On Saturday I finally got out sketching (and filming) for the last demo in my Sketchbook Design course. It was a lovely warm (but not too warm) sunny day and it was so wonderful to be out – especially as we have had a lot of overcast skies and rain this summer.

I drove into the city (the downtown) and spent 5 hours walking, sketching and filming. I had two cameras with me and although my gear was compact I still had a heavy trolley bag with me! Filming on my own is fairly challenging but it does afford me more freedom with my sketching than I have if my videographers are with me. It’s impossible to monitor the cameras all the time but the biggest issue is that when I paint, I dip my head, often blocking the view of my sketch. When I’m on my own there is no one standing by saying ‘head’ as a warning. I definitely want to do more filming like this in the future and work out the best position for each camera so that I can sketch normally without worrying about my head!

On Saturday I had no plan – just walk around and stop to sketch whenever I felt the urge. Hmm, actually there was one plan which was to visit my favourite tearoom – The Tea Cosy – but the rest of the day was free.

I ended up doing 6 quick loose sketches (the longest one took 20 minutes) and filled four spreads in my book. I still have to finish off these pages and film this process at home. This is the last bit of filming I need to do for Sketchbook Design – yay! It will be good to finally finish the pre-recorded portion of the course so that I can focus even more on the livestreams, reviewing work in the classroom etc. The first week has been incredible!

Anyway… here are a few photos taken from my sketching and filming session. (For those of you doing the course, these demos will be released in mid February as part of Lesson 4).