Category / sketchbooks

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

Starting to draw in January

As Yoda once said “do or do not”. So some days I do and some days I do not!

One thing I do want to do this year is work on reducing the ridiculous amount of art materials sitting unused in my back room, in cupboards and all sorts of other places around the house. Now I have materials I prefer to use, the rest just sit there.

Drawing with colour pencils, trying to change the direction of my marks each time I put the pencil on the page. Also, trying not to be too ‘precious’ with my drawings.

I’m trying some tactics to use things like markers, in particular. I have seen several artists use them to make this ‘window pane’ background to sketch over.

Marker pen window pane background, ready to use

I did a similar preparation using other hot pink markers (forgot to take a reference photo) and this is what it looks like as a base with a finished drawing over the top.

Marker background colour pencil over the top. Still life from our table top.

The fact that I’m using this lovely sketchbook from Leuchtturm 1917 helps. It was part of the ‘goody bag’ I received when I taught at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Poznan last year. This isn’t the type of paper I would usually work with, but it’s very good for all these dry media.

One of my favourite  ‘goody bag’ items from Symposium 2025.
by Leonie Andrews

Urban Sketching at the Portrait Gallery

It’s been several months since I went out with the Urban Sketchers Canberra group. The weather, being as cold as it is, didn’t seem to promise a large turnout, but I was wrong about that.

36 people in the group photo.

I decided to do a composite sketch, showing various aspects of the Gallery,  starting with part of the building exterior.

The entrance to the Gallery

I then moved inside, collected a stool, and found a spot where I could see a cluster of other sketchers. I also decided to incorporate some quick sketches of two of the portraits into the background of my double page spread.

Sketching the sketchers
With some colour added

Because I couldn’t use my watercolours in the gallery, I moved to the ‘family’ room where messy art could happen.

The final double page spread.

I planned to add some elements from the cafe in the bottom right corner, but I ran out of time. Maybe I can do that another time.

by Leonie Andrews

All quiet …

You might be wondering why everything is so quiet on the blog front. It’s simple really. I am currently walking the Camino di Santiago across Spain with my partner. I am posting to other social media channels and I have run out of steam for the blog. Sorry!

We are sketching as we are walking. We walk up to about lunchtime, find our accommodation and then go out sketching in the afternoon .

The church at San Juan de Ortega
Looking from our hostel to the church tower in Villafranca Montes de Ocas
Abandoned buildings in Redecilla del Camino.
The entrance to Burgos Cathedral

If you are interested in following our journey we are both sharing our sketches on a dedicated Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092387762574

I am also sharing, a more or less daily dump of photos on my Instagram page (at) leonieandrewsart.