Sketchbook Skool - Seeing

A second semester of Sketchbook Skool themed "Seeing" was introduced in July this year to follow on from "Beginnings". Urban Sketcher Liz Steel was part of the teaching staff and I was keen to see how her online class would go after the success of her workshops here in Sydney. Danny Gregory, Koosje Koene both returned to teach with the addition of Brenda Swenson, Cathy Johnson and Andrea Joseph.

 

Self portrait challenge - day 7

 

One of the biggest challenges for me came with Koosje's week which focussed on self portraits. This was time and energy consuming and confronting. We needed to complete several and I had barely attempted any self portraits prior to the course. But by my final piece I was pleased with what I'd achieved. The motivation and inspiration that comes from sharing that journey with other students online has a very positive impact.

 

Nature studies with the guidance of Cathy Johnson

 

Cathy Johnson is renown for sharing  valuable tuition and demonstrations online and through her books. Her week was great for revisiting some key watercolour fundamentals as well as looking at nature studies. From this I made studies of the local cranky Common Myna. They are annoying birds but with plenty of character.

 

Ball point pen and watercolour as a result of Andrea Joseph's week.

 

Andrea Joseph shared insights into her unique and distinctive style of illustrating with pens/biros. The result she achieves with the cheapest, or even better, free ball point pens is astonishing. I did enjoy taking a shot at this method, but I know I don't have the sufficient patience required to pursue it much further. The aspect of trying such a diverse range of ideas each week throughout the course is a good way to learn what does (or doesn't) suit your own capabilities and character.

 

Sketching in The Rocks, Sydney.

 

From an afternoon at the Tea Cosy in The Rocks, Sydney.

 

Finally, it was Liz's week and time to return to more familiar methods. Liz organised a sketching day in the Rocks and it was a great day to catch up with sketchers I already knew as well as meet a few new ones who I had conversed with online in the groups. We spent the morning sketching buildings and then headed to the Tea Cosy to sketch tea cups and high tea. Fabulous way to round off another semester!