Tag / art practice

by Leonie Andrews

Back Again

It’s so easy to slip out of the routine of posting regularly,  one miss here, one day away and here it is a month and a half gone. At least I have kept up the regular drawing sessions our Zoom group.

Sketching a ‘concertina book’ I’m working in

The subject matter is generally what is laying on the table when our session starts, like this knife.

Old butter knife

Then there is ephemera. We all made paper party hats for our friend’s birthday.  What better way to remember that day.

Paper hat fun

Last but not least our car ‘mascot’, a ‘beannie’ toy we’ve had for years (and several cars), now sadly faded from sunny exposure. Probably the more challenging aspect of this sketch was drawing the woven tablecloth.

Our car ‘mascot’ Zebby
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.