Tag / Urban sketching

by Leonie Andrews

Back at the Portrait Gallery

I know it’s only been a week, but I was back at the National Portrait Gallery again on Sunday for their monthly life drawing session, called Drawn In. The Gallery provides easels, boards, materials, paper, and pencils, but you can also take your own.

My book is watercolour paper, so I did my first sketch, a tonal study, with pencil, on the smoother side of my paper.

Trying to focus more on tone, than lines, although I used both

I decided to move into the Family Art room as it’s possible to use watercolour in there. It was certainly a different angle to sketch from. It was almost the reverse of the view that I did first.

The view from the Family Art Room

Lots of friends from the Urban Sketchers were also there, so we rounded off the afternoon with cups of tea and coffee in the cafe.

by Leonie Andrews

End of another year

I will just share some photos as I haven’t reached any conclusions about the year. I’ve made work, communed with like-minded friends both online and in person around the world. Thank you all for being open and sharing your year with me as well.

Part of a major piece going on show in 2023.
Some silliness with friends in Indonesia.
A female (left) and juvenile male (right) Eastern Koels, summer visitors to our part of Australia.
Sketching in my own backyard, late December.
Sketching in other people’s back yards, Hila, Ambon, Indonesia in October. The Dutch built Immanuel Church, 1659 and locals fishing on the pier.
by Leonie Andrews

Drawing Sydney (not all cafes)

Well it’s been a while since I posted, mainly because I have been busy finalising my first solo exhibition in Sydney, (more of that in another post). We had to drive up from Canberra for the installation so once we arrived we had some spare time to get some sketching done.

You probably won’t be surpised that this has meant sitting in cafes and sketching, although it’s also been about taking the opportunity to look out at the busy urban settings as much as drawing people. We are staying in the inner-ish suburb of Strathfield, close to the railway  station. It’s a lively area with plenty of activity all day.

Early morning coffee sketching at Maldini’s Espresso. The place across the road must have the good dumplings because there were always queues there at night.

The area also has a very strong Korean focus. You can’t go wrong with Korean barbecue restaurants and the style and content of the local grocery and specialty shops is a far cry from what we have in our local area. It makes a heady mix for us sketchers!

We also spent some time at the Art Gallery of New South Wales,  where I had just enough time to sketch some sculptures as fit in another cafe sketch.

Lyndon Dadswell, The Birth of Venus, 1944. One of a number of smaller sculptures displayed together.

I love the way these groupings of sculptures relate to each other and the art around them. It was a bit of a challenge to see enough detail in the Dadswell sculpture to draw it, as it was silhouetted against a bright window. The view of the back of the sculpture was much better lit. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to sketch that as well.

The rear view of the Birth of Venus by Lyndon Dadswell.
One final cafe sketch.

by Leonie Andrews

Teaching at the underpass

This year I have twice taught introductory classes on urban sketching for our local Community Arts Centre. We have been sketching at a local shopping centre focusing on sketching the underpass and the toilet block.

I have actually become quite fond of sketching this underpass.

Strange subjects for sketches I know, however they are simple enough shapes to practice proportional measuring and drawing for people with limited sketching experience. I want to help people experience the satisfaction of making a ‘good’ drawing; good enough to encourage them to keep on trying.

I won’t go into the details of what this all means, suffice to say that getting the relative proportions relatively correct means a much more satisfactory outcome to the drawing.

Above is a quick sketch where I’ve demonstrated how to use a pencil to measure the proportions of the underpass.

Demonstrating the results of making light and dark shades with watercolour pencils. The challenge is encouraging people to use a wider tonal range, particularly strong darks, which if nothing else save the sketch from death by mid-tone values.

Secondly some suggestions on how to use watercolor pencils. Then a small drawing demonstrating how you can emphasize the background, rather than focus on a tree in the foreground of your main subject.

A small sketch using ‘negative space, to make a tree trunk pop out from the over pass railings behind it.

And finally my piece de resistance a sketch completed upside down. This sketch shows the relative values of the underpass and how to include the two trees in front of it, without them detracting from the main subject.

All my best ideas are nicked from other sketchers. This one is no exception. Alvin Wong, an urban sketcher from Hong Kong, once explained that one of the most useful skills he learned in his early days as an architect was how to draw and write upside down, while delivering presentations to clients. Not only does it impress the socks off people, but in this case I could demonstrate the ideas I was trying to share so the sketcher could easily follow my drawing.

Not bad for my first upside down drawing.