Friday evening in Newtown

May 30, 2015 | 2 Comments


On Friday I had an ‘out and about’ day. I started with a morning/lunch catchup with Jane Blundell (catching up and testing art materials and tools!) and then met Chris Haldane in Newtown at 3.30pm for an afternoon sketch and then an early dinner. So here are my sketches from the day (I am not bothering showing you the 3 pages of testing I did with Jane).

My first sketch was another test of the Paynes Grey Winsor and Newton Water Colour marker (if you missed it my first thoughts are here). I expected to be picked up at any moment so quickly put some shapes down and then pulled out my waterbrush…. and later added a little more water and some De Atramentis Fog Grey lines (with my Sailor pen with 45degree fude nib). Click on the image to see it larger.


This is what my sketch looked like with just the first marker markers (maybe 2 minutes worth?). I am not a fan of the marker marks but it is an effective ‘fast tool’. Whether it will become a ‘keeper’ is still a big question. I left Jane with a copy of her amazing Ultimate Mixing Palette book – more about it later I promise!


I then met up with Chris and as we were walking down King St we suddenly saw one of ‘Nancy’s Service Stations’. Nancy, one of the Sydney Urban Sketchers has been doing a series of sketches on old Service stations… and this was one of them. Tragically since she did her sketch, it is now abandoned and well we just wanted to sketch it too! I wasn’t feeling completely in the groove so decided to just feel my way and have some fun. This was the result!
 
I felt just a touch ‘sad’ that my sketch hadn’t hit the ground, even though it was my intention to work large and only focus on the top of the building. So I pulled out my trusty green sailor (with 55deg Fude nib and DeA mixed grey ink) and quickly drew the service station in the context of King St. I am still loving my pen and ink sketches – in some ways more than my watercolour. I get to say more with more ease as there is no need to wait for any paint to dry… not that I rarely do that anyway! King St is very busy, but with clearways in force it often feel very quiet with hardly a car in sight. And BTW the top image was my third sketch from the same spot – of the top of a shop on the other side of the road. Keep an eye on Chris’s Flickr for her wonderful version!


We then headed for a great dinner at Pasha’s Turkish restaurant. The food was good and the interior very sketchable. I rarely go out to dinner, and normally it is with ‘non-sketching’ friends. So it was a   luxury to be able to sketch the food so leisurely and for the record the meatballs were still warm when we ate them – not hot, but still warm!
 
Sketching food while you are eating it is all about strategy and eating the hot food first. So we ended up eating the dip platter (entree) after the main course and asking them to re-heat the bread.


Here is a quick sketch of the interior.


And finally dessert – Turkish apple tea and some real Turkish delight.

On the train on the way home, I made a momentous decision! I have been drawing a lot of people over the last few months – trying to work out a way, method, medium, size etc that suits me. I started with a separate book but that didn’t work, and for the last 3 or 4 sketchbooks have been filling many pages at the back of my book. As this was a new sketchbook, I have decided that they are all going in the front now. It is only 7 weeks to the symposium and this year I MUST sketch the sketchers! I have made the bold commitment now!

 


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