Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW) has begun. It is a Melbourne-wide program of free talks and events that celebrate the importance of books and literature in life. It was been running since 2012 and this is the first MRBW after a three-year break due to Covid. It culminates in the Melbourne Rare Book Fair, which is in its 51st year.

I am the official ‘sketcher on location’ st MRBW. I attend all events and document them in my sketches. I usually sit at the back of the room and capture the moment with my ink pen and watercolour pencils on the page! I have been honoured to be involved and have been doing this for the last few years.

The first event for MRBW was on Friday 21 July 2023

The Fencer’s Manual : The mystery surrounding the first commercially published book in Melbourne

Speaker: Andrew Lemon AM FRHSV

Historian Andrew Lemon revisits his research into the extraordinary story of the very first commercial book, published in 1859 by Clarson, Shallard and Co. (later Clarson, Massina and Co.), successors to the firm Slater, Williams and Hodgins, printers in Melbourne since the end of the La Trobe era. Who was Robert Meikle, the mystery author of the very rare The Fencer’s Manual? And while the Massina name continued in the publishing world, what led to the tragic demise of his one-time business partner and eminent horticulturalist, William Clarson?

The night began with drinks and conversation, before taking our seats.

Saturday 22 July 2023

Charting the Heavens : The Transit of Venus, James Cook and Astronomy

Speaker: Shane Carmody

Found in the archives of State Library Victoria’s collections is a tiny, portable celestial globe. Once owned by Captain James Cook, it is an extraordinary artefact that reminds us of the Endeavour’s initial purpose: the pursuit of scientific discovery. Historian and author Shane Carmody, will talk on the voyage of the Endeavour, how astronomical books and tools were used and their role in the international effort to chart the Transit of Venus and establish accurate longitude. There will be the chance to see rare astronomical books and artefacts from the Collection.

After the talk, we were invited to view this amazing collection and ask questions.

Sunday 23 July 2023

From Folio to Fopdoodle: Exploring some of the curiosities of Samuel Johnson’s famous Dictionary

Speaker: John Byrne

The publication of Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 was a sensation in England and Europe. It heralded the birth of modern lexicography, and it was 150 years before it was superseded by the Oxford English Dictionary. Johnson’s Dictionary first appeared in two majestic folio volumes, which were soon followed by quarto, octavo and miniature editions. John Byrne has assembled one of the finest privately held Johnsonian collections in the world. He will display copies from his collection and discuss why and how this great work is still important to us today.

I am looking forward to a week of talks. It started off slowly with one event a day. During this week there are up to four events a day, including one of my own. I am presenting “You Can’t Draw in Books?” on Monday night. I draw in books that are about to the discarded – the opposite end of the Rare Book scale. I will blog about all of the events next week. You can also follow my daily sketches on Instagram alissaduke1

Booking and details are here

It was so lovely to get out and sit in the Fitzroy Gardens and sketch this morning. I sat on the grass, listened to the magpies, and connected with nature. I sat on my coat on the wet grass as it gave the view I wanted of this pine tree. It has this great swooping branch down to the ground. The Melbourne CBD buildings and St Patrick’s Cathedral in the background are in pen only.

They are watercolour pencils : FaberCastell- Pine Green, Grass Green and Ultramarine.

When sketching, there are always choices to make about what to include and what to highlight. Today it was all about the tree and its branches. I had to add the blue sky as it was such a beautiful day. If this is Winter in Melbourne, I like it.

It was my first day out and sketching for a week. I had been inside.

I had a cold when away and spent two days in a nice hotel, I tried to do a few sketches from the window, but the focus was obviously on my cold medicines. All better now!

Once back in Melbourne, it was all home sketching as I put my feet up and had a quiet week.

The next two weeks’ blog posts will be about Melbourne Rare Book Week. It is a week of Melbourne-wide programs of free talks and events that celebrate the importance of books and literature in life. I am the official sketcher and will be sketching on location at most of the 20 events and sharing them here and on social media. View the events and book here.

