International Nature Journaling Week was 1-7th June 2024
This year we are exploring the natural processes within the cycle of life. It is winter in Melbourne, so I had to look harder or think broadly about some of the interpretations. As usual I used my wonderful Faber Castell watercolour pencils as usual to create these. I used the colours in my usual sketchkit for these.

It was a wonderful week to explore what is around me.

There is an amazing International Nature Journaling Week team behind this. They are from different parts of the world but are connected by a shared love of nature and creativity.

They had a theme for each day during the week to guide everyone’s focus.

• Germination and emergence
• Growth and development
• Metamorphosis and transformation
• Reproduction and replication
• Fruiting and dispersal
• Decay and decomposition
• Renewal and regeneration

If you are curious here is an excerpt form their website with links to all sorts of wonderful things

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. Sign-up to the newsletter to receive updates and ideas.

There were all sorts of interpretation and styles and knowledge from around the world shared online during this time. It was fascinating to read about different parts of the world and their plants and animals.

My focus is always the drawing, however, other write, or create more scientific pages.

Germination and emergence.

These Chestnut conkers were given to me a few years ago to draw. There were six in an egg carton. I wonder … would they germinate if I planted them now??? I live in an apartment, so I won’t be testing that theory.

Growth and development

In the middle of a Melbourne winter there is growth on the end of some bunya pine trees in nearby Fitzroy Gardens.

Metamorphasis and transformation

Cicada skins I have in my collection

Reproduction and replication

Quail eggs from my collection.

Fruiting and dispersal

A beautiful gerbera in a bunch of flowers I was given. I cut one in half to show the seed head and how they disperse when dry.

Decay and decomposition

 These are bones of a short-tailed shearwater (muttonbird) from Port Fairy beach , Victoria, Australia. Thousands migrate every year and some die on the beaches there from exhaustion. I found these desiccated bones a few years ago in the sand.

Renewal and Regeneration

I was looking for Winter inspiration. Found ! in a local front yard where someone had done some heavy winter pruning and these small shoots were emerging

I would like to thank the organisers for the time, thought and passion that they put into making this such a successful event once again !

When you sketch, you look and observe nature, it is astonishing !

I have been chatting to a few friends and sketchers about travel sketching recently.

Today I am showing how to start and maintain your excitement before you go.

I often sketch many pages before I even land on the ground at my holiday destination.

Here are some ideas I have taken from my previous UK holidays.

I hope that this gives you some inspiration and ideas.

Happy and safe travels everyone. Enjoy sketching as you go.

Melbourne Rare Book Week 2024 (MRBW) was launched on Thursday night at Tonic House! The participating partners were invited for drinks and conversation before a fascinating talk by Wallace Kirsop about the beginnings of his book life. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with MRBW from the past year, as well as others I see more often.

As the Official sketcher for MRBW I started with launch night.

AND here is the program – https://rarebooksmelbourne.com/events-2/ Have a look and book if in you are local or planning a visit. Some events have limited seating depending on the size of the organisation and building it is in, so you might want to book in and put it into your calendar now!

All events are free. Have a browse through the program. It is not all about expensive, high-end collectables, but also the sharing of stories behind the books in interesting collections of organisations and individuals.

MRBW runs 18-27 July and it is a very special one as it is the 10th year. The culminating event of MRBW is always the Australian Antiquarian Book Fair, presented by The Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB).

There are many more events this year, so many that I can’t sketch at them all, and will have to make some decisions about what I can get to. Most events are in Melbourne CBD, but some are a few suburbs away, a few even further afield. I take the week off work and document each event. sketching on location. The talks usually go for 45 minutes to one hour. In most cases, it involves people sitting and listening. I sit in the back row and sketch – sometimes the people in front of me are the feature and sometimes the building itself.

I am honored that my sketches from previous years feature on the bookmark this year and throughout the program. It is lovely to have a printed program. They are available throughout Melbourne at the partner organisations who are hosting events, and also in coffee shops and other places. Just contact me, if you would like one.

I am also giving a talk, (which I will not be sketching at) on “The Oldest Book in the Supreme Court Library: Statham’s Abridgement (1491) and its place in law reporting today”.

I have been sketching at MRBW since I moved to Melbourne and have been the official sketcher since 2015. I value the friendships I have made through this event and the connections and reconnections that I make every year.

I hope to see you there. Please introduce yourself if you are there and see me sketching.

I was not sure what I was going to write about this week, Hoerver a few hours in the beautiful Autumnal Melbourne weather produced a few sketches that encompassed the day.

Each sketch is just an impression of the moment, but together they capture the time I spent there.

I sketched the tree, which I later found out is a pin oak. I took a leaf home and drew it later, I like the combination of a sketch and more detail of part of the subject,

There was an intense blue sky and the tree tops shapes were clearly defined.

