Sketching

I enjoyed drawing as a child, including a cartoon I produced on a regular basis for a while in upper primary school.  It featured a naughty cat (I may have borrowed the concept).   Growing up on a farm, the animals we had around us were also a source of inspiration.

A drawing of an ornament at about age 17.

Somehow, I had the feeling that any drawing or painting I did had to be good enough for other people to see and possibly buy.  That made me anxious about having a go, despite taking a number of Adult Education classes in art.

Liz Steel visited and talked about sketching from life using a watercolour kit and sketchbook.  It was liberating.  I could draw or paint for me and it didn't have to be finished or good enough to share.  Following that discussion, I took an online class with Cathy Johnson (Liz wasn't teaching online at that stage) and she introduced the group to Flickr.  Sharing on that platform was very encouraging and I learned from other people's techniques.  After that, I took Brenda Swenson's 70 day challenge, drawing with a pen to prevent fussing around erasing and fixing.  I was very glad to have done that as I subsequently did a number of sketches of my youngest son, which are very special to me.  My husband also made a good subject as he likes to snooze in an easy chair in the evening.

Brian asleep

Having a young family at the time meant some of my sketches, including pen and watercolour, were done in only 5 minutes or so.

A five minutes sketch in pen, with a touch of watercolour, of Mt Wellington from the eastern shore of the Derwent River.

I made up a very light kit, including sewing a front pack, for carrying on a holiday to Central Australia in 2018.

Sketch of my kit.

The watercolour box was from a child's set.  I took out the cheap watercolour pans and replaced them with artist's quality paints.  This worked extremely well.  I used a pocket-sized Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.  We did a number of big walks and I was able to have the kit on hand at all times.  When we stopped to rest, I could quickly sketch a picture.  These quick paintings bring back much more of an impression of the time than any photograph ever could.

Here I am sketching at Jessie Gap in the East MacDonnell ranges, near Alice Springs.

This is my watercolour and pen drawing done in Jessie Gap.  

Another very quick sketch of Uluru/Ayers Rock at dawn.  It was so cold, the paint wouldn't dry.

This is a bit more of a finished, though still very small, sketch.  It's done facing Mt Wellington from Kingston Beach in southern Tasmania.  Watercolour and pen.

Sketching on a plane is a good way to pass the time on a flight.

Sketching at Snug Falls

I've often taken classes.  Online lessons with Val Webb (The Illustrated Garden) have been a huge boost to my drawing confidence.  An extended botanical art class with tutor Shevaun Doherty also really helped.

In more recent times, I've done some sketching using gouache, which is an opaque watercolour.  Using transparent watercolour, you have to plan where to leave the lights and gradually build up the darks.  In gouache, you can overpaint light colours.  I tend to use bigger, regular brushes (and a pot of water) and a larger sketchbook, when using gouache.  

I painted this piece in the car on a fairly grey day, starting with a pencil sketch and then gouache paint.  The subject is the former St George's Anglican church at Parattah in the midlands area of Tasmania.

From gouache, I moved on to oil sketches, which I usually describe as painting en plein air.  This is not so spontaneous, but definitely portable.  I have painted various subjects alone, in a group and with a friend.  

Painting the former Collinsvale Uniting church in oils using an Open Box M easel.  It was a freezing day and I was all rugged up, including a balaclava.  It rained, which made painting in oils rather interesting.

Painting in oils at Glen Huon.

Along the way, I discovered the Miniature Art Society in Tasmania and joined.  The group gave me confidence to exhibit my work and sell.  But sketching is a wonderful way to develop the art of "seeing", which helps in all artistic endeavours, and I always carry a watercolour kit in my handbag whenever I'm out.

A very recent small watercolour and pen sketch with a water brush in a Moleskine pocket watercolour book of the former Wesleyan Methodist Church in Campbell Town, Tasmania.