I had to tell you about this book.....

You know I've been rattling on for some time about the book Fast Sketching Techniques. Well, a little while ago a friend bought this book Art of Sketching . She said, and I agree, that this book is 'the next step'. Fast Sketching Techniques is all about sketching faster, and shows one (terrific) method of doing it. This book shows many many ways of sketching. I have had a lot of different books about drawing, but after six years at art school, most of them become redundant.

This book has so much in it.....too much to tell you. But it is about sketching, not drawing. For someone who can already draw, it is chock full of ways to draw - ways to see. For the beginner - it's hard for me to say, but my thought is that it shows so many ways of sketching that it would help the beginner find the way that suits them. Two of us had a look at my friend's book and we both ordered it from Art on King right away. It is generally available in a number of shops around Sydney, and the great thing is the price. Unlike the price-tag of most art books in Australia, this book costs around $25.00.

I painted at the Royal Easter Show last Tuesday, demonstrating on the Matisse stand. It was very very quiet, apparently because it is usually school holidays when the show is on, but this year, no. I painted these two little fat canvases(as well as a big one). These are on canvases 10cm square but 3cm deep (that's about 4 inches square and 1.2 inches deep), textured with Matisse Gel Medium and textured papers, lace and gauze. I got my long-coveted rain jacket (from one of the exhibitors at the show). It's very 'country' and I love it.

Today is my first day at home for ages and I've spent most of it putting art books for sale on ebay australia. (To pay for the new one) And I'm in the middle of reading Alan Bennetts new book " The Uncommon Reader". I do love that man. It's a funny book, but thoughtful, about the Queen becoming a reader when she finds a mobile library parked outside Buckingham Palace. And have you read "The Lady in the Van'? It's fabulous. A tiny book, but it's the one that made me love him for his kindness. And the movie "The History Boys? Again, fabulous.

Expedition to Cabramatta - buy dragonfruit - eat!

On Tuesday I went on an expedition with a friend to the west of Sydney, to Cabramatta, sometimes known as Vietnamatta. I'd never been before. It's about an hour's drive from here. At one time Cabramatta had some problems due to drugs, but it seems fine now, though we noticed quite a police presence. We're certainly going back!

Cabramatta is known for its fabric shops, and there are certainly a lot of them and the prices are fantastic. Next time we're taking patterns, or at least ideas of quanitities. Most of the fabrics are synthetics, but there is still plenty of interest.

The food shops are terrific. We were just looking around this time, getting our bearings, and it was so hot. Fruit and veg were fantastic. Came back with grapes, asparagus, papaya, and Vietnamese desserts to eat, and this dragonfruit to draw. It took me ages. Watercolour pencils on Fabriano Hot.

As it was so hot, we didn't spend a lot of time in the shops, as they were narrow, long and crowded with goods. We found a busy busy restaurant on the main street and went for lunch. Yummmmm!

We had soup/noodle dishes. One spicy beef dish was a taste sensation, when morsels of beef were dipped in a tiny dish of pepper, salt, & lemon juice. The other dish was 'crab with drop noodles.' That's the one that will take us back there again and again. So delicious. Trying to find out what drop noodles are, even from Vietnamese friends, so far unsuccessful. If you know, be sure to let me know.

In the gardens with the red-nosed hooter-tooters

Last Monday I met up with Kirsty Hall. You can read about it on Kirsty's blog and also see the wonderful totemic photographs that she took with a tiny tiny camera. I'm not sure how I found Kirsty's blog, but I think it was on a list of '10 best art blogs'. Kirsty lives in Britain, but she was coming to Sydney. We wanted to meet up, but we both felt like a quiet day (if you look at her blog you'll see why she needed one) so we had a walk around the Botanical Gardens.

I'd been there the previous week, when I did these drawings. This time I took bread and biscuits to attract the birds & hopefully keep them still enough to draw. In fact we didn't draw. Mostly I fed the birds and Kirsty photographed them.

We fed ibis first, and tried to feed the red-nosed hooter-tooters, but they were timid and there were less of them about. They are dusky moorhen and the 'nose' is a bright red face-plate. Kirtsy has heard their call now & also calls them hooter-tooters. After a cuppa tea outside the cafe (birds) we walked throught the palm garden where there were a squillion fruit bats hanging from the trees. (They are trying to relocate them, because they're ruining the old trees.) We also went to the fern house, and the tropical gardens.This photograph was one of a few that I took with my phone. Have a look at Kirsty's photos!

On our way back out of the gardens ( along the foreshore of the Harbour towards the Opera House) we fed ducks, tried to feed hooter-tooters, but gulls intervened. Then we found a few sulphur-crested cockatoos feeding under a big tree. I brought out the bread & suddenly there were more. They came to sit all around us. One came onto my shoulder and looked me firmly in the eye, obviously saying 'I'm a very nice 'little' bird, and I have bread.' They are big birds with sharp beaks. I ended up with one attached to the nape of my neck and one attached itself to the top of Kirsty's head. The bread was all gone.

It's astonishing - the difference!

