I am delighted to be a London
correspondent. Although I live and work in Norwich Norfolk situated in the East
of England, I’m often in London visiting family, art exhibitions and taking
part in sketch crawls. The sketch crawls have introduced me to parts of London
I have never explored before. I like the chaotic streets full of life and
culture and especially enjoy the challenge of capturing busy markets, museums
and people interacting with their surroundings.
I stumbled across urban sketchers three
years ago whilst ordering art books for work, and I was instantly captivated
and filled with excitement that there were hundreds of people all over the
world who shared the same passion. I haven’t stopped since. I used to sketch
mainly on holidays but felt it was a lonely pursuit but discovering the urban
sketchers has revitalized my love of drawing again. I used to do a lot of
street photography but this has taken a back stage now. When I am out sketching
I am observing, watching and sharing the experience rather than snapping the
shutter and moving on.
People have always been a focus of my
drawing. I first started sketching in cafes, as it seemed easier due to the comforts
of a place to sit, lots of tea and cake and people stayed relatively still. I
used a fine liner and then added colour digitally at home. As my confidence
grew I started to be more experimental with media and taking on more
challenging scenes and capturing movement. Buildings and perspective was
something I always feared but now I love to capture the soul of a building and
that includes the people that bring it to life. I like to capture the energy of
a place. I enjoy experimenting with colour, at times using it to lead the eye
to different narratives within a scene. I am drawn to letterforms and often start
my sketch with type. Pattern attracts me to a scene and that’s what I enjoy
about architecture its full of reoccurring patterns and shapes.
I’m experimental with materials and mixed
media mainly using different types of pens and pencils: brush, marker, dip,
biro, watercolour pencils and graphite. When its not too windy I enjoying
drawing with torn paper by picking out main shapes from the scene, or to break
up space and put down a block of colour quickly. I do like to combine this with
a bit of digital colouring.
I was lucky to go on the Barcelona
symposium, which was a fantastic experience, and I learnt so much from all the
amazing workshops and people I met from all over the world who were really
inspiring. I’m looking forward to blogging and the London sketch crawl lineup
looks exciting have already marked them on the calendar!
Just to finish these are the other things I
do as well as drinking lots of tea;
I teach Graphic Design/Illustration/Photography
part time at a Sixth form college and I have just started an MA in
Communication Design focusing on Reportage Illustration.
You can find more of my work on
Here are a few examples of my London sketches
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| Regent's Canal Kings Cross |
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| Columbia Road flower market |
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| The British Museum |
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| The V&A Museum |
Looking forward to seeing more of your work, Julie!
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