Let's Draw London in 2016

This is the provisional list of sketchcrawls and dates in 2016. Below you'll find places that we plan to visit each month and the date of the sketchcrawl where this is now definite.


More about what's Involved in organised and leading an USK London event at the end of this post.

MONTH	LET'S DRAW LONDON: PROPOSED LOCATIONS IN 2016 These may change over the course of the year
16th January	Canary Wharf  This has lots of areas with interesting architecture under cover. Examples include: the Crossrail Sky Garden) and the showpiece Canary Wharf station designed by Sir Norma Foster Crossrail Sky Garden plus "the big dig in the dock" (cranes below the water level don't happen that often!) The big dig in the dock last month PLUS a skating rink and the installation of Winter Lights
20th February	The Wallace Collection and Manchester Square Sketching in the Wallace Collection by Katherine Tyrrell
19th March	St. Pancras and British Library (under cover) St Pancras Station by James Hobbs
16th April	The Galleries: Royal Academy,  White Cube, Christies (King Street) and St. James Royal Academy - courtyard of Burlington House, Piccadilly by Katherine Tyrrell
14th May	Parliament, the Bridges and Big Ben: Houses of Parliament+ Lambeth Bridge + Westminster Bridge PLUS additional option re. Loughton Festival
18th June	Richmond: Richmond Green to Richmond Bridge - a walk along the river  Plus an option to sketch from Richmond Hill - a view protected by an act of parliament Richmond Bridge and Terrace Gardens by Nathan Brenville
23rd July - pre Symposium (provisional)	Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace via The Mall, Horseguards and Green Park This is a repeat of last August's sketchcrawl which worked very well We'll be investigating what dates work best for those coming to the UK to attend the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Manchester - who'd also like to come to a sketchcrawl in London. Admiralty Arch - at the end of The Mall - by Lis Watkins
20th August	Different perspectives on Greenwich- see Let's Draw Greenwich - details of where and when to meet and places to sketch Meet at 11.00am, 1pm and 3.30pm under the bows of the Cutty Sark. More details follow the link to the full blog post - http://urbansketchers-london.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/lets-draw-greenwich.html
17th September	Little Venice and Paddington Basin Little Venice and Paddington Basin from Ladbroke Grove by Nick Kobyluch
15th October	Exploring Smithfield.
12th November	MI6 Building, Vauxhall Bridge and Tate Britain  (under cover options available within Tate Britain) MI6 Building - Spy Central! Opposite Tate Britain and adjacent to Vauxhall Bridge
10th December	Christmas in Covent Garden:Covent Garden / London Transport Museum / Royal Opera House Terrace - views down on to Covent Garden (under arcade and other under cover options) The view of the Transport Museum and Covent Garden from the terrace of the Royal Opera House

What's Involved in organised and leading an USK London event

As indicated previously, Nathan Brenville has left London for a new life in Spain and we are now actively looking for new people to help out with the organisation and leading of the sketchcrawls.


Here's what's involved in organising and leading a "Let's Draw" event for London Urban Sketchers.

It's absolutely OK for more than one person to agree to take on responsibility for an event if two or three people would like to work together. We'd be happy to advice

What needs doing

• find the best places for a large group to assemble at the beginning, lunchtime and the end. It needs to be somewhere where we don't obstruct other people
• find the places to go if it rains!
• a blog post beforehand - to provide guidance on where and when. You can ask for help with images for the post.
• take photos of people and sketches on the day - at lunchtime and at the end - and upload them to the Urban Sketchers Flickr Group Pool afterwards
• a blog post afterwards - to record the event and show what happened

You need to be....

• a regular participant in the group i.e. somebody who sketches London regularly and has
• either posted work to the Facebook Group and
• or has regularly attended Let's Draw events in 2015
• somebody who knows and observes the Urban Sketchers Manifesto
• somebody who knows the area well - or is prepared to research it in advance - we all need to know the good places to sketch!
• OK about talking to people and answering lots of questions
• Punctual - and there to provide advice to people at the beginning 
• Willing to 
• research the location e.g. where are the public toilets / places to get sandwiches and hot drinks before, during and afterwards!
• sketch less and help out more on the day

If you think you'd be interested in helping out please contact us via a comment below or speak to Katherine Tyrrell or James Hobbs at any of the Let's Draw events.

Let's Draw London in 2016

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!

• Let's Draw the British Museum - Saturday 7th February 2015  
• British Museum - The Court and Africa
• Drawing at the British Museum

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.

• Let's draw the V&A and Environs - Saturday 7th March 2015
• Around South Kensington 

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

Let's Draw London - London Urban Sketchers in 2015