Author / Leonie Andrews

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Posts by Leonie Andrews

I am an artist of the landscape of common objects. Discarded items and suburban life fuel my art practice.
by Leonie Andrews

Practice practice

I’m continuing on with my new approach to sketching with a flat brush, just to change things up a bit.

I also finally found the time to sketch from the upstairs gallery of one of our local shopping malls looking out to the view outside.

Getting set up with obligatory coffee and pistachio biscuit

I didn’t manage to snaffle one of the window tables, but sitting back from the window probably gave me a more expansive view of the structures outside the window.

First strokes, I could have stopped here
Finished sketch including background buildings

That’s all I could fit in before I had to go. Now I want to come back and do more sketching from here.

by Leonie Andrews

Zoom zoom

I’ve mentioned the Zoom get together I have most weeks with art friends. This time I sketched the meeting itself.

I’m testing out some materials I don’t usually work with. I’m using hot press paper – I generally use cold press – and a flat brush, not my regular round brushes.

The Zoom meeting, that’s my partner at the other end of the table. He also works with the same group.

If it’s a less than satisfying result it’s because I’m forgetting that I’m doing this precisely because I need to get some ‘brush miles’ up. Without practice and learning how to use these different techniques,  I can’t expect to get consistent results.

by Leonie Andrews

Getting a bit ‘meta’ (no not the company)

I’m in the process of making myself some new sketchbooks, playing around with different types of paper and formats.

My inside covers are from an old atlas

Some of the paper I’m recovering from long abandoned sketch pads, so not everything is a standard size. As a result I’m making some tiny sketchbooks from the leftovers.

A tiny soft cover book

So far I’ve made seven of these. One is for a friend and I’m thinking of randomly giving the others away when I’m out sketching.

Some of my little sketchbooks

Of course I also needed a subject to sketch for our Sunday Zoom session. You can guess what I used as my subject.

Yesterday’s sketch

by Leonie Andrews

Pumpkin

It’s not possible to ignore the sculptural shapes of the pumpkins we harvested the other day, so of course one has made it into my latest drawing.

Some late finds

I started this drawing off with a smear of Buff Titanium watercolour paint as the base for my shape and to pick up the highlight colour for the subsequent drawing.

Watercolour underpainting

The pencils came next. This fruit had such an indeterminate colour, leaning towards green, but with undeniable elements of grey and blue. I was concerned about overdoing the colours.

Sitting on my grandmother’s breadboard.

Using the breadboard as the base for the pumpkin allowed me to flip between the two parts of the drawing while thinking through which colours I would use next.

The final drawing

I could have pushed the colour a bit more, but I’m also happy that I stopped where I did.

by Leonie Andrews

More onions

There’s something satisfying about making a series of drawings, or any form of art really.

Over the past three weeks I’ve drawn this onion three times. All have been drawn using colour pencils and some with watercolour pencil.

My first one I felt was rather too solid. It looked like it had a hard shell, not papery skin.

First attempt

I tried again the following week with a different angle and a better outcome. I also thought that the placement of the saucer was stronger.

No. 2 a bit more like the onion
skin I wanted to capture

The latest version I drew using both watercolour and standard coloured pencils. I feel that the watercolour pencil gave more translucency to the skin than I achieved previously.

The 3rd version with more watercolour pencils

It has recently been mentioned to me that the onion now needs to be returned to the pantry for eating.