Sketching meetup: Sat 7 Dec, 10am

Wellington Sketchers will be having a sketching meetup on Saturday 10th December 2013.

Where to meet: at the lion gates to Parliament & the Beehive on the Bunny St/Lambton Quay intersection. I'll put a photo up in this post of the gates I mean next week, so if you are unsure, check back on this website mid-next week.

When to meet: 10am, Sat 7 Dec 2013

Wet weather options: If it is raining, I'll be waiting undercover outside Bennett's bookstore across the road, and we can sketch in a nearby cafe instead.

RSVP: you are welcome to just turn up, but if you want to be notified if I am running late because my car won't start etc, then you will need to email Wellington dot sketches at gmail dot com to give me your mobile number.

Sketching meetup: Sat, 23 Nov 2013

Wellington Sketchers will be meeting to sketch around Plimmerton (Porirua), on Saturday, 23rd November 2013. We'll sketch around the cafes, main street, and beach area of Plimmerton: wherever people feel like sketching.

Meet at 10am in the Cafe Vella (or outside the cafe if it is full), opposite Plimmerton Station. Note: I think the cafe is currently painting its signage and may or may not be as purple as it is in the sketch below at the moment. 

You are welcome to just turn up, but if you want to be notified by text message if we cancel due to bad weather or if, for example, I am running late because my car won't start etc, then you will need to email your mobile number by the night before to wellington dot sketchers at gmail dot com. 

Worldwide Sketchcrawl #41

The Worldwide Sketchcrawl #41 is on this Saturday 19 October. This is an international event, held three times a year, where individual sketchers and sketching groups all over the world sketch their cities on the same day. The event is set up by Enrico Casarosa on the website www.Sketchcrawl.com. Our group, Wellington Sketchers, will take part, but you don't need to sketch with us to post your sketches on our Wellington page of the Sketchcrawl. 

If you want to meet up with us on Saturday, here are the details:
When: Sat 19 October 2013
Where: Days Bay (Beach and Jetty). Days Bay is on the other side of the harbour from Wellington city.
Meet at: 10.30am around the jetty / beach area.
How to get there: Drive (parking is easy), Days Bay Ferry (timetable here), or the 083 bus (timetable here).
Rsvp: you are welcome to just turn up, but if you want to be kept apprised of (a) weather cancellations, (b) me being late because my car won't start etc, then you will need to email me your mobile phone number by the night before: Wellington dot Sketchers @ gmail dot com. I will give you my number in return, so you can txt me if you can't find the group on the day etc.

Days Bay Beach and Wharf

We will sketch around the Days Bay area, wherever takes our fancy, and will finish up for a coffee/bite to eat at the Chocolate Dazy cafe, or the cafe at the Days Bay Pavillion, which is a 2 min walk north up the road. You can stay for as long as you want, but I will probably have to leave soon after lunch.  

Newcomers and new sketchers are welcome.

Wet/bad weather arrangements: Other than cafes, there are not a lot of places to sketch in wet/bad weather. If we have to cancel for bad weather, then I will txt everyone who has rsvped. As this location is not so very far from my home in the Hutt, I may still go ahead and just sketch in the cafe if the weather is too bad to sketch outside. I think, if you click here you can check the current weather for Lower Hutt.

If you want to see what we got up to last sketchcrawl, click here.

SKETCHING WORKSHOPS

In other news, Erin Hill from Erin Hill Sketching in Australia is visiting NZ later this year and will be running two amazing sketching workshops: one in Taupo and one in Auckland. Click here for dates, costs and booking info for the courses. Erin runs sketching and art classes, weekends, and holidays in Australia, so this is a rare chance to take part in a NZ one!

Upcoming sketching meetups

Queens Wharf meetup

We'll be having another sketching meetup on Saturday 28th September 2013.

Meet at 2pm at Queens Wharf, near Fergs Kayaks (where all the kayaks are stacked).

We'll sketch around Queens Wharf if it is sunny, or in one of the adjacent museums such as the Museum of Wellington City and the Sea if it is raining. 

