Urban Sketchers London: Let's Draw London - London Urban Sketchers in 2015

Thursday, 31 December 2015

Let's Draw London - London Urban Sketchers in 2015

Tomorrow, I'll be posting about where we will be sketching in 2016, but today we'll look back at where we sketched in 2015.......

Below you can see a record of the "Let's Draw..." events in 2015 - plus photos of people who participated and sketches.

January 2015

In January, we got organised and drew up a schedule of places for every month in 2015 - starting in February. This helped enormously with making things happen. As a result - numbers attending the skethcrawls increased significantly over the year, both in terms of overall numbers and regular attenders.

7th February 2015: British Museum


London Urban Sketchers draw the British Museum in February 2015 sitting on the steps in the great Court

A large group came to the British Museum day which proved to be a very good place to go on a winter's day - although rather busy on a Saturday with lots of other people looking for things to see and do indoors!

Ramases at the British Museum by Shih Jih Ren

sketches at the end of the day

7th March 2015 - South Kensington and the Victoria and Albert Museum

We had a brilliant sunny day for the next sketchcrawl - and there was as much sketching of South Ken cafe culture as there was of the museum and objects within it.

South Kensington by James Hobbs

I spent a lot of time sketching people sat round the pool in the courtyard - soaking up the sun!

Sunny Afternoon at the V&A

25th April 2015 - St Paul's Cathedral to the Thames

We had a marvellous time in April with many people discovering the roof terrace views from One New Change for the very first time

A whole new perspective on the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral

As a result, we had an awful lot of sketches of and around St Paul's Cathedral submitted for the exhibition later in 2015.

This was the sketchcrawl that we began to realise that the group was attracting a lot of sketchers from around the UK as well as people from the south east.

Read more about it in St Paul's and the Thames - we've got to do it again! and see a lot more pics of the day and sketches done.

Sketchers on the roof terrace of One New Change

16th May 2015 - Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew

Click to see a very big version of this pic of everybody outside the Palm House at Kew Gardens
which became our banner for a while

In May we went to Kew Gardens - and the weather was sunny!

Lots of perspectives on Pagodas!

13th June 2015 - Hampstead

In June we went to Hampstead - and the weather was grey and gloomy and a lot of appreciated the hot soup in the cafe at lunchtime!

The end of the day in Hampstead

We had learned by now that it's always best to try and find some steps for the group photos so we get to see the faces!

Some of us paid a visit to Cass Arts on the way home. Nothing better than a sketchcrawl and a trip to the art shop!

11th July 2015 - Day Trip to Oxford

In July we had a day out of London and went to Oxford

I'm having trouble finding sketches of Oxford in the Group Pool. Can anybody help me out with a sketch?

16th August 2015 - The Mall and Horseguards

In August we had a late change of date because of the 70th commemoration on the previous day celebration of the end of World War Two in Japan.

The big bonus was we has a very pleasant sunny day and also got to sit in the middle of The Mall to sketch - because it was closed to traffic!

Everybody sat down on The Mall was with London Urban Sketchers!

The end of the day in the quiet alley between the National Gallery and the Sainbury Wing

5th September 2015 - Blackheath

Three weeks later, at Blackheath in early September, there were rather fewer people by the end of the day on what turned out to be a rather autumnal day. We saw glimpses of the sun but most of the time it was pretty grey.

'Raffles' Blackheath by Sue Smith

All Saints Blackheath by Katy Evans

A number of people found they had completely misjudged the weather and had to go home! Scarves and warm coats were much in evidence amongst those who made it to the end of the day! September's a bit like that!

October 2015 - Chelsea

In October the venue was either side of the River Thames at Chelsea Reach. There was lots to draw either side of the Albert Bridge.

Battersea Power Station by Julie Bolus

Let's Draw Chelsea and Battersea - 10th October 2015

The Albert Bridge by Olya Osipova

November 2015 - Borough Market

We had two sketchcrawls in November - the normal one - to Borough Market and one for the Exhibition.

Borough Market by Lis Watkins

Let's Draw - Borough Market - 7th November 2015

Borough Market from Arabica - drawn on one of the menus by Christine Kaltoft

The second sketchcrawl - which started and finished at the exhibition at Timberyard - turned out to be a bit of a wet day.

Extra sketchcrawl: around Liberty's

December 2015 National Gallery and Trafalgar Square

On the stairs in the Sainsbury Wing - with the sketches - at the end of the day.

In December we had a bit of a Christmas theme. We also probably had our largest group ever sketch the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. Sadly I can't show you the photos of the ENORMOUS group on the steps of the Sainsbury Wing at lunchtime as I lost my camera (and three sketchbooks and my backpack) later that day!

We moved the time back by a hour so that sketching would be finishing as twilight started and the lights on the huge Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square would become more obvious

Let's Draw The National Gallery and Trafalgar Square

Lots of people braved the December weather and sketched in Trafalgar square where there are lots of places you can get out of the rain and yet still have lots of views to sketch!

Christmas Tree in Trafalgar square by Paulina Little

As well as this, there has lots and lots of sketching done throughout the year by members of London Urban Sketchers and you can see these - and more sketches from the sketchcrawls in the Flickr Group Pool

Urban Sketchers London

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