Oz Comic-Con sketches

I spent last weekend at Oz Comic-Con. After a panel with the very excellent author Trent Jamieson (on “Pinning Magic to the Page” with Trent Jamieson, hosted by Angela who did a fabulous job interviewing us both), I spent most of the weekend at a table selling books and stickers and some little original pen and ink drawings. It was a really lovely, convivial weekend.

And of course, my table was prime real estate for being able to sketch passers-by (the only drawback was that the table blocked my view of feet when people were close by). It was further enhanced by being next to Thor of Oz, with whom people kept stopping to pose for pictures.

So here are my sketches of various cosplayers from Oz Comic-Con Homegrown Brisbane 2022, beginning with a close-up of the only sketch for which I interrupted a conversation: Kermit holding Mjolnir.

If you’re in these pictures and would like to repost the picture of you online for personal use, you’re very welcome to — just please credit it to me (Kathleen Jennings — I’m @tanaudel on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, tanaudel.wordpress.com or kathleenjennings.com otherwise). But if you’d like to buy me a virtual coffee (see below), that is very welcome, too!

If you’d like to follow me / support artists (me) / buy things with (my) art on them here are some options!

• I sell prints and products at Redbubble and Spoonflower.
• I have a mailing list for occasional major updates.
• I have a Patreon account (patreon.com/tanaudel) where you can get behind-the-scenes process and sneak-peeks, starting from US$1.
• You could buy me a (virtual) coffee at ko-fi.com/tanaudel.

Sketchbook: Boy&Girl — Brisbane Powerhouse

Here are all the pages from my sketchbook from last night at the wild, impressive, ribald and hilarious cabaret/performance Boy&Girl (from Oscar Production Company) at the Brisbane Powerhouse (it’s still on for two more nights).

As previously mentioned, I expanded my usual limited speed-sketching colour palette by adding pink for flamboyance.

The joy of this sort of sketching is in capturing the movements.

The physical personalities of the people on stage.

(And it was delightful meeting more of the cast afterwards, and watching them pick out people — even the ones without the super-obvious costumes.)

Lighting is tricky in this medium, at this speed, in a show with LED and fire components.

But occasionally — as with the audience members at the table below, and the crew on the first page, I can capture a hint of what the light was doing.

Boots and heels!

Lyrical dance and sequins and shadows and fire!

As posted yesterday, here is my little setup in the balcony — the crew let me borrow a stand and light, which was great. If I get to sneak in to sketch a show like this again, I’m going to experiment with some sort of low-powered booklight.

The show is on for two more nights, and check out Oscar Production Company to see what else they do!

Boy&Girl

Up late sketching Boy&Girl

Audience settling in, crew in position, MC takes the stage

This evening I went to Boy&Girl (from Oscar Production Company) at the Brisbane Powerhouse — I’d been on Saturday to watch it with friends, but they (specifically Em and Bryce) let me back this evening to sketch from the balcony!

I’ll post more pictures later, but there are only two more nights of shows. so if you’re in Brisbane and want some ribald, lyrical, raunchy, acrobatic cabaret-style fun (and it certainly is having enormous fun, as well as being very skilful), head to the Powerhouse website to book.

I was working mostly in the dark, so had to limit my colour choices severely to be able to find anything. Usually, as posted about previously, I’d default to blue and gold. But given the colour and spangles (and fire, etc) of the show, I added in hot pink and a lighter pink, which actually gave a reasonable range.

More pictures soon. In the meantime, here is my setup in the balcony, on one of the lit music stands being used by the crew.

Flood update

Well, the floods got worse (and far worse in NSW), and now the cleanup is on. (I wasn’t flooded, but the street was cut off and there was no power for a few days.)

I haven’t done much sketching, because it was so many people’s immediate, personal loss, and there was a lot of harder, more important work to do.

But on Saturday the Mud Army 2.0 arrived, numerous and cheerful, and by then I was driving instead of carrying things, so I snuck in a few sketches when I was pulled over.

If you’d like to help:

• Givit is the main officially-recognised organisation matching donations to needs.
• Volunteering Queensland or Volunteering NSW if you’re on the ground (or local community Facebook groups, or equivalent NSW)
• Support directly. E.g. ReLove is one of my favourite cafes, where I edited a lot of Flyaway (it’s in the acknowledgements) and where I get a lot of my odder art reference materials. I’ve been washing vintage plates and running bags of microfibre towels through the dryer. They have a GoFundMe to replace destroyed equipment (or their PayPal address is info@reloveoxley.com).

Sketching: Late night at Avid Reader

Just before Christmas, Avid Reader had a 36 hour trading session, with cocktails and early morning yoga and scavenger hunts.

