Hello, Robot exhibition

I recently went to the Hello, Robot exhibition at the V&A in Dundee, and I really enjoyed it. It had a brighter and calmer atmosphere than the robots exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland last year, so I found it an altogether more pleasant experience to spend time sketching in this exhibition!

 

My favourite thing about the exhibition was how cute some of the robots were! I decided to draw the cutest ones in my Moleskine.

I really liked this piece by Douglas Coupland, one of my favourite authors. The slogans were thought-provoking, and it was really colourful (and it makes a good selfie background!). I was pleased that I could get postcards of a few of the posters.

There was a little library area at the entrance to the exhibition, including some of my favourites like Asimov and Hannah Fry. I got a look there at The Wild Robot, which I'd been interested in for a while, and I bought it soon afterwards.

I found the closest approximation to my job on this website, and it seems like I won't be replaced by a robot just yet!

May Morris exhibition

Last month I went to see the May Morris exhibition at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh. May Morris was the daughter of William Morris, and was responsible for creating many of his company's iconic designs. It was fascinating to see her work, including initial sketches and finished items.

Of course, I wore an appropriately floral outfit, with my Rosa Pietsch earrings which got a lot of lovely comments during the day!

I sketched some of my favourite items in my Moleskine, and coloured it in with appropriate colours when I got home. In the Dovecot shop I bought a keyring and luggage tag in a Morris design, and a postcard of May Morris. 

I also bought soap and a shampoo bar that day from The Edinburgh Natutal Skincare Co, and I thought that the bags they came in matched well with May Morris's designs!

Travel journal covers

I like to decorate the covers of the Moleskines I use as my travel journals, so that I can easily tell them apart. I had a bit of a backlog, with my Kyoto and Italy journals still not decorated years later, so when I added my Vietnam one to the pile I decided it was time to buy a new tub of Mod Podge and get decorating!

I like to use patterned paper as the main part of the decoration. Origami paper works best in terms of not wrinkling, and I used it on the Kyoto and Vietnam ones. For the Italy one I used some marbled paper that I had bought in Florence. I cut some of the lettering using a die cutter, but I also used some lettering stickers on the Vietnam one. I love how that turned out, because it reminded me of the mish-mash of retro fonts I’d seen on shop signs in Vietnam.

Robots exhibition

On my birthday, as well as the Orla Kiely exhibition I went to the Robots exhibition at the museum. I did find it really interesting, but it was a bit of an assault on the senses with so many loud sound effects, videos, lighting effects etc. all going at the same time. I think I'd have stayed a lot longer if it had been a more pleasurable atmosphere to hang around in.

I did, however, stay long enough to do a drawing of some of my favourite robots on display, and to take a few photos as well. I was really excited to see a copy of Rossum's Universal Robots by Karel Čapek, the book that introduced the word "robot" to the English language. And I loved the tin toy robots too.

Orla Kiely drawing

At the Orla Kiely exhibition I enjoyed picking out all my favourite designs and drawing them in my Moleskine sketchbook. I love using this book as a visual diary of all the exhibitions I’ve been to.

I stuck to simple thick black lines for the drawing, and filled in some of the circle and flower shapes. I'm tempted to try a bit of colour or pattern on the petals of the large flower in the middle, though!

The two handbags that I drew were really lovely and I'm tempted to make Blythe doll sized versions of them!

Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art of Celebrity

I really enjoyed this exhibition that was held in Edinburgh recently. It featured the work of not just Toulouse-Lautrec, but also other artists who were working in a similar style at the same time to create posters.

When I reached the gallery and was getting ready to draw in my sketchbook, I discovered that the lead had broken off my pencil so I had to draw in pen with no outline! This was a real challenge to me, and explains why some of my drawings are a bit off (especially the cat!).

I loved that the gift shop had lenticular postcards of a couple of the designs - these are the postcards that flicker as you move them to suggest movement or depth. I don't come across these often and only had one in my collection already!

Penguin drawings

My visits to the penguin parade in Dundee were the perfect excuse for another drawing in my Moleskine. Although the penguins themselves were so colourful, I think it works well having them in monochrome. And I had to laugh when I looked at the photos below - I hadn't realised I'd lined up the penguin figure with the feet in the drawing!

Surgeons' Hall Museum

I recently made my first visit to the Surgeons' Hall Museum in Edinburgh, and it was really fascinating! It's not somewhere for the squeamish, with its endless shelves filled with jars of body parts, and surgical instruments, but I really enjoyed my visit!

There's been a museum here since 1832, and parts of the building are practically unchanged since then. I particularly loved the balcony with shelves along each side. It looks like it goes on for miles!

Photography isn't allowed inside the museum (despite the fact that you'll see photos on Instagram!) so I took along my sketchbook. The only difficult thing was deciding which of the exhibits to draw! Some of the things I chose to draw were fibroids and a dental impression tray - both of which I've had experience of in recent years!