaks and put it up on the wall. Then I can start on the next one- did  mention I got two hats in the hat box !