After solo sketching in Port Macquarie on Monday and Tuesday (see my last article) I then had two very social days where I tried to sketch as much as I could while still being engaged in any conversation going on at the time.

My friend V works three days a week and so I was able to hang out with her on Wednesday and Thursday. But before meeting up with her on Wednesday morning I had a few hours in the morning to sneak in a few beach sketches…

I decided to visit Town Beach on this occasion and it too has lots of wonderful volcanic rocks.

Here is a photo showing me perched on a ledge with all my tools around me.

Note: During this trip, I didn’t use a support board at all. I wasn’t carrying it with me and didn’t seem to miss it.

A bit of a walk, another sketch of the rocks, and then some coastal banksia trees.

I met up with V for lunch and ended up sharing a burger (this is a record for me, 2.5 burgers in a week!). There wasn’t much of a view but I could see a glimpse of a boatshed with the river behind it.

BTW I was obsessed with the beach but V made sure that I spent some time by the river which is also lovely.

After lunch, we sat by the river for a bit – catching up while I sketched. V spotted a dolphin and then I realised my parking time was up so we left abruptly and I didn’t get to finish the sketch.

We then had a gelato (see below) and did some walking along the river. Then we met up with some of V’s friends. The book was too small and I was a little too distracted to do this scene justice.

Drawing empty overlapping chairs was more fun! And then we finished the evening with pizza. I could just see the woodfire oven so did a quick sketch of that.

The next day turned out to be a non-stop cafe-crawl! But before we headed out I managed to draw the plan of the apartment.

First stop was Rivermark (V’s theme of being by the river continued!)

Beautiful spot and I’m amazed that I’ve never been here before. Next trip I’d like to come here by myself and sketch the view!

Another mushroom on toast meal – it was tasty but I was really disappointed as a sketcher with the presentation! 🙂 We were joined by another of V’s friends so it was super hard for me to sketch, eat and chat. I did finish off this sketch at the next location.

BTW can you see my use of the Lavender Light marker again?

Next stop was Banks Cafe (also by the river!) for a light lunch. The food was amazing (even though we weren’t hungry) and we were thankful that although they closed at 2pm they didn’t push us out the door. This page was another one that I struggled to complete at the time but easily finished it off at the next location.

BTW the Alizarin Madder marker went crazy when I added it on top of/adjacent to my wet watercolour washes.

Cafe No. 3 was Little Shack. We really wanted a coffee but the machine was already closed. (sigh! getting a mid-afternoon coffee in Port is a challenge). We sat around talking and once I had finished my Banks Cafe page I started on the view. More of V’s friends turned up!

It was a fun and very social day but by the end of it, I needed to do another beach sketch! 🙂

So back at Flynn’s again for a really quick wind-down sketch.

Ah! it felt so good to have two full days of sketching and socialising like this!