It is not a ‘real’ sketchbook until I have done a ‘at home’ cuppa sketch hey? Just enjoying the feeling of being on holidays (vacation) which for me equals the chance to sketch as much as I want to and creating a narrative in my sketchbook -regardless of how exciting or not my life is….
– Pity that my all important hot water bottle split on the first evening. Ouch!
– My addiction to trying new inks continue. I decided to load up the magenta DeA Document ink!

My family normally gets together on Boxing Day (26th December) but this year some of the family meet up on the 25th as well. I spent the morning drawing my pile of books (which was a good prompt for me to put them back on the shelves!) and then tried to draw the one present each that my niece and nephew were given. Hard to find a quiet moment to draw them.
The magenta ink portion of this spread worried me greatly – just a little too random and unconnected for my liking – so I ended up adding a wash over the top.

Late afternoon/ evening I decided I needed to start reading a book. I needed to relax and get my mind off my online course for a few days and just for the record I threw a cloth over my computer so I couldn’t switch it on for 4 days!
So what kind of book do you think I would choose? An architectural history/ theory book, naturally!?! I read cover to cover ‘The Pantheon’ by William McDonald. This led me into a little research to track down a little more information about a Bernini building I had never come across before!

Boxing Day! Ah…love it! The start of the the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne (cricket!)

I do miss sitting and watching the first ball when I am away from home at this time of year, so  I just had to sketch it this year. Sadly I didn’t get to enjoy a cracking innings from Warner but anyway…it was fun to draw my little TV.

It was soon time to get ready for the family ‘Xmas day’ get together- a lovely day. Only the little ones in the family get a few gifts and the households a box of chocolates or biscuits, but there was a surprise present for me from ‘Kris Kringle’.

My nephews were wondering why I wasn’t in a rush to open it. Hmm, that triangular shape is distinctive – I knew what it was! Spent some fun time watching cricket with my nephews (aged 7 & 10) –  our opinions on players or the state of the game did not always agree!?! Family get-togethers on Boxing Day are fun!

At night I sketched my orange teacup while watching an exciting Big Bash T20 match(more cricket). Watching cricket is indeed the best way for me to relax – even more so than reading heavy architectural books! I am not a total cricket tragic but it is the ‘sound of summer’ and it is nice to have the catch to enjoy it when I can.

Saturday: all I did was sit in my wonderful La Fuma chair and force myself to do nothing but watch cricket. I couldn’t do NOTHING… so ended up doing a little reading and trying to sketch that orange cup again. It is a real struggle for me to achieve the wet in wet mixes I want for this cup. Still trying some options….see below.

This outdoor anti-gravity reclining chair is a big part of my life. I have never drawn it because I prefer to be sitting in it! It is somewhat appropriate that I spent a full day in this chair watching cricket since it was reading about Geoff Lawson using the chair that made me buy it. I take it out in the garden most sunny days and sit having my morning or afternoon tea break with some quality thinking time. I love it…but not so much this sketch of it. I was obviously far too relaxed to attempt the sketch!

Monday: Back to work (if there is no scheduled USK SYD sketching outing) and realised that I hadn’t sketched all day when I went to stop working at 11pm. I did have the idea to work shorter days this week… but well… it didn’t quite happen. The background cricket gives me a new relax pace and a few distractions.

Tonight while watching more cricket I did a little more testing of some cast shadow mixes for the orange cup. I did think on Saturday that I needed to wait for the orange wash to dry before adding my ‘shadow wash’ and that a mixed grey would be the best colour. A quick chat with Jane Blundell today was good to confirm this decision but I am still determined to see if I can get a wet in wet solution that I am happy with.

And finally just for the record- here is my unplanned title page for the book. Doing this page at the start of the book gave me a good feel for how the paper would handle so I was prepared for my first ‘real’ sketch