New Zealand - Part II: The Flamboyant Impossible Tower

 

Actually, this was the first drawing I did (or start) in Auckland. The Auckland University Clock Tower was one of the subjects entitled to be part of my workshop location, so I went there asap to check it out and do a few sketches. 

I started observing the location, figuring the best spots to sit and draw. Unfortunately, the botton of the building was hidden by renovation works - even if it wasn't, I would have trouble to see it properly due to the cars parked across the street, right in front of me. If I moved a few meters to one side, there was a pedestrian passage; to the other side, a big tree blocked the view. So, I sat down and started - urban sketching is as unpredictable as my cat.

After struggling for an hour, I already realized that subject wasn't the best for my workshop - the building was sooo complicated, with its forms melting into each other (the corners were all somehow disguised). There were dozens of pinnacles in this mixture of Tudor and Flamboyant 19th century bulding. Too hard. I mean, that was an interesting challenge...and as I wrote down on my page : "it's not about the bulding, it's about the scenery".

I also wrote: 

"The pinnacles get all messy" (one couln't easily understand where they did belong to);
"Suggesting vegetation" (so I did);
"Looking for the sillhouete" (the whole body of the building);
"Inside shapes can be open" (so the eye doesn't stop everytime).

The mind wanders and we learn a lot, each drawing.

Eventually, I decided to prevent the parcipants from suffering from that intricate (however interesting) tower.

New Zealand - Part 1

 Last April, I went to New Zealand to join the 11th Urban Sketchers Symposium, in Auckland. That was the first post-covid international symposium. We were all missing them.

I was one of the instructors - it was my fifth time teaching at one of them! Although I gathered quite some experience as an instructor, it seems that it was my first time again - it never gets old! It's a big responsability to teach at a symposium. People are so eager to learn something from us!

Well, I arrived in Auckland 5 days earlier to acclimatize and to get myself well prepared for the 3 workshops plus one demo. I went to my location 3 or 4 times and sketched there in a variety of point of views, trying to find the best spot to do my demos and for the students as well.

Before showing the sketches I did on this location, I will share the ones that are already scanned. There are lots of histories and sketches to come. I hope I can keep up with it.

I woke up very early one day and decided to do a quick watercolor sketch near the hotel. There was a beautiful 3-story building around the corner at Queen St. I sat down and sketched it for 40 minutes, drawing and painting. I thought I needed that - doing a quick sketch, just to prove to myself I could!