Urban Sketchers London: 2012-02-26

Monday, 5 March 2012

Meet the correspondents: Adebanji Alade

My hands start shaking, I can't keep them still, my eyes have seen a face, an interesting face. One that I cannot afford to miss. I'm on the train, it's packed full of commuters, everyone is staring at me! But I must sketch! It's an addiction, it's a compulsive habit. Something I have developed by wild practice over the years. London Public transport has every face in this world to enliven a sketchbook and once I turn to a plain page in my sketchbook the possibilities are endless. I may catch a beautiful lady putting on make up, I may grab a city workaholic stealing a nap on the 30 minute journey on the Southeastern trains to Canon Street or the faces all around me just to keep my hands busy. This is everything about me when it comes to sketching. My artillery consists of a Bic ball point pen, an A6 Daler Rowney Sketchbook and a number 75 Tom Bow wash pen(light grey).

Me and my son sketching on the tube

Other things fascinate me while I walk on the street- the homeless people carry the greatest weight. They are the real Londoners, they've seen life! They know the city and can tell you everything you need to know. I can't resist recording these people in my sketchbooks, sometimes they are sitting and begging, some have a good job of selling the Big Issue Magazine, some are just asleep on the road side waiting for the wake up call of a Policeman who doesn't like their positioning.....all these wrap up my desire and Inspiration behind sketching!

My Public Transport Sketches

Then comes my love for architecture, I would have been an architect if not an artist. But my God directed me where He wanted me to be after asking Him for guidance way back in 1990 when I first met Christ. Yes, architecture, the play of light on architecture is amazing, I simply love it and I love to include trees and people into my architectural scenes just to have a good contrast of the organic and inorganic.

Architecture-Oil and Pencil

I love using pure graphite, coloured pencils and the wonderful oil base pencil for these and an A4 Moleskine sketchbook.

I also do oil sketches in location too.

This wraps it up for me! I'll be sharing my sketches of London and Londoners with you! I hope you'll enjoy and subscribe to USK London!

Homeless Scenarios

Lest I forget
My website
My main blog about my art and passion for sketching
My blog where I convert the sketches to paintings
also
I'm currently a provisional member of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters
and a member of The Chelsea Art Society

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Meet the correspondents: James Hobbs

James Hobbs, Great Eastern Street, Hoxton, London

London is, of course, many different things to different people, as this blog will no doubt prove. Each of us has our own view and our own islands within the huge whole that we know particularly well. For me, this means Stoke Newington—where I live, which is an ancient inner north London village with a history of dissension that has become perhaps a little more gentrified than I would prefer—along with Hackney, Hoxton, Islington, the South Bank, the City and West End. I’m not so at home in most areas with postcodes with a “W” in them (apart from NW11) or, I must now confess, most places south of the river (apart from The Oval cricket ground). I still draw in these places when I get a chance.

To have a bicycle and a sketchbook is, for me, the way to be. My drawings are often A6-sized or perhaps A5, and made with permanent marker pens. I’m quite happy to work on the back of an envelope. Taking quiet, off-piste cycle routes can lead to unexpected pleasures, usually unfrequented by tourists and yet gloriously cosmopolitan and multicultural, which is how I like my London to be. London can be ugly and violent, but it’s usually not, and I love to live here and have my children grow up here. Drawing it is a kind of hymn of praise to the city, warts and all.

James Hobbs, New Oxford Street, London

I show at Skylark Galleries, an artist-run gallery in the Oxo Tower Wharf on the South Bank, and the Art Agency, Esher. I was for a while the editor of Artists & Illustrators magazine, and am now a freelance journalist. Five of my images of London scenes have just gone on sale as A5-sized art cards at IKEA stores worldwide.

You can see more of my work at www.james-hobbs.co.uk, visit my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Meet the correspondents: Katherine Tyrrell

I've been sketching on a regular basis for about twenty years. I now carry a sketchbook all the time and use pen and ink and coloured pencils to record my sketches of different places in London.

Six years ago I started to post my sketches on my blogs, then in October 2008 I became a member of Urban Sketchers. I'm now very proud to now be a founder member of Urban Sketchers London.

Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils, 11" x 16 in Moleskine sketchbook
all rights reserved Katherine Tyrrell

The best bit about sketching for me is the way it helps to remember a place so much better than any photo I could ever take.

I also sketch because it helps me to 'see' pictures everywhere I go. It also gives me a better record of colours than photos and helps me draw fast - which means I get to sketch more and more!

I love the challenge of creating composite sketches out of the people who come and go in galleries and cafés.

What I sketch

I'm primarily attracted to finding the green places in an urban environment....

....and the views and heritage associated with the River Thames — like the view of London and the Thames from Greenwich Park in my photo - and the views of the Thames at Bankside outside Tate Modern below.


The Thames at Bankside coloured pencils, 8" x 10" in Moleskine sketchbook all rights reserved Katherine Tyrrell

The spine of my London sketch trail is the River Thames. My sketchbook blog - Travels with a Sketchbook - has a record of recent sketches of London in four groups:

the River Thames from Richmond and Kew Gardens in the west, through central London to Greenwich in the east
Parks, gardens and green spaces in London
Interiors in Central London - mainly art museums and galleries and places to eat and drink
Interesting buildings and architecture in London

I also enjoy sharing information about the places seen in my sketches and the practical aspects about good places to go to sketch on my blog. I'm using it to create a virtual sketch trail about different areas I've visited.

Where you can see more of my sketches

You can see more of my sketches in:

My sketchbook blog: Travels with a Sketchbook (featured in and recommended by "The Times" newspaper 25.2.11)
My online sketchbook on my website

I also love botanical art - and you can see one of my drawings at the 2012 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists - at Westminster Central Hall next month - 20-29th April 2012.

You can also read more about the art galleries and museums and the exhibitions I visit (and sketch) in my main art blog: Making A Mark - which is #3 in the top 25 art blogs in the UK

Urban Sketchers London

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