I will also be talking at an event about my “You Can’t Draw in Books” display. This is the opposite of Rare books. They are the books that are about to be discarded. I have drawn on a page, illustrating what is being described on the page.

See you next week.

happy sketching

Alissa

Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW) 2023, returns following a break of three years due to Covid-19. This year, MRBW will run from 21st July to 29th July. It will consist of 21 events, culminating in the ANZAAB Melbourne Rare Book Fair which will run from 27th to 29th July.

Our guest speaker for the launch this year was Jane Sullivan, well known in Melbourne as an author and journalist who has written with great skill and passion about books for many years.

I am the official sketcher at all MRBW events again this year and will be attending all events.

Bookings are open

I have two events – a display “You Can’t Draw in Books?” and a talk about the display,

You Can’t Draw in Books?

Curated by: Alissa Duke

What happens to the books no one wants? This exhibition demonstrates Alissa’s ability to turn unwanted books into objects of art. Using watercolour pencils, she illustrates these books with a wide variety of subjects, including fiction, travel, food, history and nature.

East Melbourne Library for the month of JULY

Mon-Fri 10:00am-6:00pm, Sat 10:00am-1:00pm. Sun Closed.

No bookings required

This Saturday I set up the display. I have had displays in my wonderful local East Melbourne Library previously for my sketchbooks. I am aware of how my sketchbooks fit in the glass display cabinet sections and could organise a fair bit in advance. But this time, I had no idea of how my oddly shaped “drawn in ” books would fit in, so I brought them all in two large suitcases to experiment with on the day. It took two and a half hours to set up.

ORGANISING AT HOME

SETTING UP AT THE LIBRARY

DISPLAY CASE ONE

DISPLAY CASE TWO

DISPLAY CASE THREE

All books are available for purchase on my ETSY website. They will be posted after the exhibition has finished on 31 July. My ETSY website is set for Australian Postal delivery. If you are overseas please message me here or on ETSY. Prices vary depending on the country and the size of the book.

If you are in Melbourne, you are welcome to visit or come to my talk. Book here for the talk.

You Can’t Draw in Books? Speaker: Alissa Duke

“Inspired by words on the page, and using watercolour pencils, Alissa draws in books that were about to be discarded, giving them a new life and value. She questions some preconceptions about writing and drawing in books, talking about her creative process along the way. The talk will include a tour of the books on display.”

chickens move – all the time, a lot, This group never seemed to return to the same position or place.

However, their feathers do not!

The Faber Castell watercolour pencils used are some of my favourites:

Dark Sepia

Burnt Ochre

Cold Grey IV

I will not be posting a blogpost next week, but watch for the week after when I can show you an exciting new exhibition and details of a talk I am giving at an event!

July 1- 7 was International Nature Journaling Week.

This year they are taking a ‘Sensory Safari’, focusing on the delights that are available to us when we pay close attention to our sensory experiences.They will also have a theme for each day during the week to guide our focus. The daily themes were :

1. Colour
2. Texture
3. Aroma
4. Song
5. Flavour
6. Movement
7. Heart

I posted my first few days last Sunday’s blogpost Below are the last three.

My days changed and I did not get to go out in nature as I had planned. I was still able to interpret the themes. “Movement” was from a photo, because sparrows never stay still, not even for a quick sketch. I listened to the video for the day and it opened my mind and eyes as to what is movement.

“Flavour” was much easier

I loved the “Heart” video. It is all about the invisible connection that you can have with nature.

In case you missed last week, I am going to post the links.

“Explore the website – there is lots to discover! You can Start Here and then find out How to Participate in the week. There is a page for Parents & Teachers, one for the Reluctant Artist and a page on sharing the Written Word in our nature journal pages. On the Blog you will find posts from nature journalers around the world, sharing ideas and knowledge on different aspects of journaling. The Books & Inspiration page will point you to books and websites where you can learn more about nature journaling and nature connection.”

Two of my sketching friends are some of the Administrators of this amazing week. There is so much to learn from watching the daily interviews and explanations. Congratulations to everyone involved in organising this special week.

