Victor Harbor

Scenic view from Willunga Hill

View from Granite Island

From the causeway to Granite Island

This weekend, Chad and I headed to Victor Harbor. It was a bonus trip of sorts, which we tacked onto the end of a rather mundane task that required a long commute. If you drive about an hour and a half south from our residence you'll find yourself in Aldinga, a little town with not much to its name but a good view and at least one all purpose diner with with more choice than the fancy bistro down the street. The mundane task? Watering the lawn. There's no tenants in a property my in-laws own so someone needed to keep the grass from going all dead and straw like. It seemed natural that on one of those trips we'd go the rest of the way to Victor Harbor.

Victor Harbor is the main tourist destination in the Fleurieu Peninsula. Despite the dryness of the summer, there is a lot of greenery. The Peninsula is known for its agricultural flare, particularly when it comes to wine production, not to mention a number of other things like almonds, olives, and cheeses. We stayed the night with some family friends and then went into the hub of Victor Harbor to explore the next day.

Granite Island was the only place we managed to visit while we were there. A causeway connects the town with the island where you can either walk across or go on the horse drawn tram. Aside from the novelty, it didn't seem necessary to take the tram but we regretted that we didn't do so on the way back. The sun in Australia can be pretty strong, and sometimes the heat feels much closer than it should be. Nonetheless, there was a bit of a reprieve on occasion when a breeze came off Encounter Bay. By the time we made a full loop around the island, we were more than ready to head back to the car and grab a late lunch.

For the past few weeks I haven't been able to find my camera charger for the life of me so I wasn't able to take photos. At least I could go back to basics and do a few sketches. There's still more to see. Victor Harbor, I'm coming back for you one day.

In the Clouds

I imagine that cloud formation is dependent, in part, on the geography of an area, and since I've been here I've noticed that there's usually something interesting going on in the sky, open spaces and an intermingling of different types of clouds. Maybe this fascination will whittle down over time but I'm enjoying it for the moment.

These two sketches of places in the neighborhood were from photo references, prompted by a bit of cloud gazing.    

A Murder of Crows

Hooded crows were a mainstay of the gardens in Haifa.  They often walked up and down the grass, stalking around as if taking a survey of their property. I did this composite of crows some time ago from references I found online. I've been in a bit of a bird kick recently (I guess it never really stops for me) so I decided to post them here. 

Cheers!

'Akka

Went to the old city of 'Akka on Wednesday as we haven't been to the city proper since our return to Israel in March. Although a little windy, the weather was pleasant for walking around. The streets were mainly occupied by school groups, tour groups, and other travellers as it was the middle of the week. Here are some photos and sketches from that day.

birds of a feather

When I find myself having lunch on my own I often eat in a short period of time, leaving a good portion of my hour break left over to run errands or whatever else I'm inspired to do. Lately, I've been taking advantage of the warmer weather by using those moments to walk around the surrounding gardens. The other day I passed by one the coral trees and watched to see which birds stopped by. There were a couple of what I believe to be Rose-ringed Parakeets hanging out and being noisy as ever. They're not native to Israel but they've managed to make a fairly permenant home here. I was able to get in a quick sketch before lunch was over -- the bit of color was added later. 

Every Little Thing II

A couple of months ago I did a visual catalogue of everything in my purse to get an idea of how many individual things I really did have at a time and to have an excuse to draw the every day as encouraged in the book I was reading, The Creative License.  I started doing something similar for the things I had on my bedside dresser. I wasn't planning to post it but I figure I would put it up anyway. Dare I list all the items like last time? OK, well there's ...

1. a jewelry box from the Ukraine
2. paperclips / coins
3. a bottle of purple Listerine
4. an ipod shuffle
5. various pens
6. a travel alarm clock
7. Swatch watch
8. a pair of glasses
9. an Ugly Doll
10. hair pick
11. spare batteries
12. lip gloss
13. deodorant
14. various perfumes 
15. The Girl Who Played With Fire

There's probably a couple of others that I didn't mention, but you get the drift. I'll be on the look out for other categories of things to document soon enough though!

On the way home

I had a break from the office this past Friday, so after doing a quick cleaning of the flat I walked through the Hadar, one the neighborhoods in Haifa, hoping to catch a particular art store while it was open. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. There was a sign posted on the door but considering my inability to read Hebrew, I was at a loss.

I wasn't quite committed to drawing on this trip but on my way back I stopped along Shifra stairs and sat for the next hour or so. I didn't quite finish but I was satisfied with the effort. There were various groups travelling through, mainly tourists, along with one of the inhabitants of the house I was sitting next to, and got a few comments and acknowledgements. These are the interactions you won't get when you're sketching at home.

Ways of Seeing

IMG_0275, a photo by moody_e on Flickr.

In thinking more about art and long being inspired by sites like Urban Sketchers, I've wanted to read more about seeing and observation in drawing. In Bert Dodson's popular book Keys to Drawing, one of the first subjects he tackles is seeing vs. knowing. While knowledge of what an object looks like is helpful in general, sometimes we end up relying too much on our preconceived notions rather than capturing what we actually see. The key here is to enlist more curiosity, less assumption.

The above sketch is one of the first exercises in the book. Looking at your hand in an unusual position is supposed to force you to draw something in a way that comes out unexpectedly. I'm not sure how successful I was, but at least it's practice.

Ike

Ike, a photo by moody_e on Flickr.

Ike is one stuffed animal that didn't get to keep his stuffing except for a little bit in his head and some in his feet. Misha, the family dog, seems to randomly choose her targets. However, one has to wonder if this target was intentional, as this toy looks a little bit like her...