Storm's a-brewin'

Sketchcrawl 42

Sketched on a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 And a process GIF. Trendy.

Young Love...

Sketchcrawl 42

Supreme Court Tower and Dome, late afternoon

Initial painting with iPad Brushes. Finished with Corel Painter. Wanted a loose, soupy feel.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 39

Hyde Park Deer Sculpture

Loved the greeny porcelain look with a light glossy spray wafting from the fountain behind it.

Sketchcrawl 38

A Japanese garden lantern done at my folks place. What I love about extremely wet days is how dark and blue plants get - they almost glow. It was also a good experiment in low key painting. Done with Holbien watercolours, scanned and fixed in Corel Painter. So do hashtags and mentions work on this thing now +UrbanSketchers ? #sketchcrawl

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 37 - Flinders Street

Holbien Watercolours + LAMY Safari pen

I have a new LAMY pen... yeah those ones that exist inside a glass cabinet signifying that they are somehow more superior-er.

The flow is really something else - I'm guessing catered for connoisseurs of calligraphy. It comes out dark, and stays dark even if I applied watercolours on first.

Not to mention, I sat in the rain doing this. The drops splattered my page but it gave it a nice effect.

Here are some other sketches from the day after the jump. Started off at Starbucks (as you do) and then some heads on the train back.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 35 - Sydney

Last weekend was my first Sketchcrawl in Sydney and there were 30 artists, young and old, whipping out their pencils and drawing. Having done Sketchcrawl's in Melbourne for so long, I was inspired (and secretly jealous) how large the community was here - to see how eager they were to sketch the world around them.

The group went to Cockatoo Island, a relaxing 15 minute ferry ride from Sydney. It was a beautiful and alien looking place. Old machines, warehouses and buildings over looking the Sydney skyline. The one above is yet another iPad sketch. I was barely on Cockatoo Island when the scene just grabbed me. It was an overcast morning and a little damp, this seemed to saturate the colours on the cliff faces. Yet right next to it was a giant, man made warehouse which was coloured a fading sky blue. Rarely in the modern world, I think, would this exist anymore, nature would just get mowed down. But here they seemed to co-exist, frozen in time.

The sketches below are from a more traditional media known as "pen". They are shot on a more prehistoric thing called a Nokia phone camera. Unfortunately I don't have all my equipment here so for now, this'll do.

Please do yourself a favour and check out the brilliant work of the other Sydney sketchers. And while your at it, the rest of the world!

Sydney Town Hall - iPad Plein air

This was done on the iPad again on the Brushes App in front of Sydney Town Hall. I was lucky enough to get it on a gorgeous day.

Sydney isn't a bad place at all. Great weather, beautiful landmarks lots of inspirational places to sit and draw. Here I sat inside the Kinokuniya book store opposite Town Hall painting for about 2 hours. The security guard was sussing me out every 15 minutes trying to figure out what I was doing. Although it's on iPad advertising now, I guess painting is not what normal people do when they visit a bookstore. Looking forward in seeing what else Sydney has in store.

Video here:

iPad Painting from Live Model and video

Keeping things fresh by changing the process for this one. Colour is one of my favourite subjects and I saw a technique by Jeff Watts where he'd first lay down 'abstract notes of colour" - ie anything he feels like. I guess it harks back to Harley Brown's book where he talks about making sure you aren't timid about your painting from the get-go.

Mucking up the painting up from the start did relax me, I must admit, but since it was on the iPad there was always a thought in the back of my mind that I could undo this. So...not as brave as I could have been.

The video of the process is below. I firstly did a sketch before a 2 hour live model session and scanned it in, Placed it on a layer, and went ahead.

Done with the Brushes App.

Seascape Plein Air with iPad inc video

Yet another iPad finger painting using the Brushes App which STILL remains the most responsive and simplest painting app out there.

People often ask me about the glare off the screen. Although, yes, it does exist, if you crank up the brightness to max and paint under some shade there really isn't any problem. Which got me in thinking, how great this thing will be for night plein airs with a back lit screen? Next time perhaps.

Hope you enjoy the video process too.

31st Worldwide SketchCrawl for Japan

The 31st Sketchcrawl was dedicated by Pixar's Enrico Casarosa to the victims of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

He also set up a Sketchcrawl fund with Give2Asia. So please give generously if you can.

The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami stands at 13,700 and even more are missing. It's sad to even think what the surviving are going through.

