Last week, I met up with my brother and family at Circular Quay. I arrived a little earlier and decided to do a quick sketch of the Sydney Opera House (SOH). I wasn’t sure how much time I would have, so I approached the sketch in layers and worked in a way that I could stop at any point.

First, I thought about the scene using the three-layer technique from my Travel Sketching course, but I also decided to layer using different materials. This way, if they turned up early, I would have enough on the page.

I started with a few shapes (a modified version of 5 shapes – another Travel Sketching technique) in marker.

I then added watercolour pencil and ink over the top.

Note: I’m always thinking about what the important lines are even though I’m not limiting myself to 7 – as we did in Travel Sketching.

At this point, I got a text from my sister-in-law and knew I had enough time to add watercolour. That made me happy!

I added a partial sky using my Sketchbook Design course strategy of open corners which creates an area to add text in the top right corner. I haven’t yet got around to doing that – but I will soon.

Note: It would have been nice to have started with watercolour, but I didn’t know what time frame I had to sketch at the beginning. It would have been awkward if I had been halfway through a watercolour sketch when my nieces and nephews turned up suddenly and wanted to give Aunty Liz a hug straight away. 🙂

I was checking to see how dry my sketch was when my brother rang to say that they had just gotten off the train.

Just for fun, here is the photo I took of the family waving at me from the Circular Quay platform.

You might be wondering…

Once the family arrived, what did I do about my sketch, which was still a little damp in some places?

Stay tuned for an article about that issue in a few days.