Category Archives: Uncategorized

On Saturday about 36 Urban Sketchers in Melbourne met at South Melbourne Markets for a few hours of sketching.

photos by Evelyn Yee

I stayed all day and completed 8 pages. I am experimenting with adding colour highlights to the page . I would like some of my drawings of crowds to have bit more interest . (Thanks Kaz for your advice !!)

Who are Urban Sketchers ???

We are an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to fostering a global community of artists who practice on-location drawing.

Our mission is to raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of on-location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel.

1.We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
2.Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
3.Our drawings are a record of time and place.
4.We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
5.We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
6.We support each other and draw together.
7.We share our drawings online.
8.We show the world, one drawing at a time.

My Christmas cards are available

Halloween

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When my coffee came in a black takeaway cup on Friday I knew I wanted to draw on it for Halloween.

The white gel pen I was planning to use did not like the cardboard that the cup was made out, so I ended up drawing with a coloured pencil (Faber Castell Polychromos) and using an image available on a copyright free online site. It is a cat on a pumpkin.

A few years ago I drew a few Halloween themed pictures. (Watercolour pencil in my Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook)

I hope everyone enjoys their Halloween parties and costumes !

my first markets

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This weekend was my first time of selling my greeting cards at markets.

It was a very low key entry as it was a fundraiser for a local church’s Community Pop Up Preloved Markets. A neighbour offered some space at the end of her table and I helped sell her jewellery as well. We were one of more than 30 stalls in the church hall and around the grounds. There was a steady stream of people from the moment we started to set up at about 9.00am ‘til about 3.30pm.

I had no expectations, so was pleased to sell 15 cards.

More importantly were the conversations I had and the people I met.

It was a chance to meet other locals (I have been in Melbourne for a year) and to get to put names to some familiar faces.

I met:

someone who lived in my apartment block in the 1960’s and whose daughter has just moved to my home town in Queensland
a barrister who uses the library (Supreme Court Library of Victoria) which features in my drawings. It was lovely and surreal to meet someone who has actually been there, and probably knows it better than I do
someone who would like to commission me to draw a car
a lady whose son studies birds and may help me to identify the birds nests I have been drawing
a few people who said ‘you’re the lady with the library display’. So nice they saw the display I have in our local library this month of my sketchbooks (and in August of my drawings and cards) and connected me with that

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I learnt a lot about having a market stall. I had about a week to organise this and had great display ideas which I did not have the time to put together. It was a good experience for a future craft/artisan market I hope to have a stall at early next year.

A wonderful but tiring day and I slept well last night !

New Greeting cards for sale!

chocolate cake birthday card

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Today I drew a birthday card for my brother . Happy Birthday Keith for the 14th October !

I thought that you might like to see it as a “work in progress” and I made a point of taking photos along the way. Usually I have great plans to do this but always forget once I get caught up in the moment of drawing.

Ingredients :

Watercolour pencils (Faber Castell) Burnt Umber, Walnut Brown and Burnt Sienna on Fabriano Hot Press 300 gsm paper.

Time: about an hour

Method : draw outline in Walnut Brown

Add layer upon layer upon layer, adding water as you go

Two strange ironies

I am printing and selling greeting cards and would love other people to buy them from my Etsy shop , but I have not purchased a card for years, as I always draw them.
I don’t have a sweet tooth and don’t eat sweets and cakes, but love to draw them ! see more of my drawings of them on flickr

New exhibition of my sketchbooks

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In August this year I was fortunate to have the opportunity to hold my first exhibition at my local East Melbourne Library. At the time, I also booked the space for my second exhibition for this month of October. Today I set it up with my friend and curator extraordinaire, Louise. This exhibition features 24 of my sketchbooks open at pages displaying a variety of themes. I hope to show people the wide variety of things that can be sketched and open their eyes to the concept of sketchbook journaling

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The themes on the opened pages include people, travel, food, drink, Melbourne, tools, everyday things and medical – as you can see, a wide variety. Anything is sketchable! Some are quick sketches and others are studied drawings. I carry my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook, watercolour pencils and Ink pen with me every where, and draw everyday.

It was difficult, but fun to choose 24 pages from 55 books with sketches capturing the last 8 years of my life. I had help and advice to choose pages that had strong images in landscape format so that they would be interesting to look at in the glass display cabinets in the library. So many choices !

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My exhibition is on for the month of October. If you are in Melbourne, I hope that you get the opportunity to come and visit.

drawing on a coffee cup

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I had not decided what to write about in this weeks blogpost.

Until I drew on a coffee cup and posted it online on Instagram and Facebook.

I was overwhelmed with number of ‘Likes’ . 500 plus in only a few hours. I have never had so many Comments and Likes.

That made my decision to share it with everyone. I drew on this paper coffee cup today to put in my sketching exhibition NEXT WEEK (that will be next weeks blogpost).