Welcome to Auckland Sketchbook

Welcome to the blog. On the this site you will find recent sketches right through to truely terrible sketches made on location over 20 years ago. Looking back at those sketches I sometimes wonder why I even continued with the practice! So why do I sketch? Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991.  One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Alon...

Beer, bridges, fish & ships at USk November

But not all in that order — the beer and chips came later at the Northcote Tavern and the fish didn't come at all because Louis didn't catch any. A good turn-out for our sketch meet though, possibly thanks to the great weather and Eric's choice of Northcote Point - a great spot with views under the Harbour Bridge of the city. A couple of classic yachts came past too, Arcturus and the Ted Ashby, to add a bit of colour.









Comments