Peering into display cases

One of the reasons I particularly enjoyed the third Urban Sketchers London sketchcrawl at the Natural History Museum and V&A was because I found myself drawing things I don't usually draw, and this can't be a bad thing, surely? I found the stuffed birds in glass display cases strangely attractive to draw, if distasteful, an example of things that would not happen now. I don't think any bird expert would be able to tell one of my drawn hummingbirds from another, but I liked their shape and flow. A swallow-winged flycatcher caught my attention too.

I also liked the way the statue of Charles Darwin sits halfway up the stairs considering the goings-on in the central hall of the museum. A steady trail of people came to have their photograph taken next to the statue. I drew his shoes, which seemed rather stylish, I thought.

Well done to Nathan again for organising the sketchcrawl, and it was great to meet new people and see their sketchbooks. I'm looking forward to the next one – watch this website for news.

Peering into display cases

South Kensington Sketchcrawl on December 1st

Yesterday was the third Urban Sketchers London sketchcrawl, which took place inside both the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, it being a little cold for a full day's worth of sketching outdoors. We had another good turnout, so thank you to everyone who came, and there were some great drawings that came out of it at the end of the day, as you can see below.

I think it might've been helpful to have a bit more structure to the day, as it was very busy, especially at the NHM, and so it wasn't always easy to meet everyone as they went their separate ways, it would've been fun to spend time in specific rooms as a group or groups, so perhaps a missed opportunity on my part there, but hopefully people still got to mingle and see all the art going on during the day! We had a wonderful array of styles and subjects being displayed in all the different sketchbooks.

Museums are great for people-watching, and so I decided to focus mainly on the visitors, but couldn't help getting sucked in to drawing a few impressive exhibits too:

I also braved the cold just long enough to draw the ice skaters outside the Natural History Museum, London's most popular Christmas ice skating venue. I didn't bother sketching it out with a pencil first, (too cold to faff around with that as I would normally do), I just launched straight into it with a pen, which was quite satisfying.

Thanks again to everyone for coming, I hope to see you all again soon. Watch out for further announcements about sketchcrawls in the coming months!

South Kensington Sketchcrawl on December 1st