Skething Dimmeys in Richmond

A group of USkers met at sketched along Swan Street, Richmond. We had plenty to sketch, and there are public benches on just about every corner so we didn’t have to sit on the concrete (for a change).

 

Dimmey’s is a century old landmark in Richmond. It is being developed into a supermarket and appartments. It’s a hertitage listed building, and until recently the shop stocked super cheap products.

I found a nice spot sketching from a cafe called ‘Meatballs‘. Interestingly the clock doesn’t work. The hands are set to midday, and there are no numerals on the face, instead it reads ‘D I M M E Y S S T O R E’

We met at 1pm to share… and as you can see from the collection of books below I hadn’t started painting when we met. The globe/dome on top of the clock has these wonderful turquoise colours. Does anyone know those why green/turquoise domes look that way? (Is it something to do with copper?)

 

Melbourne sketchers head to Grampians

A group of us from Melbourne (Evelyn, Angela, Ilze, Muzo, Umut, Anne and myself) packed up our bags and jumped in a car to have a long 4-day weekend sketching in the Grampians in early November. It was an excellent weekend for cooking up feasts, drinking wine, toasting marshmallows, animal spotting and sketching from sunrise to sunset (and usually late-ish into the night as well).

We had many stops along the way including a vintage shop, lots of nature walks with gorgeous views and waterfalls, and who can pass at a chance to stop a winery. We sketched everywhere we went, including on the journey in the car.

DAY ONE

We stopped at a massive vintage shop called Mill Markets in Ballarat (they could have left me there for four days to just sketch all the goodies). Followed with a stop at the Lake Wendouree for some lunch, some more sketching, and then headed to see the Ferntree Falls, Buangor State Park. We stayed in Halls Gap, and they have great little markets to pick up some fresh baked goodies.

DAY TWO 

Another day with nature: We sat and sketched the Silverband Falls, and the Venus Baths. On the evenings we came across kangaroos in the sports field, and also just across from the YHA hostel.

DAY THREE

We walked up to the outlook of The Balconies where we took up one end of the lookout while we sketched. A few kids came over, and watched us sketching. One of them said ‘I wish I had my notebook’, to which Angela offered her some paper and pencil. Before we knew it we had a bunch of kids, and we shared our tools around. They sat on the rocks and our group suddenly doubled. We joked that it was essentially was a makeshift Day Centre as we had about 5-6 kids joining us all focused on sketching and painting. The parents thought it was great, as they spend a good 20 – 30 mins with us. They were all really into it, and we showed them how to use the watercolour. The littlest one painted a house in her Grampians picture. They said they are going to get some watercolours when they went home.

The hike down to the McKenzie Waterfalls is well worth the view. Angela, Evelyn and I perched ourselves on a tall rock to sketch half way down.

We went hunting for tour of an old woolshed. It ended up being a half fallen down due to termites etc. We battled the flies, and thankfully didn’t see any snakes.

DAY FOUR – 5 Nov – Melbourne Cup Day

Emus wandering near the camping site are apparently completely normal. I started a list of all the fauna we saw (we didn’t see any koala, but the list was pretty long).

Melbourne Cup day is a public holiday for Victorians. It also happened to be my birthday. The sketchers sang me happy birthday at one of the lookouts. We stopped at a few towns on the way home including the Three Sisters Rocks. Followed with a stop at Seppelt Winery (Great Western) and sketched the Lodge. The girls did some impromptu yoga on the grass, and we soaked up some sun.

We stopped for a late lunch and to see the race. We had one last stop to sketch the Beaufort Fire Station. I drew it and then painted only the sky. As a bit of an experiment – I drew it again and painted just the building and trees.

5 minute portraits

It has become a bit of a tradition when we sketch all day into the evening to do 5 min portraits (usually over a glass of wine or two) of each other on little artist cards. The person you sketch gets to keep the portrait, so I have a great little collection now. There are always a few quiet hurried minutes of sketching, followed with people saying ‘sorry’ (as we have gotten some feature wrong), and then a lot of laughing.

Below is the owner of Grub cafe in Fitzroy. We got chatting away to him and he taught an arts course and got his students to do portraits of him. So the four of us each did a portrait of him. Mine is the top right.

