In this article I’m sharing a few sketches and photos from some shorter outings I went on during my recent trip to Melbourne.

These include:

• Williamstown Botanical Gardens
• Walking the streets in Melbourne suburbs
• Sunrise on the bay
• Werribee Park

Williamstown Botanical Gardens

 
I had a quick tour of these beautiful gardens with my friend.

There were definitely lots of beautiful views that I would love to sketch…

but we didn’t have much time.

My friend wanted to take me to the locations in the garden where they had some family photos taken a few years ago. There were some changes to the area and while my friend tried to work out which Moreton Bay fig tree the family sat under I was able to sneak in a quick sketch…
and then a second one!

Once on the train into the city, I drew this map of our morning in Williamstown.

Walking the streets in Melbourne suburbs

Here are a few extra images from one of the filming days for my upcoming Travel Sketching course.

There are so many amazing buildings in Melbourne that I would love to sketch, such as this one.

As we continued our walk, I thought to myself: “Hey, I’ve sketched here – I think it was the first time I met Angela back in 2013!” And I was right!

Two sketches of a building opposite us on Brunswick St…

one in graphite…

and one in watercolour pencil with a little ink.

A little further down the street… “ah! I was here with Paul Wang!”

Note: Once you have sketched a place, you never forget it!

Winter Sunrise

  
On my last morning I went out for a walk at 6am with my friend J. It was a 4km walk and the temperature was 3C (this is VERY cold for a Sydneysider) but it was beautiful! J does this walk every weekday and wanted me to meet the friends he meets up with during the walk. I was keen to see a sunrise.

I showed my sketchbook to ‘the boys’ by torchlight and then attempted to sketch the view. Can you see my sketchbook on the bench?

This was a very difficult sketch to do as it was so cold, and the first wash just didn’t dry. Alpha paper is so unforgiving in a situation like this!

If it wasn’t for the fact that it was my last morning in Melbourne, I would have definitely gone out with J the next morning and used a different technique. (I had a plan for how to tackle a sunrise a second time.)

But regardless of the result, this page records a special memory for me!

Werribee Park

Later that day E took me to Werribee Park and we walked around the grounds. This was one of those occasions when I wasn’t sure when to stop and ask if I could do a quick sketch.

This is the classic view of the mansion, but as we had just started walking around, I only took a photo.

A few more photos from the gorgeous grounds, and then right at the end, just before we headed back to the car, I said,’ Can I just stop for a quick sketch?’

I only chose the most complex view of the whole morning! (Good planning, Liz!)

10 minutes later, this is what I had on my page and I’ve decided to leave it as it was.

It was then time to have lunch and afterwards head to the airport.

Trip Home

I got to the airport super early, which gave me time to do a few sketches and catch up on some things.

I wasn’t really in the mood for another plane interior sketch, but in the last few years, I’ve discovered that when I don’t feel bothered by a serious sketch, a quick graphite sketch is always possible—and very enjoyable.

Back Home

I arrived home safely at 8:30pm, and the next morning, I visited a new cafe with great coffee.

This was a nice way to continue two themes from the Melbourne trip
1. Cafe sketching
2. Sketching standing up (the small exterior sketch of the cafe)

Only one more Melbourne article to go – my reflections from the trip.