Random ramblings

Work has been frantic lately and I realised I have all these one off sketches I have done over the last month and not uploaded them to anything. They are all disconnected from each other but worth sharing.

Still thinking about my architectural struggles, I took my sketchbook with me on a grocery run and stopped at a local park to draw the aquatic centre. I spent a few minutes studying the scene before launching into it, reading the patterns, etc. It worked out okay but it is very clinical and lacks a lot of character.

Catching a bus all the way from town in peak hour on a rainy day can be a very long journey. Initially I was going to draw whatever I could see out my window whenever the bus stopped, but as the bus filled up that became more interesting.

Met up with a few other Urban Sketchers on the nastiest last night in winter, what a performance Mother Nature put on. We found some refuge on the ferry pier, and I found the rain splattered windows looking out across to the Opera House really exciting. It was like an Impressionist's painting because it was softening the definition of the scene.

The first Sunday in Spring was too good to stay indoors, so I headed out for a few quick sketches. I had thought some more about my architectural studies and wanted to practice another approach. I hate putting in pencil lines but obviously the benefit of that is everything is in proportion and it all fits on the page. To avoid that I decided to paint very faint gestural strokes enough to give me some guidance. It seemed to work quite well, and by doing that it also took the pressure off "will it fit? have I left enough room?" and can now enjoy the sketch more thoroughly.

I did a two stage breakdown of another building (from a photo) on my blog if anyone would like to see it.

Cheers,
Meegan

2012 Sketchbook

As mentioned in a previous entry I completed my first Urban Sketches book end of 2011. Well, I am happy to say I have made a good start on my new sketchbook. My theme is Scenes From A Bus Stop. Most will still be of Marrickville and the surrounding inner-city suburbs, but as I catch public transport quite regularly, there will be the odd other location in Sydney as well. I'm still sticking with the artline pen and waterbrush pen combination, as I quite like it. I've also decided to "square off" the scenes too. It keeps each page scene and looks neater.

I had to draw this Newtown scene over two days. The first day my bus came quite promptly, which is unusual for this route (370 - I'm always waiting forever). So I came back the second time as part of my exercise/walk. However, the second time was so much busier with so many cars and people it made me a little frenetic in my actions trying to finish the drawing at the same pace.
This was the return trip on the 370, and is what I'm use to, I had plenty of time to finish this sketch. I think these are fire hydrants.

Sydney Commuting

I commute about 1.5 / 2 hours a day. I use that time mostly to draw, also to read. Today I was reading and finally drawing. I'm normally to self aware to draw commuters, but today I didn't care that much.