Tasty sketch destination for Auckland sketchers

Urban Sketchers Auckland met at Mercury Plaza recently for the monthly Urban Sketchers meet. Meeting inside a warm food hall was an excellent choice given the storm raging outside.

After nailing some spicy Korean beef I started drawing with my Noodlers fountain pen, but the ink almost immediately ran out — should have checked that first eh! Thankfully Esther lent me her Parka pen and I soon got into the groove of drawing with it. My Noodlers pen is designed to flex and give a wide variation in line width but I didn't want to damage Esthers nice writing pen so I sketched lighter and sketchier than usual.

The ink in the pen was Parker writing ink and it's water soluble, so rather than apply watercolour over the linework as I would normally do, I used a wet water brush to activate the ink and create tone —  unpredictable but a lot of fun.

Auckland Urban Sketchers meets the last Saturday afternoon of every month and you're welcome to join us. Check the Facebook page for the next venue and times.

Street art brings birdsong to Karangahape Road

The streets around Karangahape Road were taken over this weekend by the All Fresco street art festival.

I spent a sunny hour and a half on Poynton Street (by the fire station) drawing Charles Williams, aka Phat 1, working on this piece on the facade of an art deco apartment. If you've ever seen Charles' work you'll recognise his signature style of enormous luxuriously painted (sprayed) native birds like this Tieke/Stitchbird. The bird's song is represented by a colourful floral design by Lady Diva that wafts up the street towards Pitt Street bringing the whole street to life.

The tiny figures seen on a cherry picker off to the left are Misery and Tomtom flat-out on an enormous piece growing up the wall of a lift shaft. If you're Monday morning commute takes you around the streets of K-rd your morning will be that bit more colourful.