August 5, 2019August 5, 2019 by Leonie Andrews

Amsterdam

I realise that I need to do a dump of my sketches from Amsterdam now, or l may never find time to share them. So here they are. Almost all of these were done at the Urban Sketchers Symposium which was held here this year.

Sketching the wonky houses along the Herengracht in Amsterdam.

A quick sketch of a bicycle with a child carrying module.

All the goody bags lined up at the registration desk this afternoon for all the Urban Sketchers Symposium workshop participants.

Final, unfinished sketch from the Marion Rivolier workshop on capturing the flow of sky and water with watercolour.

Final sketch of statues based on Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, Róisin Curé workshop using sepia ink.

Extending your page to include the images that are important to you in a scene. Karen Sung workshop, 1st piece.

Creative use of line and including people, Karen Sung workshop, 2nd piece.

My favourite bit of graffiti on the way to Rokin Metro station (sorry I was very bad at writing down location names).

Sketching from the ‘Drink and Draw’ location on Amstelhoek

NEMO, the science museum, final Sketchwalk of Symposium.

The canal next to our hotel, sketched at night, trying to capture the light reflections.

August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 by Leonie Andrews

Rotterdam

A quick-ish hop around the world via Singapore and now I find myself sketching in Rotterdam.

Rain Vortex at Jewel Changi. Watch our for large numbers of people dragging their luggage around while looking at their smartphones.

First sketch in Rotterdam the Markthal (Market Hall) by MVRDV architects, (2014).

Next the Kubuswoningen (Cube Houses) by Pier Blom (1984).

This is an earlier version which I wish I had left at this stage instead of turning it into a turgidly overworked mess.

Then part of Auke de Vries sculpture ‘Maasbeeld’, with De Rotterdam, by Rem Koolhaas (2013) and the Erasmus Bridge in the background.

Today even further challenges with De Hef, (Koninginnebrug) a now defunct, lifting railway bridge.

May 19, 2018May 19, 2018 by Leonie Andrews

More ‘colour cows’ join the herd

There’s not much that I like better than buying art supplies. Visiting another country, in my experience, is an excellent excuse to explore new brands and our new friends at USk Paris were most helpful in directing us to local art suppliers.

Here are the latest colours, mainly from Schmincke and Sennelier. I also have a new brush, whose name is Leonard no. 3, made by Gerstaecker (a brand I am unfamiliar with).

Down the bottom of the page are some Herbin inks that I also got in Paris at Galleries Lafayette. They come in 10 ml as well as 30ml bottles, all the better to encourage you to buy multiple bottles (see, it works). The most disappointing thing is that these inks are not waterproof. That hasn’t stopped me from using them, but I would be using them a lot more if I could be sure they wouldn’t run.

New colour cows: top row – Idanthrone blue (WN), Cobalt green turquoise (Schk), Delft blue (Schk); middle row – Payne’s grey (Schk), Potters pink (Schk), Light grey (Sen), Brown Green (Sen)

The other day I took Leonard no.3 out painting. He was a very good brush indeed. He holds lots of water and also has a good fine tip. This was the brush I used for the painting/ collage below, on the Canal St Martin.

The lock at Parc Eugene Varlin, Canal St Martin. Watercolour, pencil and collage.

Today I filled my favourite Sailor Fude nib pen with the Herbin Orange Indien and used it in my sketch of the Tropical Glasshouse at the Jardin des Plantes. When used in conjunction with watercolour you can get away without seeing too much ink bleeding.

Inside the Tropical House at the Jardins des Plantes, Paris

November 25, 2017 by Leonie Andrews

Urban Sketchers at the Shine Dome

Our urban sketching group met today to sketch at the Shine Dome, home of the Australian Academy of Science and one of the modernist masterpieces of this country. Designed by Roy Grounds and completed in 1958, the building is often referred to by it’s nickname as the ‘Martian Embassy ‘.

Behind the Shine Dome is a more recent edition to the Canberra skyline. The Nishi Building, 2015, with it’s green wall, includes offices and commercial space and incorporates, on the right, Hotel Hotel. This complex was designed by Fender Katsiladis Architects and March Studio, and landscape architects Oculus.

Watercolour, pencil

November 1, 2017November 1, 2017 by Leonie Andrews

What I did on my Holidays – Part 1

(Warning this is a long post with lots of photos)

Flying in to Kuching (Malaysia) the sinuous Sarawak River looked the perfect picture of a tropical waterway. I was here with my partner and six other sketchers from Canberra to meet up with another 290 odd sketchers from all across Asia for the second Asia-link Sketchwalk.

Rockin’ the Asia-link Sketchwalk Kuching 2017 mascots with some friends

Organised by Peggy and the crew from Urban Sketchers Kuching, (USk Kuching) we were treated to three days of sketching, sweating, workshops, eating, making new friends and renewing old friendships. By way of explanation, a sketchwalk is where everyone goes out and sketches together in a specific location.

Typical scenes from a sketchwalk

Our home base was The Granary, a large restaurant and bar complex abutting the older Chinese section of the city and a stone’s throw from the Sarawak River.

The Granary, where all meals are accompanied by a sketchbook!

As most of the Aussies made it to the city a day before the official start we had some time to settle in and get our bearings. We started off with a boat trip on the Sarawak River.

Sketching our way down the Sarawak River

Luckily one of our friends speaks Malay so we able to get the boatman to let us drift downriver, so we could sketch as we went.

Trawlers on the Sarawak River, watercolour

He also took us to one of the shops specialising in those amazing Malay sponge cakes, Kek Lapis = layer cake.

Kek lapis, the brighter the better!

It was also the final day of the Autumn Moon Festival so we enjoyed the moon cakes and the evening parade with obligatory dragon and lion dancers.

'Leonie and Steve sketching at the Tua Peh Kong Temple.#alswkch2017'

Sketching at the Tua Peh Kong Temple. (photograph courtesy of Edric Hsu)

How to maintain your dragon

The organisers of the Sketchwalk arranged for a stamp, (beloved of all USk get-togethers), for every place where we sketched.

When you stopped to sketch you would soon be joined by other sketchers. Along the streets we would spread out keeping the locals amused and the official photographer very busy as he tried to capture all the sketching action.

Sketching with Jayson and Ryan

Left, my sketch, middle Jayson’s and right Ryan’s sketch

Of course there were workshops. I did a workshop with Paul Wang (from USk Singapore), exploring the use of a credit card (or similar) as a painting tool.

Paul Wang giving us a demonstration at the start of his workshop

My sketch from the Paul Wang workshop

My second workshop was with Sanjeev Joshi (from USk Pune, India), exploring the use of collage in sketching. What I really liked about the schedule was that we had a chance to apply what we learned in the workshops in the daily sketchwalks.

My collage from the Sanjeev Joshi workshop, watercolour and brochure

The weather was kind for most of our stay, well apart from being hot and humid every day. Sadly we got rained out on the last day of the event. The planned group photograph outside the Sarawak Museum , was cancelled when the grass literally went underwater with the torrential rain.

Of course what I enjoyed most was meeting all those people