In Wren's footsteps

[By James Hobbs] A big thanks to Pete Scully for his excellent sketchcrawl around St Paul's on the weekend before the Manchester Symposium. Apart from sending me to places I had never ventured before, it was an excellent place to meet people from Singapore, Hong Kong, USA, France, Germany and more who I got to know better, although too briefly, at the symposium. And there were plenty of London regulars in Manchester also – it's a great city, and I'd be back there to draw like a shot.

Here are a few images of the sketchcrawl around St Paul's.

Pete's brief history lesson on the steps of St Paul's. (It's 350 years since the Great Fire of London.)

Nick Richards in action.

Lis Watkins, Jason from Portland, Oregon, and Pete draw near Paternoster Square.

And our final meeting place at the foot of the Monument. These were two excellent sketchcrawls in amazing weather on consecutive days – Trafalgar Square and around St Paul's – thanks to Jo Dungey and Lis Watkins also for organising the Trafalgar Square day.

I've posted some images from Manchester on Instagram.

In Wren's footsteps

London sketchcrawls on 23 and 24 July 2016

Are you passing through London on your way to the Urban Sketchers symposium in Manchester at the end of July? We are meeting up twice on the weekend before it commences, so whether you are heading to the symposium or not, come along and meet us to draw together. It's a great opportunity to meet people from the wider Urban Sketchers community who will be coming from around the globe.

Let's Draw Trafalgar Square is on Saturday 23 July, from 11am. We are meeting under the fourth plinth (which currently has Hans Haacke's horse skeleton) close to the front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Find more details here.

Sketching Wren's London on the following day, Sunday 24 July, is hosted by Pete Scully, who is over from the US. It starts at 10.30am from the front of St Paul's Cathedral. Find more details for this one here.

You can also find more info about both of these events by scrolling down to earlier posts on this blog.

Hope to see you there – at both!

London sketchcrawls on 23 and 24 July 2016

St Paul's and the Thames - we've got to do it again!

The general consensus from yesterday's sketchcrawl by London Urban Sketchers was that there was absolutely masses to draw and we need to go back!

We were sketching in the area around St Paul's Cathedral and down to the north bank of the Thames - next to the Millennium Bridge - see TODAY is "Let's Draw St Paul's to the Thames" and the map created in Google Maps/Drive of the area and key places

I think this location will become a regular feature of our sketchcrawls in future years!
This is a photograph of one venue which blew people away with the views!

Sketching after lunch from the Roof Terrace of One New Change

and here's a sketch of the same by Daniel Lloyd-Morgan.

Roof terrace at 1 New Change by Daniel Lloyd-Morgan

New people

Yet again we saw several new people join the group of London Urban Sketchers. Please note there is absolutely no requirement to live and work in London to join the group.

A warm welcome is extended anybody who likes drawing London - and this month we welcome:

From outside London

• Marissa Lee Swinghammer - living in Oxford since February, late of Boston, Massachusetts
• Chuck Stull from Kalamazoo Michigan, currently on sabbatical in Oxford.
• Sue Smith from Cambridge
• Laura Moore - from I'm not quite sure where but I think it might be the Herts/Essex borders! 
• Debbie Eyre from the Birmingham Urban Sketchers

From London

• Sue Thurlow - from London
• Homephoenix Wong - from London
• Chatelle Jeram, living in Hackney, East London. Just moved to the UK this month.
• Rosaline Darby from Long Ditton in Surrey (only just outside London!)
• John Swanson from Twickenham
• Jo Coombes from Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey

and we hope to see your sketches on Facebook or on Flickr very soon! :)

Do please let us know if you are new and where you come from - we're always pleased to see new faces and to link up with you.  You can leave a comment at the end of this post.....

Logistics

On a practical note, we've certainly noticed that emphasising that:

• the "Let's Draw" event is FREE; and
• there's no need to book

gets a very positive response from people! :) 

However it would be great to also get some feedback about the maps. The use of a map link embedded in the notice of the "Let's Draw" even seems to be working quite well - for all those with smartphones. I think maybe we need to think about creating a downloadable pdf for those with no phone but access to a printer.  This saves organisers from having to personally cut down trees to print off maps ;) - but more to the point means that when the organiser's printer has decided not to work(!!) we still have a way of getting the "where is everything" out to people.