You are welcome to just turn up and find us, but it is best to rsvp so that we can swap mobile numbers and you can txt us if you can't find us, and we can txt you to let you know where we are. Rsvp to Wellington dot Sketchers at gmail dot com. 

Worldwide Sketchcrawl #41

Also on the cards soon is the 41st Worldwide Sketchcrawl, on Saturday 19th October 2013. This is an international event, held 3 times a year, where sketchers and sketching groups all over the world sketch their cities on the same day. The event is set up by Enrico Casarosa on the website www.Sketchcrawl.com. Our group, Wellington Sketchers, will be doing it, although you do not need to be a part of our group, or to sketch with us, to join in the Worldwide Sketchcrawl. Wellingtonians are welcome to put their sketches up on the Wellington thread, even if you did not come sketching with us. 

So, where will we go sketching for the Worldwide Sketchcrawl? Do you have any favourite areas that you want to sketch in? It needs to be somewhere accessible by public transport. So far we have the following suggestions made: Aro Valley, Oriental Parade, Thorndon & Parliament Lawn, or Courtney Place. We have thought about catching a bus together to sketch different parts of the city, although historically people tend to drop in on the Sketchcrawl at different times, and it may be tricky to catch up with the group. But, what do people think? We need to decide these things by the last day of September, so that I can get some posters out in early October. Leave a comment on this post, or email Wellington dot Sketchers at gmail dot com with your thoughts. 

A gratuitous photo of Wellington Harbour which has nothing to do with anything on this post.

Sketching Meetup: Oriental Parade

We will be running a sketching meetup on Saturday 31 August 2013, at Oriental Parade in Wellington. 

We'll meet on the eastern side of the Fisherman's Table Restaurant building at 2:30pm and sketch around Oriental Parade until around 4 ish. Hope to see you there!

Email to Wellington dot Sketchers at gmail dot com if you are coming, so we can keep in touch with you if there are any changes to arrangements due to weather etc.  At this stage, the weather forecast looks good. 

(Sorry about the short notice. Life has been busy busy busy!)

Sketching Meetup: Sat 3 Aug changed...

Mmm... the weather forecast is a bit dodgy, and it could go either way. It has been raining in Upper Hutt this morning, and it is pretty breezy, so we won't risk going to the very outdoor Petone Winter Carnival. Sketching in breeze/drizzle just doesn't work so well.  Instead we will go sketching in the Wellington City Gallery in Civic Square, which is obviously undercover and out of the wind.

So, new the new details are:

Where: Wellington City Art Gallery, meet inside the foyer.
What: we will sketch around the Art Gallery.
When: 3 - 4.30ish in the afternoon, Sat 3rd August 2013

Bit disappointed about missing the Petone carnival, as it is a superb event, but we've put it down as a must-do for next year.

Sketching meetup: Petone Winter Carnival

We will be meeting for some sketching at the amazing Petone Winter Carnival on Saturday, 3rd August. The Carnival is held along the Petone Foreshore, and there will be everything from fire sculptures, fireworks, the Polar Plunge, a food fair and market, music, a circus, street performers, and heaps more. It should be a really fun afternoon, so come and enjoy it and get some great sketching in as well.

Where to meet: We will meet on the Petone shore, where Petone Wharf meets the beach. Then we will move around the carnival sketching whatever takes our fancy. 

When to meet: Meet Sharon/Kerrie at 3pm, on Saturday, 3rd August. 

RSVP: You don't have to rsvp and can just turn up if you like. However, at a busy event like this, you will probably need to rsvp to our to get our mobile number to text if you can't find us, as we may be hard to spot.
Wet weather: I don't know what the actual Petone Winter Carnival event is doing if the weather is awful, but if the weather is too rainy for sketching, Wellington Sketchers won't go sketching as a group there (there isn't really much in the way of undercover stuff to sketch there). The weather report is a bit sketchy, so we'll make a call in the morning by 10am. Check the website, or txt us to find out whether we are cancelling the sketching meetup due to bad weather or not. (If we have to cancel going to the Petone Winter Carnival, we will go to the City Art Gallery in Civic Square instead - what this space).

