So here we are back home after our fantastic holiday and the question is how to keep up the drawing momentum and not forget the lessons we learned at the Urban Sketchers symposium. OK we all know the answer, just keep drawing!

Last Sunday we took off down to the edge of Lake Burley-Griffin to draw in the warm winter sunshine. I selected the High Court, with the flags of the world in front and just a bit of the fairly-recently opened NGA Contemporary gallery.

NGA Contemporary and the High Court, watercolour and brush pen, 9 August 2015

Drawing landscapes is what I like doing, drawing people is my weak spot. Now it’s back to the cafes with a purpose. I aim to make at least one and preferably several sketches, each time I’m having my coffee. I’ve also realised that our pub trivia venue is a good place to capture faces and figures as people tend to sit still, or at least still-er while the quiz is underway. There’s only one ‘ax-murderer’ in this lot – I must be learning something!

Some faces at last week’s pub quiz, pen and ink and brush pen, 11 August 2015

We also came back from Singapore groaning under the weight of new art supplies. Not only were the symposium sponsors extremely generous (thanks to Moleskine, Leuchtturm, Creatacolor, Caran D’Ache, Pen Up, Shop Oryx, ShinHanart, Super5, Stillman & Birn, Art Friend, Worther, Arters, Straits Arts, Bynd Artisan and Laloran); we bought lots of supplies at Art Friend and the small but beautifully formed Straits Arts (so much cheaper than in Australia); and we also scored some great prizes in the mega raffle. To add to the haul I also received a very delayed parcel of art supplies from a local supplier in my mail when I got home!

One of our purchases in Singapore was lots of empty half-pans (only to find another 50 in my parcel on my return!). My partner has also been on the lookout for some small metal tins, to make some very compact watercolour sets, (Altoids not being commonly around in Australia). Anyway, we found these tins in Bangkok and they are just right for 9 half pans. At 5 cms x 7.5 cms they are very compact. Given that one of the prizes my partner scored was a set of 32 tubes of watercolour paint we have almost endless colour options to choose from.

Home made compact watercolour set