A day in Manly on a jazz festival day

October 4, 2014 | 4 Comments


A lovely Spring September day to visit Manly with the USK Sydney gang. It is a bit of a hike to get there on public transport – train into the city and then ferry ride- well over 1.5 hours (only 40 minutes drive away) but it always nice to have a ferry ride across Sydney harbour.
In my new post-Paraty adjustments to my work I am going back to non stop sketching…but trying a few slight modified techniques within my usual kit.


Anyway while I was doing this out on the deck of the ferry the couple behind spoke to me. “I have a cousin who does similar sketching- his name is… James Gurney!”


Well those of you that know James’ amazing work, blog and book can imagine how excited I was!! We had the loveliest conversation.
I love the richness of the experiences I have when I am sketching out in public. And how small the internet has made the world!
I love following James’ blog Gurney Journey – so many gems! And when I get around to catching up with my daily sketchbook pages you will see that I have recorded a few quotes from a recent post. His book Color and Light is sensational – over 200 5 star reviews on Amazon says it all. I refer it it often(only yesterday or the day before!) I mean – how exciting is a book with sections on Contre Jour and Gamut mapping! Highly recommended

Anyway – to get back to my day… I don’t seem to be able to travel past the Opera House without a sketch. Being so close and moving along at a good pace (for a ferry) this sketch morphed as my view changed & I was sketching from right to left.
I do wish I had used a different tool for this sketch to get a more expressive line.


And then while on ferry sketches… these are some quick ones I did on the way back.


The Manly Jazz festival was on but not much happening till after lunch- so this was the empty stage while they were setting up.


By the way I rather like my happy watercolour accident in this sketch – Daniel Smith paint is so crazy! Here is is a little closer.


And then I sat down and sketched the top of the shops on the Corso – I have been wanting to sketch these for a long time. It was great to spend some time catching up with Lionel one of our travelling members – hearing about his recent work trips and meeting up with USK groups in Munich and San Diego.


Well…I was then hungry and in need of a cuppa… so did this quick sketch. Wasn’t sure which was the best cafe to visit for tea …”Three Beans was on the way to the meeting point…so that will do for a choice”. When this pot arrived I knew I had made the right choice.



Great show and tell session (new people everytime) and then we all(well most) had lunch together and I sketched my Lemon Lime and Bitter drink while waiting for the meal.


I have been working insane hours lately (I don’t spend everyday in tearooms!) so it was SO good to get out for some sketching with friends today …even if I didn’t get a chance to stay for some afternoon jazz musican sketching like I had hoped!


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