March 25, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Cafe Wednesday – Legs 11

In my ongoing attempt to make more interesting cafe drawings I’ve been experimenting with drawing people’s feet and legs. This, of course, also has the benefit of not having to look at the person’s face while you try to draw them!

I started yesterday with this drawing and what do I see but I managed to sneak in a full figure after all. The composite nature of these drawings does mean that the scale isn’t consistent between the two pages. But I’m prepared to forgive myself.

Leg studies at the Italian Bakery in Mawson, pen and ink, 24 March 2015

As soon as you think you’ve got a strategy then everything changes again. Here are today’s legs and a bit more.

People and leg studies at Biginelli’s at Kambah, pen and ink and Copic marker, 25 March 205

I’d done what I could with the legs, when the people whose feet I’ve drawn on the lower right hand side of the page, insisted on moving their table right next to ours (we were outside so it’s fair game). At such close proximity even my foot drawing strategy was endangered. I was just about to settle down to read the newspaper when I noticed the gentleman who I’ve drawn in the upper right hand side of the page. He was a good distance away and was totally focused on reading his paper. Not only that but he was dressed head to foot in black which really brought my attention to drawing the shadows that were cast on his knee. And no, the poor man doesn’t have 6 legs that’s just where he ended up on my page – next time I might give him a page all to himself.

March 9, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

North to Newcastle

We’ve just had a quick visit to see my family in Newcastle (on the Hunter River in New South Wales, not the city in the UK). I managed a few sketches along the way.

On the drive north we stopped for a cup of coffee at the small town of Marulan, where I had a view of the beautifully restored Royal Hotel, which I think is now a private home.

The Royal Hotel, Marulan, NSW, pen and ink, 4 March 2015

In Newcastle we went into the city where we had dinner at a pub on the harbour. This place has been built inside, what I recall, as originally being one of the ‘sheds’ on the No. 4 Lee Wharf. This part of the harbour foreshore has been undergoing a major re-development in recent years. The view on the harbour-side of the building was over to the working side of the port, including the grain loader and the docks for the harbour’s tugs.

Tugs in Newcastle Harbour, NSW, ballpoint pen, 5 March 2015

The beaches that line the coast are always a magnet when we visit. Unfortunately the seas were high and rough and the beaches were closed for swimming. That didn’t stop us and all the other beach-goers, walkers and coffee drinkers taking a seat and watching the local surfers riding the waves.

Surfers at Merewether Beach, NSW, pen and ink, ball point pen, 6 March 2015

It was difficult to catch the moves the surfers were making as each position of their bodies was only held for seconds. I settled for making very quick sketches with my pen. I was interested to note how often the surfers’ arms appeared to just ‘hang’ in the air, ready to follow the body as the surfers shifted their weight on the board to move across the face of the waves.

Catching the surfers, catching the waves, ball point pen, 6 March 2015

After a fun few days on the coast we headed up the Hunter Valley into the country for the weekend. It was great to be able to put my feet up and look out across the paddocks to the nearby mountains.

The view to the mountain, near Branxton, NSW, ball point pen, 7 March 2015

It was also fun to try and capture the poses of the Welcome Swallows as they sat and preened on the pool fence in the early morning.

Welcome Swallows preening, pen and ink and watercolour, 8 March 2015

And last but not least I found a source of inspiration for a watercolour. Forget the rural idyll, stacked up near the stables were a pile of pre-cast concrete panels, with plenty of interesting passages to test my skills with depicting depth and placement. I was so busy focusing on the details of the panels that I didn’t really stop to look at the overall painting until it was finished. I was really pleased with the way it came together.

Concrete panels, watercolour 8 March 2015

March 2, 2015March 2, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Canberra Sketchers Group

The Canberra Sketchers Group met for the second time, last Sunday, for several hours of drawing at the National Gallery of Australia. Our visit coincided with Sculpture Garden Sunday so there was plenty of activity and people to capture as well as the art work itself. We were pleased to welcome some new people to the group. As always we managed to find a variety of things to draw around the gallery. Some braved the crowds in the Sculpture Garden, some used the pop-up restaurant as their base and others drew in the Asian galleries.