Well here is my first tree. I am continuing with Lesson 2 on Kate Johnson's Watercolour Pencil CD and I'm up to 'trees'.

I went out to draw twice yesterday. In the morning I went to Blackwattle Bay. I took my sketchbook with Stonehenge paper and my watercolour pencils. Mistake. Since I have been teaching myself with Kate's CD, I made a new sketchbook with watercolour paper. I have only done three drawings in that, but you can't go back. I am obviously drawing in a different way already, and it didn't work on the Stonehenge. I liked to work on Stonehenge previously, but then I was using the watercolour pencils like ordinary coloured pencils. From now on Stonehenge=Prismacolours and Watercolour pencils = watercolour paper. This tree is Albrecht Durer pencils on Fabriano Hot.

What sort of tree do you think this is? It is in the park at the end of my street. I have no idea. I just looked for a place in the shade (we are finally having summer last week and this) and drew the tree I could see best. It has heart shaped leaves.

I've also been prepping canvases to demonstrate on the Matisse stand at the Royal Easter Show. I'll be there next Tuesday 25th. Come and say hello.

Eruption - WCP efforts with Kate's CD - and a tag

Finally, after three attempts I am happy with a landscape. This was done with a low-key triad - not quite Kate's 'low key primaries' , because I knew I wanted that Indigo. I used Indigo, Yellow Ochre and Venetian Red. I am happy that I have somewhat more captured the mood of the scene. You can see the original post here, which explains the weather & also has the photo and my first drawing from it. Now I can move on with Lesson 2 on Kate Johnson's Watercolour Pencil CD. The only advantage in not doing the course with Kate (for which I am still kicking myself), is that I can do an exercise till I'm happy with it, before I move on.

I have been tagged by Amanda. These are rules:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.


2. Post the rules on your blog.


3. Post 7 facts about yourself on your blog.


4. Tag 7 people and link to them.


5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Seven facts about me ( again.)

1. I recently sponsored a little Balinese girl through Bali School Kids which is a Rotary project between Swan Valley Rotary in WA (that's in Australia - lol) and Denpasar Rotary in Bali. She is not quite seven, and she lives in a village not far from Bedugul.
2. I went to the Archibald Prize today. That's the major Australian portrait prize. The winner was Del Kathryn Barton, but you can see all the finalists on this page. The winning portrait was nicer than it looks in that particular image, as she is a wonderful colourist and that image doesn't do it justice. I also liked it for the fact that it was mixed media. The standard was very high this year and my absolute favourite was the painting of New Zealand musician Neil Finn (Split Enz, Crowded House). The surface and finish on that painting was just wondrous, and having seen Finn interviewed recently, I thought it portrayed the sort of person he is.
3. I drew red-nosed hooter-tooters today in the Botanical Gardens. May actually have been a 'dusky moorhen' but a hooter-tooter anyway.
4. Also drew ibis.
5. Went to Parker's Art Supplies (Aladdins's cave) in The Rocks, but bravely didn't buy anything. (You can look at the webcam on Sydney Harbour from that link.) Found that Strathmore watercolour papers are no longer available here.
6. Struggling with my conscience about whether to put an order in at amazon.com while our dollar is high. Have many books already.
7. I am currently doing 'morning pages' from The Artist's Way, not for the first time. Though I think it's a terrific book, and the pages are a great tool... I DO find that it eats into the beginning of my day. My hand also gets sore. What does anyone else think about 'the pages'?

Batur eruption - another WCP exercise

This is yesterday's drawing. It's less overworked than the one of the 'cow place'. It was a lot quicker to do, and what I prefer about this one is that you can see the drawing - see the pencil strokes. I have discovered that my aim is to be able to work with WCP more quickly and more in the way of sketching rather than drawing. The large mountain in the background is Mt Batur (that's in Bali), and the what appears to be a smaller one in the foreground is actually a cone on the side of Mt Batur that is erupting. In the darkish area in the middle of the drawing there is a village. We were standing on a cliff edge, and my friend was cavorting up and down saying " I don't believe it. They're living in the volcano. I am happy enough with the way that I get the sense of distance, though I'm not particularly happy that the ambience of the drawing matches the reality. The colours in fact are a tad more subtle than the scan. In fact it was a dull day and the mist only cleared for a short while so we could see the volcano. I am going now to draw it again, first in monochromatic Derwent Indigo (I'm quite fond of their Indigo, though generally I far prefer Albrecht Durer. Then I plan to use some other colours, perhaps some of Kate's 'low key primaries' which I'm breaking my neck to try. Oh, and it's on Fabriano Cold again.

The Cow place & Kate's CD

I got Kate Johnson's Watercolour Pencil CD recently, and I'm working through the lessons. Though I've drawn with watercolour pencils for quite some time, I hope to be able to use them to their full potential in the future. In the past, I've used them very much as coloured pencils, on cartridge paper, or maybe Stonehenge, with a little water. Now I want to be able to use them for their watercolour properties as well.

