ANZAC Day 2021

This year's ANZAC dawn ceremony had a naval crew attend when they were docked in Port Taranaki. Also, shown here are some of the other year's sketches.

Some people have asked me how I can do a sketch like this. Well, here's some protips:

- Get there early and find that sweet spot. Good view for composition and in this case, good lighting - it was pretty dark.

- Start into it right away. You won't have that much time at something like this. Also, you might get cold and that will make it harder to draw. So draw before you get cold.

- Start getting in the stuff that won't move or won't get covered up by people as they arrive.

- Because when people start to arrive, it's all go on the people. (You thought you had no time before!)

- Try to draw all over and roughly get the whole scene in. You can clean up lines, fill in dark areas and colour stuff later. Once your subjects are gone though, that's it!

- Also, don't be afraid to do that stuff. Clean up lines, fill in dark areas and colour stuff later! It's totally allowed since it's your sketchbook. It's always better to draw on location but if you can't stay, or the subject isn't there anymore, there's no reason that you can't improve your drawings if you felt like it and are able to.

New Plymouth ANZAC Day 2017

I've been out sketching other things since it's actually been pretty dry lately, however here is my finished ANZAC Day dawn ceremony sketch. As you can see I've made most of it way darker. The areas that you had seen in my previous progress pic are sort of visual notes reminding me that these are the really dark areas. This allows me to do a reasonably detailed sketch of something that is only there for a short period of time. This is my third ANZAC sketch, three years in a row. I didn't plan on coming out to do another one this year, but my sketch from last year was chosen to be in an art show in New Plymouth (running from June to November). This sort of motivated me to try it again. I don't think I will do a fourth any year soon but I'm happy with three; they look good together.

In Memoriam

I went to the ANZAC dawn service this year again. It was another large turnout of people paying respects to those lost during different wars. I liked the darkness of the pre-dawn night together with the bright spotlights. It's hard to draw if your page is in a shadow so I found it more difficult than last year. (2015's is below)

Both of these were inspired by the 2014 sketch by Auckland's Murray Dewhurst. I really liked the blackness of the night, the strong shadows and the bright coloured spotlights on the monuments. This drawing of his (below) made me want to try my own:

Also, fairly recently, an urban sketcher from Germany, Florian (Flaf) Afflerbach, passed away. He freely admitted that he was starting to be known as 'the car guy', but didn't seem to mind. (I'd be okay with drawing cars like him too!) They were usually European cars in a three-quarter view with a slight 'fish-eye lens' distortion to the middle/closest area of the drawing. When our local sketch group was invited to draw a local car collection, I tried to draw a 1973 Triumph Stag in his style as a sort of tribute. (See Florian Afflerbach's sketches here.)

ANZAC Dawn Ceremony in New Plymouth

The ANZAC Day Dawn Ceremony commemorates the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) World War One dawn landing in Gallipoli. This was the start of a large joint campaign (in what is now Turkey) that lasted the good part of a year. In the end, it was a bit of a stalemate but there are probably tons of stories from the Great War that involved sacrifice without much progress made. Today, ANZAC Day is a day honouring people that played a part in all the wars like a North American Remembrance Day. 2015 was the 100 year anniversary of the ANZAC troops in Gallipoli so it became a big deal in the media. As a result, lots of people assembled at memorials all over Australia and New Zealand. This morning, just before dawn, New Plymouth also had a large turnout and I came away with a night sketch.

Tomb of the Unknown Warrior

I visited the National War Memorial on ANZAC Day.  The New Zealand Defence force held a Dawn to Dusk Vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, which is in front of the memorial.  There are massive roadworks on Buckle Street in front of the memorial. An underpass is being excavated and a section of Buckle street will eventually be undergrounded and a new park named 'Memorial Park' will be constructed over the top.

Dawn Service

Sketching in the dark at this mornings ANZAC Day dawn service.