Almost perfect afternoon

After some sad family news I got in the car this afternoon thinking I'd head into town and pluck up the courage to do a few furtive sketches out the window of some hip coffee shop. Instead I ended up in our very own Obs Lower Main Rd. And I even found a good parking spot, which happened to be outside Revolution Records. My prejudices as to what bikers who sell second hand vinyl would listen to on a Monday afternoon were challenged. The jazz spilling onto the pavement made me reluctant to leave the car (silly, didn't go in and ask what it was) - perfect music for my mood and a perfect view to draw. It was all about to fall in a heap when I discovered I had my sketch pad but nothing to draw with. But, lucky me, I was parked directly opposite the art supply shop. Good excuse to spend 20 minutes browsing, came out with paint, a new sketch book, and yes, a black ink pen and a pencil.


Back in the car:

Then, just to make my little Observatory visit complete, I popped across the road into the deli and did another sketch while sipping on an organic beetroot and orange juice.

Day 20 Out and about again

Yesterday I had plenty of opportunity to sit down in front of something interesting with my sketch pad. Here's one of good old Crown Street.

And then, while working on this one, I noticed that this electricity pole / street lamp has aspirations of being a Russian cathedral. It's the only one in the street that has a fancy dome on top of it. So, I decided to draw it to officially recognise it's subtle individuality in the world of street lamps.


Later, we went for a walk on Sunset Beach. The afternoon light formed nice strong geometric shadows of the buildings the city centre across the bay.



I couldn't resist capturing the strong hulking shapes of the ships on the horizon.

day 19 catch up

Day 18 didn't happen either. But, I did two today. One I like, one I don't.

Night of a 1000 Drawings

As if my morning traffic session wasn't enough, yesterday evening my friend Viv invited me to a Night of a 1000 Drawings drawing session hosted by Word of Art in their fantastically situated studio - big old industrial building in Woodstock. Night of a 1000 Drawings is a charity event where the aim is to generate and sell 1000 A5 size drawings. Read more about it here. The drawing evening drew a large crowd, everyone was sitting around tables getting creative while listening to some great live music. Here's what I managed to come up with.


I drew so much yesterday that I decided it would count for Day 4. So now I've got time to sit around writing blog posts.

Day 3 Extreme sketching

Still got that starting-up enthusiasm, and so seriously am I taking this challenge to myself that I had my sketch book on my lap while driving to work. Mom, don't panic, I only sketched when stopped at traffic lights. Here's the only one that vaguely made it. It's the only time I'll say it's unfortunate that I actually don't sit in much traffic on the way to work.

Favourite views

I mentioned the other day that I have some favourite drawing spots. I also have some favourite views, strong landmarks that seem to crop up no matter where I seem to be sitting, like Table Mountain - NOT. Well yes, it is an example of this, it's not what I'm talking about here (in fact, don't get me started on that topic). In my part of the world, a big one is the flour siloes. Surprisingly, I don't find them ugly at all even though they're so huge and dominant. The factory buildings attached to them are old and quite beautiful - and all still in use.

Here they are on the horizon. They are fun to draw because of the strong vertical lines.




Close up, they can be rather looming.


I've got my eye on these siloes, so no doubt you'll see more of them.