Another glorious Sydney winter day for our July Taste of Sketching Workshop. This month the beach was our theme and wow did our sketchers embrace that.

With Pamela assisting, we observed in the studio our yacht and fish still life as shape, explaining how to see each shape compared to another. Everyone did their own impression and we all marvelled at how differently each person works. You can see here below the delight in achieving their first sketch.

Next, we did a practice sketch of a scene similar to the one we would be sketching later on location. We learned to layer aquarelle pencil among other tricks.

Off we all wandered down the hill from the studio to Manly Cove, to the spot where we could see the beach scene we'd be sketching. Here we observed all shapes we'd need to create our beach scene - the horizon, the land framing either side, the waves lapping gently onto the beach, the safety net, the yachts and finally birds or people in the foreground. We were now using watercolour.

One of the most rewarding thing for us Tutors is to see people arrive for their first class or workshop feeling so certain that they will never learn to sketch, then watching as they relax and follow our step by step prompts, suddenly they see on their page that indeed they are sketching! It's a magical moment. And they know they have begun a new journey.

Lunchtime was calling hungry sketchers, and this was a great chance to sketch a food subject. And to enjoy excellent food and company. It was a really wonderful day thank you everyone.

We hope to see you sketching with us again sometime.

The joy of the plein-air first time sketcher