Posts by Leonie Andrews

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

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Whitelines Link® fever

Warning – this is a very long post

The backstory

In our ‘goodies’ bag at the 2015 Urban Sketchers Singapore Symposium was a Leuchtturm 1917 + Whitelines Link ® A5 notebook. It was cool. It had the Symposium logo and our names embossed on it – wow! embossed! our own names! It had thin grey paper inside with white marks on it – yeah whatever – and it had an orange bookmark and an orange elastic band for the cover (orange is my favourite colour). Then I heard that this book had something to do with an app and a really great prize for anyone who entered some competition. I thought a big prize from Leuchtturm sounded great and all I had to do was figure out how to enter. Too easy!

Leuchtturm 1917 Whitelines Link notebook

It might of helped if I hadn’t been suffering from the lurgy that my partner caught on the plane and duly gave to me, things didn’t go smoothly. Firstly I needed to upload the Whitelines app which could upload the content of the book to any one of a number of digital platforms, none of which I used. Instagram was the easiest, I didn’t have it, but even with slow hotel wifi I managed to create an account, not to mention figure out yet another password. I was good to go. I knew that using this book required black pens …. that was about all I could remember. I even had a brilliant idea for the sketch, one based on thumbnail I’d done earlier in the day. Now I just had to stay up another half an hour or so (it was already past 11.00pm) and finish the drawing. You can see that this exercise had failure written all over it. It didn’t disappoint. I uploaded the test scribble with no problems. I did the drawing and finished – did I say half an hour – maybe three quarters of an hour later. It didn’t upload. I moved the book under the pallid overhead light it still didn’t upload. Nothing helped, nothing changed the fact that it didn’t upload. Several people tried to help the next day, but it didn’t upload. I put my book bag in my bag and pretty much forgot about it.

Present day and things have changed. I now understand how to use my book+app, it does work and it does upload. What changed? I have finally read the instructions, in the full light of a sunny day (I will explain below) not to mention understood them. I’ve also been giving the book a bit of a workout. here’s my review.

The review

The first thing I’ll say is that this product was not designed with artists in mind, so how I use it is probably not what the manufacturers envisaged, but that’s why I guess they gave it to us – to see what we could do with the technology.

The Leuchtturm 1917 + Whitelines Link is a notebook designed to let you take notes or draw diagrams, whatever on the specially prepared paper and upload it via the Whitelines Link app (available both for Apple and Android), to a variety of digital platforms. The paper is 80 gsm and the pages are pale grey, with a white box at each corner and a grid of dots or lines over the page (depending on which version you get). There are also three icons on the bottom of each page that, when ticked, allow you upload directly to email, Evernote or Dropbox. When you save a page to your device, you can share it with any number of other apps or platforms, such as Instagram or open it in programs such as Photoshop. The point about the paper in the book is that when the Whitelines Link app ‘reads’ the page it translates that grey background into a perfect white page so your notes, doodles or drawings can be saved to your smartphone or chosen platform and be easily read. The book I have has 249 pages plus some several content pages at the front of the book. The Leuchtturm 1917 + Whitelines Link is also available in an A4+ and A6 size.

Obviously this paper works well with pen and ink, that’s what it was designed for. It will also work with brush pens and other media, but, the upload may not be great for all media. So here is a comparison between uploaded versus scanned images.

Comparison with the same drawing , scanned on the left and uploaded on the right. What hasn’t uploaded well is the watercolour wash.

So watercolour doesn’t upload well. I have successfully uploaded images with dark blue ink and also images coloured with acrylic paint-markers. Below I’ve tested several types of markers that I have in my kit.

Test with Posca paint markers

Clearly the flat colours work well, the metallic silver does not. Likewise the app didn’t pick up some of the grey Liquitex acrylic paint-markers I used, see below.

Liquitex acrylic paint marker test

A final test with my Copic Sketch markers.

Copic Sketch marker test

Looking at these again I think the Copic Sketch markers work quite well – however because the paper is only thin the markers bleed right through the page making it impossible to use both sides as intended by the manufacturers.

An uploaded sketch using Noodlers Black ink and Liquitex paint markers

Traps for unwary players

A quick summary of problems that I’ve encountered

I said earlier that I had problems trying to upload my first drawing, there was a good reason for that. I had completely failed to understand that if you cover even one of the white boxes in the corner of each page then the app can’t ‘read’ the page. Remember that first drawing – being a good artist I drew right to the edge of the page, yep, right over every box. So no real surprises that the page didn’t upload.

