More Bus Stops

This first sketch was at Enmore park, the sandstone structure to the right is a bus stop shelter. I found the roof or ceiling to be really odd and it was hard to get the right perspective.
This is along Marrickville Rd at a bus stop opposite the Fire Station and Town Hall. They've always been there but looking at my drawing, it looks more like something I might see in America?? As I was drawing this a young high school student was waiting for her bus, and we started chatting. She did a bit of drawing herself and goes to the same high school I attended. Another lady stopped by to have a chat with us as well.

I completed this sketch on the same walk as the above drawing. My brain was a little fried from all the architectural detail from the town hall, so I found some trees. However, I think that will be next major challenge - to spend more time looking at and deciphering architecture and the best way to present it on paper. In the distance are some tennis courts.

Gone Potty

I have driven a zillion kms this last 10 days and just had to stop on Sunday and sketch.

Waterfall Cottage, Bayview

Had a great day on Saturday, with fellow sketcher Chris, at a wonderful house and garden at Bayview - Waterfall Cottage (only opened two weekends a year)

Very loose and quick (ratty) sketching as it was impossible to find a comfortable place to sit to sketch. Colour later (in a similar style!)

Although I have a seat for this sketch, the constant demand for seats on the verandah meant that I was rushing this one too. I coloured this one at the time.



Nothing like a time of chill after being out in the sun sketching...of course at my favourite hang-out T2 teahouse.

Newtown primary terrace

This corner terrace house is just off King Street Newtown. I went up there on Sunday morning to sit and sketch it while there were not so many people about. It's all in the primary colours. Walls are cerulean blue with phthalo blue trim & some sap green, the door is cadmium yellow with a cadmium red curtain.

The house is very close to the train line. The wall that is out of sight on the left has the leafy pattern continuing along the wall that can be seen from the train. You might see it if you're coming towards the city, just before you get into Newtown Station.

This is what I love about Newtown. Its so colourful'.

Emerging Indigenous Authors & Illustrators Workshop

Hi, Friends! I helped an Emerging Indigenous Authors & Illustrators Workshop (Overview) in Glebe, Sydney. The Little Big Book Club and Allen & Unwin(*publisher) ran the workshop, funded through The Australia Council. This initiative has a focus on developing picture books by Indigenous creators. What a wonderful project!! My mentor, Ann James was one of the presenters and ran a hands-on art workshop. Julie Vivas and I joined the event. (*Friends, think of it : "Ann James" and "Julie Vivas" are in our workshop = "The Rolling Stones" and "The Beatles" joint concert!! Got it?) On Sunday, the first workshop was on "process of publishing." The handouts were clear, concise and spot on. I fell in love with Allen & Unwin and The Little Big Book Club's ongoing project. Their goal is to promote the love of and importance of reading to children from a very early age, especially in families.

Friends, do ye know? An interesting linguistic research we studied at uni is "bed time story makes a middle class." The research revealed the influence and the importance of reading books for young children. It gives children lifelong literacy, success in formal schooling and improved life chances. Apart from socio-economic analyses, anyone loves listening to parents' reading at bed, don't we? It's nice and will be very sweet memories in our lives! So, I'd support The Little Big Book Club objectives.

Each presenter, Erica, Ann, Sarah talked on. Particularly, Ann's talk was practical and helpful to learn how to illustrate. She, originally dreamed of becoming a social worker, but the chose an Art teacher career. She started,
"Draw from memory." An enthusiastic illustrator Ann was born!
Although the making process has no difference in general, each illustrator has a unique methods to develop drawings. Ann's way is just fit to me.

"Draw from memory" is a very useful methods to illustrate a text. It purifies visual information. In our memory, visual information gets through our mind filters. Only impressed info is left that responds to emotions well.

Another memorable Ann's say is "Lines and colours are different languages." Yes, I'd explore both more!

After the talk, participants enjoyed varied medias : watercolour, pastels, oil pastel and acrylics. Great fun to practise drawing and painting! We, mentors assisted students in person. I explained about "simplify info," "value study" for figurative drawings and a technique, "wash off & sedimentary pigments." One portrait demo for the student.





Ohhh, this is one of our students' hard work! She sketched me. Lovely!








