Lotuses are blooming

Finally a sunny day to draw the lotuses. I can't let a year go by without it. They need a big sign - we were there a long time and everyone called them water lilies. Not so many flowers - yet. It has been so cool that maybe more flowers will come if warm weather continues.

After lunch, we sought out interesting trees to draw. Couldn't find last year's favourites, so we discovered some very interesting ones we hadn't seen before. I have to draw these trees again on a bigger page & starting earlier in the day. I can't say what they are, because I couldn't find a sign.

Liz's sketches from Sketchabout 1

Well today was the first of six Garden Sketchabout ...and can I just say up front that it was WONDERFUL!!!!!

Alissa and I got to the gardens before 11.30 and shortly after arriving we found a sketcher already in action! She joined us in a 'warmup' sketch at the lotus pond.

In true Liz-style I managed to sneak in a second warm up sketch before we went to meet up with all the sketchers at 1pm. What a great turn up - over 40 sketchers I think! This page also contains a quick sketch of a chinese lantern that I did while talking to a sketcher from England! I also love drawing maps of where I go each week and a business card of the restaurant from the afternoon tea which didn't fit on the upcoming page (too many cakes- but more of that later!)

After an initial welcome the sketchers scattered all over the garden. I was doing too much talking (so out of character?!? NOT!) and found it hard to concentrate on sketching. It is occasions like these that training your hand to 'reflex sketch' comes in handy.

Another sketch from the same spot - funny I am always drawn to the built structures visible in the garden!


We then had a wonderful session at the band lawn - meeting more sketchers, swapping sketchbooks and a group photo.

9 of us from the Sydney Sketch Club finished the afternoon with a special Sketchabout afternoon tea at the Restaurant. Do I need to say that we had a great time in many ways!

Finally, for me, I walked back across the Harbour Bridge and sketched the gardens in context. Although not drawn as part of the sketchabout I am including this so overseas visitors to the blog can get an idea of how important the garden is to the city of Sydney!

What a wonderful wonderful day - I am one hyped up but somewhat exhausted little sketcher now! And we do it all again next Saturday!

Sketching tutor's updated website

I am Wendy Shortland, the tutor for the Bookmaking and Sketching workshop. I've given my website a complete re-work. It's not entirely finished - two pages left to do and a whole lot of tinkering. Over the weekend I finished the web page with images from my sketchbooks, so I thought I'd share that with the Garden Sketchabout blog. I will be working on my website some more over the next weeks and by the time the classes start I plan to add more resources - more links about sketching and a book review page.

I am working on studies for drawings for the exhibition at present. They need to be 'new work' so I can't share them with you, so here is a drawing from 2009, done in the gardens, where the lotuses are blooming beautifully now. There are more flowers than I've ever seen, so I'd recommend seeing them while you can.