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’m still experimenting with a different approach to ‘sketching’. Am I sketching or am I painting? Sometimes I can't tell, and why can’t it be both? I’m constantly fighting the urge to pick up a fineliner and noodle away on some linework — I guess it would definitely be a sketch then!
I’ve had my eye on this mint 2 tone Volkswagen in Northcote for quite a while.
I like how the owners park it on the street some days so other people can enjoy it. You might even see it from the harbour bridge - but you definitely have to be a passenger for that - don’t even think about it if you’re driving!
I planned to sketch it up close, a front 3/4 view as usual, but realised I’d have to sit in the street to do that.
Instead I decided to do the whole street. I was attracted to the contrast created by those massive Plane trees on Alma Street framing the old villa and casting shadow across the street.
What a mission! Yes, lots to draw, but I had to sit in full sun on our blisteringly hot sun. After an hour and a half layered in sunblock, a hat and a lavalava to avoid sunburn, I retreated to some shade to reassess the picture and give it a tidy up.
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