We’ve been Travel sketching this week. That’s what we do.
And that’s what we teach you to do. You learn to find a great subject wherever you happen to be, plan it and get it on your page in whatever time you have. You don’t even know till you get there what you’ll sketch. Exactly the way it is when you travel.
Our Sketchtember and Octoberfest daily sketch challenges have been keeping lots of us engaged.
If you haven’t already joined and would like to join in - ask to join Erin Hill Sketchers or Erin Hill Sketchers NZ.
Take a look at some of the amazing interpretations of the subjects.
Read MoreIt’s been like that lately.
Some weeks we get to sketch together, then we find we can’t. But you know what!
We always find a way of keeping up our sketching - even home alone.
We’re all in the same boat. It’s quite unsettling. Just when you think we can all be together - albeit cautiously - another lockdown happens.
Ah well. We just have to get used to the idea of planning how we manage these times in the best way we can and keep planning ahead.
When we stop and smell the roses - or any little bloom - we are connecting with it. It’s so nice.
You can even have a chat with it and tell it how beautiful it is, and how amazing it’s little petals are - or what stunning stamens it has. I do.
I have a chat with the birds in the park, little insects, even the sea. ‘Come on, I dare you to come right up to my toes’ - and it does. All takes my mind off what’s going on out there.!!
Another really odd week. We are all in this and everyone is feeling upside down. You’re not alone.
But let’s celebrate the little things we CAN do.
Don’t you remember in the days before all this, when you were so flat out busy, and saying to yourself ‘I dream of the day when I have time to do what I like!’
Well guess what. That day is here.
Make the most of it. Every day is important so don’t waste a minute of it.
We battle on!
Our Bangalow class was about lovely old teapots, cups, a honey pot and melting moments.
Soo enjoyable and deeply involved in putting on paint and not what was going on in the big world outside.
Sketching truly gives you a little relief from all else. We are in the moment and very happy.
We had quite another subject in mind for Bangalow this week, but when realising it was Bastille Day in France, that was the end of that.
Brings back such lovely memories of the ceremonies and celebrations in our tiny village of Trausse Minervois in the wine growing region of Languedoc.
We would now be sketching a beautiful bottle of Rose (‘The Old Farm’ made near Lyon) with a couple of fancy glasses, and a friand or two popped in. They were yum by the way.
Oh my goodness, perhaps we’d better get used to these lockdowns. Or restrictions.
The one gets the feeling that this will be something that won’t be going away.
So one supposes we must try to adjust to not always meeting together to sketch with our buddies. Holy Moly!!
But we are very lucky as Sketchers that we can sketch anytime anywhere and only need ourselves. Check these ideas for sketching around the home.
Read MoreThis week I thought we should go back to some basic steps which is how we begin our sketches.
Some of this is particularly valuable if you cannot get to classes and need to refer to photographs or online images.
Ideally of course we like to sketch as a group and enjoy the company, but we cannot have that luxury at times.
Wow. We didn’t see this one coming.
Lockdown in Sydney and Queensland and restrictions everywhere else. Mmmm.
Masks, distancing, and all the sensible things we’re learning to do almost automatically.
Classes therefore had to be put on hold, but never fear, one did go ahead.
Let’s look at out own homes as sketch inspiration and begin a collection of our own. All rooms can be a picture. Bedrooms with doors and windows. Looking from the kitchen to the outside. From the lounge room to the terrace. Start looking around you. It’s all there. Take inspiration for other painters and be inspired.
How lovely to later have a journal of memories of your home and gardens as you lived in it.
Read MoreTalk about magical. Down by the creek in Bangalow was so absolutely stunning, with filtered light streaming across the slow moving water. The reflections were so lovely and just what we had hoped for. Challenging but that’s a good thing. The platypus family live just downstream if you know where to look.
Tweed regional Gallery was another place we sketched this week. Firstly a view looking over the rolling valleys and fields to the lavender coloured craggy ranges of the caldera beyond. The highest of all is Mt Warning, which looks like a face in profile, and so much spiritual meaning for the original inhabitants of this country.
Read MoreCoolongatta where I was with Urban Sketchers today was beautiful. Tiny cool wind but that’s all. Blue skies and the sounds of rock music pumping. People really dress the part and so many gorgeous frocks with billowing petticoats wandering about as if in another era. Plus dozens of immaculate vintage cars lining
the streets.
So much sketching choice. I did manage to compose a composition with what I could see in front of me. Think it works.
Boats are a lovely subject for sketchers. Shape, form, spaces and texture.
Urban Sketchers Gold Coast was at Sanctuary Cove. There must be more million dollar vessels here than anywhere one can think of. All white. All super streamlined.
Luckily there was one classic fishing trawler which I didn’t get back to sketch, but those who did were being given freshly caught prawns. Awww.
We were doing clouds and skies. But looking up we couldn’t help but notice - not a cloud in that blue sky to be seen!
Oh well, I may as well reveal the secret of our clouds. We make them up. We design our own clouds. Shocking don’t you think. No not at all. Because we’ve spent a lot of time since childhood looking up at clouds.
That way we can have any kind of cloud we feel like and pop it into the sketch.
Rockin the Blues was about music and we Urban Sketchers deciding our subjects at the ‘Blues on Broadbeach’ festival. It was just wonderful to see so many bands and musicians finally able to perform to huge audiences. Such a lovely day and all of us got a huge variety of subjects and styles. What a wonderful way to spend a day.
Read MoreBack to the studio world of painters, oil paint, charcoal, easels and a seated model. And golly she sat for more than 5 mins - 3 hours in fact. Time is not of the essence here and it took me back to my Julian Ashton days. Although I’m now a sketcher I can enjoy equally the pleasure of just being in moment, surrounded by chat about galleries and paint colours. I’ll be doing this again.
Read MoreWednesday is Bangalow day. I’m certain that someone up there knows I’m hitting the road and sends down the rain. Just Wednesdays.
Our group had a really good day anyway, as we started at a cafe, sketching a box. Yes a box. Easy! Not really. It’s perspective.
Read MoreJuliette Sivertsen is one of Tony McNeight’s Auckland sketch students beavering her way through the Intro to Sketching course. She also happens to be a Travel writer with the NZ Herald.
What she did next was amazing.
