Last week I had a lovely day out sketching with Chantal and Hashi (an Australian who lives in California). I met Hashi back in 2018 at the Santa Monica Pier during a USKLA event so it was lovely to reconnect and spend a day chatting and sketching! We had lots of interesting discussions and Hashi has renewed my interest in Nature Journaling (something I do from time to time – see my Flora ID posts here – but not regularly).

I met Chantal at Circular Quay early and managed to do a quick sketch of the passengers disembarking from a cruise ship at Circular Quay. We then met up with Hashi and headed to Cockatoo Island.

The last time I was on the island, I was teaching (see here), so it was good to be able to sketch for myself.

We found a nice shady spot, and I sketched one of my favourite parts of the industrial precinct – the overlapping shapes of the big blue sheds.

I was doing a lot of talking, so this sketch took me a while. And then it was time for lunch!

After I had eaten, I drew a simple line drawing of my view and then Hashi’s Kestrel weather instrument.

After lunch, we walked up to the top of the island and found a comfy bench in the shade. I sketched a crane to complete the spread, and then…

I filled another spread from the same spot while we chatted. I had the realisation that if I had been on my own I would have done one sketch and then moved location. But as I was with others I simply kept sketching views from the one spot. This is a good strategy which I should use more often.

All of these sketches are examples of ‘reflex sketching’ – ie. I was concentrating on the conversation more than my sketches. And it was fun to fill two spreads with smaller sketches.

It was a lovely day – thanks Chantal and Hashi!