International Nature Journaling Week 1-7th June 2023

It is halfway through INJW International Nature Journaling Week. I am providing the information below from their website, as I cannot explain it any better !

“This year we will be taking a ‘Sensory Safari’, focusing on the delights that are available to us when we pay close attention to our sensory experiences.We will also have a theme for each day during the week to guide our focus. The daily themes will be:

1. Colour
2. Texture
3. Aroma
4. Song
5. Flavour
6. Movement
7. Heart

“Explore the website – there is lots to discover! You can Start Here and then find out How to Participate in the week. There is a page for Parents & Teachers, one for the Reluctant Artist and a page on sharing the Written Word in our nature journal pages. On the Blog you will find posts from nature journalers around the world, sharing ideas and knowledge on different aspects of journaling. The Books & Inspiration page will point you to books and websites where you can learn more about nature journaling and nature connection.”

Two of my sketching friends are some of the Administrators of this amazing week. There is so much to learn from watching the daily interviews and explanations. Congratulations to everyone involved in organising this special week.

I am not sure how I will interpret the last three prompts

There are hundreds of online art challenges that you can get involved in. They sometimes involve themes, lists, timeframes, and media. They motivate, inspire and challenge and people get involved in different ones for different reasons.

I have described some below and added links to the sketches/art for you to browes if you are interested. I have had a great time putting this together as it brought back so many memories.

I have been involved in a few and have enjoyed them immensely. I am writing this blogpost now as one of them has come full circle and some of my Sketchbooks that have been in NEW YORK for a few years have now come home I will share the Sketchbook Project adventure and talk about some others.

Sketchbook Project

Since its founding as a non-profit organization in 2006, the Sketchbook Project grew to include over 50,000 artists’ books, which have been contributed by 30,000+ artists from over 135 countries. Each book is 5″ x 7”, with 16 blank pages and a unique six-digit barcode, for cataloging and tracking purposes.

THE IDEA- sign up for a sketchbook and you are given one of many themes and can interpret it any way you want, as long as the book is returned the same size so that it can fit back on the shelf in Brooklyn Art Library in New York.

They were housed in New York and some were included in regular pop-up tours around the US. Mine even toured Australia and I saw it! You could borrow a book (specific or random) to browse on-site and would be given ones either side of it from the shelves. That way you got to see lots of people’s interpretations of the same theme

After 17 years, hundreds of thousands of book checkouts, over 50k sketchbooks created, and thousands of miles traveled, the Brooklyn Art Project is now closed.

On Monday, February 28th, 2022 the moving trailer that was transporting the entire Sketchbook Project collection from Brooklyn to St. Pete was in a devastating accident Around 70% of The Sketchbook Project collection was saved through the heroic efforts of local volunteers, firefighters, and community members from a nearby church who so kindly moved each box of books one by one into their parking lot. They lost around 7,000 books from the collection. One was mine – Travelogue. But I do have the scanned version and I have printed it as well.

Last year, the wonderful volunteer team decided that it was “No longer financially viable.” to continue. The books were distributed to other galleries. I decided this was the moment that my sketchbooks came home.

Below are my projects

Sketchbook Project 2013 Travelogue

I revisited my Paris 2007 holiday, as if I was sketching as I do now ! .. and of course planning how would approach future travel sketchbooks. I sketched from photographs.

Sketchbook Project 2012 : Sandwiches. I decided to draw the memories of my Primary School sandwiches (1970’s Australia). I had such FUN doing this one. I researched original packaging from the time and chatted with my brother and mum to see if my memories were the same as theirs!

Sketchbook Project 2010 : The View From Up Here

sketches from imagined a hot air balloon ride over scenes I had in photos or located online from A-Z

Sketchbook project 2009 : Elephant in the room

I interpreted this literally – going to the zoo and sketching and photographing elephants and then drawing them in rooms.

EveryDay in May

Another challenge – this one is still going. A list is posted on the Flickr and facebook page on 1st May and you draw one item on the list (see below) every day in May until you finish on 31st May with number 31.NO stress if you miss a day – just go on to the next one and catch up if you can. It is ok to combine a few, or to jump around if it suits…but the ideal is to do the right one on the day like everyone else….but most importantly have fun! This was and still is a wonderful project.