I have sketched magpies before. I know they don’t mind if you get close, but won’t necessarily stay around for long. I can follow them around, I start with their beak and head. I have to closely observe which feathers are white, blank or grey, Getting the eye in position is important, My wonderful watercolour pencils allow me to capture the shape and body in linework and add water to the pencil on the page to get the black colour, I decided not to add water to the whole page. My style is the unfinished look.

and then it got chilly and I headed home,

On Saturday morning I had a catchup with sketchers who had attended one of my Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes in the past.

Annette, Cath, Soraya, Robyn & I met at Kere Kere Cafe in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne. I am fortunate to be able to book the Community Table for this catchup.

It was an opportunity to talk art, ask questions, play with watercolour pencils for two hours. Everyone (including me) walked away motivated and inspired. They had either been travelling and could share their experinces, or were planning to travel, and could get ideas. I had a great time with these lovely sketchers!

I brought along all of my green Faber Castell Watercolour Pencils for everyone to play with. There are 20 green colours ! I collected some leaves aong the way.

It is good to know the range of colours available to be able to decide which ones suit what and where you sketch. We talked about the different colours you would use in different countries or even areas of Australia!

I carry four in my daily sketchkit.

• Earth Green
• Grass green
• Pine Green
• Chrome Green Oxide

Which greens do you use?

Happy sketching everyone !

On Saturday I spent the day house cleaning for my six-monthly apartment inspection by the Property Manager. The heavy duty cleaning products came out.

At the end of the day, I sat down and relaxed.And sketched. Anything is sketchable !

I remembered to take work in progress photos.

I did not spend a lot of time on this. It is just a sketch to capture the moment on the page. I was attracted to sketch these because of their bright colours.

I could have spent a lot of time on this, but it was a quick sketch,

The drawing below was also created with watercolour pencils. It was a long studied drawing, I love the detail watercolour pencils can produce.

Today I filmed myself sketching some Autumn leaves with my watercolour pencils.

There are two videos. The first is the sketch and the second is showing examples of adding water to the colours used in the sketch.

The Faber Castell Watercolour pencils I used were:

• Grass Green
• Chrome Green Oxide
• Burnt Ochre
• Deep Red
• Magenta
• Orange Glaze
• Light Chrome Yellow
• Burnt Umber

The second video shows how I the colour spreads across the page when water is added.

Please let me know if you have any questions about using watercolour pencils or what else I could show in a sketch.

Happy sketching

I am very happy and excited to be involved with a project at my local library: the East Melbourne Community Seed Library project.

It is part of a work in progress to establish a free seed library at East Melbourne Library.

What is a seed library?

The East Melbourne Community Seed Library aims to build food resilience and promote sustainable gardens by sharing seeds to encourage the community to grow their own produce.

Collect (Borrow) Seeds
There is a call for locals to Join a growing community who grow and share seeds by visiting the East Melbourne Library Seed Library. Residents will be able to collect seeds for their own garden and return seeds to contribute seeds to the Seed Library for others.

Local ? Help us to grow our Seed Library by harvesting seeds and donating them back to the library!

What am I doing?

I am drawing the images of the plant of the seeds in the packets. These will be on the front of each seed packet. I completed two and the Librarian was very pleased with the results and then provided a list of the other seeds they have.

Over the Easter long weekend, I spent time on these drawings.

Below are in various stages of completion. I am drawing two on each A4 watercolour page.

It is lovely to be able to share a commission. I have two other commissions this year that I will be able to share once they are made public by the organisations involved.

Chat to the East Melbourne Library emelcirc(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)melbourne.vic.gov.au and phone 9658 9600 for any enquiries.

Each year I have a tradition of sketching my Easter Hot Cross Bun,

This year is no different. This hot cross bun was given to me and was just perfect to draw and then eat!

I also sketched some nests, eggs and a bunny.

It is just a quick blog this week as I am spending the weekend working on a commission which I will share next week. It involves a lot of greens!

Please let me know if you have any questions about watercolour pencils or my sketches. I have lots of practical hints and tips on my blog, some are gathered here together.

I have classes too. see here.

Happy Easter and happy sketching.

Below are photos of my stall at Clunes Booktown Festival this weekend. I have arrived home and unpacked. Now putting my feet up.It was a wonderful weekend, meeting some lovely people. Thanks to everyone who dropped by to say hello and purchased my books or cards. I had some great conversations and met some lovely stallholders too. .

A big thank you to my good friend Louise who assisted once again all weekend and to Adam and Michaela who provided flew down from Queensland to wine and dine us and drive us around. All have signed up for next year! They also bought lots of books.

All books that did not sell on the day will be available on my ETSY website in the next few days.

Thanks Clunes and everyone for a wonderful weekend.