February 11, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Cafe Wednesday – going postal

It’s that time of the week again, back to the cafe, this time with watersoluble pencils. I’ve been really happy using my watersoluble graphite, but that relies on using brushes which doesn’t allow for the quick lines I’m trying to use. So after checking out some of the gear being used by the other sketchers in our first sketchcrawl it was off to the art supply shop and away with some Derwent Watersoluble Sketching pencils.

Testing the Derwent watersoluble sketching pencils

We bought a 6 tin which has 2 of each HB, 4B and 8B, which are designated light, medium and dark wash. This suited us well as my partner and I could split the tin and get one set of pencils each. An added bonus was the tin itself which my partner has snaffled to use to carry his pencils and other bits around in.

So here is my first sketch using the pencils. There is also some other colour from my Duke fountain pen, but that’s another story for another post.

Post box and advertising signs, watersoluble pencil and ink, 11 February 2015

February 10, 2015February 10, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Back to the beach

Well it wasn’t quite like our last trip to the beach. There was virtually no one on the beach for a start. School has been back for a week and the weather was less than perfect. But the East Coast current has finally pushed the warm water down to the south coast so despite lashings of misty rain we did get into the water and have a good swim. Most importantly we also took our sketchbooks with us.

The southern point past Surf and Wimbie beaches, watersoluble graphite, pen and ink and pencil, 9 February 2015

I had fun playing with my water soluble graphite, using my fountain pen to draw into it while it was still wet. Those fuzzy lines will, I think, prove very useful to depict all sorts of indeterminate tree-strewn backgrounds.

We did move back off the beach to have our obligatory fish and chip lunch sitting at one of the picnic tables. We had a great view of this sign which came with its own ornamental seagull mascot, no doubt hoping for a bit of our lunch to come it’s way. I was struck by the ‘Dogs Bite’ sign, particularly as all the other signs had the more usual ‘Dogs Prohibited’ on them.

Beach signs, Surf Beach, 9 February 2015, watersoluble graphite, pen and ink, watercolour pencil

We’ll be looking to make some more beach excursions before the Autumn weather sets in.

February 5, 2015February 5, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Cafe Wednesday and cafes with people

I’m trying really hard to get more people into my drawings, really I am. So since last weekend I’ve been focusing on the people in the cafes a bit more. Given the usual problems of trying to capture lots of people at any one time I’m using the standard approach of making composite drawings of people, in the one setting, as they come and go.

At Guru Coffee shop in Tuggeranong, 1 February 2015, pen and ink

My next attempt, trying to get some individuality into the people turned out to be not as effective as I’d hoped. Well that is unless you were expecting a Wolverine look-alike to be at the next table.

The Italian Bakery Mawson, 3 February 2015, pen and ink

A few minutes later I noticed that the loading dock across the road from the cafe was open so the walls could be painted. I only just got to the drawing as the man painting the wall, pretty much obscured by the telegraph pole, put down his paint roller. Some late arrivals at one of the outside tables provided a bit of foreground action.

Painting the loading dock, 3February 2015, pen and ink

And on Wednesday I went back to my old ways, although I am trying to mix things up by drawing on newspaper pasted onto a Japanese calligraphy paper. I really just like the texture using the newsprint. Not at all archival, as my partner pointed out, but I think that’s unlikely ever to be an issue.

Glasses and other tableware, 4 February 2015, pen and ink with Copic Multiliner

And if you are looking for a good laugh about drawing strangers I can highly recommend Hallie Bateman’s comic on ‘How to draw people on the subway’.

January 17, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Trip, stumble and fall

“If you can’t be a good example, you’ll have to be a horrible warning”

So says crime writer Catherine Aird and last week’s sketch outing was a fine vindication of this thought. It started out well enough, we went to the newly completed Beijing Garden, a gift from Canberra’s sister city, in honour of Canberra’s centenary. The garden is located on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, behind the Hyatt Hotel. The garden packs in quite a bit of cultural and gardening history in a relatively small area. There are buildings, numerous sculptures and rocks, so there’s lots to draw.

I was intrigued by a view which I could see from the road, where the tea house is partly obscured by the sloping ground. I found a similar position closer to the tea house and started to put in my pencil guides. The fact that I took a while and several attempts to get this much should have indicated that I needed to re-consider what I included in the composition. But who am I to listen to common sense.

I ploughed on into the watercolours and started to make some headway into what I soon realised was a deceptively complex set of columns. By this stage my inner me was frantically signalling that I should perhaps quit while I was ahead, after all I’d done an OK job of getting those columns more or less in place. Why not consolidate what I’d already captured or move on to a new composition all together?

Where I probably should have stopped!, watercolour, 13 January 2015

Maybe next time I’ll listen to myself. But I couldn’t leave it alone and started in on the roof instead. Oh no, it soon dawned on me that I had all sorts of problems here, not the least of which was getting the angles and placement right. There was also the issue of colour. The very strong gold and emerald colours of the glazed tiles actually do sit very strangely with the exceptionally light grey colour of the stone columns. This is something I could have artistically bodged up, but by this stage I just couldn’t manage it.

Oh dear, if at first you don’t succeed! watercolour 13 January 2015.

At least the others had the sense to draw something else and were way more successful in their outcomes. The Beijing Garden is now definitely on the re-visit list and hopefully I will have learned something from this experience. If nothing else I did get a laugh from this sign.

Sign at the Beijing Garden

Next time I can manage some consolidation of my own.

December 20, 2014 by Leonie Andrews

China Drawings

Thanks for all of you who were following my drawing travels through China in October and November. I have finally gotten organised and have set up an album on Flickr with the full set of drawings on display. You’ll be in for a bit of a session as I ended up with some 60 plus pages – no one was more surprised than me.

If you’d like to take the trip again you can find the album here.

Sketching in Guilin

leonieandrews

Tag / urban sketch