28 May 2013
Jets
Last weekend, we were lucky enough to be invited to sketch inside the hangar of some local aviators. There were three Yaks, 2 de Havilland Vampires and this L-39 Albatross which is a Czechoslovakian jet fight trainer.
Originally, I though we were going to draw just the Yaks which are Russian propellor planes. When I found out that there were jets there too, I had an ear to ear grin and could have happily sat in there all day and sketched. It was just us and the planes with permission to walk around the building and look inside the cockpits. When we left were were offered the chance to come back again. I wonder how long we will be able to resist?
27 May 2013
on a trip to Waiheke Island- the secluded bays and old boat sheds
it was a lovely trip ,with friends, to this bay. couldn't help but get the pens out...
Tombow colour, water brush and 0.4 fine drawing pen on 300g paper..
26 May 2013
25 May 2013
LizB Beach views from a weekend at The Bungalow May 2013
A luxury weekend with my Biz@Home friends afforded me the opportunity to take note of the fabulous views from The Bungalow.
View of Pitone Stream and Beach: a lovely long beach walk
Aircraft heaven
A wonderful spot on a grey afternoon. A hanger full of Yaks, Vampires and an Albatross at the New Plymouth Airport.
Vampire Cockpit
Czech Albatros L39
19 May 2013
18 May 2013
A Rainy Day Sketching on Devon Street.
Today we sketched on and around Devon Street. I started sketching the view down the street while I sat on one of the seats. Predictably it started to rain so I had to shelter under the shop front.
I then decided it was too cold and wet out there, so I retired to our meeting point for the after match function. The Good Home.
It was very pleasant and lovely and warm.
I then decided it was too cold and wet out there, so I retired to our meeting point for the after match function. The Good Home.
It was very pleasant and lovely and warm.
17 May 2013
North Sumatra
I spent an intense three weeks in Medan, Indonesia's third largest city of 2 million people.
I crouched in the gutter with the smiling becak (pedicab) drivers sketching in their plumes of ubiquitous tobacco smoke making a study of the different nuances of design.
Naturally I had to go for a ride with one -more personal than a taxi, especially being at exhaust pipe level.
Batak style house at Lake Toba, scene of the world's biggest eruption which changed the global weather for years. An island sits in the middle of a deep crater lake. Water buffalo horns are distinctive on the roof.
I crouched in the gutter with the smiling becak (pedicab) drivers sketching in their plumes of ubiquitous tobacco smoke making a study of the different nuances of design.
Naturally I had to go for a ride with one -more personal than a taxi, especially being at exhaust pipe level.
I sat cross-legged in the road sketching in the heat. The owner kept coming over and checking on progress and correcting my spelling of her food signs.
Colonial style Post Office
The Grand Mesjid Raya 1906
My attempt of the same mosque but different view - back in 1997 - maybe I'm improving
Maimoen Sultan's palace - we witnessed a Royal wedding (Sultan's cousin) with dark tinted cars arriving with police escort.
Compare the one above with this crude one I drew 17 years earlier
Children in national costume in front of the Sultan's carriage. The little guys with top hats were from Aceh up the road. ie of tsunami and civil war fame.
City hall, now the vestibule of a hotel. Next door is the Bank of Indonesia
Children performing Batak dance at Toba. Tall hats and long cushion like head gear were the order of the day. The extended fingers meant we should place paper money in them.
Tea and coffee tasting. We saw how they grew.
Skycaustic a delightful band at the hotel, including amplified violin.
Chef's at the hotel cook up on an oversized a wok
Tong A Fie a Chinese dignitary Medan do-gooder built this Tardis-like mansion around 1900. Cool and spacious within with pleasant courtyards. In the surrounding streets tape recorded swallow sounds attracted the birds to build the famous nests used in in the lucrative birds nest soup. The poor birds rarely saw a completed nest. Normally you would see these in the caves of Borneo.
Batak garuda & monkey carving in the North Sumatra Museum. A group of young lads attached themselves to us like limpets for the hour we were there, following our every step.
A quick dash into Singapore to catch the famous Raffles Hotel 1887. Two doormen from the neighbouring hotel consulting on the street. I sat cross legged in the shade next to the smoking station to escape the heat of the sun
The Medan people were friendly, the traffic frenetic but still flowed. On our last night there was a demonstration near our hotel which extended our driving time by three times, but our driver ducked down every back alley he knew to criss-cross the city to get us home. Most entertaining and memorable.
7 May 2013
The Planter's Hut
My friend had a 60th and I was scratching my head for a subject to make into a card for him. I settled on his very big shed and came up with this. People love to receive a personal sketch card and it means a lot more than the tacky shop bought cards I think. My local print shop puts any of my work that I make into cards on to a disc, so that if I want them to make more, it saves me taking them the original.
5 May 2013
At the edge of urban - Part 2
This is a sketch of some people at the Taranaki Poultry and Pigeon Club Annual Show. In some ways this feels like the edge of urban sketching since it's a bit farm-related. Still, there are two things make me think that it still qualifies.
Firstly, it is held in a town hall and this is a reminder that all centres in the province of Taranaki are still dependent on farming (in different percentages) to keep the economies running smoothly. And secondly, I've heard that New Zealand has a rule where no birds or eggs are allowed into the country to prevent an exposure to bird flu - so the varieties and breeds that are here need to be well managed. It's also (maybe as a result) starting to be more and more common for someone to keep some chickens on suburban properties. I'm mentioning this since in quite a few places in the urban world, keeping animals like this is probably illegal.
Jackie even purchased a couple that were for sale to add to her existing coop. As a buyer, she had quite a selection to choose from. There were all types of chickens and pigeons with a few ducks as well.
It makes sense to integrate the rural into the cities since they maybe aren't that separate anyway.
Last year (March 2012), on our old website (that is lost in cyberspace), I wrote a Part 1:"We decided to meet at the edge of the city where suburbia blends into rural. It was a great day and a quiet and pleasant place to sketch.
My parents have a old picture of a very tiny me in their backyard and on the other side of the fence is a cow. I've never remembered the farm behind us. I've always known it to be a sea of suburban houses that has always been there. As I was sketching this scene, I wondered how many more years that it would be until this area is subdivided and paved."
4 May 2013
Taranaki Poultry and Pigeon Annual Show, Waitara.
Today was the chook show in Waitara. It is always on the first weekend in May. I like to go because I love to see all the different poultry breeds, and I love chooks. It's a great place to go sketching, people, lots of activity and plenty of poultry to draw. I managed to convince Trevor and Brian to come too. I decided to travel light and only took pencils and sketchbook. This meant I got way more sketching done!
Here are my sketches:
Blue Swedish Old Drake. Second place.
ModScietti Magnani C.Y.R Ck. Second Place.
The only problem I have with the chook show is I sometimes buy chooks! This year I bought two.
Here's one of them:
White Leghorn Pullet. Hopefully she'll lay for the winter.
Here are my sketches:
The only problem I have with the chook show is I sometimes buy chooks! This year I bought two.
Here's one of them:
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