Here’s the portraits the four of us on that same night as above (Evelyn – first row, Angela – forth row, Anne – third row  and myself – second row) did of each other.

We’ve been doing these portraits for quite a number of months. None of us can pin point when or why we started exactly… my guess is around August. I like seeing all the variety of the styles and how people try to capture certain features that define a person.

Sketching in Richmond, Melbourne

Our Melbourne sketching group met up in Bridge Road, Richmond. It goes to show how much attention I pay to my surrounding when I am on the tram. I swear I must have been past this sign hundreds of times and yet never really looked at it or knew what it was for. Pelaco is a tshirt brand… I found out!

We sketched in a back street away from traffic and this is Angela perched against a sign also sketching. I quite like the monotone and think I might experiment a bit more in it.

 

I also had never noticed that these two building which are called Theobald’s Buildings (heritage listed). I guess conjoined buildings were quite the norm back in the day. Now a cafe is situated below. And just one door down is a really good dumpling restaurant called ‘I love dumplings‘. Don’t let the name turn your off, because lets face it I DO LOVE DUMPLINGS.

Sketching trip to Malaysia

It was my first trip to Asia. I was glad Evelyn could order the food. We stayed in really nice 5 star hotels with pools, but mostly ate street food. It was a bit luxury, and R&R, but we managed to get in quite a lot of sketching.

We spent a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur, and then caught a bus to Penang. We met up with some of the local Penang sketchers for dinner.

We headed back to KL for a few more days of shopping, pampering and sketching.

Drawing August

I decided to participate in a twitter organised drawing event. We drew and posted a sketch each day. I decided to make it a little more challenging and made my theme ‘yellow’. I ended up roping in friends and colleagues to bring in yellow things when I got stuck. Here’s my 31 days of August.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 21 – Sam let me sketch her cool shoes, and she was wearing a yellow cardie.

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26

Day 27
(I accidentally wrote the wrong date on my sketch)

Day 28
(I wrote the wrong date in my sketchbook)

Day 29

Day 30

Trip to Tasmania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evelyn and I went on a sketching trip to Tasmania. We few flew into Hobart, and hired a car and drove up the east coast. We went on walks, at lots of yummy food, visited a wildlife park and went to the Mona gallery.

Busking (by accident) in Degraves St

We had a day of sketching in Degraves Street, Melbourne. We sat on some milk crates and drew the buskers and graffiti. A lady thought we should be busking like the singers and grabbed Ev’s hat and put it on an empty crate and she and her friends chucked in some coins – I think we made $1.40 – big bucks!! She thought we were poor students. It was very entertaining and we laughed a lot.

Sketching, food, sketching and more food

We sketch at a lot of cafes and sometimes pubs. Sometimes I seem to colour similarly and other times quite randomly. We sketched at Federation Square and then at a cafe on Degraves St. The deer’s head was plastic at a pub called Father’s Office. My friend Kendall humored me and let me sketch her. We went to the South Melbourne markets and had hot chocolate and cake at Chez Dre. Very scrumptious!!!

Urban Sketching day in Williamstown

We had a fantastic first Urban Sketcher’s day in Williamstown. We braved the cold and a few of us cycled there from the city. It ended up being about 40km ride in a total. I only managed one sketch of the boats this time around as my fingers were so cold. We moved inside to cafe to have a warm beverage. And then had some fish and chips outside. There were two Ferrari’s parked out the front of the boat shed. I think I prefer sketching older cars…

Sketching in the City Square (Melbourne)

 

Another great day of sketching in the city. Perfect blue skies made for fun sketch of the St Paul’s Cathedral.

We stopped of at Little Cupcakes in Degraves St, Melbourne. The have lots of different flavours and I wanted one of each… but settled on the brownie one. They serve them on cute vintage plates with tiny forks.

There was a fantastic orange scooter parked across from Little Cupcakes and I just had to sketch it. There is something about the Vespas that is so great to draw. I have secretly always wanted one, but can’t justify it as then I don’t think I would ride my bicycle.

