My Central Station Sketches and a testing a new Sketcher's Atelier

I can only survive for so long without blogging and scanning my work. For some reason, scanning and blogging are very important to the process of sketching for me. So here are my sketches from Saturday’s USK SYD event.

Three versions of Sydney’s Central Station, all different ways of sketching….

The first was paint first and then a little line work. I had a ‘panic attack’ right at the start as I saw a construction truck reversing down the footpath (sidewalk) towards me. I didn’t need to move out of the way, as the truck stopped in time, but the incident unsettled me and meant that the marks on the page at that moment were not carefully located. The result: I was committed to a squat tower! Sometimes these things happen and you just have to go for it.

Second sketch, an attempt at a careful ink then wash sketch – but sadly I ran out of steam.

Third sketch a quick sketch of a detail – using my Paynes Grey WN watercolour marker (more about my thoughts are here).

But the most interesting part of the sketching on Saturday morning for me was testing out my new Atelier from The Outside Studio. Many of you might have seen my review of the pre-production model I received earlier in the year. Well, last month Nancy sent my two final versions. A lovely brown version of the model I reviewed (the Large model) and a new slimline model – The Large Open Atelier.

Here are open and closed photos of this model.

And a few photos of it in use. Sadly I was sketching solo on Saturday so I have no photo of me using it. I was playing around with options of how to use it – there are a few different ways due to the length of the cover. The first was to have a little space between the top of my book for my pens and the second (I think it is preferred) was to use the cover to provide space for securing my water container (via ‘blu tack’) to the unit and maximise mixing area. Once again I was impressed with the design!