Ballarat, Carlton and Richmond

April 7, 2015 | 4 Comments


On Monday (after a lovely Sunday of worship) I head into the country with the friend that I am staying with. This is a little tradition for us to have a country outing every time I come to Melbourne. 
(Previous outings included a Vanilla Slice adventure!)

This time we were headed to Ballarat. I managed to fit in a 15 minute sketch while my friend did a little shopping. Following my latest trend I went for it in ink, trying to capture the great wide expanse of the main street in town!


Two photos of Ballarat.


Earlier in the day we drove through the open countryside heading towards a big band of cloud and climbed a tower to get above the tree-line and admire the view.


Oh! we also did a quick morning tea stop at Buninyong – I didn’t attempt either a sketch of my food or of the lovely historic buildings… maybe next time!


It is always nice to get out to the countryside… but I am happy back in the city as well. A wet Tuesday but I manage done street scene later in the day when the rain stopped. This is of Swan Street, Richmond.


Most of the day, that I spent once again with Chris Haldane, was spent walking or in a cafe. This time the lovely Cafe Lua in Carlton. After sketching my lovely breakfast I sketched the view in the cafe.


And then the views outside the cafe as the rain came down. You can see in the background that Chris was doing a wonderful portrait of the barista.


Lovely staff … and in the end we asked to take a photo of Lee holding our works. I love the way that sketching connects us with people everywhere we go!


And right at the end of the day, I snuck in a few quick sketches from the shelter of the Info Booth at Federation Square. It is hard for me to walk past FSS (Flinders St Station) without the urge to sketch it. I am pushing the boundary everytime I sketch this grand building – this time a few wet washes and then black ink in a hero pen over the time. Maybe next time I should try right handed! BTW all left hand sketch this week so far….but I am missing the additional challenge of my ‘other hand’ … so maybe I will get back to it tomorrow!

4 Comments

  • I really don't know how you do it, Liz. The other day I needed to do something art related so began to sketch the rocker in my living room. Ultimately it looked so childish I was embarrassed and tossed it. Your street view with the line of buildings is just amazing (as it always is) and I love when you drop color into your sketches too.

  • I have really enjoyed reading about your road adventure and looking at your wonderful sketches. Thank you for inspiring us all to be better artists.

  • Liz Steel says:

    hey Sherry- it is a lot pf practice and then more! Don't worry if it looks childish – it is not… it is your marks of the page. Just keep sketching and looking and enjoy the journey!

  • Liz Steel says:

    thanks Martin!!

Leave a Reply