Here’s a few of the sketches from everyone efforts today. Great day out. Lots to see and draw. We even stopped by the library before watching Angela sing with her choir at Federation Square. Followed with Malaysian for dinner and a drink at a wine bar topped off what I would describe as a perfect day. I accidently close my book before it is dry occassionaly (more so in winter as it takes a lot longer to dry)

Sketching inside the State Library

We had a mid-week catchup at the State Library of Victoria and just as well we were inside as it was chilly outside. They have these lovely wooden desks and chairs… but the chairs squeak and creak and everyone is quite so the slightest noise echos. I liked that it felt like the chairs were talking to each other (as we were laughing… well hushed laughs each time one of made some noise). It was very dark in there, but the colours were warm, so I went with that.

Rhubarb stack

We went for brunch up in Brunswick and I sketched the girls and had a Rhubarb stack. yum

 

 

Autumn is almost over…

We had to make the most of the sunshine today since Winter is just around the corner. Ev and I went for a cycle with a group up to Dights Falls, Kew. And we had a breakfast special for cyclists down at the Belgian Beer Cafe with their yummy waffles and croissants ($10 for cyclists). Afterwards we headed to the State Library for some sketching. There were some cranes next to the chapel across from it so I made sure I quick (by the time I took the photo the crane was gone). And I saw alot of lovely fallen leaves on the ground so I decided to draw one of them. I also sketched some protesters but I haven’t finished colouring it. Then we made our way to the RMIT university and sketched in the courtyard. There are a lot of interesting things to draw there with bold colours and patterns. I particular liked the pattern on the door. I also sketched the bright yellow stairs.. I just haven’t taken a photo yet.

And what better way to finish the afternoon then with dumplings (Dumplings Plus) as a late lunch. We sat right next to the window and watched the ladies making vast amounts of dumplings (of which we ate our fair share).

Sketching whilst under the doona

It was a cold day so I jumped under the doona (after I calling my Mum of course). I decided to draw a few of the things in my room. I think I was missing my mum, abit corny I know (shhh… don’t tell) but I decided to make it happy with the clouds and hearts.

Laundry isn’t always dull

It was chilly outside, and so curly up under my doona I sketched my laundry basket. I like the contrast of the golden cardie to my purple jeans. I bought Danny Gregory‘s book called Everyday Matter. I like the idea that we can tell a story about our everyday things that we sometimes overlook but make up large parts of our life.

 

Cars vs Feet: Which mode of transport do you prefer?

Jess and I had a coffee and catchup and sat outside Movida Bakery, Prahran. There was an oldish car that just wanted to be drawn. And then when I got home I drew my shoes. It seemed like a good juxtaposition of feet vs machine.

Cycling, sketching and cycling some more…

The start of a long-ish ride….

It was a nice sunny day so I  rode to the Abbotsford Convent and did a quick sketch of the windows and there was a big gum tree and so there were leaves around. It was a big of quick stop as then we went on bike ride with Meetup group and had some brunch near the Children’s Farm. We rode to CERES in Brunswick, and then rode along the Yarra trail again. The next time we popped up we were in Coburg. We stopped for a drink and had a chat. Then Evelyn, Lucy and I stopped for dinner at Thai restaurant on Lygon St. After riding home I did some maths and figured out I’d done a bit over 30 kms (as a newbie I was pretty happy about that)

Ramen is good way to end the day

What better way to end a day of brunch, sketching and a movie. We walked down an otherwise quite lane (Hardware Lane) and joined the queue of people to have brunch at Hardware Societe. It was completely worth the wait. The food was delicious and the decor was funky chic. A mishmash of teacups lined the wall, and they used mix-match cups and saucers, and teapots with cosies sold it for me.

Afterwards we went shopping and then watched Iron Man 3. You can have a standard Ramen and add whatever ingredients you like. We also got some soft shell crab and gyoza at Kokoro Ramen.

Why you you people-watch at the Train Station

Most of the time when I am at the train station I daydream, or I am on my phone. I had my sketch supplies with me so I got a bit of extra sketching time. The phone box caught my attention as it just seems that they almost redundant in a world of mobile phones.

NOTE: I need to put together a traveling sketch kit (I will post my solution soon). Also, I have been meaning to take some photos of my equipment and document my colour palette. I will put this on the to-do-list.

