Sketches While Waiting

On-location sketch opportunities these days seem to mostly happen while I'm waiting so I'm restricted to the tools I have in my handbag at the time. Here's a couple of ladies at Tilly’s Cafe while waiting for my prescription to be filled at a nearby pharmacy. 

Also the car park outside Casey Allied Health while J was with the physio.

On another day, a longish sketch opportunity while J was with the Physio also yielded an unexpected discovery! I thought Ceylonese By South Ceylon next door was a night-time dining venue but it was in fact also open for morning coffee and Indian snacks. We enjoyed a coffee break but also went home with a tray of take-away curries!

Marker Pens, #HandbookJournal 5.5" x 5.5".

This Week In August

No not a sporting injury for J but an attempt to improve on failed hand surgery done some years ago. Sweet homegrown oranges from our lovely neighbours and energized TV viewing. Thrilled to watch it all LIVE and be a part of history in the making! Glad our Salvia Shangri-la plant is making its yearly appearance and the seniors' lunch at La Baguette was small but satisfying.   

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourNotebook, 8.25”x 5". 

This Week In July

This week in July. Cold, rain, aches and pains are keeping me at home but a few sketches around the house and the exciting world news is keeping us occupied!

Here's another from my "This Week in..." series. 

We have grave concerns for our 5 Longfin Zebra Danios (how their fins have grown!). We got them last summer and were told by the fish shop that they would be fine to overwinter in our outdoor unheated bowl pond. Unfortunately it has been an unusually cold winter.

Here's hoping the warmer days and nights ahead will help get them through.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, colour pencil, #MoleskineWatercolourNotebook, 8.25”x 5".

A Trip to Singapore

Planning what tools and materials to take is part of the joy of being an Urban Sketcher! I sketched the tools I was taking with me on our recent trip away but only added the colours after getting home. 

I love using the yellow pouch on planes – light, scrunchable, easy to find in the seat pocket if you leave the cord hanging out and you can hang it up on those plane seat backs that have a hook! 

J bought that pouch in Japan in 2019 at a museum displaying the art of famed Japanese cartoonist Osamu Tezuka (the Father of Manga). I hardly used any of the tools I took in my blue stand-up case as family commitments filled my time. 

Climate change? Never experienced such long periods of turbulence.

A coffee/tea stop after meeting friends for lunch. Almost forgotten how to order coffee/tea the local way! Teh C is tea with evaporated milk. Killiney Kopitiam (Killiney coffee shop) is a coffee shop set up by a Hainanese immigrant from China in late 1919 on Killiney Road. There are now many many branches across the city. 

I ended up with this composite sketch due to being blocked by a huge tourist bus so had to move to complete the sketch. These gentrified old shop houses now are restaurants with their tables in a big night time outdoor eating area. Noisy, touristy and expensive but unexpectedly well patronised...by locals! 

Cities is something I’ve got out off practice with.

I didn’t have enough time to eat (or draw) all the things I wanted to. 

The trip home. Trying out a Daler Rowney passport size sketchbook I bought for $1.97!

#FaberCastellPittPen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourAlbum, 5x8”. 

Last sketch – marker pen, #DalerRowney sketchbook.

A Dog Sketch

You know what they say "don't work with children or animals, neither sit long enough". Our son's dog Peach was enjoying the sun on the deck when I sat down to sketch her. She moved 3 times but I managed to complete a sketch of her...eventually!

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

Auction Sketch 2024

I finally took the time to finish this drawing I did at a recent house auction. Half the neighbourhood was there out of curiosity. We fell in love with the house – a renovated (and extended) 1900s miners cottage, cleverly staged for the auction. It passed at auction but sold later that day. 

Marker pen, #HandbookJournal 5.5" x 5.5".

#singaporeshopfrontchallenge 175.

This is 195 Sims Ave, Singapore. I love the Singapore Shopfront Challenges on Instagram. How could I pass on doing this one as my paternal grandparents lived on this same street in the 1950s. Their place (I think now gone), some distance away along the street was of the same style but with a proper front door. From what I remember it was a plain cream colour and my cousin says it had some Peranakan tiles on the wall. What a nostalgia trip! 

Disappointingly my fude nib insisted on producing only extra thick lines on this watercolour first sketch. 

Thank you Alice Lim #Eurekawanders for the photo.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour,#Stillman&Birn Zeta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”. #singaporeshopfrontchallenge 175.