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Another hot lunch. As in it was hot in the car at lunch time while I drew instead of eating…

Note to self and anyone else who needs to know – the Uniball Eye UB157 in green is NOT waterproof. I assumed it would be because the same pen in black (both the Fine and Micro versions) are. Grrr. Check the pen – if it doesn’t say “Waterproof/Fade Proof” above the logo it probably ain’t…

Watercolour and Uniball Eye Fine (green) in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ Epsilon sketchbook.

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Tried again with the more reliable sepia Pitt pen and watercolour.

 

 

Escaped for an hour at lunch time to hide behind the Ballajura library for a couple of quick ones.
All watercolour and Uniball Vision Micro in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ Epsilon sketchbook.

 

Then moved the car to get a view of this bus stop. I’ve had a go at a couple of the old concrete ones recently, now this metal one. I think I’m collecting.

 

 

I spent yesterday morning, not at work, but waiting outside a strange school. Strange as in one that we would not normally attend, not as in odd or unusual. Perhaps someone from a big city elsewhere in the world might think a picture showing a wall of wild greenery was a strange image to be labelled “school”.
Inside, my son, and not doubt other, final year students are sitting their mid-year music performance exam. I guess there aren’t enough students at his own high school to hold it there. So here I am in the hills above Perth sitting outside a school almost hidden by trees waiting while somewhere in there a kid plays Bach and Khachaturian on some old banger of a piano… There’s something incongruous about the formality of classical music beautifully played under difficult circumstances in such a wild place.

The only sound I hear is the chorus of birdsong coming from the trees.

Both Uniball Vision Micro, watercolour and black pencil in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ Epsilon sketchbook.

 

The three round things at the top of this drawing are whirlybirds – a type of roof ventilation – which are supposed to make a building cooler. I don’t think they help much under corrugated iron when it gets really hot…

 

 

A warm day even though it’s the middle of winter and almost the shortest day. I stole a few hours to draw, heading north to Bindoon with a packed lunch and thermos, to find a shady spot for some much needed solitude under some gum trees – similar to those that dominate both drawings. For a change, both were finished on site, rather than just getting the drawing and adding colour or tone later. As usual I get comfortable first then look around for a subject… in both drawings I began drawing and later had a vehicle get in the way. I accepted the additions and included them. Both from the same spot looking in different directions.

Watercolour and Derwent coloursoft  pencil in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ Epsilon sketchbook.

 

Uniball Vision Micro and watercolour in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ Epsilon sketchbook.

 

 

A couple of quick ones grabbed on the way home from work. Late Friday afternoon in Ballajura, Western Australia. Cars, a trolley bay, bins and a cheap metal box installed as a service station. I quite like carparks as subject matter but that service station is a rather sad example of corporate greed creating a miserable environment for the people inside it and visual pollution for the rest of us. Is that progress?

Sepia Pitt pen, watercolour and colour pencil in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5 Epsilon sketchbook (balanced on the steering wheel of a Beetle).

 

Moved the Beetle into the next row of the carpark for a different view.

 

 

Same Malaga carpark as yesterday. That sea container has had it’s portrait sketched quite a few times in the past few months. It arrives, then leaves a few days later. Nudging me out of my parking spot each time. I am beginning to think it might not be the same container. A sibling or twin or something. The red car is there every day.
Interesting to note that the gardener clips the shrubs into neat cubes. So they fit in?

Sepia Pitt pen and Schmincke watercolour in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ Epsilon sketchbook.

 

Another carpark. This one behind an office block in Malaga, a light industrial area, Western Australia.
Watercolour, Uniball Eye Micro and graphite in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ sketchbook balanced precariously on the steering wheel of a Beetle.

 

The advantage of missing out on lunch is leaving work early enough to go for coffee in order to recover from a day that was so bad there wasn’t time for lunch… I am still trying to figure out if that’s actually a win. The same coffee shop from a few weeks ago when the Higgins sepia ink looked decidedly pink.

This time I have Dr PH Martin Bombay ink in Sepia. Looks more like what I was expecting. Plus a sepia Pitt pen in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon 8.5×5.5″ sketchbook.

 

The carpark outside. (Locals will recognise that the green thing in the top right is an old concrete bus stop. For the rest of you: the green thing is a bus stop.)

India ink and Schmincke watercolour over sepia Pitt pen.

 

 

A public holiday is practically an order to go to the zoo or the beach. The Western Australian government took it so seriously they gave away tickets to the zoo… which meant it was rather crowded place to celebrate a two year old’s birthday…

Both pages watercolour, Sepia PITT pen and graphite in a Stillman & Birn 8.5×5.5″ sketchbook.

The old carousel is always good to draw. It’s after 4pm – last ride – the ticket office is closed. (Unfortunately that did not prevent a passerby gawking over my shoulder at the little sketchbook in my lap… I would love to paint the carousel in oils but that spectacle and attention would be much too much for this shy artist. I asked the zoo about the possibility of early morning visits. They said no. So this is it. I won’t be going back.)

 

I recovered from the ordeal with a solitary coffee at Dome in Vic Park. OK, it’s not on the way home – I took a detour – but Crow Books is just over the road so it’s a particularly worthy destination.

 

 

I look around at the shopping centre food hall – clean, undercover, brightly lit – and try to imagine the equivalent of centuries ago. Jostling markets? A community hall or some other gathering place? A mess of vendors along muddy streets worse the wear from horse drawn wheels? These days we get a seat at a freshly cleaned table, a high chair for the baby and free wi fi…

Joondalup Lakeside, Western Australia. Watercolour, graphite and Uniball Eye Micro in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon 8.5×5.5″ sketchbook.