Up from Under

It's been a week since I've landed in Australia. Early last Saturday morning I contemplated my arrival at the airport in Melbourne, before my flight to Adelaide, over a Krispy Kreme doughnut and a cappuccino. Any time I arrive at a new a place and I'm just gathering my bearings, the days merge one into the other, the particular name of which becomes unimportant.  Time instead gets organized around specific activities, or a lack thereof.  Fortunately, jet lag was barely an issue, and I felt acclimated to the new location within a few days.

Of course there are some things that are different.  Two things I reminded myself of today were 1.) if I'm going to make a purchase, I'm not going to get one of those environment enriching plastic bags. Bring your own reusable one. 2.) Meal sizes are a little bit different from the U.S.  Some would say that they're more reasonable. If you're going to order a small meal at McDonalds, rest assured it'll be the size of a Happy Meal. There's also the steering wheel on the other side of the car and the ol' season switcheroo. All superficial but noticeable differences to a new arrival from the States. Deeper observations to come later.

What other fun things will I learn from this continent/island/nation? I haven't reignited a regular sketching habit yet but in the road to productivity this Sunday, I worked out how to use one of the scanners in the house. I can see that the scanner is is more suitable for drawings than the document scanner I used in Haifa.  Below are a few sketches, two pages from my travels this time around, the other a quick one of some of the backyard.

Waiting at the airport

View from a window at Incheon International Airport

 

Pencil sketch of the backyard

Just down the street

Went out early afternoon on Saturday. Didn't go much further than going down the street, but I at least wanted to take advantage of the weather and keep up the intended goal of doing one longer drawing per week. After awhile the sun got too intense for me, and I lost the motivation to do anything else in depth. I was probably out for about an hour or so before going back home. Drawn first in pencil and then inked later.

There's some people out there with pretty awesome stuff. They keep me inspired and push me to expand my abilities -- hopefully without debilitating comparison. Some people draw on location for the sake of capturing a moment, much like keeping a regular diary or taking a photograph. Others are committed to a form of reportage, visually creating eyewitness accounts of events.  Here is but a sample of the things out there: 

Veronica Lawlor

Rolf Schroeter

Don Low

Inma Serrano

Ekaterina Khozatskaya

Wil Freeborn

Every little thing

I usually get a ride home from work so while I wait I have a little time to get some reading in. I started going through The Creative License, one of the books I chose to take with me this morning. Inspired by one of the lists in the book, I decided to draw the contents of my purse. Today's items included the following:

1. lip balm
2. Canon Powershot Elph 100
3. cellphone
4. ID badge
5. wallet
6. USB stick
7. keys
8. headphones
9. sketchbook
10. The Creative Liscence &
11. Zadie Smith's On Beauty

Fancy fitting all those things in there. I had to photograph the drawings in the basement, I can't wait until I have access to a scanner, it should make things easier. There is always the whole waiting for daylight thing but hey, can't have everything. In the meantime people, bear with me. Happy creating :)

Illustration Friday -- Twirl

Illustration Friday is a little site where every Friday a theme is posted, and those who want to participate create an illustration in whatever medium, posting a link back to their site before a new theme is announed the following Friday. This week's theme is twirl. I thought of a lot of things but then settled on a dragon of sorts, as I thought of the coming Chinese New Year. I hope to give illustration Friday a shot each week.