EveryDay in May

I had to go back to the Archives and found this description on Liz Steel’s website

Started originally by French Toast Girl, the idea was to do something creative every day for the month of May. The first few years that I was online,  everyone in the Everyday Matters(EDM) group did a different thing ( The daily discipline was great.Then in 2010 a few of us in Sydney were chatting and decided we would draw the same things – using the EDM list for inspiration. There was only a few people doing it, I managed the list manually on my blog – wow – those were the days! It was so much fun to see everyone drawing the same thing each week, and the great thing about the EveryDay Matters list is that a lot of them are prompts rather than specific objects so you have the chance to be creative.

2020 2016 2015 2013 2012 2010 2009

One Million Giraffes

My two contributions to a fun website that aimed to collect one million hand created giraffe images by 2011.  www.onemilliongiraffes.com.

Illustration Friday – click on the link to see my Album of sketches

Illustration Friday was a weekly illustration challenge. A topic was posted every Friday and then participants have all week to come up with their own interpretation
it was at www.illustrationfriday.com/

Below is my response to Paisley

I prefer to call them projects rather than challenges. I love a project and a deadline ! They can be individual however being involved can also connect you to a larger community.

All of these started in 2009. I started adding photos and then scan of my art to Flickr in 2008. It must have been a time when I was looking for creative outlets. We had Sydney Sketch Club, but Urban Sketchers had not started up in Sydney.

Three Sydney friends & I used to meet once a month at a food court in Sydney to work on our Sketchbook Projects. We still kept meeting after some had decided not to continue. We still meet now on Zoom and I write the meeting in my diary as SBP (SketchBook Project)

EveryDay in May – posted to Flickr (a photo sharing website) . I am still in contact with some of the group from 2009 and Mum participated each year too. The only time of the year she sketched It took a few days for her to warm up but she was great !

Giraffes was a great project – Mum drew more than me!

I don’t do as many challenges anymore as I have so many art projects in my life. International Nature Journalling Week starts on June 1. I will be focusing on their broader prompts and themes and thinking a lot more, rather than responding to a subject/object.

What challenges do you do ?

I had the opportunity to sketch at Lyrical Lunchtimes, a concert in the Supreme Court Library in Melbourne Victoria. There is a piano in the Library, belonging to a previous Chief Justice and it is played on special occasions – like last Friday.

The music program was presented by a group called BottledSnail Productions, who all work in the legal profession.

I have sketched these concerts in the past and they are always a challenge. There is always a variety of musicians and it is visually overwhelming. There were seven performances in the concert, which went for over 1 hour 15 minutes. This means that the performers are not “on stage” for long.

You will see below that I did some quick sketches as well as one major sketch. I had a different approach this time. Firstly I sketched in watercolour pencil and not ink pen. I usually use my Lamy Safari Joy Ink pen to sketch the people at events and then add watercolour pencil.

My second change was to block out the main features before the concert began. I work in this library, so I had the opportunity to walk around the room on the day before and look at the different viewpoints, trying to imagine chairs in place and guessing where the musicians may stand. Below is a view I rejected – too much floor space from an angle that may not have guaranteed a good view of the performers. I sketched out the major features on the page, so those lines were in place before the concert began, and I could start with the audience as they took their seats.

Below is the main sketch halfway through. I had to decide what areas to colour or add detail to. I had the choice of:

• the audience
• the musicians
• the surroundings – there is much more I could have included, more portraits, a large gasolier in the center
• a combination – the decision I made

I moved from one side of the room to the other, quickly sketching some other musicians before moving back into ‘my space”. I was standing up against a bookshelf, leaning on a reading shelf. I am quite comfortable with the style of these quick sketches as these are what I usually do. The background takes a lot of time, however as I had the basics in place, I did not have to spend so much time on that.

There were four pianists. I captured two up close and one in the main sketch.

