Tree in green

Yesterday was a beautiful bright sunny day with a chilly breeze. We had hoped to draw from a cafe, but the wind made us move to a sheltered spot with no view.  Walking home across the park, we decided to stop and draw a tree. We were not in the sun. All the sunny seats were either occupied or didn’t have a view of trees.  By the time we’d finished sketching we were a bit cool and came home for a nice warming cup of tea.

I used my Copic Multiliner in olive.

Federation ceiling

I’m enjoying drawing light fittings as part of the 75 day challenge. They force you to do lots of ellipses – straight in without pencil guidelines. This time I was using a sepia Pitt Pen.  This was in a beautiful old Federation building (Federation of the states of Australia.)
The strange thing about drawing these three globes, was that the one at the back on the left looked the largest from where I was sitting. I commented to Annie, who was sitting off to my right and she said it looked larger from where she was sitting also. She went over and stood directly underneath and they were all the same size. Strange.

 

And the winner is…..

Cathy has won the book with the toned pages. Congratulations Cathy.

There is also a runner-up. I have another book with plain pages in a different style and I don’t seem to have a photo of it. Julia has won that. As soon as I get the opportunity, I will photograph it and you can see it.

Sorry to those who missed out. A good result though – one winner in the USA and one in Australia.

This sketch is another of my Australian native plants. I do not know what this one is called. The colours in the one in this picture are more true (lots more yellow). I used the Copic Multiliner in olive, and added some Tombow is the yellow and lime.

 

Banksia in Tombows

This is different type of banksia. I did it with the fine end of Tombow pens. Of course, the fine end of a Tombow is not as fine as the Copic Multiliner (or Pigma Micron, Artline etc). It achieves what I’m trying to avoid for the purposes of this 75 day challenge – using the colour to add tone. I prefer to use fine lines rather than blocks of colour for the present. That said, it turned out OK. I love the way the leaves spiral around the flower, and I think I’ll sketch another one with the Copic Multiliners one day soon.

If you haven’t yet entered the book giveaway, please do. You have to comment on the 500th post, not this one. Large numbers of people were looking at my blog last weekend, so maybe we have a lot of weekend bloggers, because strangely numbers are down this week. Chances are all the better for those who have commented.  I’m not going to extend the time because I have a house guest arriving on Friday and I want to have this all sorted before he comes.

Banksia – Copic Multiliner

I guess this is some sort of banksia. Not being Australian-born and educated (except for my Fine Arts education) I’m a bit vague about Australian flowers. Oh  yes, this looks right. There are other banksias that are totally different and I have some of them too. Here’s a very different one I drew at the Botanic Gardens and a different one again at Paddington Reservoir Gardens. No wonder I get confused.

I used my Copic Multiliners again for this one, but I introduced a bit of yellow by using a Tombow pen. It was the first time I’d used the red and I’m looking forward to doing a whole drawing in red.  I used red, brown, olive and a bit of wine.

It occurred to me that in the 75 day sketch challenge with my own set of rules (that I must do the tones by rendering in pen, not by using colour) that Pitt Pens also qualify and so do Tombows.  Using the fine end of the Tombows to render the tones opens up a whole new spectrum of colour for me – and you know how I do love colour.

Well, the 500th post is coming sooner than you think. Keep watching.

Protea in Copic Multiliner

I’m not sketching as much as I’d like at the moment. On Friday I bought myself a big bunch of Australian wildflowers because I knew somehow I would find the time to sketch them.  I’ve drawn a protea before, in watercolour pencil, which is far more suitable for that particular flower, but this time I’m doing pen only. I used Copic Multiliners in wine, olive and brown. I think it worked out quite well though a bit of yellow around the edge of the petals would be nice. The protea is an African flower, but somehow gets lumped in with Australian native plants.

I’m longing to do all these flowers in colour, as I did last year around this time. It’s a bunch pretty much like this. When I draw the whole bunch, maybe I will scan it and then put some colour on afterwards. I did them in colour, singly last year also. That’s what I’m longing to be doing now, but I’m sticking to the pen – for the moment.