Collective efforts, some of the sketches from the Sunday sketch crawl at the NGA

I started in the Sculpture Garden where I painted three of the slit drums from Vanuatu.

Slit drums for Vanuatu, in the Sculpture Garden, National Gallery of Australia, watercolour and graphite, 1 March 2015

I only had to turn my head to see the furious activity of the straw modelling activity nearby.

The straw figure making activity, National Gallery of Australia, watercolour, 1 March 2015

For my last sketch I tried to capture the people in the central lawn area of the Sculpture Garden. This proved to be quite a challenge as there must have been several hundred people in front of me. I decided to keep it fast and loose with pen and ink.

Families in the central lawn area on Sculpture Garden Sunday, National Gallery of Australia, 1 March 2015 pen and ink.

The Canberra Sketchers Group will meet again on 12 April at 10.30 am at the Lanyon Historic Homestead, Tharwa Drive, Tharwa (on the Canberra side of the Tharwa Bridge). Everyone is welcome.

Here is the link to our previous outing and you can also find another perspective on the days activities by heading over to Tones and Tints.

February 28, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Back to the zoo

Last weekend I went back to the zoo to buy the pass that would allow me inexpensive access the place for a whole year. Of course I took advantage of being there to do some quick drawings. Being late in the afternoon, on an overcast day, seemed to suit the animals as I got to see quite a few that were tucked out of sight on our previous visit.

The first of these was one of the two Snow Leopards (Panthera uncia) that the zoo has. While I was looking at the leopard it was often looking right back at me, always an interesting experience.

Snoozing Snow Leopard, pen and ink, 21 February 2015

The Oriental Small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea) were alternately curled up in a tangle together or racing around their enclosure waiting for their dinner to be served. Their tails are broad at the base and taper to a point.

A tangle of Oriental Small Clawed Otters, pen and ink, 21 February 2015

Sitting on the wall of the otter enclosure was a White-faced Heron (Ardea novaehollandiae), who had worked out that otters are messy eaters and easy pickings were to be had if it hung around long enough.

The White-faced heron waiting for otter leftovers, pen and ink 21 February 2015

Not far away was the Malayan Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) enclosure. A passing keeper told me that I was looking at the female bear and added that the bear had rough fur and patting the bear felt like touching a sack of wet concrete. The bear’s fur looked very dense and its body was clearly very ‘solid’ underneath it. It’s not surprising that the habitat of the bear is tropical rainforest and montane forests where the dense fur is able to repel rain. I watched while the bear moved around on the telephone pole log frame in her pen, the logs she was on are about 3-4 metres above the ground.

A female Malayan Sun bear, pen and ink, 21 February 2015

February 26, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Seen on the street

There’s been a lot of activity in our area with workman replacing old terracotta sewage pipes with new high density plastic ones. As a result all sorts of trucks and trailers have been around.

This truck and trailer conveniently pulled up on my neighbours nature strip, (the bit out the front of the house where the footpath might go, but hers is just grass).

Truck and trailer, pen and ink Copic multiliner, acrylic marker pen and gouache, 17 February 2015

I used a whole stack of different media on this drawing. The pen and ink was a bit dark so I used white gouache to pick out some of the elements of the truck. I also added some acrylic marker for the colour elements. I’m continuing to use my bits of newsprint stuck to thin Japanese paper as a substrate. I’m not sure what problems this might cause for long term survival of the drawing, but since I’m ‘mucking around’ I’m not too concerned. I really like it as a background. I’ll give you the hot tip, the best pages to use turn out to be stock market reports, TV pages and the racing form-guide as these are about the only pages in the newspaper these days that don’t have photographs on them.

A day later I was driving home in the evening and spotted one of the mini-diggers parked next to our neighbour’s dinosaur (yes there are quite a few of them in our area). By the time I got organised the following morning and got back down the street to make a drawing, the digger driver was getting in the cab ready to drive off. I got two or three quick photos and one very quick sketch. The latter I do intend working up into a drawing, sometime. So in the end all I was left with was Rex so here he /she is (how do you know?)

The T-Rex down the road, pen and ink and ball point pen, 19 February 2015

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Tag / pen and ink