As mentioned in the last article, I was very excited to teach a workshop for the USK Wellington 10th birthday weekend – I always love getting an opportunity to teach how to sketch with shapes.

I had two wonderful groups who did some great work in very trying conditions.

The weather was cold and windy (I knew to expect the wind) but we also had rain, sun and overcast conditions.

Here are a few photos of the two groups.

And of me doing some demos using my travel easel (support board resting on my little wheelie suitcase).

The first half of the workshop we did some shape exercises – a few thumbnails of a single tree.

These produced some amazing sketchbook pages!

And then I demonstrated how to analyse a scene using shapes and then use these shape studies to work out the important edges and my story.The final goal was a simple watercolour sketch starting with a few big shapes.

Braving the tough conditions, the group then chose their own subject and used this shape-based approach. Wow! such great work.

Due to a rain shower and the need to rush for shelter we forgot to take a group photo for the first group. But here is the Monday morning gang.

On the Saturday afternoon there was a sketchwalk organised in my favourite part of town and so I got to sketch in some Wellington lanes.

This one was done in the company of Andrew James and Peter Rush (he came over from Sydney for the weekend).

And here are two screenshots from the video I filmed for my Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon.

The USK Wellington 10th Birthday weekend was a truly wonderful event. I was so honoured to be part of it and if they host it again next year I would highly recommend it – especially for Australians. It was super special to hang out with our NZ ‘cousins’ in this way.

Such a great vibe – inspiring and relaxed at the same time. Thanks again to the USK Wellington Admin for inviting me and all your organisation.