Tag / urban sketch

by Leonie Andrews

Inside the tip shop

A highlight of any week is a visit to the local tip shop, where all manner of stuff gets re-cycled. I’d planned to sit inside the big shed and draw, but got diverted finding pre-loved items for our garden.

Inside 'Tiny's' Green Shed, Hume, ACT . 14 January 2014.

Inside ‘Tiny’s’ Green Shed, Hume, 14 January 2014.

Icame home with several items including this weird looking contraption which is actually the top of two bird cages that have been wired together to form a protector that can be placed over plants to save them from the ravages of the local fauna. In our case this is saving our beetroot from being anihilated by our local brushtail possum.

Plant protector made from the tops of two birdcages, 18 January 2014.

Plant protector made from the tops of two birdcages, 18 January 2014.

From a drawing perspective I was attracted to the colour contrast between the duck-egg blue wire on top and the black metal on the rest of the cage. The repetitive lines of wire also get the big tick from me.

by Leonie Andrews

At the Italian Bakery

Sipping from a cup of coffee, 7 January 2014.

Sipping from a cup of coffee, 7 January 2014.

I used the drawing function in my ‘phablet’ to make some sketches while we were having coffee the other day. I also decided to use some of the patterned background options for the drawings.

Chatting, 7 January 2014.

Chatting, 7 January 2014.

I was able to sit in a less conspicuous spot so was better able to capture spontaneous action, or what passes for ‘action’ in a coffee shop.

For my last drawing I chose to work on the drinks cabinet with its attractive arrangement of colours and shapes. I’m still using the S-pen, but on a different setting.

Drinks cabinet in the cafe, 7 January 2014.

Drinks cabinet in the cafe, 7 January 2014.

by Leonie Andrews

In Situ

It was a silly accident, but having kicked my little toe quite badly the medical advice was to sit with my foot up and not move around too much. I had some books to look at, including one of paintings and sketches of the architect Louis I Kahn. Nothing like looking at someone else’s work to get the creative juices flowing. So armed with some coloured pencils and a partially used pad of coloured pastel paper I sat and drew what I could see out the window.

'Icicle' lights in the daytime, pencil on pastel paper, 4 January 2014.

‘Icicle’ lights in the daytime, coloured pencil on pastel paper, 4 January 2014.

OK, quite a bit to improve on there, but I haven’t done this for a while.

Open window, coloured pencil on pastel paper, 4 January 2014.

Open window, coloured pencil on pastel paper, 4 January 2014.

I was more pleased with this second drawing, but some drafting errors were annoying, all the more reason to keep practising!

by Leonie Andrews

Into the light

I’ve recently joined the Urban Sketchers, an online group of people from around the world that like to draw (in whatever medium). Their ‘mission’ is to “Show the world, one drawing at a time”. This week there is a theme to draw artificial light. Given it is Christmas there was only one choice for me – the ‘icicle’ lights on my house.

Blue 'icicle' lights, 29 December 2013.

Blue ‘icicle’ lights, 29 December 2013.

There were several challenges to doing this drawing, not the least of which was re-setting the lights to ‘steady’, rather than a fit-inducing flashing sequence. The biggest problem was the colour of the light itself. Being such an intense blue (it gives a real disco fluorescent whiteness to any white clothing), it was a challenge to firstly see my page let alone get some realistic colour onto it.

So, a la Vincent, I put on my camping headlight so I actually had a white light to work on my page. Capturing the intensity of the individual lights and the backwash of colour has proved quite difficult. However I’m happy with this first attempt. I will try to develop a more intense version of this scene, using photographs I’ve taken as I’m not sure that I could take another half hour session sitting in this light. After finishing I got one of those ‘afterglow’ optical effects where everything I saw went ‘orange’. The only other time I have had such a strong effect was in experiencing James Turrell’s work Open Field, at the Chichu Museum on Naoshima Island in Japan.