The Art of Innovation

The Learning Connexion (TLC) are running a series of Art of Innovation workshops in Wellington, Porirua, and Lower Hutt. They run amazing art courses, so these promise to be great days.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl # 40

The Worldwide Sketchcrawl # 40 will be held on Saturday 13th July. What is a sketchcrawl? It is like a drawing/sketching/painting marathon, where you set aside a day (or some of it) and just move around your city or town, recording what goes on around you in your sketchbook, telling the visual story of your city on that day. The idea was started by Enrico Casarosa in San Francisco in 2006, who has turned it into a worldwide event run three or four times a year: a day which sketching groups and individual artists all over the world join in. Sketches from the event can be seen afterwards on www.sketchcrawl.com. 

We will meet at the top of the cable car area, near Kelburn Lookout at 10am on Saturday 13th July 2013. We will move around the area sketching whatever takes your interest. There are many things to sketch: the cable car, Cable Car Museum, Kelburn Lookout with views over Wellington, Carter Observatory, and Botanic Gardens etc. You can sketch with the group, or go off on your own and just meet us for lunch: whatever you prefer. Sketch for as long as you feel like it on the day. Newcomers and new sketchers are very welcome!

This is a free event, and is not a course, or an instructional day. It is simply local sketchers meeting up socially to sketch our city as part of an international sketching day. You need to bring your own art materials. We plan to meetup at a nearby cafe and get a bite to eat & a coffee. Please be aware that riding on the Wellington Cable Car and entry to the Carter Observatory costs money. 

Wet weather arrangements: The event will still go on in wet weather. There are places to sketch indoors and undercover, such as the Cable Car, the Cable Car Museum and the Carter Observatory. 

Sketching Meetup: Paekakariki

We are having an impromptu sketching meetup on Sunday at Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast. Why? A few free hours suddenly popped up on the weekend, and why not spend them somewhere terrific sketching? All sketchers welcome: newcomers and new sketchers too. 

We will be meeting on Sunday, 30th June, around 2pm in Paekakariki, on the Main Street, probably in or near the Perching Parrot cafe. If that is full, we might try the other cafe a couple of doors to the left. Wherever we are, we will be easy to spot, as we will have our sketchbooks out. Paekakariki has a small main street, but I love the buildings, the wooden houses, the secondhand bookstore, the gallery, the old church, and the railway museum (which closes at 3pm). The station is right next to the main street, for those coming by train. You are welcome to just turn up, but if you rsvp (email address below), we can keep an eye out for you and give you a mobile number to txt if you have any trouble finding the group. 

Wet weather arrangements: There are plenty of undercover areas to sketch in. However, if it the weather is really atrocious, pouring down, or really windy, we might cancel and wait for a better day. We'll let everyone who has rsvped know if that is the case.

Want to suggest an event, location, day, or time for one of our next sketching meetups? Email us on wellington.sketchers at gmail.com.

Time lapse sketching videos

Sometimes when you look at amazing sketches it can be hard to imagine how they were created. A time lapse video of an artist sketching can be quite an eye opener and kind of encouraging: we all start from a blank page! One of my favourite urban sketchers, Nina Johansson of Sweden, has done a time lapse video of her sketching a view of Stockholm out her kitchen window: urban sketching at its most comfortable! Her work appears in many of the latest sketching books, such as Gabriel Campanario's Urban Sketching and Danny Gregory's An Illustrated Journey. Nina has very kindly given us permission to show the video on this website. Thanks Nina! Check out the rest of her amazing blog, where you can see more of her work, reviews of pens and other sketching equipment, and even slideshows of some of her sketchbooks.

Another of my favourite urban sketchers is Rob Carey, who has done a series of time lapse videos of his sketches in various cities, such as Basel in Switzerland and Saint-Louis in France. Click here to see more of his videos.

Lunchtime Sketching: Wed 19 June

We will be having our very first lunchtime meetup to sketch on Wednesday 19th June, from 12 - 1pm. We will meet at 12.00 at the wooden birds (see photo) on the City to Sea Bridge, which is the wooden bridge that links Civic Square to the Lagoon. Newcomers and sketchers of all levels are welcome! 

