Teals and Trials

I got so frustrated yesterday. I had a list of a few items I needed to get from an art shop. If I was in Melbourne I'd know exactly where to go and that the shops would have what I'm after. But not in Belfast! It's so difficult moving to a new place, even though Belfast isn't technically a new place for me, I'm just not used to it and I don't know the secrets! Although I think the secret is you have to buy everything on line because Belfast just doesn't cater to the specialist market of printmaking supplies, grey board or 0.5 2B pencil leads! I have to get used to it and realise Melbourne has nearly 4,000,000 people whereas Belfast has 267,500, so it's obvious really that supplies will be more limited here. Grrrrrr! I've been spoilt!

Oh, hold on, I'm baby sitting my nephew and he's just woken up, I'd better go and see if he's ok.................................................

................................................................ok, nephew on knee here, now there's one thing melbourne doesn't have, my wee nephew! oh and Belfast has a BRILLIANT display of birds in the museum. Here are a few more drawings, I did these yesterday.

Grey Heron

Brent Goose

Teal

Out and About

I did manage to get to the museum yesterday and drew a couple of pheasants. My favourite was the Silver Pheasant, simple black and white plumage with beautiful markings. I'd love to make a long etched plate of one of these birds. I've had to scan it over a few different pages and haven't quite managed to get him all in, but you get the idea!

Today I went back to Castle Espie. I got in contact with the staff a few weeks ago to ask if they had any specimens and they showed me to the attic where they have a secret stash of old, dusty birds. It was great!

View of Stangford Lough from Castle Espie.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the Belfast Print Workshop and finally join! I always get nervous when it comes to taking steps towards printmaking again, I love it, but it's such a wide area of possibilities it slightly daunts me. I think this is a good thing though!

Sketches at Seapark

The day I got back from Amsterdam I was still fired up with drawing, I braved the drizzle and went down to Seapark near Holywood to draw. It was great, I sat for an hour until my feet got too cold.

Anyone from this area will know these houses on the shore, they're beautiful. My friend's grandfather helped to build them. I think everyone want to live in one of them.

This poor old dog was so old and stiff he just stood in front of me for ages instead of climbing the incline from the beach up to the path. Thanks for the pose!

The view from Holywood up Belfast Lough to the docks.

I'm raring to go drawing again today now that my first market is out of the way and I have all my stock made. I can set all that aside and do what I really want to be doing. I'm just waiting for a phone call from the museum about drawing their birds.

I've worked it out.

The best way to draw more is to buy a lovely sketchbook!

While in Amsterdam last week I went into a great little shop that I recognised from when I lived there for three months 6 years ago. They sold beautiful paper, ink and sketchbooks. I decided to treat myself to a new green cloth covered sketchbook, and since then I've been drawing drawing drawing. It feels good!

Here's some of my drawings from the Netherlands.

Oh, also, the Etsy Irish team are having a giveaway, open to everyone and anyone. The winner will receive a marvelous goodie box made up of items from Etsy Irish Team shops. I've donated a few items too! All you have to do is leave a comment in their blog post. Here's the link.

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Left Hand Right Hand Drawings

Brunswick Street Gallery is calling for entries for their 'small works' exhibition. I thought I should give it a go, so I came up with these three pieces. They are pencil drawings on embossed paper. The drawing is done with my left hand, except for the area in the small embossed square, which is done with my right. I personally always prefer my left hand drawings. Nice and lose. I don't really enjoy drawing in too much detail, I prefer to capture the essence  of the subject, or maybe I'm just lazy?!

At Queenscliff

It was a long weekend this week and Jeremy very nicely decided to take me to Queenscliff which is a very old town (by Australian standards) situated at the mouth of Port Philip Bay. He told me there would be lots of birds so I should bring my drawing things. He brought his ipod for that eventuality.


We walked along the marina and as big fighter planes from the Avalon airshow zoomed overhead I looked into the water and saw so many funny little fish. Pufferfish, cuttlefish, a stingray, tiny little fish with very shiny heads, and lovely stripey fish with ink dipped tails.

But for me, really it was all about the pelicans...


...and crepes, pelicans and crepes!

I'm going to be at the stitches and craft fair happening at the Melbourne show grounds in Flemmington this week. I'm teaching a couple of classes of crochet and helping Thread Den man their stall. I'll have some of my felt brooches on sale and there will be lots of other Melbourne made designer clothing on show and for sale. It should be good fun, maybe see you there!

At the Beach

I've spent the last few days down the Great Ocean Road with Jeremy's family, caravaning at Wye River. It's so lovely to be by the beach and have constant bird drawing material at hand! Here area couple of pages from my sketchbook.

And a couple of photos of my playings on the beach

The Latest from the Museum

On Tuesday Anna and I went along to the museum again for our bird drawing session. We only had two birds this week, a Bellbird and a Curlew. The Curlew was a winner with his long long beak, but it was difficult getting him to fit on the page! His feathers were gorgeous and it was great to be able to study the varying patterns on his feathers. Since I use these drawings to make etchings I have to remember to take note of the detail (something I'm often a bit lazy about) because the drawings are all I have when it comes time to make the etching plate.

Bellbirds are the bird you hear down by the river in Melbourne. By Merri Creek and along the Yarra. They make a short loud sharp 'pip' sound, a bit like a fire alarm battery running out. They 'pip' to each other and you can hear them 'pipping' in the trees all along the banks of the river, but often you can't see them, if you do get a glimpse of one it's a surprise to see how green they are, or maybe it's just a surprise to me because I'm still not used to seeing brightly coloured birds!