What are you sitting on today? Lets talk chairs..

We spend a lot of time sitting; on couches, on buses/trains/trams, at the dentist, at the movies, on park benches, in waiting rooms, and dare I say the bathroom. Chairs are anywhere and everywhere. But we don’t give that much consideration to how much of our lives we spend sitting. If we spend one third of our lives sleeping, then I think we spend about one third sitting. I find it fascinating that we still go with a style purely because of its aesthetics and on ‘fashion trends’, even when it can be entirely impractical and uncomfortable. I remember going to the Edinburgh Tattoo and the chairs were so crammed together that I felt like I was sitting in a small kindergarten chair. My legs were so uncomfortable squished that I felt like Alice in Wonderland after she had the potion and was too big for the house. These chair I think are very popular with the ‘industrial’ look that is popular, however I don’t think they are that comfortable. I liked the colours and the look of them but if I had to choose what to sit on all day… it wouldn’t be these. Maybe my mind was skewed as the hot chocolate wasn’t that great.

Cheese, dips, bread & BABICHINO

We decided to go and soak up the goodness of the Prahran Markets in South Yarra. We went to the ‘Coffee Market’ and I shouldn’t have surprised that they don’t sell anything but coffee. No tea, no chai, no hot chocolate. I could have a tiny juice that cost more than a 4L bottle or the waitress said she could give me some frosted milk with cocoa sprinkled on top like she does for the kids – A BABICHINO – I get that I am not apart of the elite coffee league, its not that I don’t want be apart of a club where people talk about there coffee like a hit, a fix. Knowing my personality I would have 12 a day for a fortnight until my body simple said no more. For now I will have to settle for my chocolate addiction, and drawing in strange places.

Anyway, they had an interesting interior with a giant machine must have crushed the beans or something. So we sketched there for an hour or so and then made our way into the markets. We had our cheese, dips, bread and some plastic cutlery. I love having picnic where it’s all a bit messy but delicious. We sat at an empty table as the Markets were coming to a close.

But we made a day of it as we went to Oriental Tea House and had a tea that came as a flower that opens up in hot water

Old cars have style and grace

I have a strong fascination with old vintage cars. The have such nice details, and the colours seem to be picked out of a Pantone swatch book. They just go. I love that someone has renewed something old and is giving it a second life. This particular Cadillac was being used as a wedding car. I can see why. I wonder if he ever gets parking tickets or if the police let them off — or if they pull them over just so they can check out the

 

Sketching at the pub

Everyone has returned from their holidays alls refreshed and full of travel stories. Evelyn has filled 2/3 of her book with her Bali trip. We talk and drink, and eventually get hungry enough to go and have dinner. Lucy is very passionate about food, as equally as we are about sketching. We get a bit caught up in it. When does it start and stop. I liked the old English feel to Saint & Rouge – it reminds me of escaping from the cold icy winters in London and drinking mulled wine. We began as a sketch group, but we became friends who share our stories one sketch at a time.

Weetbix tin (actually contained museli)

Sketchbook 5, a photo by that designer girl on Flickr.

We found a lovely little cafe in Somerset Place (Melbourne) — The Little Mule — that is a bike shop also. Angela got chatting away to the owner and he let us borrow his Weetbix tin (which actually contains there museli) to do a sketch. He even pumped up our flat bike tyres. Such a champ!

Patrick, the waiter, gave us a fantastic theatrical performance as he sang to us whilst we got our tires fixed. Definately be back. Check them out on Urbanspoon.

 

Urban sketching at a Quirky Cafe

There is a quirky little coffee shop called Brother Bubba Budan in the city that has chairs all cluttered hanging from the ceiling. Ilze, Angela and I met there for a quick sketch. There aren’t many seats at all (well I guess there are, but they are on the ceiling — irony hey). Apparently the coffee is great, I can’t speak for it myself, as I don’t drink coffee. The chai was pretty lousy, pretty tasteless like frothed milk. Anyway, we could tell they were keen to free up our seats, it’s not a leisurely coffee stop, more like an intravenous hit of coffee to the system. We headed down to Bourke Street and the Arcades as there is always so much there to sketch. And we want to get as much outdoor sketching in whilst its warm.

