I made sketchbooks

Watercolour sketchbooks are a pain - the paper is never as good as the 300gsm 100% cotton that I buy in sheets, unless the sketchbook is $100, and then I freak out about using it (or I think I would, I have never actually spent $100 on a sketchbook, but I suspect I would find it hard to use). So I had a go at making my own using any tutorial that said it was 'easy'. I did go down a lovely rabbithole of bookbinding - wow that looks like fun - but I'm not at the point of special tools and sewing things up. Yet. 

So this is a concertina sketchbook - the cover boards aren't attached to each other so it unfolds into a long strip like a concertina, but you draw on it page by page (if you want to). It's conceptually straightforward - take a bit of the lovely paper, make it into three strips, glue them together, fold them and add board covers and a ribbon. Lots of PVA, a bit of pretty scrapbooking paper and a glue stick. 

I am generally happy with it but despite best efforts my lack of neat-fingeredness shows through - the covers are too big and none of it lines up exactly as it should. But I've started painting in it (my summer project is pen and wash of the old style beach houses in my little beach town) and it's really nice. Because it's the good paper you can do both sides and despite some really wet washes it hasn't warped or bled at all.

This is the other style I did which isn't as pretty but has been quite useful - simply rings with holes in the paper and a covered back board. It keeps everything together and you can take it en plein air should I ever choose to do something so peculiar. This is slightly different lovely paper which is quite ivory in tone. I tore the pages rather than cut them so it's nice and raggedy at the sides.

And this is a poor copy of a Taiwanese artist (goes by J.Y. Drawing) who does these wonderfully detailed streetscapes using a fountain pen and quite wobbly lines. It's a fabulous combination of exact reproduction and impression. The bits I left out of this picture are cars and people which I'm still struggling with. 

Buildings and streetscapes

I'm really getting into the urban sketching. Not getting any better, but it's lovely to be playing about with watercolours again and, as a genre, it seems to be aimed at beginners. There are heaps of ideas and how-tos out in the world. So here you have random street scenes from around the world, as reduced to paint and paper by me. I think this is Thailand.

This one is definitely Japan because it said so on the photo. These are from Youtube videos by Jillee Arts who does lovely sketches. I don't sketch along though - I'm finding that too stressful. I watch her video, download the reference image, and take it from there by myself. So I end up somewhere quite different, but I can then go back and see why hers is so much better :)

This is a cafe in Prague, apparently. Nice.

This is just a random picture of a house that I thought might be useful to practice roof lines and odd balconies. And to see if I can paint 'derelict', which I think it gives? Maybe?

And another Jillee Arts one. I call this "jesus, I'd love a coffee" because I stuffed up painting the person so badly that I thought a FULL BEARD was the best way to fix it. 

Unexpected beach

I was actually going to have a weekend at home but then the weather forecast was for 36 degrees both days - and that's no fun in Canberra, so I went to see the sea. Which was nowhere near 36 degrees! A massive storm hit Canberra Friday evening and me about two hours later - lots of lightning and rain but luckily the beach kept power ... unlike poor Canberra, and number two's flight back to Melbourne was cancelled because the plane couldn't land, so disruption all round. 

Number two was in town as a finalist in a play-writing competition - he didn't win but there was still a cash prize for being a finalist and it was highly competitive, so we are very proud of him. And they flew him up to Canberra and put him up in a hotel for a night! Fancy. The picture above is the function where they announced the winner and launched the 2024 theatre season; it was very chill and actually quite a pleasant way to spend an evening (we weren't sure! theatre event! could be anything!). 

Contrast to the beach sky on Saturday afternoon - building up for another storm. Good to get the rain.

More rain, more beach

 Last week was the last full parliamentary sitting week of the year - lots of shouting and lots of busy as they tried to get everything through before Australia shuts down for six weeks. So we all exhaustedly went down to the beach on Friday (me, husband, cat) even though the weather forecast was dire. 

It did indeed rain and rain. A couple of storms, lots of drizzle, some windows of clear air. There had been a massive swell so the beach was covered in seaweed. On Sunday it had been swept out a bit so there were just those wonderfully attractive mats of barely-submerged weed in the surf line. Yucky ... and not at all helped by the local Facebook group posting all the pictures of washed up yellow-bellied sea snakes. Very unusual - they live well out to sea and are quite shy - but I don't want seaweed brushing up against my legs in the water. Aaaargh.

So we hit peak laziness on the weekend with nothing useful done at all. Books were read, food was eaten, wine was drunk (cracked open the wine box advent calendar! it was delicious, thank you in-laws, outstandingly good idea) ... I did a bit of painting but no sewing or anything difficult.

The beach and another blue dress

It was a bit rainy on the weekend but I still went to the beach and had some lovely swims. Friends came over for a swim and lunch, and I did a little bit of sewing. Nothing much to report really! 

My summer project is doing a bit of urban sketching of my little beach town, so I took some photos of suitable candidates - the old beach houses that are slowly being replaced with much fancier places. They're not super architecturally interesting but I am happy just to draw simple squares! In fact it's probably better if I stick to simple squares.

Here is another blue cotton dress I made - too short for work but perfect for the summer. Box pleats at the waistline this time, it is a reasonably heavy cotton so I didn't want to gather it.

Back on the splootchy ones

After the agony of portraits and the realism of urban sketching I have had a little sidetrack back to Jane Slivka of the big brushes and white impasto. It is a very enjoyable way to slap some paint around for an hour or two, although I'm not 100% convinced of the results. It's hard to do well, and I find myself adding the wrong sorts of detail and making it look odd. Anyway I meandered my way through a few of her videos.

Still life with peaches (possibly) and red wine and cheese. Yes cheese, not butter, it's not quite the colour I was going for. I think the flowers are hydrangeas.

These are definitely oranges with the vase. Of hydrangeas. So satisfying in some ways, and so marginal in others.

And an ocean scene (or possibly a lake, I don't think it matters). I quite like my fence but the house is a bit ramshackle, and the trees are odd.

Very basic top

This is something else I sewed at the beach - I am trying to use up all the material in the drawers even if it's not particularly obvious or easy to sew! This is a pretty but extremely lightweight polyester that was not going to co-operate for anything but the simplest of patterns... which is what I did. Seams across the shoulders, seams up the side, hems, thanks for coming.

It is nice enough, if a bit baggy. 

And it matches the orange cardy so that's something. It was a hot weekend and I did virtually nothing ... some house chores, some errands, some painting and some vague thinking about christmas. No actual doing or planning, just thinking.