Category Archives: urban sketchers

MRBW Day 3

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Melbourne Rare Book Week hosted six events today. Some were at the same times, so I had to make a choice about which ones to attend and sketch at. The decision was made easily, as one, A Walk on the Mean Streets, was going to have more sketching potential than the others.

The day began at the Rare Book Discovery Day at Melbourne Museum. It was an opportunity for people to bring along their books, maps and prints to this Antiques Roadshow-style event for discussion and informal appraisals from a panel of leading antiquarian booksellers. I arrived when they opened the doors and sat behind the appraisers.

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I immediately realised that my ink pen was empty so I sketched in watercolour pencil. Instead of a quick sketch I stayed there for about an hour, drawing the appraisers first and then adding some people who had bought books along. I was pleased when a family arrived with a stack of books . I had a wonderful time watching, listening to the interesting conversations and sketching.

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After rushing home to refill my ink pen I went back into the city for A Walk on the Mean Streets. I knew in advance that the two presenters were dressing in period costume, which is why I wanted to attend this event. We had a perfect winters day – clear blue sky and sunshine.

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This walk was hosted by Dr. Lucy Sussex, an expert on Australian detective fiction, accompanied by Professor Chris Browne. We walked for two hours, stopping at some of the sites of Melbourne featured in the books of Fergus Hume, the author of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.

 

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The walk finished at East Melbourne Library biscuits and coffee and with an interview with the ghost of Fergus Hume. We also viewed some early editions of the Mystery of Hansom cab and related titles and learned more about the publishing history.

 

Christmas sketching in Melbourne

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Today I was sketching with ten Melbourne sketching friends. We met on a hot and sunny day  in Christmas Square (usually known as Melbourne Square), with its  BIG tree, Santa, elves and plenty of families . As well as doing our usual urban sketching, with a Christmas theme , we each got a watercolour postcard do a sketch and put in a hat to choose one to take home. We did this last year and decided continue and hope it becomes a tradition. I got Kaz’s and Evelyn got mIne.

fed sq

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The day was all arranged by Janice –  thank you for the wonderful day and great weather. finishing at Beer DeLuxe for lunch ( and more sketching)

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This is the card I drew . There are very tall toy soldiers around the Square and in Melbourne CBD.

My main sketch of the day (apart from the card) was my first one of the Christmas tree, Cathedral and people. Everyone wanted their photo taken in front of the tree. Great fun. The page was very  ‘organic’ – not really planned. It just grew down the page13Dec15 Christmas Square

 

13Dec15 lunch13Dec15 lunchbar

 

travel sketching on the go

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I have just spent three days in Sydney after my first year of living in Melbourne. I was going to write a blog including my sketches from the weekend. However, after beginning scanning my 18 pages I realised there were enough interesting transport and travel sketches to put together a post on them alone.

Travelling provides so many opportunities for very quick sketches as well as longer ones.  A lot of time is spent waiting, sitting, standing and  queuing. Some of it is unexpected and some you will know about in advance.  Each opportunity can also provide its own challenges and issues.

6Aug15 bus

My bus ride to the airport (above) was very bumpy. I think I was sitting over a wheel! I sketched with my Lamy Safari Joy ink pen and my hand seemed to bump along with the bus. It seemed to happen when I got to drawing faces – some big noses here. I have drawn on this airport bus previously and am used to where people are positioned and the perspective.

8Aug15 taxi
The taxi ride back to the airport was a lot smoother. I don’t catch many taxis and don’t often draw in them. The subject doesn’t move much!
8Aug15 plane
I always arrive early at the airport and enjoy the time that I can spend sketching planes. I don’t always get to draw the plane I am travelling in. Sometimes I start to draw a plane and all of the landing crew, mechanics and vehicles suddenly move away and the plane leaves. Sketched with my watercolour pencils in Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook (13 x 19 cm ) .

6Aug15 plane

6Aug15 passengersFellow passengers across the aisle can be ideal subjects to draw . (Sometimes the seats are just to close together and I don’t feel comfortable sketching with my passenger right next to me looking over my shoulder ).They sleep, have interesting hairstyles, lots of creases in their clothing to sketch. The sketch above was in ideal circumstances. This was before take-off and all the people stayed in place for me. I sketched this with my Watercolour pencils, but with no water added.  (and I received lovely compliments from the flight crew).

But passengers also move a lot in their seat and unexpectedly  change positions. The lady below moved a few times, but stayed in each one for a while. She also sat with her legs crossed on the seat (how did she do that?) but I missed that opportunity to sketch her.
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and then there are the REALLY quick sketches as people hurry to leave 6Aug15 passengers2

The SEATBELT sign has been turned off at the end of the flight and everyone scrambles to standup, retrieve their belongings and then ….wait and wait. (and sketch)
8Aug15 on the plane

Urban Sketching in Boroondara – Exhibition

There was a wonderful turn-out at the Melbourne Urban Sketchers group exhibition launch on Saturday at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. It was amazing to see all our works, framed and professionally arranged on the wall. I am very proud to have the opportunity to be part of the event.
 