That doesn’t detract from one of my major gripes about this book, that being so cool and ‘techie’ the makers failed to grasp that the majority of us can’t easily read white print on a pale grey page. This is fine for the actual pages, what it is not fine for is the instruction page! Thankfully I did keep the outer wrapper which I could read the instructions on.

Their instruction page on the left and the outer wrapper which did explain what was going on

Two other claims that I find less than accurate are that the thread bound book opens flat and that the pages are ink proof. I haven’t found that so far. Indeed one of the biggest issues I have with the uploading is precisely that there are shadows on the page, (see the image above), because the book doesn’t lie flat. I also haven’t found the pages to be ink proof. For the most part there is enough ‘show through’ that I have resigned myself to using one side of the page only .

Where the manufacturers could provide better guidance is to the lighting requirements for uploading. In Australia direct sunlight is so strong that it makes it impossible for the boxes to be read. Indoor lighting, if uneven, causes shadows and it’s also very easy to cast a shadow that gets recorded when using your device to upload the image.

The bottom line

I know I’ve highlighted some issues with this product and given you some of negatives but I am using the book quite often. It is the uploading feature that makes this book worth persisting with. If you are a regular social media user or you are travelling and want to carry minimal baggage then using this book in conjunction with your smartphone or tablet will save you hours of scanning or fiddling around trying to upload images to yourself or to others.

Despite the lightweight nature of the paper, this book can take a light wash of watercolour – it won’t upload well, but that won’t necessarily stop me from using that medium in a sketch. If you like using markers then you can use them quite readily, but don’t expect any subtle passages to upload, go for bold flat graphic colour instead. If you prefer to draw only with pen and black markers well then, you are the user this book is made for.

As for me? This book probably will not top my list for re-purchase, mainly because watercolour is the medium I like to work in and this book isn’t intended for that purpose. However should I become addicted to only using pen and ink then I would seriously consider buying this book.

But wait there’s more

Interested but not prepared to commit? The Whitelines Link people can give you a trial at using this paper without purchasing a whole book. You can download and print a sample page here.

September 22, 2015September 22, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Monga National Park

Last Friday we drove about an hour and a bit east of Canberra to visit the Monga National Park, a patch of wet sclerophyll forest on the escarpment above the south coast of New South Wales. We had hoped to find some Monga waratahs (Telopea mongaensis) in flower, but we were at least a month too early.

We did visit Penance Grove, where in the 1980’s, prior to the forest being declared a National Park, some sad and selfish individual came in and cut out the tops of many of the tree ferns growing in this remnant rainforest glade. The tops of tree ferns will re-grow from their trunks, but the section left behind just dies. These protected plants are stolen for illegal sale to gardeners or nurseries. Even today, 30 years later, the devastation is there for all to see.

Penance Grove, Monga National Park, what’s left 30 years after the tree ferns were stolen, 18 September 2015

In some ways it would have made an excellent subject to paint, but I found it all too painful and depressing.

We decided to move to the nearby picnic ground where we had some lunch. While we were eating we were visited by several flibertigibbet Grey Fantails. After we walked down to the Mongarlowe river, along a track that promised waratahs at the right time of the year. At the water’s edge the vegetation was growing thickly and I had quite a fiddle to find a spot where I could set up my stool without being stabbed by stray lomandra leaves (a spiky tipped sedge-like plant). I managed a perch in the end, but failed to capture a good likeness of the far bank of the river. My attempt at wet into wet paint became such a soggy mass that the super ‘darks’ I wanted to put under the vegetation just kept blending into the areas above. Drying time was not optimal, as our earlier sunny day had, by this time, settled into a dull overcast.

Bank of the Mongarlowe River, Monga National Park, graphite and watercolour, 18 September 2015

I was also trying to avoid looking at what was in the water just below me, the carcass of a dead wallaby. Thankfully odourless, as the fast-running water was washing the smell away, I didn’t really want to look at the remains of this once beautiful creature. In the end I decided to make a quick sketch of it and though the subject matter was rather grim I think it was a better outcome than my overworked riverbank.

Dead wallaby in the river, watercolour and graphite, 18 September 2015

I guess this just proves that not every sketching expedition pans out the way you expect.

