Sunday 3 January 2021

Plums, Birds and Seawhite Travel Journals

This is my last sketch of 2020 on a Seawhite Travel Journal (a Christmas present to myself).

Someone planted a plum tree on the unusually wide nature strip on my street. (The nature strip is a piece of publicly owned land between the front boundary of a house or other building and the street). 

The plums are popular with birds (mostly noisy Lorikeets and occasional Cockatoos) and passersby. 

The house shown has a bit of green tarp covering a hole in the roof and birds have made a nest under it, we can hear fledgelings!



My favourite sketchbook for paper is the Moleskine Watercolour Journal but I'm not so keen on the large journal's extra long landscape shape so I'm trialing the Seawhite Travel Journal. These come in different shapes including an A5 which is less elongated than the Moleskine. I decided to try a square format one (I have a soft spot for square sketchbooks). 

Where it comes to paper smoothness it's pretty close to the Moleskine which makes it nice for pen work. It takes water well but perhaps doesn't allow for as nice colour blending qualities as the Moleskine. The Seawhite paper is slightly whiter than the Moleskine (I prefer off-white). 

One plus point though is that it dries very fast, perhaps faster than the Moleskine.

It opens flat and the hard cover has a pocket inside the back cover and a bookmark. Both have 200gsm pages but the Seawhite only has 60 pages compared with the Moleskine's 72. This might in fact be a plus point if you are wanting to fill it on a on a holiday trip. Price-wise it will depend on what specials you can find when purchasing. 

All in all it's a good alternative to the Moleskine for me. 

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #SeawhiteTravelJournal 5.5 x 5.5".

Saturday 2 January 2021

Stories of Lockdown...Then and Now

 These are quick sketches done while doing my chores. Colour and text added at home.

The defiant owner of Harry’s Men’s Store (opposite the bulk food store shown in the sketch) made the news when he breached lockdown and opened his store. Locals flocked to support him. He was fined $10,000. I believe he is refusing to pay.




The 81 Bistro and Tap House has a new outdoor area but it’s slap bang alongside a very busy street. It can't be pleasant to sit there. 

I've never seen a lineup of beer kegs behind the 81 Bistro and Tap House in my neighbourhood. This was the sight on 15th December so I had to sketch it. Good that the business is up and running again after all those months it was closed during lockdown. 


#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Zeta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”