A friend from high school visited recently from Sydney and we spent a lovely day drawing together and catching up on our art adventures. Alissa has been sketching nearly every day over the past five years and has filled over 35 watercolour Moleskine sketchbooks. What an impressive collection! She works primarily with her favourite L’Amy Joy pen and Faber Castell and Derwent watercolour pencils. You can visit her blog site here

We have completely different styles but I so admire the looseness, immediacy and freshness in her drawings, whereas it takes me so long to complete something! Her motivation inspires me. It was wonderful to share art ideas and to just talk to someone about “papers and pencils”. The day brought back fond memories of our drawing sessions after school and on weekends.

Alissa drew one of my Eiffel Tower souvenirs and a box of my Prismacolor pencils…

I was working on a still life piece, a bowl of red chillies…still a long way to go…

There’s probably no better way to pass the day than drawing with a friend and also eating, drinking coffee and sipping wine…