Cafe Sketching

For several years, thanks to the initiative and steady organization of a sketch friend Carmen, I've been able to sketch regularly with a very small group of sketchers. The core of the group has its roots in Casey U3A but we've added other friends over the years. Where possible we sketch on-location somewhere in our local area but on the most recent sketchmeet day there was a severe storm warning so our venue was a cafe. On this occasion I took a dozen of J's wonderful life-like food fridge magnets for us to draw. We played a "speed sketch" game where we had 2 minutes to draw a magnet before passing it onto another sketcher. Two minutes is a long enough time to draw one of these magnets but doing 12 for 2 minutes each in quick succession required serious brain work...for a group of mostly Seniors!

Cafe sketching will take a back seat as we head into sketching outdoors in what I hope will be a good summer. I decided to add the splash of watercolour to the page later but I'm not sure if that was an improvement or not. Here is the group of magnets I took for us to draw.

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

Casey U3A Showcase Day 2024

Casey U3A (University of the 3rd Age) is part of a global organization offering activities for Seniors. Their annual Showcase Day on 4th October was when this branch displayed all its offerings as part of a membership drive. Our Member of Parliament, Jason Wood, graced the celebrations to cut a big cake as it was also Casey U3A’s 33rd birthday! 

It's been awhile since I've attended one of Casey U3A's main events so it felt really nice to reconnect with friends I'd not seen for sometime. During the event, members of the organisation showed off their skills in exhibits and activities. Visitors would have been impressed by the camaraderie of the members who demonstrated sessions of Zumba and Tai Chi, played Pickle Ball, Walking Football, showed off their artwork and manned booths showing all the many activities of the organization. A sausage sizzle and coffee truck was an added bonus.  

Casey U3A now has more than 500 members and (did I hear correctly) with 66 activities offered there is much to choose from! 

I first joined Casey U3A 8 years ago when I was new to the area. For 5 of those years, I also led one of their courses (an on-location sketching course) and made many new friends, some of whom I still sketch with regularly. Casey U3A continues to be an uplifting source of social connection for me and I look forward to an enjoyable year ahead. 

This was sketched and painted on-location at Showcase Day, Jack Rae Pavilion, Akoonah Park, Berwick. Embellishments were added at home.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”. #caseyu3a  #u3a

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. 

Japanese Windflowers

This very overworked negative painting piece was an experiment but it's good enough to be one for my garden journal.

In March 2021 I planted three Japanese Windflowers (single pink) in a garden bed. They spread so well I was afraid they would take over the whole garden and consequently dug up a good many. I needn't have bothered because the three 40 plus degree days this past summer killed most of the remaining ones off and now I'm glad to have just a few survivors to nurture. Their simple flower heads are so pretty against our brick garden wall and the way they sway in the wind is a delight. Hopefully they will now fill this bed in the shade of a Crepe Myrtle tree before the next summer's heat does it's natural culling.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour,#Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 8.5 x 5.5”.

Bunya Pine

For International Urban Sketchers Week 2024 I went to draw this unusual looking tree in a suburban street. A gardener came to ask why I wanted to draw this ugly tree. He told me he'd removed some branches without getting Council permission as the heavy branches with their sharp pointy leaves were a danger if they fell. This really tall Bunya Pine is endemic to Australia and harks back to the Mesozoic era when dinosaurs might have played a part in the dispersal of its pine cones. It played a significant role too in the culture of the indigenous people who held large Bunya Festivals to feast on the edible pines. The base of its trunk looks like a HUGE elephant's leg. The more I've read about this tree since this sketch the more I find it a fascinating tree! 

#Sailorfude pen, marker, #Stillman&Birn Nova Series (beige), 8.5" x 5.5".

#uskweek2024 #uskmelbourne

Ferny Creek Horticultural Society Autumn Show

I accepted the invitation of a friend to sketch the preparations for the Ferny Creek Horticultural Society's Autumn Show! Some members were painstakingly laying moss on the Japanese tea garden display when I arrived. The show was being held in their show hall on 10 acres of beautiful grounds near Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne city. 

On this cool day, the overcast skies and whispy mist in the forest gave it a mysterious prehistoric feel as I looked across to the Gondwana Land plant area. 

With plant and cut flower sales, a Japanese Ikebana display and demonstration, judged exhibits, plant vendors, guided garden walks, not to mention Devonshire Teas, a BBQ and hot soup planned for the two days of the show, it would I'm sure have been a great success. 

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 8.5 x 5.5” #fernycreekhorticulturalsociety

Anzac Day, Berwick, Victoria, 2024

Every year a small ceremony is held at the War Memorial at the bottom of the High St in Berwick (an outer suburb of Melbourne). Standing at the top end of the street, I caught the start of the parade as it made its way from the RSL on the adjoining street, past the Old Post Office built in 1884 (shown in the sketch) down to the War Memorial where the ceremony was held.

I joined the smaller crowd near the top end to watch a big TV screen showing the ceremony down the hill. Not as big a crowd this day as previous years probably due to the wet weather. A moving ceremony as always especially when hearing both the New Zealand and Australian anthems, two countries I have called home.

Sketch pages with pre-coloured swatch.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #SeawhiteTravelJournal 5.5x5.5".

A Fish Pond Bowl

Our fish pond bowl now 3 months old is doing well and giving us much pleasure. Unfortunately the 5 zebra fish are shy especially now the weather is colder. That’s a curry leaf tree at top left.

I'm working wetter and hope to improve on that technique. 

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 8.5 x 5.5”.

Sketching People

Sketching people is a good way to put a face to a name when you’re new to a group. I hope they don't think I'm being rude.

The last sketch was done on a sketchbook page with pre-prepared colour splash.

Assorted materials.

Pioneers Park Autumn

What a beautifully warm day to be out in Pioneers Park and it seemed everyone had the same idea. This guy got up just after I finished painting him. Two very polite ladies asked if it was ok for them to sit there!

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

Bell Birds at Cardina Creek

A nice sunny morning for a walk after two VERY wet days! Cardinia Creek Nature Conservation Reserve is very close to a residential area. Platypus are said to live in the creek and school groups go there on nature trips but we have never seen any in the many times we've visited. Perhaps the dogs which love to take a swim in the creek send them into hiding.

I sketched this when we sat down on a bench in an area where the Bellbirds love to sing. They really sound like loud and melodious bells ringing!

Added a lot more squiggles after getting home, just could'nt help it!

Marker pens, #HandbookJournal 5.5" x 5.5" #CardiniaCreekConservationReserve

Covid Vaccination Again!

I forgot to share these from almost 3 months ago – Covid Vaccine shots...again! Sketched in the medical clinic but I added the blue Neocolor II at home.

Pentel brush pen, 6B graphite stick, Neocolor II crayon.

#HandbookJournal 5.5" x 5.5".

Springfield Homestead Back

I sketched the front of the 1860s Springfield Homestead (at The Old Cheese Factory precinct in Berwick, Australia) a year and a half ago and last week did a back corner. It was a hot 28 degree afternoon but sitting in the shade with a coolish breeze made for a very pleasant sketchmeet with a few friends. 

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5", #OldCheeseFactory

Here's a few older sketches done at the Old Cheese Factory precinct:

1) Sketch of the front of the homestead.

https://nowismystoryinsketches.blogspot.com/2022/12/christmas-sketchmeet-2022.html

2) Sketching vegetation outside the homestead. 

https://nowismystoryinsketches.blogspot.com/2022/03/sketching-vegetation.html

3) The Old Cheese Factory Building itself which is next to the homestead. 

https://nowismystoryinsketches.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-old-cheese-factory.html