A Medieval Fayre

Gosh! Experimenting with scrolling through a long image and astonished to find it seems to be working (please let me know if it's not, for you - doesn't work on my phone). ...The scrolling image has also disappeared from my view, so reverting to separate images of my long long concertina format.
This was from an event Joburg Sketchers were invited to, the Neigh-Bours Medieval Country Fayre, at Inanda Country Base way up north in horse country. I used a long sheet of paper folded into a concertina format and started at one end and sketched through to the other. It gives an idea of the wide expanse of very dry Highveld end-of-winter landscape, although the day itself was baking hot and we sought out every bit of shade we could find.I found one solid spot and stayed put, which was fine as the parade passed by without me having to move too much.

Well, I hope I can do that again if I have to, it involves html codes and posting your long image on Flickr (or some other cloud) first. I might try and make it bigger...

Still no Blog List reappeared.

Coffee in Rosebank

Oh - just discovered a draft I forgot to post... just some back views of people choosing their refreshments at Exclusive Books coffeeshop in Rosebank while I indulged in coffee and cheesecake, and some guerrilla sketching. I look out for people with interesting clothes or hats or hairdos  - makes the sketches a bit livelier!

Coffee in Rosebank

Oh - this was a draft I forgot to post... just some back views of people choosing their refreshments at Exclusive Books coffeeshop in Rosebank while I indulged in coffee and cheesecake, and some guerrilla sketching.

Three days at the Mall

 I spent three days last week actually being paid to sketch - on a chalkboard - for a promotion in Sandton City shopping centre. I had to draw background themes for people to come and sit in front of and have their photos taken so it would look as if they had, for example, angel wings or a chef's hat grasping a wooden spoon and cake, or blowing seeds from a chalk dandelion. It was really effective and fun when people took part, though most in the centre were rushing to get where they were going or too shy, so we didn't get as many takers as I was expecting.
In the long waits between customers I sketched anyone who hung around for a few minutes - it's a long time since I've done such a lot of people watching and sketching, I think the practice did me good. Read the script if you want to know more :-)

Glorious Kaffe

Do you know who Kaffe Fassett is?
Only one of the world's most innovative and flamboyant colourists and author of many lovely books on knitting, needlepoint, quilts, interiors - anything you can imagine where Glorious Colour and design can be flaunted and overindulged. I've been a fan since the 80's when I first discovered his beautiful knits and books, so was astounded to hear from my fashion designer daughter that he was coming to a local fabric store and giving a talk in the church hall, to which she had bought tickets.

I packed a tiny watercolour palette and my new Hero bent nib calligraphy pen - a dear friend's son had bought it for me at the factory shop in Shanghai. It had travelled halfway round the world and was finally delivered from Cape Town via another kind friend on Sunday.
We found a front row seat where I had plenty of time to sketch the grand piano draped in quilts. Eventually Kaffe's studio manager Brandon Mably took the stage to introduce the man himself, and we were treated to a fascinating peek into his world of travel and colour, illustrated with a slide show of images from his next book. He did a book signing afterwards, and I thought of asking him to sign my sketch, but decided he might not enjoy my less than flattering rendition. At 77 he is still a very beautiful man!

I'm slowly getting the hang of my new pen. It can make a range of line widths by changing the angle at which you hold it. It works better and more predictably on smoother paper (as in the doodles on the right), but is great for expressive strokes even in my rougher sketchbook. Think it'll inspire me to get back into action and out of a rather arid sketching phase.