August 13, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

… meanwhile back at the ranch

So here we are back home after our fantastic holiday and the question is how to keep up the drawing momentum and not forget the lessons we learned at the Urban Sketchers symposium. OK we all know the answer, just keep drawing!

Last Sunday we took off down to the edge of Lake Burley-Griffin to draw in the warm winter sunshine. I selected the High Court, with the flags of the world in front and just a bit of the fairly-recently opened NGA Contemporary gallery.

NGA Contemporary and the High Court, watercolour and brush pen, 9 August 2015

Drawing landscapes is what I like doing, drawing people is my weak spot. Now it’s back to the cafes with a purpose. I aim to make at least one and preferably several sketches, each time I’m having my coffee. I’ve also realised that our pub trivia venue is a good place to capture faces and figures as people tend to sit still, or at least still-er while the quiz is underway. There’s only one ‘ax-murderer’ in this lot – I must be learning something!

Some faces at last week’s pub quiz, pen and ink and brush pen, 11 August 2015

We also came back from Singapore groaning under the weight of new art supplies. Not only were the symposium sponsors extremely generous (thanks to Moleskine, Leuchtturm, Creatacolor, Caran D’Ache, Pen Up, Shop Oryx, ShinHanart, Super5, Stillman & Birn, Art Friend, Worther, Arters, Straits Arts, Bynd Artisan and Laloran); we bought lots of supplies at Art Friend and the small but beautifully formed Straits Arts (so much cheaper than in Australia); and we also scored some great prizes in the mega raffle. To add to the haul I also received a very delayed parcel of art supplies from a local supplier in my mail when I got home!

One of our purchases in Singapore was lots of empty half-pans (only to find another 50 in my parcel on my return!). My partner has also been on the lookout for some small metal tins, to make some very compact watercolour sets, (Altoids not being commonly around in Australia). Anyway, we found these tins in Bangkok and they are just right for 9 half pans. At 5 cms x 7.5 cms they are very compact. Given that one of the prizes my partner scored was a set of 32 tubes of watercolour paint we have almost endless colour options to choose from.

Home made compact watercolour set

August 12, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

On the street in Chinatown

We loved the quirkiness of our new hotel, not to mention the free wifi. But what turned out to be one of its greatest assets was the bar area at the front of the hotel which was open to the street. We could sit here and sketch in comfort with a cup of coffee or a glass of something stronger by our side. It was also a great place to meet people, including the three other sketchers who had been in Singapore at the Symposium, and were staying at the hotel as well.

The phone box outside our hotel, 29 July, watercolour, pen and ink

In the lanes around the hotel were many vendors selling just about everything from coffins to fresh fruit.

Apple stalls in Thanon Mangkon, Chainatown, Bangkok, 29 July 2015, watercolour, brush pen and ink

I’m not sure of how the street stall system works in Bangkok, but people clearly had their ‘regular’ position. This was the vendor selling roast chestnuts out the front of the hotel.

The roast chestnut stall, Chinatown, Yaowarat St, Bangkok, 30 July 2015

I really loved being able to just sit and enjoy watching the people passing on the street and on Friday night the joint was really jumping. It was also raining heavily so while the kitchen was under cover,

Kitchen under the umbrellas, Chinatown Bangkok

the wait staff just had to improvise!

Quick and easy rain hats, Chinatown style! Bangkok

August 10, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Arriving in Bangkok

After a fantastic time in Singapore we flew the short distance to Bangkok, for our first stay in Thailand. First stop was the luxurious Metropolitan Hotel, where we had our special treat of a package that included dinner at David Thompson’s Nahm restaurant. We also enjoyed the large pool from where I sketched the view looking towards the restaurant and the lush gardens bordering the property. We even saw a squirrel running along the powerline as we lay back on the pool deck.

Looking towards Nahm restaurant from the pool deck, Metropolitan Hotel Bangkok

We also enjoyed breakfast which I had to sketch quickly before devouring. The colour came later on.

Breakfast at Glow, Waffles with mango and passionfruit curd

And I had to do it all again the next morning!

Breakfast at Glow, Pumpkin and buckwheat pancakes with papaya nectar and orange and cashew nut paste

But all this luxe living had to come to an end. We moved to a smaller boutique hotel in Chinatown, appropriately named Shanghai Mansion. The hotel evokes 1930’s in Shanghai and was wonderfully atmospheric and a great location to enjoy the other aspect of Bangkok that we had come to explore, which was it’s street food and street life.

