Tag / watercolour

by Leonie Andrews

‘Good Bones’ with Stephanie Bowers

We recently took off to Melbourne for a few days with friends to take a workshop called ‘Good Bones’, with architectural illustrator and urban sketcher Stephanie Bowers. Obviously the desire to learn how to handle perspective and use of water colour for illustration appealed as folks came from as far afield as Brisbane and even Perth to attend the workshop. I’ll spare you the blow by blow description of the workshop because Stephanie teaches these techniques in her online classes.

Our base for the two days of the workshop was the ‘Old Quad’ at Melbourne University. The university was founded in 1853 and sought to impress with buildings based on the cloisters and quadrangles of older European institutions. The Quad, with its arcades and arched cloisters certainly was a challenge.

Day one focused on basic instruction and demonstration on single point perspective. Sketches were in pencil with watercolour to follow on Day 2.

24Mar2017a

The Old Arts Building, Cussonia Court, University of Melbourne

Sketching in this much detail in pencil is definitely not my usual approach!

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My second sketch with watercolour added on the following day, the Old Quad, University of Melbourne

Focused practice is always difficult. Another study in pencil.

24Mar2017b

Finding the perspective lines was challenging and I doubt I would have gotten this far without Stephanie’s expert tuition

After a day of concentration Stephanie had us make two quick 10 minute sketches.

A closer look at one of the buildings, watercolour applied with a square brush
Another go at the tower. I painted this rather than the previous sketch

Day 2 was spent trying out colour combinations and practicing our watercolour technique.

Following the workshop we spent a final half day with Urban Sketchers Melbourne. We had the advantage as we stayed at the University. Without the previous two days tuition I would not have had the skills to successfully tackle the design buildings at the university.

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The dramatic extension of the Design Building with the Elisabeth Murdoch Building in the background

I would recommend taking a class with Stephanie, either on-line or in person.

by Leonie Andrews

Sunday with the sketchers

Today the Urban Sketchers Canberra group met for its first outing of 2017 at the Mt Stromlo Observatory. I wasn’t sure how many people would come along as the forecast was for 34°C, thankfully it didn’t get that hot while we were there and we had a breeze for a fair part of the morning.

While we were gathering I spotted my first choice for sketching. This fire hydrant is a rather folorn reminder of the devastating firestorm that swept across Mt Stromlo and down into the suburbs of Canberra in 2003.

Fire hydrant remains at Mt Stromlo, watercolour, 8 January 2017

As the morning hotted up and the ants started biting I decided to retreat to another location. I joined one of our other sketchers in the cool shade of the remains of the Yale Columbia telescope (built in 1923).

The ruined mounts for the telescope now make for very dramatic sculptures inside the shell of the building. 

Inside the ruins of the Yale Columbia telescope, Mt Stromlo Observatory, watercolour and graphite pencil, 8 January 2017

The other mount reminded me somewhat of a Dalek, must be that squat shape.

Mount for the Yale Columbia telescope at Mt Stromlo Observatory, watercolour and graphite pencil, 8 January 2017

We were happy to retreat inside to the cafe for our sketchbook ‘throw down’ and compare notes after several hours of sketching.

You can see more sketches from this morning  on the USk Canberra  Facebook page and on this blog by fellow sketcher Michelle.

My previous visit to the observatory can be found here.

by Leonie Andrews

Looking for a life model

I’m in a watercolour sketching phase at the moment, sketching people in general and portraits in particular. Mostly I work in coffee shops trying to get a quick sketch done before the subject inevitably leaves at the critical artistic moment. However I am also really ‘over’ drawing people with cups or mobile phones in their hands. Given that I don’t attend regular life drawing classes I need a way to find some interesting models. 

So what to do? ‘Cheat’ I happily reply. I notice that I am not alone in drawing sculptures, by way of a substitute for a live model. Art galleries or even local parks can be good places to find interesting subjects.Here are some sculptures I drew while I was in Japan.

Two sculptures and an attendant in the Churyo Sato wing of the Miyagi Museum of Art in Sendai

Here’s another.

Shade, Churyo Sato, Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai

When even the sculptures are lacking I turn to another source, photographs. The Boss, belting out a number (original photo Getty Images)

I find that newspaper photographers are particularly talented at capturing interesting positions of sportspeople or dancers. 

Aussie swimmers, Kyle Chalmers and James McEvoy (original photo AP)

The hard part, is to spend only the same amount of time sketching from the photo as you would if they were really in front of you. Just remember this is a way to practise making a quick sketch, not a photo-realist masterpiece. 

by Leonie Andrews

Kit bashing

Tomorrow is my first time back meeting with Urban Sketchers Canberra, after two months away. I  realised that I wanted to change my watercolour box set up so I wasn’t lugging around multiple tins (like I normally do ).

I had a tin and some spare empty half pans. All I needed to do was reorganise the two tins into one. 

The tin is 12.5 x 8 cm (roughly 5 × 3 inches). I also managed to fill the spare space with a bit of old face washer for cleaning my brushes. The pans are held in place by the simple technique of using heavy duty double sided tape stuck to one of those magnetic calendars (sent out by our local pollies). The magnetic calendar is easy to cut up then stuck on the bottom of the pans. The pans stay put for everyday use, but can be easily swapped around when I change my mind about what colours I want in the tin.

There are 24 colours in the new tin and no doubt way too many browns and greens. I will play around with the combinations over the coming months and no doubt change it again!