Our great bonus was Julie Vivas, an Australian national icon for picture book industry. Julie, this humble superstar showed her fantastic work nearly at the end. Beautiful and so sensitive. All of us uttered, "Ohhhh!!! Waaaaa!!!!" Kind Julie explained another technique to use a pen for very detailed watercolour work. The lovely, lovely end for us.It was a great joy to meet youngish talents and see their wonderful work. I have no doubt about these talented artists' bright future. They will crack into market. Hope we will see again soon.May many "Indigenous picture book illustrators" will come up from this project and gain a public attention!

Friends, happy painting!!!

Opera House sunset

I was also one of the group sketching the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday evening. It rained at lunchtime and I got drenched. Then it rained again at about 10pm and I got wet getting home. But while we were sketching the weather was perfect. The gold reflections on the Opera House sails contrasted nicely with the touch of violet in the sky.
Sepia Pitt Pen on Como paper.

Balmain Door and Stone

After walking past this door many times I finally stopped to sketch it. So so many stories ... listen ...

Sunset over Sydney

I headed out as part of the welcoming committee for a fellow sketcher from the US, thinking what gawd-awful weather we've been having lately and that we weren't going to get a few hours to sketch outdoors. But just when you think you have mother nature pegged, it turned out to be a perfect evening with a beautiful sunset thrown in. I tried to capture all the reflections on the sails, but they kept changing all the time.

Camping Mount Archer Qld Australia

Mount Archer is 90 minutes drive south west of Brisbane.  The mount is 604 metres high, and dominates the Mount Archer National Park.  The mount is named in honour of the Archer Brothers who explored the Fitzroy area, and it is part of the Darumbal Aboriginal people's traditional country.  I camped there this last weekend with my camping group.  At night and early morning, we were delighted with the raucous calls of the majestic Black Cockatoos..

We camped along Moores Creek, I think it was called, and it was delightful to hear the water rushing by at night.  We had one major thunderstorm on the Saturday night, to add to our excitement.  Everyone managed to stay dry..

Manly Beach

Manly Beach last Sunday. Was a lovely day! Wasn't it? I used my brush pen (similar to Pentel Brush Pen) and work the ink on my sketch book. If we are lucky we'll have another lovely sunny weekend. 

A busy week

I found myself travelling all over Sydney these last couple of weeks, so I made some time to sketch.

I was on the North Shore heading to Mosman and had to wait for a connecting bus at Neutral Bay.

Then later that week I had to make a trip to Burwood. I wasn't catching a bus but waiting for a pest inspector to check out my uncle's house. We waited outside in the car as it rained, and the house happens to have a bus stop right outside it. The bugger didnt show up, but at least I got something out of it.

Cabramatta

Probably the noisiest sketching day I've ever known - maybe even the noisiest day. Our trip to Cabramatta was arranged around availability, not Chinese New Year. We'd missed the major celebrations by a week anyway, but hoped against hope to see á dragon'.

Cabramatta is the Vietnamese area of Sydney and a number of years ago was considered a no-go area because of drugs. It's all different now, and its a wonderful place to eat, buy interesting and unusual fruit & veg, and best of all the fruit drinks at Yummi.

There are plenty of seats scattered about, so no need to take your own. Well, dragons! There were several groups of lion dancers, each with two or three lions, drummers, cymbals, and a noisy and extended culmination of firecrackers. We sketched to the beat of the drums and got right into the swing of things.

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Lane Cove River

As someone else said, rain, rain, rain. It's raining today & it was raining last week when I went up the Lane Cove River. I may have said before that I belong to the Sydney Heritage Fleet and that means I get the opportunity to go out on these historic vessels.

This time it was a tiny one - the Protex. There were 15 of us on board including the captain. We sailed across Sydney Harbour and up the Lane Cove River as far as Fuller's Bridge. When we got to the National Park, some Fleet members got off, and by the time we sailed upriver and turned around they had a barbecue lunch cooked for us.

Though there were showers from time to time we didn't get wet, and the deep saturated olive greens of the river were beautiful. Although it goes right through the middle of residential Sydney it was calm and peaceful up there. I learnt that watercolour pencils are the absolute best for sketching on board ship, because you can capture the colours as you go along.

More Japan Sketches

Temple at Nara

Sogenchi Garden, Arashiyama, Kyoto

Atomic Dome, Hiroshima

Kiyomizudera Temple, Kyoto

Ducks sleeping at Nanzenki Temple Gardens, Kyoto

Few more sketches of my recent trip to Japan. I still have some many to scan.