Store Espresso, Camperdown

During this sketch I was determined to add a person as a part of a record of my experience in the café. The staff were attentive, courteous and also happy for me to draw and paint. Much appreciated! 

 

Baristas seem to be a good place to start introducing figures because they are so often only viewed in parts - rarely the whole - and even if they move, there is a very good chance they will return to the same position soon after. Plus, in my view,  anyone who has the ability to make a great coffee deserves some kind of immortalization. 

Urban Sketching in Newtown

The most recent USK Sydney sketchwalk was held last Saturday in Newtown. For those of you unfamiliar with the area it is vibrant. Full of great cafes, restaurants and funky shops and fabulous old architecture with just the right amount of grunginess to make it interesting and accessible to all.  A few of the regular USK group are locals which I believe helped in finding the perfect spot for us to draw.

 

 

 

I was already keen to have a shot at drawing this building but as I arrived it began to rain... and well you can read the rest on my sketch! This was the most "jouranlling" I've ever completed on a sketch. It seems the lack of capturing the drawing motivated me to get it down in words.  

 

 

In escaping the rain we went to The Pie Tin just around the corner where I caught up with a sketching Instagrammer (nice when virtual friends become real ones!) and so was happy to sit, chat, eat and draw until my time was up.  

A Week of Coffee

A week of coffee. In order to overcome my fear of filling the panoramic shape of my new watercolour notebook I set out to draw a coffee an hour a day this week (yes, the hardship). Gastronomic rewards aside, it actually looks like I learnt something! By the end of the week I'm filling more of the page, playing with reflections, shadows and instensity of colours.

 

I watched Danny Gregory's interview with Tommy Kane this week. Tommy draws amazing, detailed sketches with pen from the start and accomodates any errors on the way. I agree accepting the errors this way builds confidence of just getting stuck into what's in front. I wouldn't always do this but when I'm trying to get results from short sittings it seems to help.

Hemmingway's Manly - Cafe Sketching

 

 

Another recent rainy day, another cafe sketch. This time sketching at Hemingway's Manly. I attempted for the first time to include as much of my surroundings as possible. In retrospect the effect may have been better in landscape than portrait. The masters of this style of urban sketching also manage to round the field of view a little as well - much like a fish eye, wide angle lens. Something I will have to train myself to do! Am yet to get my head around it...