August 6, 2015August 7, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

USk Singapore Symposium Day 3

OK there has been a bit of a gap in the Singapore saga, a result of problems uploading my posts while traveling, traveling in general and having other things to do, like traveling. So now the big catch up.

Day 3 in Singapore saw me in a workshop with Melanie Reim, titled ‘Found in Translation – The influence of Calligraphy on Gesture in the Figure‘, exploring how we can use the influence of calligraphic marks to make lively sketches. Melanie walked us through some of the calligraphic styles found around the world and then showed us the work of artists who have used this approach. You may like to check out the work of Ben Shahn or David Stone Martin.

We were encouraged to draw using shorter, more graphically interesting lines. This is in contrast to the way I usually draw with a continuous line. As Melanie said we should look at the joints of arms and legs and the shift of weight in the body as the point where you could use a calligraphic mark to indicate the body’s movement. The other instruction she gave us was to use the notes she had provided to find the marks that might suit what we were drawing. This proved to be good advice – I don’t know about you, but I am prone to believe I’ve taken the information in and don’t need the prompt of notes – wrong!

We started with faces and bodies, the challenge was to draw 20 faces and 20 bodies in 40 minutes. Ohhh Kayyy – using a brush pen (Pentel) I got underway.

Figures and faces in the Albert St Mall, 25 July 2015, brush pen

More figures, Albert St Mall 25 July 2015

The note to myself about holding the brush was a reminder that if I used the brush as I would normally hold a pen to write I got very uniform strokes. I recalled that on the odd occasion when I have taken a calligraphy lesson I have to hold the brush in a vertical position, using my thumb and forefinger. This way I can get both thick and thin lines and a much wider range of pressure in one stroke.

After this first exercise we collected for a quick review of what we had learned and some advice on how we might better apply the ideas and techniques.

Melanie, providing an on the ground crit session in the Albert Mall

Our second exercise was to draw a scene using calligraphic marks and incorporating figures in the scene. One tip that Melanie gave us was to place an interesting figure in the foreground to help draw the viewer into the image. Just when I was asking myself “will I see someone take an ‘interesting’ stance?”, that person materialised in front of me. In my case a young man walked by with a bag held up on his shoulder – perfect! I was positioned outside the Chinese temple so I had lots of colour and movement to include in the drawing. I also, usefully, had the view-finder that Virginia gave us the day before to help focus in on my subject.

Outside the temple, brush pen, pen and ink, 25 July 2015.

I liked how Melanie’s calligraphic figurative style worked so well with Virginia’s teaching from the day before on using light and darks. I was really pleased with the resulting drawing.

The next day we found ourselves in a local food court where we could sit and sketch while eating our Bandung bean curd, (a rose-flavoured dessert rather like a junket). Again Marc Taro Holmes’ lessons and Melanie’s gestural lines proved to be a good fit.

At the food court, some of our fellow diners, brush pen, 26 July 2015

July 13, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Free the people

I’ve been working on drawing people for some months now. I don’t find it easy and I might easily persuade myself to draw something else but I am persisting with it. To try and improve the outcomes – in my eyes at least – I’ve been trying out some different techniques.

My default position to date has been a fairly realistic approach which relies on hoping my subjects are wearing sunglasses so I don’t have to draw tricky eyes and noses. Most of these drawings work, but the result is that my city appears to be occupied by shady characters at best and the random, deranged-looking person at worst.

Cyclists, pen and ink and wash, 23 June 2015

I’ve been tossing around some options for changing my approach to drawing people. I was much happier with the quick sketches I did at the beach earlier this year, where I used a quick wash of watercolour that I quickly sketched into. So over the past few weeks I’ve been working on this as a new approach to people sketching in cafes.

Trying a new approach, watercolour and graphite, 24 July 2015

Trying a new approach, watercolour and graphite, 24 June 2015

I’ve mainly used a watercolour graphite pencil to add detail, I’m also trying using my pen and ink.

Busy Saturday, watercolour and pen and ink, 4 July 2015

I’ve also found that if I put down a light wash that I can also quickly add some shadows and contours with subsequent washes.

Man reading, watercolour and graphite, 27 June 2015

And while it might seem obvious it has also dawned on me that if I am working on a small piece of paper it is actually harder to get a well drawn face because I don’t have enough space to capture the details I want, duh!

There’s no doubt that I’m still better at capturing body shapes than faces,

The coffee queue, watercolour and grapjite, 11 July 2015

but I am keeping on with this approach.

Two people , quick sketch, watercolour and graphite, 11 July 2015

leonieandrews

Tag / pen and ink