Sketching meetup: Cuba Street, Sun 18th May

A new sketcher, Andrew, has offered to run a sketching meetup. Thanks Andrew!

Where to meet: Cuba Street, at the the Bucket Fountain.
When to meet: 2pm, Sunday 19th May.

To rsvp, email back to Wellington dot Sketchers at gmail dot com. I will forward your email onto Andrew and you can exchange mobile numbers. You don't have to rsvp to turn up to sketch, but if you want to be texted of cancellations due to weather etc, then you need to rsvp. There is always heaps going on at Cuba Street and it is a great location for sketching!

On hold...

Hi everyone
Sorry, I won't be able to run sketching meetups for a while. My family commitments etc seem to have increased this year and I can't see that changing in the immediate future.
If you want to run a sketching meetup in Wellington, I am still happy to advertise it on this website for you. Alternatively, if you want to try your hand at both running sketching meetups and the website, I am happy to hand over the reins entirely.
It has been so, so wonderful getting to know you all, to meet other sketchers, and to see the amazing artwork everyone does. I hope everyone keeps having fun sketching around Wellington. All the best & take care! Kerrie

8/9 March sketching meetup cancelled

My apologies, but I am no longer be able to make it to the Otaki Kite Festival to run a sketching meetup on 8/9 March. Sorry everyone!

Of course, the festival itself is still on, and will be terrific, so feel free to head up there and sketch away on your own if you are keen.

I will sort out another March date for a meetup. Any ideas or places you want to go? Email Wellington dot sketchers @ gmail dot com if you want to suggest a sketching location or event in March.

Sketching Meetup: Thorndon / Botanic Gardens

Wellington Sketchers will be having a sketching meetup to sketch around Thorndon. We'll meet at the Founder's Gate entrance to the Botanic Gardens on Glenmore St in Thorndon (Tinakori Rd becomes Glenmore St past the gardens). We can either sketch around the Botanic Gardens or sketch down Glenmore St/Tinakori Road in Thorndon, whichever option strikes people's fancy. We might have a coffee afterwards at a nearby cafe. 

The Founder's Gate entrance to the Botanic Gardens on Glenmore St, Thorndon

Where: Meet at the Founder's Gate entrance to the Botanic Gardens on Glenmore St in Thorndon

When: 2.30pm, Sunday 23rd Fenruary 2014. Sketch until 4-ish?

How: There is parking up on Glenmore St (I think it might be coupon parking there, 2hr limit), or you can catch the Karori number 3 bus from Wellington Station, which stops right at the Founder's Gate.

As usual, if the weather is awful, we will postpone. I will notify anyone who has rsvped to me in this case. You don't have to rsvp and you are very welcome to just turn up, but if the unforeseen happens and my car won't start, my train is running late etc, I can only text people who have rsvped to wellington dot sketchers @ gmail dot com.  

PS - I have put up a poll on our website for where we will go sketching for the 43rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl on 19 April. The poll is anonymous, so vote away! You are not committing yourself to coming along by voting.

Some new urban sketching books on the market

A couple of ¨how-to¨ urban sketching books have come onto the market this year. These books have lots of examples of people's sketching work, but also practical tips for sketching/painting on location.

Urban Sketching: The Complete Guide to Techniques, by Thomas Thorspecken. I have pre-ordered this one (it is released in 17 days) and will bring it along to a meetup as soon as it arrives in the mail, if you want to take a look at it.

Sketch Your World: Essential Techniques for Drawing on Location, by James Hobbs. Incidentally, this book seems to change cover design alot (???), so you may see it with a different cover (same name though). I already have this one and have found it an interesting read. I'll bring this one along to the next meetup, if you want to have a flick through it.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl #42

Gosh, is it that time again already...? The next Worldwide Sketchcrawl is on this Saturday. The worldwide sketchcrawls are organised by Enrico Casarosa on the www.sketchcrawl.com website. Individual sketchers and sketching groups from all over the world can participate, sketching around their hometowns. Afterwards, people usually post their sketches on Enrico's website. Our group, Wellington Sketchers has done a few of these, and I've really enjoyed them.

There is an Ocean Sports Open Day on Wellington Harbour which I thought would be fun to sketch. Please note that we are just members of the public sketching around that area - I haven't made any contact with the event organisers, and we are not a part of their event in any way.

When: Saturday, 25th January 2013. Meet at 10am, sketch until whenever!

Where to meet: on Oriental Parade, near the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club (which is 115 Oriental Parade) and the marina next door.  

Rsvp? You don't have to. However, if there are any plan changes, my car won't start, or any cancellations due to horrible weather etc, then I can only text people who have rsvped to me. Rsvp to wellington dot sketchers at gmail dot com.

[POSTSCRIPT: to view the sketches we did on the Sketchcrawl website, click here.]

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