Oh no, one of my favourite cafes is closed for renovation! So today I had to find a new place to draw. I’m also drawing on my new book. I’ve been doing a bit of re-cycling of old magazines and envelopes to make drawing surfaces. This square-ish book has been made from a magazine which promotes its ‘green’ credentials, so I feel well justified in re-using its pages. Anyway here is the new view.
The view from the new cafe.
I drew this while waiting for a friend last week. I was intrigued by the complex repetition of the metal trellis supporting a roof covering part of the plaza I was sitting in (and yes there was a cafe umbrella involved).
Metal roof support (and a cafe umbrella), 14 February 2014.
But the more I looked the more confused I became. From the angle I was sitting at the geometry was proving difficult to understand. So I ended up drawing one of the connection joints.
Joint for metal roof support, 14 February 2014.
It’s always a challenge to come up with a new ‘take’ for Cafe Wednesday drawing. Among the many drawing blogs that are now available online I’ve read an interesting post from UK illustrator Lynne Chapman, on Sketches that Sing. Lynne suggests several ways to free up your sketching. I’ve used her approach that ignores ‘local’ colour and instead draws the focus of the sketch in warm colours and the remainder of the work in cool colours. The idea is that if you get your tones right then you can pretty much do what you like with colour.
Cafe Wednesday, tonal study, 12 February 2014.
While I still need to work on my composition aspect, I’m liking the colour approach.
Kay Greenlees writes (Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists, Batsford 2005) that sketching
“becomes a unique way of exploring and storing information, including whatever arouses curiosity and interest.”
Driving back from Newcastle I decided to try some sketching from the passenger seat of the car. Over a series of three pages I captured some of the vehicles, scenery and text, that I saw passing along the road.
Page 1, road sketches, 10 February 2014.
As I drew I included observations about atmospheric and other environmental conditions …
Page 2, road sketches, 10 February 2014.
… not to mention signs and other writing that caught my interest.
Page 3, road sketches, 10 February 2014.
I love my cafe umbrellas. When I recently found myself at three cafes in the one week, a bit unusual for me, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to draw my favourite subject matter. One twist however, I decided to draw each one with a different medium.
The first was in my black ball point pen. I had already completed a drawing inside the cafe when I glanced up to see this group of furled umbrellas.
Repetiiton, furled umbrellas at the Italian Bakery in Mawson, 2 February 2014.
The next was drawn at our regular Cafe Wednesday watering hole. This time I used my phablet to draw using the SNote function (Samsung Galaxy). Very simple.
Umbrella drawn with SNote, 5 February 2014.
Finally, at the Beaver Galleries cafe I drew using my new fountain pen. I’m still working on using up the blue cartridge it came with.
Cafe umbrella at the Beaver Gallery, Deakin, 6 February 2014.