Not to put a downer on this blog, this is the Melbourne Sketchcrawl once again, and relatively speaking, the weather has been rather kind! In Melbourne terms, it's a miracle. Yes I'll even go as far as saying that.

For this special Sketchcrawl, I wanted to do something cool, so I figured I'd take the iPad out behind Federation square along the Yarra and began painting using the Brushes App. I lost my stylus so this is 100% left finger - It cramped after awhile.

These other sketches are from earlier in the day in a cafe and the outdoor area of Federation square where a month long comedy festival is happening. Lots of atmosphere and a great day to be drawing.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 30 (and other drawings from life in 2010)

First 3 are from Sketchcrawl 30 which was done yesterday. And the rest are a few select ones from other Sketchcrawls and Dr Sketchys in 2010.

There is nothing like drawing from life. And as many artists have said, there really is no better teacher than nature.

Not only are there obvious aspects like, design and drawing skills and all that, but you learn intangible things. Like understanding your sensitivities towards your subject. Improvisation. The experience of actually being there. They all contribute to how you understand yourself, the world and your work - and therefore you improve.

I remember a Craig Mullins presentation where he talked about the value of doing sketches. Although he makes it look easy, he said he would do tonnes of sketches over and over and over to understand how he works. He would take his experience from one sketch and apply it to the next one and sooner or later, different experiences begin to bolt together and eventually he found a way that works for him. There's no one way of doing it.

So in conclusion, sketching is good.

25th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

Post obligatory blurb soon..

UPDATE: OMG I forgot to post my blurb!! Doh, too late

Melbourne! The 25th Worldwide Sketchcrawl is on this Saturday the 21st!

Get your pens (pencils whatever) ready because November 21st 2009 marks 5 years of global Sketchcrawling.

What is it you may ask? It's (as the blurb once said for a banner over a year ago) "taking a day to draw your city, its people, and get a little closer to the world around you".

Like minded people, doing what we love doing, and you get that warm fuzzy feeling inside that people in every corner of the world are doing the same thing.

It's a chilled out day, and no, you don't just sit and draw ALL day. Come and go as you wish. We draw, chat about life, food and a drink afterwards if your so inclined.


Weather is looking fantastic and preliminary meetup spot is the Melbourne Museum at approximately 10 - 11 am! Keep y'all posted! Tell ya friends! More info here

Sketchcrawl forum

Nintendo DSi Plein Air Painting

It only seems like yesterday the DSi got released in Australia...in fact it was only April as I scan through my emails. Here I am as part of Nintendo propaganda at the launch 'party'.

Then...this week they announce the DSi XL ! And no this isn't exciting for gaming reasons. I was thinking, hell, this is getting closer and closer to the portable cintiq I've been waiting for (as opposed to the normal DSi which used to be the portable cintiq I've been waiting for).

So to celebrate, on a glorious sunny day in Melbourne, I whipped the old friend out and began painting a plein air with Colors! The best thing about Colors! is that it records your paint strokes, so I uploaded it to Youtube. Mind the aristocratic music.

24th Worldwide Sketchcrawl - Melbourne

I believe we are slowly shaking off the wintery blues as a small handful of folks came out for the 24th Worldwide Sketchcrawl!! Woot! We are slowly, slowly posting our stuff up. The next one will be in a couple of months or so. Soooo get in touch if you're interested - when there's a whole batch of us, it's a lot of fun!

Sketchcrawl Melbourne Thread

Train Sketch

I'm beginning to like the lighter, more handwriting style of ballpoint pen, although it's taking longer to create form, it does give you patience to build it up. Here's a trendy sorta lady sitting, reading the paper on a gorgeious sunny day. I did a photoshop touchup to bring up the whites, but I'm gonna have to bring a white pencil with me soon.

Tram Sketches

A bloke who's always tapping away at his laptop on the morning tram. Never seen him without it. He somehow sat right in front of me this time, so I got him with my Signo pen. I'm trying a lighter ballpoint at the mo, so hopefully I'll update you all how it goes.

Mini Break in the Mountains

I think I was having withdrawal symptoms for awhile there - no internet! Yikes. But alas, it didn't matter as the real beauty of the mount dandenongs made it a non-issue. We stayed in a great little barn called Arnica Views - I've stayed in a few accommodations in my time, but nothing like the experience you get here. Anyway the first little sketch was done in the guest book as a little thankyou to the hosts and the other was a still life I recorded, TRYING to get glass looking somewhat like glass!