Starting a blog!

June 14, 2008 | 6 Comments

In June 2008 I decided to start a Blogger(blogspot) blog after a few months of posting to Flickr. Back in these early days of sharing online, Flickr was my main home, so I didn’t doing a proper “I’m starting a blog’ type of post. I just re-posted from Flickr.

Therefore, as my blog didn’t have a proper start, I’ve now updated this first entry here to include a few highlights of my early work between March-June 2008. I had no idea when I started this blog where it would lead me.  I’m just so happy that I have such a detailed record of my sketching journey, and even more happy that you are going to be a part of it.

So welcome!

I hope that you will enjoy looking at my sketches, reading my thoughts and seeing how sketching truly changed my life.

Note: You can read more about how I started sketching here. This post is more about beginning to share my work online.

 


First Post on the Blog

 


Here is a Scottish scene (of Cromarty from my travels) which I intend to use as a background for my Sunday notes. I will write my notes all the top of the page.

Notes:

  • I took this photo on a freezing winter late afternoon.
  • I am not used to these subtle and purple tones.
  • My squirrel brush was a real struggle with this one and I added a fair bit of pen work afterwards – which I rarely do!

And BTW welcome to my blog. I’m going to start sharing my Flickr posts here as well!

 


Other Early Sketches (from Jan2007 – Jun2008)

 

This was my first image uploaded to Flickr on 11 March 2018.

I think it’s really significant that my first post shared publicly online was of a fun dinner with friends. Not only did I sketch the food, but I got them involved and recorded their verdict on the food.

So the theme of ‘sharing my art’ is right there on my first upload!

 


Sketching Out and About

             
My first sketch of the Sydney Opera House done in 2007 on a sketching outing with Esther Semmens who was living in Australia at the time. As mentioned the article links above, Esther was the person who started me sketching with watercolour.


Another sketch from the same spot in the Rocks.

An outing to Middle Head


Middle Head – I love maps!

My first cafe sketch every – at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Cactus Garden in the Botanic Gardens.

Another cafe visit – I remember feeling nervous about the waiter seeing what we were doing, but it was nice to have Esther with me.

 


Hanging out with my friend on her farm and local cafe.

 

Sketching in bad traffic


Sketching Darling Harbour before a work conference.


Breakfast with friends.

 

Sketching at a family gathering for my nephew’s first birthday.

 


Everyday Matter Challenges

 


A big part of my early online experience was being part of the Everyday Matters Yahoo Group (started by Danny Gregory). I joined in and started doing the weekly EDM challenges.


I struggled with some objects….

But, as you can see, I enjoyed designing my pages.

As was re-living some of my overseas trips… and sketching food. This is one of my favourite sketches of all time. Yum!

And this spread done on a Friday night in early May 2008 (out of order I know) was monumental. I work up the next day and knew that it was just time to upgrade from Cotman to Artist Quality Winsor and Newton paints.


Joining in challenges – this was Everyday in May 2008.


Architectural Sketches and Studies (from photos)

 


Continuing the theme of re-living my overseas trips…

 


As an architect, I was extremely interested in architectural history and theory and so did a number of pages like these….

 

  

which record what I was reading at the time. Florence churches

 

And another one!

 


And then I moved to Rome Baroque churches…

 

I had been doing these type of drawings for years, but I suddenly had a place to share them with others.

 

 

And I started trying to do more finished sketches – not just elevations.


More Florence…


and even more.


And then there is Prague. (All of these travel sketches were done from photos. I will share my 2007 travel sketches from Prague separately.)


Text Pages

 

My sketchbooks have always been a journal of my life and so this means I would include my notes from Sundays (sermons or excerpts from the books I was reading). So here are two more examples like the image at the head of this post. This is of Segovia – another previous trip….

 

and this one is Loch Maree in Scotland.

My sister lives in Scotland, so Scottish landscapes feature quite a lot! (Loch Assynt page before the notes went on)

 


So there you have it…A collection of my early work as posted to Flickr between March-June 2008. Please note that these are only a selection and that there are numerous other sketches done during this time period which were less successful. It’s fun to notice the difference between the work done at home vs those done on location.

 

I hope you enjoyed it and will stick around and become part of my sketching adventure!

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6 Comments

  • freebird says:

    Your squirrel brush was being squirrely huh! LOL. It turned out great anyhow. Sometimes you just have to keep going when you don’t think it’s working and it comes together at some point. (The times it doesn’t you cut it up for backgrounds for other art).

  • Ann says:

    All of these watercolors are lovely! I am so glad that you started a blog – now I can comment on your wonderful work! The blog looks great 🙂

  • Borromini Bear says:

    Thanks Freebird and Ann – I will get this blog happening someday soon – it is nice to start to get some comments on it!

  • Kate Powell says:

    You sketched much more like an architect… takes one to know one!

  • Jamie C says:

    The architect style was still strong in these, but they are still so clearly you! I love the variety of subjects, even in your earliest years of sketching!

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