I had a wonderful day with the Urban Sketchers Sydney group on Saturday. I missed a lot of the USK SYD sketchmeets in 2016, so it is great to be back, and especially as this month was a special event.

Natalie O’Connorand Carla Hananiah, resident artists for Winsor & Newtown not only did a presentation of a range of sketching materials but also had samples we could use and goodies bags for everyone.

I did the above sketch of a Moreton bay fig using Perylene Green and Raw Sienna watercolour stick (along with my normal watercolour of course). Hmm, I really liked those colours and some of the effects achieved with mixing water-soluble tools and watercolour.

Here is a closer look at the sketch.

In between talking to Carla and Natalie, catching up with some of the regulars and meeting as many of the newbies as I could, I also did this quick 15 minute sketch of Sydney Observatory. This was done with my Sailor Fude nib and some very dark brown water-soluble ink from Sailor that I am just about to test further. I drew the lines after the watercolour and so they didn’t wash away totally. (More about this later!)

As I was flicking through my sketchbook later that evening, I decided that there are too many white pages in my book at the moment. So, I added an overcast sky to the sketch.

A wonderful day and a big group of over 50 people. It was great to see all the different work as people tried different stuff. Huge thanks as always to Chris for organising a great day.

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Did you get out sketching on the weekend? I would love to hear about what you got up to with your sketchbook.