If it is raining, we will meet in the Te Papa ground floor foyer instead at the same time. Check this website the night before, just in case there are any last minute details. You are welcome to just turn up, but if you rsvp (email: Wellington dot sketchers at gmail dot com) we can keep an eye out for you.

Sat 15 Jun: Paraparaumu Beach Market

Wellington Sketchers will be having a sketching meetup at Paraparaumu Beach Market on Saturday 15th June 2013, at 10am. 

The market is open from 9am - 1pm, rain, hail or shine. However, we will be meeting at 10am in the market, sketching to around lunchtime. If the weather forecast is bad, we will reschedule our meetup: so check this website the night before.

As always, newcomers and new sketchers are very welcome. You can just turn up on the day, but rsvping by email to Wellington dot Sketchers at gmail dot com will let us know to keep an eye out for you.  

Markets are great places to sketch because there are lots of people and always heaps going on. This market has been going for several years and there are usually over 40 great stalls there, ranging from veggies and gourmet food to crafts, furniture and clothes. 

To get there, head north from Wellington along State Highway 1. Once at Paraparaumu turn left at the lights into Kapiti Rd. Drive past the airport, all the way to Paraparaumu Beach at the end. The market is located opposite McLean Park, in the car park area bordered by Marine Parade, McLean Street and Seaview Road. There is plenty of parking in close proximity.

If the rest of your family is coming (mine is), there is a big playground in Maclean Park and Paraparaumu Beach next door for them to occupy themselves while you sketch. There are lots things to see and do in Paraparaumu, and on the way there or back. I highly recommend dropping into the Nyco chocolate factory / Prenzel distillery on your way back home.

Here is a map for people who need one (note: it is completely NOT to scale ;o)

(Paraparaumu Market photo credit: Sharon Alderson. Thanks Sharon!)

The Sketchbook Project

Photo credit: Blue Window Creative

The Sketchbook Project is a global art project where people from all over the world are invited to fill the pages of a blank sketchbook and send it back for inclusion in the Brooklyn Art Library. Your sketchbook can go on tour around the United States as part of a travelling exhibition of handmade books (don't you wish you could join it?) and later become a part of the Brooklyn Art Library in America. 

Anyone can be a part of this project. The permanent collection at Brooklyn Art Library already holds over 27,255 sketchbooks from 135 countries around the globe. Who wants to join in?

The 2014 Sketchbook Project has the following themes, from which you pick one: Strange Neighbors / Borders and lines / A simple place / Accidents / Found! / Dudes and latitudes / To the last page! / First aid kit / Say words out loud / Paper airplanes / This list... / Atlas of... / Greetings from… / 32 Days / This is not about you / This is not about me / Undecided

The sketchbook which you use must be one which is supplied by the Sketchbook Project and you can order a sketchbook through their website. There are discounts for groups. The deadline for returning the finished book is 15th Jan 2014. Plenty of time! Wouldn't it be great to see a little (or a lot) of Kiwi creativity becoming a part of this international art work?

Artwork in this post is from the Sketchbook Project media kit, or used with permission obtained with thanks from the very helpful Project organisers

Changes to the Saturday 18 May meetup

Due to the rainy weather forecast, we will now have the sketching meetup indoors at Te Papa.

Where: Te Papa.
Meet:  Inside the ground floor foyer.  
When: Meet at 10 am. We will sketch till just before lunch, or whatever time people want.

There is underground parking below Te Papa, but you have to pay for it. Entry to Te Papa itself is free. Most exhibitions there are free, however, they do charge an entry fee to some of their temporary exhibitions.

If you are planning on coming, email us at Wellington.Sketchers at gmail.com so that I can give you my mobile number. If you are late, or have trouble finding us in Te Papa, you can txt me. You are welcome to turn up without having rsvped, of course.

We won't forget about Oriental Parade (our original choice), and will schedule another meetup to sketch there soon!

