Collaging the pages in my sketchbook

 These are the papers I use to collage my sketchbook pages. I buy them from Artwise the Amazing Paper Shop. You can click on any of these images to get a better look!

I lay them on the sketchbook (in this case, a Stillman & Birn Delta series……nice and robust for this sort of work….pages don’t curl) and work out which pieces I will use. I always tear the papers rather than cut them.

I use Matisse Gel Medium, though other mediums would also be fine. Then I glue them against the pages of one of our local papers, the Inner West Courier, which has glossy paper so the newsprint doesn’t come off. One by one, I paint the medium onto the kozo paper, out past the edges, so any loose fibres will stick down. Then I place them on the sketchbook page and press them down.

I could go right ahead and put watercolour paint on now, but unless I am pressed for time I put waxed paper between the pages and let it dry overnight. In the morning I slosh on some watercolour paint. Sometimes I just use what is on my palette but if I think I am going to be painting sandstone I use some yellow ochre or raw sienna.

This page was used for the Sydney University archway sketch, and the one on the left in the picture of the sketchbook was for the tower and roof.

Sketching at Sydney University

Urban Sketchers in Sydney had their monthly event at Sydney University for June. The weather was forecast windy and some rain. At first it was  quite mild, but by 12.30 it had turned cold and we were glad to get out of the weather. Didn’t rain on us though.

We started out in the quadrangle, which is very ornate wherever you look. The neogothic architecture is certainly a challenge.  I started with the tower. I was working as I previously did on Cockatoo Island on collaged Japanesed papers that had been washed with watercolour. A number of different textures of paper have been used. You can see the threads in the paper on the left of the tower, while on the right, those brown looking dots are actually gold sparkles in real life. I didn’t touch the sky. It was like that already.

For the next sketch the wind drove me inside to a sheltered corner, so I sketched from inside, looking out.

Cockatoo Island with collage

Yesterday was Anzac Day, a public holiday in Australia and New Zealand. There is a huge parade through the city, but instead we went to Cockatoo Island again. Any opportunity……

These pages in my Stillman & Birn sketchbook have been pre-prepared with collage for ages. Even since I came back from Huskisson, and so long that I can’t quite remember if I used Matt Medium of Matt Gel Medium. I used a variety of torn pieces of Japanese papers. They were all cream or white, some with metallic bits through them, others plain or with various other bits through them. When I had stuck them down and they were dry, I threw some watercolour on them.

I was always planning to use them at Cockatoo Island, so I used the yellow ochre on them both, thinking of the sandstone there. One I used a dusky pink as well, and the other I mixed a grey blue from ultramarine and burnt umber.

It was a perfect autumn day. Chilly at 9:45 when I arrived, but by mid afternoon we were looking for a patch of shade. Another glorious day on Sydney Harbour.

Torch (transparent and tricky)

Not only did I have to draw all the ellipses associated with a torch but I had to draw the inside as well.

In the earlier years I used to go to Ubud, the lights used to go out often so I always carried a torch. One evening I remember the lights going out in Cafe Nomad and an English girl being first with her torch and a great sense of community eventuating from dining in the dark.

The Monkey Forest Road wasn’t paved and had great potholes gouged out in the rainy season, so we needed the torch to get home, as there was no lighting either. Quite different now.

The collage was already on the page. I guess the birds may be cranes but they tie in if you think of them as the herons of Petulu.

Rocks

Every Day in May required ‘rocks’. Rather than go and sit outside in the cold, this time I resorted to a photograph. It was taken a long time ago down the South Coast – maybe at Huskisson.

The page had been prepped with a yellowish green wash, then rolled over with a roller that deposited a pattern of blue stars. The stars are quite large so I had to draw right across the two page spread to ensure the drawing dominated and not the stars. They were quite prominent on the page before I drew.

I have a number of these foam rollers that I bought at the $2 shop. There are stripes, spots, squares and stars. It’s a challenge drawing over them and I am using them as I am prepping pages ahead to draw on later. I seem to always be slopping washes on, or to have the Matt Gel Medium out for gluing collage. I’m prepping another unused sketchbook too, but the one I’m using – it’s a struggle to keep a couple of pages ahead.

Fur

This EDiM was to draw some hair. Rather than draw a self-portrait I drew Arabella having a sleep on the couch with her nose buried in the long fur around her neck. She has a selection of mice, but she prefers these old soft battered ones.

The page was washed in Southern Ocean Blue with pink spatters and a piece of my own paste paper glued on. It was chance that she was sleeping against a dark blue-green pillow, but then it’s my favourite colour.