Another fun teaching day – this time a full day workshop on Travel sketching for Ku-Ring-gai Art Society(KAS). I did a talk at their monthly meeting back in June.

I loaded a suitcase up with a small collection from my travel sketchbooks and a range of different type sketchbooks, a few different palettes and tools …and lots of tips and ideas to share.

For me the most important thing about travel sketching is to spend time thinking about – to have a plan and to work of how? when? and what? And also to have some realistic attitudes towards accuracy, time and interruptions….and a willingness to take risks!

I showed all my own sketching gear and why it was in my bag, how compact/ light it was (compared to what people brought to the workshop) and how easy to assess in an instant and then demonstrated how I sketch standing up, sitting on my stool and sitting of the ground. This is basic stuff for seasoned Urban Sketchers but if you have never sketched out on location it is good to see what the issues are – and how to think about posture (lower back and neck?) as well! By the way I did a quick demo of sketching a tea cup from sitting cross legged on the floor… never done that before.

I then shared my essential techniques – how to start a sketch, develop a few fast techniques (and find the best tool for that), how to simplify a complex scene, find a strong focus and then enjoy ‘fluid composition’ (I think this might be my favourite bit of all)

The afternoon was spent putting into action some of the concepts from some travel photos that people brought. It was a wet raining day so it was an indoor workshop. Great work by everyone and I was excited to see them really latched onto the ideas and keen to try out new media. They are now ready to travel and sketch!!
Thanks to KAS for inviting me, and  everyone who came and made it such a fun day – I hope that I will get a catch to see your travel sketchbooks in the future.

Next time I use this material we will be out of doors and moving from place to place … when? very soon I hope!