Beautiful music, beautiful surroundings, and I got to sketch it! A wonderful way to spend a lunch hour!

I have spent a lot of time drawing this building and its book. Some of those are available on greeting cards on my ETSY website!

I was asked by Marie (on Instagram) if could film my drawing autumn leaves.

Below are two videos, slowed down to as much as I know how to.

I am still learning about filming and editing. I am also very ‘aware’ that I am recording and conscious about how I draw. The result is that is probably not what I would do without being under this pressure I put on myself.

However, the technique and process are the same.

One day, I would love to record and give commentary along the way. This time I was mentally making notes along the way of things I wanted to tell you.

First step, collecting the wonderful autumn leaves yesterday along the street in my suburb in Melbourne. I choose them for their colour and size, so they would look good on the page. The leaves had already dried and changed overnight. By tomorrow they will probably all be crinkly and crisp. Still fun to sketch but the vibrancy will have gone from some of them.

I choose which of my collection to sketch and got out my pencils to have within reach. Sharpened pencils, clean water and I was right to go.

I love to draw and the first joy is to sketch them out on the page in a colour of the leaf. I don’t do an initial sketch with a HB pencil, just dive straight in. This colour becomes part of the leaf colour. With so many colours on these leaves, I could have chosen from a few colours.

I then add colour to some major areas of the leaf. With watercolour pencils (like watercolours ) you can’t put light colours on top of dark colours. If there are any areas that are going to be yellow, orange, or light green (in this case) they are put in early. The big blocks of darker colours are added.

You can see how I use the pigment on the page as a very small palette, dragging the colour across an area with the paintbrush, so that they fade to light tones.

That is one of the things that I teach in my Watercolour Pencil classes – discovering the range of colour and tones you can get from the one pencil.

The other thing to note is how the colour of a pencil can change once water is added. Sometimes, but not always, it can become very intense.

These are two great reasons to practice and play with your pencils. Have fun, explore and scribble on the page!

I move between the two leaves as this allows one to dry while I work (is that the right word? It is not work at all) on the other. Once an area is dry, I can add more layers. It will either be more of the same colour to make it darker, or another colour. For example, the Grass Green. As I add more to make some areas bright. I also added Pine Green ( a darker colour) to add specific detail or darker areas.

Here is the list of FaberCastell watercolour pencils that I used in the first video.

• Magenta
• Caput Mortuum
• Deep Red
• Orange Glaze
• Naples Yellow (this is not in my everyday sketchkit, but was out on the table, so I used it)
• Light Chrome Yellow
• Grass green
• Pine Green
• Burnt Umber

I made a second video adding the extra leaves to the page. This was with a few different colours.

The shadows were added at the end. They are Payne’s Grey.

The size of my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook (13cm x 19cm) allows me to play work on small areas of a page. You may also notice how I like to use the sharpened pencil to add finer details.

The colour of these leaves did change as I sketched them and by the end of the day, they had changed shape and colour as they dried out. But that is the joy of sketching leaves, Each one is different and the colours are different on each one. There is no right and wrong.

I encourage you to have a play with your watercolour pencils and let me know if you have any questions.

My Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes are held in Melbourne.

Last week I posted the sketches and photos from my recent participation in International Urban Sketching Symposium in Auckland.

I have scanned the sketchbook that I completed (and the second one started) in Auckland.

I decided to go ahead and scan all the pages, even though I would like to spend more time on some of the pages, adding some further details and finishing them. But I am not sure if that will ever happen.

It was hard to select which sketches to include in this blog. It will be enough to give you an insight.

• my arrival and departure
• Some urban Sketching moments
• my own personal time and slower drawings in Auckland.

Melbourne to Auckland

in Auckland

Auckland Museum

Auckland life

Auckland Zoo

Auckland to Melbourne

All sketches will be added to Flickr, a photosharing website. All of my sketches go onto Flickr. It (and on my computer) is the place where I locate my own sketches. They all have tags and can be searched for. I also put various themes, holidays and projects in Albums.

I have so many more sketches from this holiday.