A Stroll Down South Bank

Last week I needed to draw the ferris wheel situated behind Federation Square on the banks of the River Yarra. It was a lovely day and I sat by the bank of the river and drew, not only the ferris wheel, but lots of other things that caught my fancy! Here is a view upriver to the city.

Swans

Another one from the sketchbook. I was drawing down by the Yarra South Bank this afternoon and even though it is the city centre there is an abundance of birds from pied cormorants, a little grey heron, coots, ducks, seagulls of course! and black swans, I even saw a cockatoo flying past here a few weeks ago. Birds everywhere in Australia!


I was especially happy when the swans ventured out of the water. They are so serene and graceful in the water and then they waddle and flop on land, that's when I like to draw them!
I once saw a swan stand on his own foot and fall flat on his chest, very funny.

This Week's Birds

This week, at the museum's discovery centre, Anna and I were given a Kookaburra, another Red Wattlebird (I like this bird and request it every week), a Spangled Drongo (have you heard of a better named bird?!) an Australian Raven and an ugly Eagle, (not the scientific name.)

After three weeks of drawing birds I'm getting very excited about starting some new plates for etching. I feel a bit daunted because I think I'm going to make my new series much bigger, (up until now the majority of my plates have been 6 x 6cm and from the scrap bin!) but I'm feeling ready for the challenge and raring to go. I'm booked in next friday and I can't wait.




To view the rest of this weeks drawings go to my Flickr page.

This Time It's the Wattlebird

Last Thursday Anna and I were back at the museum drawing a new set of birds, this time it was the brush wattlebird that caught my eye. To see Anna's drawings go to her blog, or see her flickr page. The rest of my drawings are on my flickr.

I also enjoyed this little bird (below), she is a Star Finch. I find the smaller stuffed birds often look bit bedraggled and worse for ware so I don't draw them so much, but I loved the grey with the red on this little one. Also it started me using a bit of colour. I haven't used colour for ages in my drawings, but there is a big bucket of colouring pencils at the museum (probably for the kids) that Anna and I utilise on every visit.

Sketchbook Extract - New Mexico 06

Here are some more drawings from my USA trip in 06. These are from the window of the train. Drawing from the window of a moving vehicle is a great way to improve your drawing, you have to draw fast! Also as the scenery changes the idea of your drawing has to change. If you went out to New Mexico and traced every last inch of it's amazing landscape you will not find where these sketches were drawn because these landscapes are made up of a number of different views seen as we travelled through on a fast train. Yet, to me, they are still very New Mexico.

San Francisco Sketching

In November 2006 a friend of mine and I travelled round USA by train. I can't say enough how great it is to travel by train, we must have sat and looked out those windows at the incredible scenery for most of the trip and still wanted more! Even after a 36 hour journey from Spokane, Washington to Chicago we were already looking forward to the next train trip onwards to New York.

One of our first stops, and possibly our favourite city (apart from Chicago) was San Francisco. Here are a few pages from my sketchbook while in this great city...

San Francisco from the top of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, you can tell it was done left handed because my handwriting is illegible!

Alcatraz Island

An evening watching jazz at the Condor

More Choughs, I'm seeing a new theme on the horizon!

So I've been outside this morning taking photos of my drawings. More sucessful in daylight that in the bathroon at 10 o'clock last night.

I found yesterday that the bird I drew most was the chough, followed closely by red wattlebird. I've requested both these birds again for next week drawing in the museum. Anna has also requested a duck and an owl, so I'm looking forward to it.

I have the rest of my drawings posted on Flickr. Click on the link or the photos to see them.

Added later- I have just returned from drawing in a nearby park. My drawing session was cut short by a bad dog who ran up to me and my bike, peed into my cycle helmet, then tried to leg it with my sketchbook! Bad dog.

Drawing at the Museum

Today I went to the Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens where I had arranged to draw some of their collection of birds. I rang up last week and gave them a short list of birds I'd like to draw and today myself and Anna found ourselves being greeted by a Magpie, a Butcher Bird, a Red Wattlebird, a Chough and a rather worse for wear Honeyeater.

My photos of my drawings aren't particularly good so I think I will take some more tomorrow in the daylight, but for now here is a left hand drawing of the Chough (pronounced 'chuff.') I draw with my left hand to keep my lines lose ( I am normally right handed.)

Mongolian Horse

This is my final sketchbook extract from my old website. It is from the sketchbook I had with me while on a horse ride trek in Mongolia , which was the most amazing place I have ever been to.


This horse was one of the mongolian horsemen's horses. They rode in very uncomfortable looking saddles, although they were also very beautiful looking with embedded silver attached and ornate stirrups. Their horses, to our standards, were ponies, but never say this to a mongolian!

Old Edinburgh Sketches

Here are some more sketches from a few years ago.

This is my old flatmate and good friend Adele doing the dishes on our old flat.



Edinburgh drawn on a paper bag. I had gone drawing with Adele up to Calton Hill, I'd forgotten my paper, so I tore up the paper sandwich bag I had used for my lunch and used that.

Sometimes I really do believe I can fly, I'm so sure of it. Instead of actually trying it on this occasion, I drew it. It says 'Me flying over Edinburgh, because I can.'