Workshops and progress photos

My monthly workshops in the Gardens are going swimmingly with no shortage of participants. The full complement of 12 has been reached and surpassed every time, with a few on the waiting list managing to sneak in also.

The topic for September was "Tips on Composition" and there were many practicing artists or sketchers who attended.

The outdoor component was held in the Aboriginal Trail area just off the main road. Plenty of shade in this spot.

It was quite a complicated lesson but putting it into practice outdoors consolidated the concepts.

Perfect weather for working outdoors. 

Not a great photo of the sketchbook throw-down due to the shadows but it just started to rain slightly so people were scurrying for cover.

The drawing above was done in the City Botanic Gardens as I do try to spend some time each month there also. The trees there are older and thus much more established. You can see distant vistas also through the different grouping of plants.

I just couldn't go past this tortured specimen of a Fig tree just up from City Hall. It's not actually in the Gardens of course but the drawing is certainly inspired by others I have been working on that are.

Robyn Bauer sketching on location

Here I am working on my very long concertina sketchbook, the results of which will be revealed shortly.

Every part of the book has been drawn on location in the gardens.

A studio shot of a small part of the book.

Above shows several of the pages collaged into one photo.

Still working on others like these!

June in the Gardens

I am teaching a monthly workshop in the gardens and there seems to be a strange pattern emerging. I end up totally inspiring myself with the workshop activity and for the next week I do work inspired by that thought! It has happened every time so for the next month's workshop I have decided to try and get ahead of myself and do the inspired stuff BEFORE the workshop so that I can show my students the results.

Robyn Bauer - Ink Drawing Botanic Gardens

The example above is an ink drawing done after I taught a workshop about using black ink in different dilutions. We looked at shape and also texture and how a range of tonal values can help create a three-dimensional effect. I had another plan in mind which was foiled because of the rain.

Robyn Bauer Botanical Workshop

Robyn Bauer Gardens Workshop

Robyn Bauer Botanical Workshop

Robyn Bauer Botanical Workshop

A few photos above of the last workshop showing some of the botanical specimens in the centre of the table and palettes with different dilutions of ink.