Tag / art practice

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

Stitch Journal

I have started a new stitch journal, something to occupy my hands when I need to stitch, or just need a distraction. I have made a video showing the journal on my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/OUVZ0ZZBoBA

Most importantly it is with me as I travel through Spain and the UK. While I have not been able to stitch on it as much as I would like, some additions have been made.

What happens on one side is reflected on the other side.

Most recently I spent time at the archaeological site of Castro de Castromaior, an Iron age Fort and one of the most significant historical sites in the Northern Iberian region. Here I sat and stitched while admiring the stone walls of the ancient buildings, a technique which is still being used in local village houses.

My video at Castro de Castromaior,
Galicia, Spain
30 June 2023
by Leonie Andrews

Drawing waves

I saw some drawings on Instagram made by a friend @richardbriggs_artist , of the movement of a car over a bumpy road in Bolivia. It prompted me to pull out my own drawings made just over a year ago recording waves lapping my feet on a rising and a falling tide on the south coast of New South Wales.

I steadily drew a line back and forth across the page and if a wave washed over my feet I drew it as a peak, for the duration of it’s ebb and flow.

Falling tide, 10.30 am to 11.05 am, 13 March 2018, ink on recycled ledger

Rising tide, 3.49pm to 4.19 pm, 15 March 2018, ink on recycled ledger

This is a continuous line drawing at the same location.

Glacial erratics on the rock platform between Depot and Pebbly Beach, 13 March 2018

PS lest you think that I am even more of a tide nerd than I am, the details on the page were copied from a tide guide at the Ranger station at our campground.

by Leonie Andrews

Everyday practice

Here are some sketches from my current ‘handbag’ sketchbook. I am trying to use up one of the myriad sketchbooks that seem to spontaneously generate in my spare room. This book isn’t too good with wet media so I mainly try and sketch in pencil. The pencils I am using are a Palomino Blackwing 530 and my el cheapo multicolour pencil I got in Japan at Sekkaido.

In rough date order …

Trying to get some more interesting perspectives into these ‘regular’ events.

From the car in a roof top carpark.

Sketching graffiti from a roof top carpark.

This is a work in progress. I do a bit more every time I stop here to collect the mail.

Again, trying to enliven a cafe sketch. It gets very busy at our local cafe on Saturday morning. There are lots of parents and kids relaxing after the kids football matches.

by Leonie Andrews

Stitching with my eyes closed 

Some of you will know that I have been participating in the #365handstitch2017 challenge where people are asked to stitch a minimum of a thread a day for a year. I thought it was time to show you the progress so far.

The ‘front’ of the piece 

As you can see I’ve already added several pieces of cloth together and am working on melding them together.  I made the decision up front to ‘stitch with my eyes closed’, (a process I have been using since I first started this blog). Working this way has meant that I do not visually self-censor. This choice has removed from me the necessity of neatness. I also find the process of leaving the decision about which thread and which stitch to use, until the moment I pick up the work, really freeing.  

Other people online have asked some very pertinent questions about the direction the work is taking. This has made me think about a number of issues, in particular whether I have a specific end in sight – no; and how much bigger the piece might become. 

So I have decided that the current size is where I will leave it (at present). The obvious question of what to do when I run out of space to stitch, was equally quickly answered -work on ‘the back’. I have started this process and not looking while I stitch has helped a lot. It is so hard not to be precious with my work.

The ‘back’, with two new areas of work in cretan stitch and herringbone stitch.

You can see from the photo above that the reverse side of the stitches predominantly resembles small running stitches. That’s why I’m currently adding some strongly coloured lines of stitching. You can see from the following photos that the reverse of even strong colours is not very intrusive. 

Blue herringbone stitch is quite strong when looking at the face of the stitch

The reverse of the stitch is quite unobtrusive

The ongoing challenge will be to stick with the process. It may be difficult to ‘spoil’ this work, but working against an established aesthetic is hard.