CANCELLED: Let's draw Granary Square - Saturday 25 April 2020

UPDATE: because of the coronavirus outbreak, this sketchcrawl is CANCELLED and our 2020 sketchcrawl programme is SUSPENDED.  

Options for drawing:

The area has interesting contrasts between the Victorian industrial architecture and the very new developments.

Regent’s Canal runs through the King's Cross area and is lined with boats and old buildings.

Coal Drops Yard is a new shopping centre designed by Thomas Heatherwick, which uses buildings originally built to store coal for the gas works; the original gasometers can still be seen.

The House of Illustration (admission charge for exhibitions) is to the east of the Central St Martins building, next to Waitrose, which is also housed in old industrial buildings. 

The Canopy Market is next to Waitrose.

New developments are still in progress.

If the weather is wet, there is cover inside Coal Drops Yard, at the Canopy Market, and under the canal bridges.

Practical information: 

The nearest underground/national rail station is King's Cross.  There are various cafes, restaurants and market stalls.  There are toilets in Coal Drops Yard and at the back of the Canopy Market.

This day is organised jointly with Urban Sketchers Cambridge, and run by Jo Dungey (Urban Sketchers London) and Yasemin Gyford of Urban Sketchers Cambridge.

The photographs and the sketch of Coal Drops Yard are by Jo Dungey.

CANCELLED: Let's draw Granary Square - Saturday 25 April 2020

Rainy Day in Greenwich
(Olga Mackness writes)
I have had big sketching plans for Sunday 26th of August!
But the day was so very grey and rainy...
I wondered around Cutty Sark and could not resist this view! So I've found a spot next to Waterstones and done very quick watercolour sketch. It came out really as I wanted it to be, some ink details added on at home. Very pleased -  feel prepared for the rainy autumn sketching now.

Brunel Road, Chigwell

Cute little road of Victorian terraced houses and atmospheric trees in the background. These sort of scenes just cry out for a bit of pencil; match made in heaven for me! 

Brunel Road, Chigwell

South Woodford Odeon, High Road, London E18

Shhh! its just started! Pencil and watercolour 149 x 210 mm Evelyn Rowland

This delightful piece of Odeon architecture is only a facade. Inside it has been divided into the usual 'screens';  perfectly adequate to view but woefully short on experience. 'The pictures' used to be somewhere to go;  the building was important.   Still, the outside is preserved, at least from the first floor up. 

South Woodford Odeon, High Road, London E18

The Trafalgar Square Olympic Clock

The Sketch of The Trafalgar Square Olympic Clock


Yesterday I went to Mall Galleries for the ROI Annual General Meeting and also used the opportunity to view the Lynn Stainer Painters Exhibition. While on my way back to Charing Cross Station I decided to stop and sketch the Official Countdown Timer for The Olympics at Trafalgar Square.



Sketching in progress


I sketched it while it was 116 days to go, I hope to sketch it again when it's only a day or 2 to go, if I am chanced. I sketched this in my A4 Moleskin Sketchbook with a 2B Chunky graphite stick, a 2H pencil and a 0.7 mechanical clutch pencil.



Snap shot of the Scene


For more of my sketches, you can visit my blog

The Trafalgar Square Olympic Clock

Meet the correspondents: Adebanji Alade

My hands start shaking, I can't keep them still, my eyes have seen a face, an interesting face. One that I cannot afford to miss. I'm on the train, it's packed full of commuters, everyone is staring at me! But I must sketch! It's an addiction, it's a compulsive habit. Something I have developed by wild practice over the years. London Public transport has every face in this world to enliven a sketchbook and once I turn to a plain page in my sketchbook the possibilities are endless. I may catch a beautiful lady putting on make up, I may grab a city workaholic stealing a nap on the 30 minute journey on the Southeastern trains to Canon Street or the faces all around me just to keep my hands busy. This is everything about me when it comes to sketching. My artillery consists of a Bic ball point pen, an A6 Daler Rowney Sketchbook and a number 75 Tom Bow wash pen(light grey).



Me and my son sketching on the tube

Other things fascinate me while I walk on the street- the homeless people carry the greatest weight. They are the real Londoners, they've seen life! They know the city and can tell you everything you need to know. I can't resist recording these people in my sketchbooks, sometimes they are sitting and begging, some have a good job of selling the Big Issue Magazine, some are just asleep on the road side waiting for the wake up call of a Policeman who doesn't like their positioning.....all these wrap up my desire and Inspiration behind sketching!




My Public Transport Sketches

Then comes my love for architecture, I would have been an architect if not an artist. But my God directed me where He wanted me to be after asking Him for guidance way back in 1990 when I first met Christ. Yes, architecture, the play of light on architecture is amazing, I simply love it and I love to include trees and people into my architectural scenes just to have a good contrast of the organic and inorganic.




Architecture-Oil and Pencil

I love using pure graphite, coloured pencils and the wonderful oil base pencil for these and an A4 Moleskine sketchbook.

I also do oil sketches in location too.

This wraps it up for me! I'll be sharing my sketches of London and Londoners with you! I hope you'll enjoy and subscribe to USK London!




Homeless Scenarios


Lest I forget
My website
My main blog about my art and passion for sketching
My blog where I convert the sketches to paintings
also
I'm currently a provisional member of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters
and a member of The Chelsea Art Society

Meet the correspondents: Adebanji Alade