I’ve only been in Melbourne for 2 months and in that time I’ve been sketching with Urban Sketchers Melbourne on Saturdays. We have been capturing the local scenes around the Boroondara area of Melbourne (i.e. Camberwell, Hawthorn, Kew etc). Now we get a chance to share our work with our family, friends and the community. I have had a great introduction to various Melbourne suburbs and sketch the people, architecture and scenes with my watercolour pencils. Because  I knew that some of the sketches were going to be for the Exhibition I have been challenged to draw on larger (A4) sheets of paper instead of my usual 13 x 19 cm Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook.

The exhibition runs 4 November to 6 December 2014.
 

 
A big thank you to Evelyn Yee whose initiative and organisational skills made this a
reality.

 

 
Here are my three entries up close.

 
                                                   
Melbourne Urban Sketchers is a diverse group of people united by a passion for sketching.
Urban Sketchers is a global community of artists that draw on location in cities, towns and villages they live in or travel to and then share with the world ! Our motto is Seeing the world one drawing at a time

Hello Mebourne

I have been in Melbourne for two weeks, after moving from Sydney,  and have found it easy to continue my normal sketching patterns. I carry my Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook and watercolour pencils with me everywhere. I have the opportunity to quickly capture my new daily life.
 
 
Corner of  Collins and Elizabeth Streets . commuters on their way to work
 
At Flinders Street Station, looking at the timetables and platform notices



Fitzroy Gardens

 
I am also using my lunchtime to sketch the buildings around me. I have been very fortunate with the weather.
Supreme Court Library dome

Supreme Court Library window

 

 
 
On the weekend
 
I have sketched with Urban Sketchers Melbourne twice. At the moment they are focusing on sketching in the inner city Council District of Booroondara, which includes a number of suburbs including Hawthorn, Kew, Canterbury. It is in preparation for a urban Sketches exhibition at Town Hall Gallery Hawthorn in November. If you are visiting Melbourne, drop by and visit it. So I am getting to explore parts of Melbourne as well as meet new urban sketchers. I already knew Evelyn, Kym, Angela and Jodi from previous visits and am happy to be able to sketch and chat with them on a regular basis now.
 
This Saturday’s visit was to Maling Road, Canterbury. A charming shopping village with beautiful shops, cafes and the weather was perfect too.
 
Classic fruits store

 
My lunch, of course

Sydney sketches today

Sydney is enjoying the warmest winter in years. The day time temperature has not dropped below 20 degrees and this week there have been blue skies and sunshine everyday. I made the most of this opportunity and sketched . Today I was inspired (and had the time) to do two sketches, one before work and one at lunch. These are both sketched in Martin Place at the GPO end near the Westin.

As it was such lovely weather, lots of other people were out and about in their lunch hours too. That is why it is nice to come into work early and sketch at 8am.  I can sit in doorways of stores that are usually open through the daytime.





I am very pleased with what I can capture on a page in around 30 minutes. I like the vignette style and the little scene. I think that this style has only come to me recently. It is one of the styles that I would like to use when travelling. I also like to use pen and ink as well to do this style of sketch. I also like to do a very quick sketch of people and crowds. I have a variety of styles and it depends on the scenes (or most usually) what I feel like on the day to which one I use.

 

I start with a very few lines in pencil. Just some basic horizontal and vertical lines and for these, the arches, just so that I don’t miss out on a level of the building. Then my lovely watercolour pencils come out. I draw in the lines and areas in their colour, Then I apply the waterbrush, then more watercolour pencil and so on until it is time to go !

Sketching on Cockatoo Island

I spent the last two days  on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour. A place full of Sydney history from convict to industrial era and through to the present day, where you wander and explore. While Liz Steel and Paul Wang ran their Expressive Urban Sketching Workshop on the island, I spent the days drawing and taking the opportunity to catch up with my old and new sketching friends before and after the Workshop each day. I could feel the sense of enthusiasm and excitement in the group each time I talked to them. There will be many blog, flickr and facebook posts from the 25 participants from around Australia and the world . Have a look at the Australian Urban Sketchers blogsite

I had put aside these two days take my watercolour pencils to the island to explore and draw on Cockatoo Island. I generally ignored the Sydney Biennale Art installations that were on the island. There is already so much to see and sketch ! The Biennale was launched on the Friday and crowds were expected. But it did not cause any issues.

The weather was spectacular – blue skies and sunshine.
All my drawings from the two days are on my flickr site . I filled 16 pages with drawings

Begin the day with a coffee !!


First drawing was on my coffee cup with Lamy Safari Joy ink pen.

Then a focus on one of the rusty cranes


 

 


and my drawing position – on a bin ! One person stopped to say it was a great drawing. Two people stopped and asked to use the bin !

 
 
 ok – a visit to one Biennale Art installation. I listened to the Artists talk and then watched the video made a lot more sense ! 

my morning drawing – looking up to the cliffs
  
 
and my afternoon drawing. I was sitting in the area I drew in the morning Looking down to where I sat in the morning. Does that make sense?
 
(Note to self: During the drawing, look at page without sunglasses on ! My long distance prescription sunglasses are great on a sunny day to shield the sun and focus on the distance to sketch BUT when I took them off and looked at the page at the end of the drawing the colour and linework looked completely different. )
 
 My quick sketches of the Expressive Urban Sketching Workshop
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

 

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!