Down By The River - Greenwich Sketchcrawl

Sketchers at the start point on Saturday morning

If you passed through the Cutty Sark DLR station at 11a.m. on Saturday, you would have been hard pressed to miss the large group of sketchers gathered there for the start of the 2nd Urban Sketchers London sketchcrawl. All in all, over 50 people showed up to draw Greenwich on a beautiful sunny day. I should say thanks to the Drawing London on Location group on Meetup.com for helping spread the word. It was very inspiring meeting so many talented artists with so many diverse styles and approaches, and I'm only sorry I didn't get to see more of other people's work and watch everyone in action. 

Although I love Greenwich Park, and am excited to see it open again (at least, most of it is) after the Olympics, I knew I'd be spending most of my time around the waterfront - with both the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and the Cutty Sark ship recently being unveiled from beneath the scaffolding and boards they've been shrouded in for the past year or two, this area feels quite fresh and new to me, and I was keen to get acquainted with it.
I managed the above and started on a view of the Foot Tunnel before lunch came - fortunately I didn't have far to go, our midway point was right where I was sitting!

Sketchers gather for lunch and to see each other's work

By the time I finished this drawing I realised I was running out of time, so I hurriedly made my way past Greenwich Pier and into the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, where the sight of this tree attracted me. Because I felt I had to be quicker with this one, I deliberately cropped my sketch to this narrow column, which actually proved fun - I think I may experiment with more oddly shaped compositions in future rather than the usual 'picture frame' shape.



The last picture I did was a quick sketch of Goddard's Pie & Mash shop. I was fond of the original, which I have also sketched in the past, although the site is now Gourmet Burger Kitchen; earlier this year they reopened in a different location, and I felt I should try and draw this new establishment too.

For lunch I bought a takeaway single pie and mash here, however I didn't get to enjoy it as it was pilfered by an ambitious pigeon when my back was turned. 

 
There was just time to get to the end point for 4pm at the park gates where we had a group photo taken by Osman, a photographer for local paper the News Shopper.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to have a good look at everyone's artwork when it was laid out, as it was pretty crowded, so I hope I get to see more on the Flickr group for those who feel like posting their work (there's already a lot of great stuff up there!). I always find it hugely inspiring to see the different ways in which people tackle the same or similar subjects.

Thank you to everyone who came along for making it a success, I look forward to meeting you all again on future crawls!

Down By The River - Greenwich Sketchcrawl