London sketchcrawl

Saturday saw the first London sketchcrawl - so many people! All excited about drawing on location in London on a hot sunny day. I met lots of people, some very experienced, and some new to location drawing. When we met up at the end of the day the range and quality of the work on show was very exciting.

I was set up to draw at A3/A2 size - when I'm spending the day drawing I like to work quite big, and an A3 sketchbook is a good compromise between portability and size -it can open up to give an A2 size spreads. My drawing materials, as usual, were quite mixed. Each drawing is a bit of an exploration of media for me, I'm never content with using the same materials or approach in my drawings.

I started down on the Embankment, looking downriver at the hazy light off the water, and  the strong shadows. This drawing used chinagraph, charcoal pencil, brushpens filled with diluted ink, and pigment powder. I think it would have been a better drawing if I had ignored the ship's stern on the right. I should remember that drawing is as much about lying as telling the truth!

Then, finally finding my way into Middle Temple I made a quick drawing before lunch using charcoal. The midday sun was very hot, and the contrast of light and shade down the lane dominated my view. The site of my drawing  is apparently the location used in the TV drama series, 'Silk'. I was informed of this by a couple who were there with the sole aim of tracking down all the locations used in the series...

For my last drawing of the day I sat in the shade by St Bride's Institute and drew the old tree that grows in the churchyard of St Bride's Church. This drawing is A2, on a double spread of the sketchbook, and I threw everything at it, trying to represent the light/shade and the intriguing space of the stair well and the view through to Fleet Street. Media included ink, charcoal, black pigment, white correction pen, white wax crayon, pen, fingers, and eventually knife!

I look forward to the next sketchcrawl!

London sketchcrawl

The Statue of Gladstone & Samuel Johnson Statue

Saturdays London Sketchcrawl was a blast! I have never seen so many people all gathered together with one mission-and that is to SKETCH LONDON! It was a sunny day and simply an amazing day to unleash the sketch motions within us! I decided to concentrate on statues because, just walking from Temple Station revealed so many statues. At first site I fell in love with the Statue of Gladstone, so I decided to get that one done first. Then I walked further down and I noticed The Samuel Johnson Statue. This was my final Sketch of the day. For both sketches I sat on sand bags available as I didn't have a folding chair or anything decent to sit on. I have used an A4 Moleskine Sketchbook and used a variety of pencils ranging from: Chunky Graphites, Mechanical Clutch pencils, Oil base Pencils, Rexel Carpenters pencils and graphite pencils to the wonderful Mars Lumograph pencils by Staedtler. I have left the pictures here below which tell more of the story than words can explain.

The Statue of Gladstone Sketch

Adebanji sketching The Statue of Gladstone

The Statue of Gladstone and materials

The Statue of Gladstone Scene

The Samuel Johnson Sketch

Adebanji sketching The Samuel Johnson Statue

The Samuel Johnson Statues with materials

The Samuel Johnson Statue Scene

The Statue of Gladstone & Samuel Johnson Statue

Photos from the 1st "Let's Draw London" Sketchcrawl

Today we've got photographs taken during the course of yesterday's "Let's Draw London" Sketchcrawl of Fleet Street and Temple.

Around about 40 people assembled at Temple Station at 10:30am - although we think around about 50 participated during the course of the day.   

Urban Sketchers London joined forces with the Draw London on Location group which sketch London on a regular basis.  We'll be looking at swopping details about events in the future.  If you'd like to know more about Urban Sketchers events we suggest you subscribe to this blog.

Pete Scully organised the sketchcrawl and had leaflets for everybody which included maps of the area, places to sketch and watering holes.

Pete Scully introduces the Sketchcrawl

Urban Sketchers outside Template station listening to Pete Scully

People had a wide choice of places to sketch

Map of Fleet Street and Temple 
Right click and open in a new tab to see the scope of places to draw

and lots of architecture to draw...

Royal Courts of Justice (on the left) and Fleet Street

Some enjoyed the hot sun down by the river

In the sun and by the river

While others sat in the shade

How long is a bridge in pencils?

Some chose to sit inside the cafe with the excellent view of the Royal courts and enjoy a flat surface, chair and beverages of choice

Sketching with comforts - shade on a blistering hot day, cup of tea, flat surface, good view!

While others sat outside and sketched the same view

A seriously big watercolour sketch!

We met up at lunchtime at the Temple Church.  This is despite the fact that quite a few of us wandered around Temple trying to find a way in!  (It's private property and most of the doors are locked at weekends).  It's amazing just how many people did turn up!

Somebody obviously knew we were coming and provided some nice tables in the cloister for the display of sketchbooks

Looking at the morning sketches

Morning Sketches

Two of our new friends and their sketches

Then more sketching in the afternoon - of Temple Church and other parts of Fleet Street

Mark and Tom sketching Temple Church

At the end of the day there were still a lot of people around - and a lot of sketchbooks.

This is the scene in Gough Square where we gathered at 4:00pm and layed out our sketches and sketchbooks around the statue of Dr Johnson's cat Hodge (Dr Johnson's house can be seen in the background)

The end of the day - viewing the sketchbooks around the statue of Dr Johnson's cat Hodge

Sketchbooks around Hodge the Cat

Sketches in the sun

James Oses - and his pen and ink drawings of old newspaper buildings

Correspondents will be posting their sketches to this blog over the course of the next week.

Post your sketches to the new Flickr Group

If you joined the sketchcrawl yesterday and would like to display your sketches, you can now post then to our new Flickr Group - Urban Sketchers London - Group Pool.

• If you'd like to join and want an invite please let us know.  
• You'll need a Flickr account to be able to post images to the pool.
  

Recruiting correspondents for the blog

Katherine explained how we're looking to increase the number of correspondents - slowly.  We'll highlight the details in a future blog post.  For now if you didn't get one of the sheets we handed out

• email us and we'll send you one.
• and/or eview the "Meet the Correspondents" Page which provides more details about what to do

Photos from the 1st "Let's Draw London" Sketchcrawl