Christmas Square, Melbourne

Christmas Square is a temporary set-up in the city. I think it’s for kids although there were many adults there. My morning started off beautifully but the city got too busy and I couldn’t wait to get home.

I had a nice quiet time sitting at a cafe drawing this scene (above), having a coffee and pastry. It was a good view of the square (actually more like a rectangle where the tall Christmas tree is) with the Melbourne Town Hall in the background.

Then I went into the square and it was very busy (Christmas Eve). I managed a quick sketch, then decided that the city was too busy for me and went home.

Drumming in Abu Dhabi

In February I was given the exciting opportunity to travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to play with TaikOz. Most of the time we had rehearsals and the actual performances. But I managed to sketch inbetween everything and in the afternoons when we had time to ourselves. Here is a selection of my sketches, if you would like to see the rest please click on this link to my blog post.

Cheers,
Meegan.

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

Sydney Inkorporated

That's such a terrible heading... Anyway, apologies for not having contributed in awhile I have been holding off until I got my own blog sorted out.

After my success at Cockatoo Island I was keen to test it out some more - making sure it wasn't a fluke. I had  a quiet week so decided to head out around Sydney. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great - I think I had one or two days free of rain, but it was quite satisfying and am dying to get outdoors again.

St Stephens Cemetery, Newtown

National Maritime Museum

Macquarie Street

Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens

Dixon Street, Chinatown

If anyone would like to see more of my colour inks please visit my blog scratchyas.com  Cheers!

Sydney Royal Easter Show

An annual event in Sydney which originally was an opportunity for the city folks to experience and appreciate the lives, produce and world of our country cousins. Every person brought up in Sydney will have fond memories of stinky cows, showbags, or "samplebags" as they were onced called, filled with everything single kind of confectionary, amusement rides, cake decorating displays, fruit & veg displays and so much more. I haven't been to the new venue at Olympic Park (which is where the Sydney Olympic Games were held) so it was a first for me.

Bus Stops in April

I managed to get out this last week and stretch my legs. I haven't drawn outdoors for a while so it was hard to get back into it again. Luckily it's like riding a bike. My work took me out to Belmore (Sydney's west) but I only managed one sketch near the train station.

A few days ago I took a walk in my area, and found a nice sunny spot overlooking this building. It belongs to the Salvation Army and is or was their office site (?). I always used to think it was a castle.

 On the same walk I walked past a bus stop with a corner shop next to it.

On another day's walk I decided to  draw from a bus stop I always pass. When I went to write down the bus stop number there was no bus stop sign - they don't use this stop anymore. So this is my first "ghost" bus stop. I wondered why that car was parked in a bus zone...

 Last weekend, heading out to a baby shower in Darlinghurst, I had time to do some drawing. I dont get to come to this part of Sydney as much as I used to so it was nice to take it all in. This is an old fire station which is still in use - and its the first time I've ever noticed it. How terrible is that! Unfortunately it is obscured by the trees, but that was my view.

Then, full of scones and chocolate tarts, I made my way home by catching a bus back in the city centre.

Australian War Memorial

On my last day in Canberra I visited the War Memorial. The last time I was here I ran out of time, so I gave it most of one day - but it still wasn't enough. My whole intention was to draw and tried to keep reading the descriptions for another visit, but it was too interesting and displayed so well that is was hard not to absorb whatever I could. I limited myself to 1-2 drawings per room, but I still only made it to the WWII exhibitions. How I wish there was an express bus from Sydney straight to the War Memorial every week.

I also loved the combination of my leaf green, Mustard and Iron Grey Inktense pencils and stuck with them through this visit. This first sketch, however, is with watercolour and indian ink.

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.

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.

Rain - Rain - Rain

So much rain, my studio is under water...  It is too wet to sketch.  I have no car..

Today I sat under my carport, and sketched my drought tolerant garden.  All this rain and humidity has made it grow like crazy!!

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.

International Sketchcrawl

It started out more of a sketch- swim with mother nature being the ultimate decider of where our drawing venue would be. Thankfully the Australian Museum is always a great venue, rain, hail or shine, and most of us splish splashed our way over there. And it was the first time I managed to check out the dinousaur exhibition, and I dont think it will be my last.