Sketching meetup: Sat 18 May

We will be having a sketching meetup on Saturday, 18 May 2013 to sketch around Oriental Parade. We will meet at 10 am, at the entrance to Freyburg Pool, which is 139 Oriental Parade. We'll sketch around the area, probably for a couple of hours, and then stop in a nearby cafe at the end.  Oriental Parade is usually a busy place, with heaps going on, and great views of Wellington Harbour. So lots to sketch!

Although you are welcome to just turn up, it is best to send an email to Wellington.Sketchers at gmail.com, so that we can keep an eye out for you and let you know if there are any changes to the plan (bad weather? / my car won't start?). As always, check the website the night before, as we will know the weather forecast by then.    

Sketching News

There are quite a few free resources on the internet now about sketching and painting on location, which I'll post about in the next few Sketching News posts. One of the best websites is the Making a Mark website by Katherine Tyrrell. The website is a little difficult to navigate through, sometimes directing you between her different blogs and to Squidoo. However, it has a huge amount of information in it under the Artists' Resources link and lots of free tutorials. 

Katherine has written a free three part course on sketching on location called Sketching for Real. If you are new to sketching on location, this is worth downloading and working through. When you get to the bits about going out in public to sketch, come along to our sketching meetups (which are also free)! There are pages on how to sketch, 10 tips for sketching people, and sketching on location with coloured pencils. The site does cover watercolours and painting, but mainly in the blog posts themselves rather than as separate links. 

She also reviews the best art books on lots of topics, including drawing, sketching, and painting. You can look at the best books by year, or the ones she considers the best ever. Wellington Library now has several of the most popular urban sketching books which she has reviewed:

Worldwide Sketchcrawl: Sat, 13 April

The Worldwide Sketchcrawl # 39 will be held on Saturday 13th April . What is a sketchcrawl? It is like a drawing/painting marathon, where you set aside a day (or some of it) and just move around your city or town, recording what goes on around you in your sketchbook. The idea was started by Enrico Casarosa in San Francisco in 2006, who has turned it into a worldwide event, which sketching groups all over the world join in.  

RSVP if you are coming along, so we can swap mobile numbers. You can still come along without rsvping, and I am sure we will be only ones in the area sketching, and will be easy to find. We'll stop for lunch at a nearby cafe. If it is raining on the day, we will sketch in Wellington Library, and meet inside the Library's Civic Square entrance (the one up the steps which leads to the library cafe).  

Sketching news

Did you know that The Learning Connexion runs free Creativity Workshops at their campus and around the country? They are running one next week on Tuesday 26^th March 2013 at the Taita Campus, 182 Eastern Hutt Road, Lower Hutt, at 7pm. Click here for a map. 

The free workshops gently guide you through some valuable creativity techniques. All materials are supplied along with tea, coffee and nibbles. If you are interested, but can't make that time, you can request a DVD or a link to their online Creativity Workshop.

Phone 0800 278 769 or contact admissions to RSVP for the workshop, or to request a DVD copy or online link for the workshop. 

Postscript: I went to this evening, and I have to say it was absolutely marvellous. Whether you are new to art or not, you will get something out of it, and come away enthused. If you are thinking of doing the next one, don't hesitate! Check this page for future workshops. (Kerrie)

Sketching News

Since most sketchers are painters too, I thought I would let you know about this great upcoming event run by the Pumpkin Cottage Revival Artists. The goal is simply to get people out to enjoy being creative, and learn a bit about New Zealand's local art history too. Bring whatever medium and supplies you want to work with, even if it isn't paint. I hope to be there (children permitting) and will probably work in pen & ink or watercolour. For a bit of background about the Pumpkin Cottage Impressionists, click here and here. 

Sketching news

Sketching and Drawing Workshops
There are some terrific one-day sketching and drawing workshops on offer at Wellington Community Education College this year. Go to the webpages for a full description, but these workshops look perfect for anyone wanting to learn more about sketching and particularly sketching on location.
Sat 9 March, Drawing and Sketching with Kay Paget
Sat 11 May, Visual Diary for Travellers with Margaret Elliott
Sat 19 October, Visual Diary for Travellers with Margaret Elliott
Sat 30 November, Wellington: Energy, Enthusiam and Empathy with Kay Paget

Drawing magazines
International magazines have usually been pretty expensive to buy here in New Zealand. However, now you can download current and backissue copies of most magazines from Zinio, including the magazines Artists & Illustrators, Watercolor, and Drawing. If you are interested in past issues of the Drawing and Watercolor magazines, you can download backissues even cheaper directly from the publisher's website, where you can buy each year's four issues as one digital download package for US$19.