Disclaimer: I am not a landscape artist.The first thing I learnt is that I didn't know my greens. Well, I knew my blue-greens, but not my yellow-greens. So I spent yesterday afternoon & evening making test patches of all my pencils - the 48 set, the 36 set, and the mix-mash that I actually use - the ones that I'm phasing out so I can go all Albrecht Durer.

I learnt a lot from doing this drawing. It isn't at all how I want it to be. I want to simplify, which means knowing the colour of your pencils - particularly when they're wet, really well. I can tell you at least ten things wrong with the drawing.

So it's the 'cow place'. It has been cut down from a larger photo I took in Switzerland where we stopped for morning tea between Bern and Gruyere. At the cafe, there were at least twenty life size painted cows, that had been done by different artists. I chose the photo because of the progression from warm to cool colours. I may do it again later when I've learnt to simplify. I'm going to try the volcano Mt Batur in Bali next.

Bologna La Rossa

This is the first preview of my artist's book about Bologna. The thing about Bologna is that it is RED. Both visually and in politics. I was inspired to do a book about Bologna, when I went to the Peter Lyssiotis exhibition in the AGNSW. (It's on in Brisbane now.) He had a book about Paris and the content was somewhat obscure to me, not knowing Paris well at all. So I am doing a book about Bologna, where the content will be obscure to those who don't know Bologna. But it will be colourful! I have prepped all the pages in various colours of red and ochre in many layers.I told you yesterday that Kelsey has a tutorial on her blog for credit card papers. The paper that I have used to represent the explosion was made with Matisse Magenta and Yellow Deep. I already had the inkjet transfer of the train on the page, and I used the credit card paper to represent flames.

I first went to Bologna in 1975 and fell in love with it. One thing I remember was that my baggage was searched at the railway station. That was just unheard of in those days so I asked the man why they were doing it (in Italian, and I was very polite). Not like "Border Security." Of course those were the days of the Bader-Meinhof gang and Brigata Rossa, so they must have been expecting a terrorist event. Five years later came la strage di Bologna . I was in Bologna again more recently, and I still love it. So I decided to do an artist's book. It's coming along slowly. Time I got on with it!

Kind Hearts and Coronets

Mellanie gave me this Kind Heart Award. I must say it was very kind of her. Now I need to pass it on to up-to-five people.

Kelsey must be top of my list for her generous sharing of tutorials on her blog. I learnt the credit card papers from her, and right this afternoon that has solved a problem for me of how to visually portray something in my artist's book about Bologna that I'm in the middle of making. Kelsey was also very generous with her knowledge of inkjet transfers.

Carol is next, for her help with marbling, choosing a printer and a myriad other questions I ask.

Rah for his helpful information about the Tombow pens.

Lorraine for pointing me in the direction of a great bargain in Albrecht Durer pencils on Ebay Australia. Which in turn made me aware of watercolour pencils on ebay & I got another massive set at a bargain price.

OK - there are six! Kate for being so generous with her time, effort, and attention to detail in the new Watercolour Pencil CD. Also for being generous in answering question on the Everyday matters sketching list.

Luckily I saved this post. Save now! I wrote it in the course of the afternoon, because I had to look up links etc. At 8pm - boom - the power went off - totally unexpected after a sunny day. It was nearly dark, but not too dark for me to get down my long hall & get the candles on. The lights were out for over an hour, but I was happy. I recently upgraded my phone to one with an MP3 player. Then even more recently I got a pair of tiny speakers on ebay, so there I was, by candlelight, with Putumayo Presents: Nuevo Latino and a glass of Sunshine's vodka.

Anita and the Island of the Gods

The postcard that Anita painted as part of her postcard exchange came on Friday. I wasn't expecting anything exciting from the mailman, because Kate's Watercolour Pencil CD came the previous day, (more of that later.)A friend was here painting with me, and when I realised it was Anita's postcard, I told my friend the story of the exchange and she looked at the card and said in an awed voice "she's good, isn't she!" Yes, she is good. It is beautifully painted. Such a wonderful choice of subject.

I have been going to Bali for about 20 years. I stay in Ubud, which is an art village. I love Bali because of the culture and the lush tropical foliage and the fact that everything is so decorative. You can see some photos here that I took in the garden of the hotel last time I was there. Bali has it's own calendar, and a Balinese year is about six months long. The Galungan days are the major festival. However there is also a festival for Saraswati, goddess of learning, and offerings are made to books on that day. When I restarted my education at my grand old age, I adopted Saraswati as my personal symbol. I have a little faux brass statue on top of the t.v., and a stone statue from Bali in the courtyard. Anita knew none of this, except that I love Bali, so it was very perceptive of her. You can see my postcard to Anita here.

Yes, Kate's CD came. What value for money. It is crammed full of useful stuff. I haven't started any of the excercises yet, but I have noted with interest the difference that different papers make, so I am binding a small coptic book from three different watercolour papers. Hope to stitch it today, and I've used one of the totally gorgeous paste papers that a friend gave me for Christmas. She knows that I have paste papers of my own, and she also knows that I find it so difficult to actually use the gorgeous ones. But when it's a gift, it's different. So I plan to make this book my watercolour pencil book for Kate's lessons.