Australia Day weekend

I headed up to Sydney to visit some relatives and decided to meet up with the Sydney sketch group. There was an event on in the Town Hall park area for Australia Day. I was quite late getting there by the time I dropped off my bags and got into town. So I didn’t get to sketch with the group, but it was really great to chat to them and see all their different sketchbooks and materials.

It was pretty wet and miserable Sunday and Monday, and I only managed a bit of sketching at the Airport as my flight was 2 hours delayed.

Sketching road trip to Williamstown

Who knew that Williamstown would be such a gem! We headed there for the day and had so much to draw. There were plenty of different boats from Navy, to old pirate looking ones, to cute colourful little yachts.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY:

We were sitting on the pier under some shelter when I went to colour my sketch. Lo and behold I dropped my paintbrush and it fell through the gap in the planks. Well I was a bit disappointed as you can imagine. I thought ‘we that will teach me’ as I only had one other. The pier was blocked off and although Angela was convinced sending a small child down there, I wasn’t. Thankful she gave up on that idea, but she did keep checking the edge where the pier met the water to see if had come out.

Every 15 mins or so she would go and check. I thought there was no way, until a small squeal came out of her. I went to look and sure enough the paintbrush had come out, an hour or so later mind you. The only problem was I couldn’t reach it, even lying on my belly with fingertips stretched. I didn’t feel like going for a swim as the water was a bit murky, and I was wearing white.

But feeling game, I decided to scale the pier, so off came the shoes and I used it as a ladder (a slimy ladder I might add). I still couldn’t reach it with my hands, but wait I could just get to it with my toes, however that didn’t work so well (note to self to work on toe co-ordination). But hope was not lost as I managed to scoop it up on the top of foot. What a balancing act right! Well this guy didn’t seem to have faith in me as he had a camera pointed right at me in case I decided to become the next Youtube failblog hit. I said no way hosay!

I climbed back up and was able to use my brush again. The End.

NOTE: No small children or animals were harmed in this rescue mission

Stop and sketch the roses… at the Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens are a nice place to sketch. Again, I am not very good at landscapes, but it forces me to practice. Penny, Evelyn, Eveline, Angela, Ilze and I sketch crawled our way around the gardens. Angela even got some bamboo that she was going to make her own quill/sketching pen out of by sharpening it.

 

They have been doing outdoor plays. Wind in the Willows was showing and there were a lot of families out. There was a giant castle prop and a very cute brightly painted wooden cart. The kids played and played on it, it had a curtain that they could go inside and it kept them amused for ages.

Sketching the Southbank skyline

Had a bit of break over the Christmas holidays. Started out strong with 6 of us again. We headed to South bank (Melbourne) to sketch the bridge and horizon. Then we stopped for lunch at the food court. There was a few kids with their parents at the table opposite that we quite curious into our sketching. After a while one of the little girls came up and said “Can I show you my drawings?”. I said sure of course. She said that she had been drawing the birds, and trees etc. and was keen to see my pictures. I showed her some and as I was up to watercolour stage how I added the colour. I told her that I used to draw lots when I was her age, and that to keep practicing – I still am!

I really like the interactions we get from people we wouldn’t otherwise talk too. It’s most often the children who seek us out, as they don’t have the social protocols we do that stop them from saying ‘what are you doing?’. I kind of want to carry some bits of paper around and some small ikea pencils (putting that here to keep me too it), and giving it to them when they come up. I might document the results too.

We headed across to Birrarung Marr (opposite Fed Square) along the river there. There was a ‘peaceful protest’ going on. I don’t know too much other that what we asked some of the volunteers helping with the crowds. The short version we got was that 1400 years ago the Taliban had killed Muhammad’s son. Almost everyone wore black, the men (at the front) sang loudly and were beating their chests as they followed a small van which one man was singing through the speakers. Many carried flags and women and children were at the back. The flyer didn’t really give any other information. There were a few police on bikes, as there was another group there who apparently there was a clash with the year before. All in all it was rather noisy and hard to capture in a sketch.