September 17, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Drawing the Exhibition – Myth + Magic 2

The 16th of September was Papua New Guinea’s Independence Day, so what better way to celebrate than return to the Myth + Magic exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. This time I also managed to drag some friends along, as well as my partner, so we all set about sketching.

My first target was the Orator’s Stool from the East Sepik. I started with the face and enjoyed working with the deep shadows cast by the dramatic lighting.

Orator's Stool, East Sepik, PNG, study in graphite pencil with watercolour added later, 16 September 2015

Orator’s Stool, East Sepik, PNG, NGA 2008.173, mid 20th cent. prior to 1953, study in graphite pencil with watercolour added later, 16 September 2015

It was only after I’d finished this first drawing and went to record the details of the work, that I found the carvings of the crocodile and bird on the reverse of the stool.

I still had some 20 minutes before our meet-up time so I went and did a ‘quick’ study of this ancestor plaque.

Ancestor Plaque, East Sepik Province, Keram River, early 20th cent. prior to 1920, Museum Victoria X104676, graphite, with added watercolour, 16 September 2015

This work has a very strong presence. It is made of fibre, largely for the backing and is covered with thick grey mud. It is decorated with lots of embedded pig tusks and shells. The image wears a headband of cassowary feathers. I haven’t captured much of its ‘presence’ so I will try to return and focus on this piece again.

After the drama of the exhibition space it was somewhat of a relief to retreat to the airy lightness of the Members Lounge for lunch. Afterwards, our friends decided that they wanted to look at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait galleries so we headed off there for a final sketch. I sat out near the entrance to draw the giant, 12 metres long, fish trap, that hangs above the gallery foyer.

Mandjabu (Fish Trap), 2010, created with assistance from George Ganyjbala, fabricated in aluminium and paint by Urban Arts Projects, Acc2010.667, graphite with added watercolour, 16 September 2015

I didn’t realise that I was being observed, but this photo gives you an idea of the scale of the work.

The loneliness of the long-distance sketcher, 16 September 2015, National Gallery of Australia

September 11, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Out and about on a botanical Friday

Here are two drawings from different botanically-related outings today.

The first was drawn at the Yarralumla Gallery next to the Heritage Nursery where I’d been buying plants to help renovate our front garden. While there is nothing particularly different with this drawing, the notebook its drawn on is something fairly new, a Leuchtturm Whitelines Link® notebook. This notebook is designed to be used in conjunction with an app for your smartphone so that it can be digitised and shared easily on a variety of platforms. Enough of that for the moment as I plan to explain more and do a bit of a review in another post.

Yarralumla Gallery, pen and ink on a Leuchtturm Whitelines Notebook, 11 September 2015

Our second outing was to the Australian National Botanic Gardens, not as you may expect to see the plants, but rather to check out the newest farmer’s market in Canberra. This was only the second week of the Eat Local Friday market’s operation so we didn’t know what to expect. There were plenty of people there and they seemed quite keen to get among the produce. It is unusual to see a market in such a pleasant setting and I’m sure that the extra foot traffic will benefit the gardens. I set up at one end of the stalls and was pleased to have plenty of people to include in the scene. I struggled with capturing the light coming from behind the stalls, so it looks like that’s something else I’ll need to work on.

Stalls at the Eat Local Friday markets at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, brush pen, watercolour, pen and ink, 11 September 2015

I was quite intrigued at the number of people who walked several metres past the last stalls and then asked whether there was anything else there. No more stalls I’ll grant you, but only the whole of the gardens at the height of it’s springtime flowering!

September 9, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Facing up to it

I’ve said it before that drawing faces is one of the biggest challenges I have in drawing. I’m not even talking ‘likenesses’ – I don’t expect to become a portraitist – I just want to draw someone who looks like an individual. This is currently the bread and butter of my sketchbook routine, go to the coffee shop and draw people’s faces.

Faces at a coffee shop, pen and ink and brush pen , 14 August 2015

I opted to do the Marc Taro Holmes workshop at the Singapore Symposium to try and get a handle on how I could approach this task and I found it quite helpful.

Double spread, typical of my cafe drawings, pen and ink and brush pen , 15 August 2015

Marc has very kindly posted the link to his notes for this class on his blog.

Here’s last night’s effort. A double-page of faces and gestures from our pub trivia night at the Hellenic Club in Canberra. They may not recognise themselves, (possibly better if they don’t), but I’m happy that at least these people look like individuals.

Faces at the trivia night, pen and ink and brush pen, 8 September 2015

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Author / Leonie Andrews