I was there for the 8-9pm author signing. It was lovely and convivial. As well as signing we all got to stand up and recommend a few books by other people, which was delightful and interesting (and expensive).

I also planned to sketch, so it worked out well that I was sitting near Trent Dalton, whose queue of lovely readers made for some very good people-watching.

Then just relaxing on the back deck late on a balmy summer evening, while music played and people bought books and read quietly.

TV sketching: Shakespeare & Hathaway

My housemate and I decided it was time for a rewatch of Shakespeare & Hathaway — Private Investigators, so I have been sketching.

As usual with tv sketching, the rule is that I can’t pause the show. These are done on the iPad, in Procreate (with a “ballpoint pen” brush, if that is relevant to your interests).

It’s a show that’s heavy on character actors, but it tends to lean more on faces than Midsomer Murders does (a lot of longer shots in Midsomer). This makes it trickier to catch at-speed.

S1E1: “O Brave New World”

Luella Shakespeare (Jo Joyner) has a lovely signature pink, which is such fun, especially since I don’t gravitate to it in drawings as a matter of course.

S1E1: “O Brave New World”

Sebastian “I was just tuning my lute” Brudenell (Patrick Walshe McBride) has a wonderful face and is almost always in disguise.

S1E1: “O Brave New World”

I do enjoy drawing crime scene investigators in full PPE on British shows.

S1E2: “The Chimes at Midnight”

This does not look like a sketch of Timothy West, but at least I can tell which sketch was meant to be him.

S1E2: “The Chimes at Midnight”

The buildings are so gorgeous and the camera rarely lingers!

S1E3: “This Promised End”

Trying to capture both the immense fun Elizabeth Berrington was apparently having AND the swoop in Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton)’s hair in the first seasons.

S1E3: “This Promised End”

Also quick-drawing a funeral cortege.

School sketches — Concordia

My week as artist in residence at Concordia Lutheran College was wonderful (lively, inventive, intense), but without much time for drawing. So, since I finished just before lunch on the Friday, I sat out in the quadrangle and did some very quick sketches.

The uniforms have changed since I was there (ours were brown, white and yellow). (Also I hardly ever sat in the quadrangle when I was there — I mostly spent lunch hours in the library).

I don’t draw groups as often as I’d like to, but it’s always worthwhile — the different attitudes and interaction, the necessary speed.

The flocking which happens in any group of people with overlapping interests, but concentrated, like birds wheeling on the sound of a bell.

Bird’s-Eye View

I’ve been scanning in some sketchbooks and found this page. I was in a queue by an upstairs window, so I passed the time drawing people passing along the street outside, below, in the morning sun.

I often need to remind myself not to draw (or write) the obvious, eye-level view of things. When I actually do this, new details (the location of parts in hair or the structural role of boat-neck tops) abruptly become important. Sometimes the part of the sketch doing the heavy lifting (explaining where things are in space, hinting at movement, orienting the viewer) shifts from the figure to the shadow.

Some previous thoughts on viewpoints (and points of view):

• Viewpoints — Tirra-Lirra, Cinderella, camera levels, descriptions and drawings
• By Whom and To Whom — possible narrators, possible audiences (with long lists)
• Thinking About Points of View — two drawings
• And also: sketchbook posts generally

Sketches at GOMA — European Masterpieces

Last week I snuck out to visit GOMA with Shayna, and see the exhibition of European Masterpieces from the Met. They’re renovating, we’re briefly not in lockdown…

I don’t sketch much when I’m visiting galleries with friends — there are important conversations to have, the backgrounds of Renaissance paintings to examine, people with cameras to dodge.

But I did get to do some of my favourite gallery sketching, which is sketching OTHER people sketching.

But I did get in a sketch of one of my favourites — which is MUCH larger than I imagined. I like it because it is so direct and frank, odd in its blank expanses and then unexpectedly detailed, not unlovely but far more concerned with what the sitter is doing. And if you look at it too long, it feels exactly like when a friend is drawing you and staring very hard at you but never quite meeting your eyes because they’re fixated on the shadows of your nose.

Here is the portrait — you can find out more about it on the Met’s page.

Marie Denise Villers — Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes (1786–1868) 1801

Next Library updates

Photo: State Library of Queensland

The fine people at the State Library of Queensland have now posted at length about the Next Library Camp, including sketches (by me!), photographs, and some of the presentations and creative projects: Next Library.

There are also shorter posts about participant experiences on the Public Libraries Connect Blog, and many photos at the Next Library Camp Flickr album (in case you’d like to compare them to the sketches.

Photo: State Library of Queensland

Here is my earlier post with details from the sketchbook: Library sketching — Next Library Camp at the State Library of Queensland.

The sketch page I was working on in the photo above (and the State Library photographer, Leif Ekstrom)