I just had a nice long weekend which was blog-free and mostly work free. I didn’t do a lot of sketching but I had some good time with friends – including hanging out with this amazing group of Sydney Urban Sketchers on Saturday…more about this soon.

At the last minute on Friday, I decided to go out and meet up with the Sydney Sketch Club AND June from USK France who was in town. I met June at the symposium in Barcelona two years ago so it was great to catch up with her again. This is a photo from our outing on Saturday – hmm, I think that this blog post is going to be all out of order!

The purpose of the Sketchclub event was to visit (and sketch) The Vivid light show. Here is some of the group with a lovely display of dresses in Kendall Lane…the group photo taken by Canon photographers. As much as I love Canon cameras, I am pretty taken with my Sony RX100Mk3 these days!

I haven’t managed to visit it for a few years so it was good to go again and see a few of the displays. I was very disappointed with the Opera House and didn’t bother fighting the crowds to see Customs House up close – what I saw from afar was very spectacular. I didn’t even take a photo of the SOH but took an accidental 1 sec video that I was able to do a screen capture of to show you how dull it was.

I was very impressed by the MCA lights.

Here is a short sped up video of part of the sequence that I really loved.

Only a few of the group sketched that night, but as I had carried around my Neocolour II crayons all evening, I was determined to do something. I had to wait for ages till I saw something on the SOH colourful enough to sketch. I was in the dark but had adequate light to guess my colours however, what I couldn’t see was the amount of water on my page… I had a swimming pool! It then started to rain! Sometimes it is just too hard to try to rescue a sketch so the best thing was let it do its own thing… and well this is the result! A memorable page in my sketchbook! Ha ha!

Early in the evening, I sketched iphone people on the train…

And I also tried to find something to sketch that would stay in sun for the longest time possible (we are getting very close to the shortest day here). This walkway at the rear of terraces on Lower Fort St, The Rocks, was perfect.

I was doing a test of filming myself with my fancy Manfrotto Monopod(with tri-feet!) and it was nearly impossible to take a selfie of the setup… but here are my pathetic attempts anyway.  The monopod isn’t as stable as a tripod but it enables me to have the camera more overhead and closer to me. I got a little distracted by the filming so my sketch was a little all over the place to start with – makes for fun watching! I haven’t decided what to do with the footage… whether to share it with you all now or leave it for my upcoming SketchingNow course (ie. the new course that I am starting to work on!)

Here is another quick line drawing I did while waiting for the paint to dry.

Saturday: I had a great day with 35 other SYD USKers in Chinatown! Chris H organised a great challenge of allocating each of us with a different restaurant between the two Chinese gates, so that the whole strip was documented. And when we meet up, tried to put them together in a row.

I was given a very uninspiring place that was shut. I was tempted to draw the teahouse next to it, but there was already a number of people sketching that, so I sat down and just started what I was supposed to. I wasn’t feeling 100%, so just worked away at a leisurely pace…thinking more about the tree than the restaurant.

I then wondered around, chatted to a few people, found a reasonable takeaway coffee and then had just enough time to do a quick sketch of the entrance to Chinatown. I did intend to do a close up watercolour sketch of the gate, so this sketch was all about the context and the darkness of the row of trees that line the plaza between the gates. Sadly, I ran out of time for my third sketch of one of the gates!

We then had lunch… some people went to a small noodle bar, others to yum chaa. Here I tried to sketch some of the people at the table. Sketching each other is an activity that hasn’t caught on with our group much to date (most are too hungry and then needing to rush off after lunch) …. but I am in serious training for the upcoming symposium in Singapore. Sketching people who are talking and about to eat is one step harder than people looking at their iphones! But I am pushing myself big time now!

Sunday: my usual day of worship and rest…and as usual no sketch.
Monday: Drove out of Sydney for a day with my best friend … and out of mobile range. No Sketch!

A few days off blogging… means more to catch up! I haven’t even thought about what I will sketch today… I am wanting to do some painting….