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...
Here is a flashback to the days where I felt the need to draw absolutely everythiiiiing.
This is maximalism sketching at its absolute max, and Swashbucklers on Auckland's waterfront is the best place I know to do that. Packed with maritime memorabilia, can you spot the puffer fish? The maps and charts rolled up and stored in the rafters, the bomb, ships bell and most obvious, the sailing ship figurehead?
My 2019 sketch above ended up 600mm in width and I recall adding colour for an hour or so at home after the live drawing session in the bar, it was too much to complete in a 3 hour Urban Sketchers Auckland event.
This weekend we visited again, with 40+ sketchers turning up to have a go at sketching their version. Here are my 2 sketches below, much smaller and simpler this time, complete with Luka's comment while serving at the bar... 'That'll be 15 swandoolies mate!'
Don't forget, when you visit... 'If you drink to forget, pay in advance'.
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