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. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
I've realised my blog is missing a lot of my favourite sketches from the last year or so, so this week I'll post some of my favourites.
This one is from early last year, swimming at Pilot Bay, Mt Maunganui on a summers day with my niece visiting from Germany. Whether you are on the surf side or the harbour side the view is equality dynamic with the giant Mauao (a dormant volcano most people call 'The mount') rising abruptly 232 metres out of the Pacific Ocean.
I then squeezed in this sketch and I remember thinking – nothing beats a swimming AND sketching on the same day!
I was able to quickly break the composition down into two large shapes using a 1" flat brush. First the sky was painted – by considering the negative space around as 1 shape, then the water was added as a second shape.
Then it was just a matter of suggesting the foliage on Mauao, adding some loose yachts moored int eh bay and the Norfolk Pines that line th ebay on the right. Also a few people swimming – and – a few giant looking seagulls who came up close to check I wasn't hiding something interesting to eat.
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