Email Wellington.Sketchers at gmail.com if you know of any courses or sketching news that we can let people know about!

Sketching Meetup: Sun, 10 Feb 2013

British Car Day will be on at Trentham Memorial Park, Upper Hutt. Apparently they are expecting hundreds of British cars, motorbikes, and even buses and fire engines to be on display. I hadn't planned to run a sketching meetup this weekend, but I love cars and couldn't resist this one. It is an annual event, however, I haven't been to it before.
The event itself goes from 10 - 3pm. Entry is via Barton Road, and costs a gold coin donation to Wellington and Wairarapa Free Ambulance. Food and drinks will be on sale, BYO picnic.
I can only make it from about 2pm, so if you are keen for a sketching meetup at this event, then email WellingtonSketchers at gmail.com and we can arrange a meeting place.

Sketching news

In sketching news, Strathmore are running another set of free online workshops. They run three free workshops twice a year on varying topics. Past workshops have included watercolour sketching, sketching people, drawing techniques, and more. To do a workshop, you need to first register on their site, which is a free and painless process. People can sign up for the workshops during February. The workshops start in March 2013, and you get sent links to each lesson, which you can do at your own pace. This round of workshops will include one on Sketching and Drawing with Toned Paper.

An example of the great sketches that can be done on toned paper. This sketch was done by urban sketcher Natalia Li, in Kiev, Ukraine. Natalia started a flickr urban sketching group in Kiev, and says that they will start sketching outdoors again in earnest once the cold winter is over. (Sketch posted here with permission of the artist. Thanks Natalia!)

In other news, if you are looking for a lightweight, foldable stool for sketching outdoors, Kathmandu currently have their brand, the Roamer Tri Stool, for around 50% off ($10 down from $19.95). I am not sure when their sale ends though.

Finally, a reminder about our next sketching meetup: SAT, 16 FEB 2013, Medieval Jousting Tournament, at Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt. Time: 9.45 - midday. Meeting place: Hill overlooking the jousting. Click here for more details

Worldwide Sketchcrawl # 38

In sketching news, the Worldwide Sketchcrawl # 38 happened on the weekend. 

What is a sketchcrawl? It is like a drawing marathon, where you set aside a day (or some of it) and just move around your city or town, recording what goes on around you in your sketchbook. The idea was started by Enrico Casarosa in San Francisco in 2006, who has turned it into a worldwide event, which sketching groups all over the world join in.  

The sketches, using all sorts of mediums and done all around the world during Sketchcrawl # 38, are displayed on the Sketchcrawl website. I think you may have to join the forum to view the pictures, but joining in free and painless. You can also view most of the sketches from previous sketchcrawls there too.

As it was Wellington Anniversary, I was away all the weekend, so I didn't organise a sketching meetup for this event. But we are all set to join in the next Worldwide Sketchcrawl, which will be number 39, on Saturday, 13 April 2013. Further details about this April meetup will be posted on our blog closer to the time. Any thoughts or suggestions? Email Wellington.Sketchers at gmail.com.    

Wellington Harbour

Sketching in public

The Sketchbook Challenge, which is one of the international sketching websites that we follow, has a theme that is really relevant for us this month: artist dates and sketching in public! The challenge they have chosen for this month is to set some time aside for yourself to sketch, preferably with friends. Perfect for Wellington Sketchers!

Tracy Bunker writes, "An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist."

Well, Wellington Sketchers doesn't meet quite that often, but we'll see if we can squeeze in a sketching meetup or two in January, in honour of their sketching challenge. Details here.

During January, the Sketchbook Challenge website will be uploading posts about artist dates, and advice on sketching in public. Here are a few they have posted already about outdoor sketching: Drawing in Public: the Abstract Way by Carol Sloan, and Working in Public by Tracy Bunkers.