Some photos from the day

I'm going to show you in this blog post how much easier it is for me to include your sketches if you tweet them!

Here's kickoff under cover at the top of the steps in front of St Paul's and that's me up on the little ledge so people could hear me more clearly over the noise of the traffic and the tourists.

London's urban sketchers gather at St Paul's. #urbansketchers #sketchcrawl pic.twitter.com/Gx21A03BJ5
— UrbanSketchersLondon (@UrbSketchLondon) April 25, 2015

Here we all are at lunchtime

London Urban Sketchers on the Roof Terrace of One New Change at lunchtime

and here are our sketches at that stage

St Paul's and the Thames - we've got to do it again!

TODAY is "Let's Draw St Paul's to the Thames"

Just a reminder that Let's Draw St Paul's to the Thames - SATURDAY 25th April 2015 has switched from Sunday 26th to today because of the London Marathon tomorrow.

The weather forecast is for light rain late in the afternoon but otherwise sunny intervals should prevail.

Tweet your sketches with the hashtag #usklondon and we'll try and retweet them via the Urban Sketchers London Twitter account.

St Paul's Cathedral
and the bronze statue to the firemen that saved it during the blitz in WW2

WHERE: St Paul's to the Thames

WHEN: Sunday 26th April 2015 CHANGED TO Saturday 25th April 2015 (due to the London Marathon) 

START: 11:00am at the top of the steps (right hand side) of the Main Entrance to St Paul's Cathedral

LUNCH: 1:30pm One New Change (shopping centre) - two options for where we meet depending on the weather

• Dry: on the Roof Terrace of One New Change - we want a group pic with the roof of St. Paul's in the background if possible!
• Wet: in the lobby area of One New Change near where the lift is to go to the roof terrace

Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge
from the Peter's Hill walkway down from St. Paul's
(near to the Salvation Army Cafe 101
 which is building on left)

END: 3:30pm 

• DRY: Paternoster Square - between St Paul's Cathedral Steps and St Paul's Tube Station
• WET: Salvation Army Cafe 101 (click the link to see the location in Peter's Hill (near Queen Victoria Street)

MAP: A map has been created in Google Maps/Drive of the area and key places 

TUBE: Stations:

• St Paul's (Central Line); 
• Blackfriars and Mansion House (District and Circle Lines) 

RAIL: Thameslink @ London Blackfriars and City Thameslink; Cannon Street

The North Bank of the Thames from the Millennium Bridge

Don't forget to look out for Shaun the Sheep!  He's everywhere - supporting children in hospitals - and as you might expect he has an app.

This is the https://www.flickr.com/groups/usklondon-grouppool/ where you can post your sketches of today:

1. after you have posted them to your own Flickr account
2. after your application for membership of the Urban Sketchers London Flickr Group has been approved. The review of your application for membership depends on the sketches on your own account. You don't have to be really good at sketching but your sketches do need to conform to our rules - see below

Rules for posting to the Urban Sketchers London Flickr Group

All drawings posted to the group were drawn on location IN LONDON, not from photos or memory. Your membership will be terminated if you repeatedly post sketches of places other than London.
• The location of the sketch IN LONDON is always included in the headline or caption or the image is located on your public Flickr map.
*The only photos which can be posted to the Group MUST relate to Urban Sketchers London Sketchcrawls - on the date of the sketchcrawl
• No sketches from figure drawing sessions or posed models will be posted to the Group Pool
* No objects or figures without a location context which is a place in London will be posted to the Group Pool (ie sketches of people in locations are OK; sketches of people in isolation are not)

TODAY is "Let's Draw St Paul's to the Thames"

Let's Draw! DATE CHANGED to 25th April

Yellow marks the route of the London Marathon

IMPORTANT - IMPORTANT - IMPORTANT - CHANGE OF DATE!!!

The date of the next Let's Draw event is being moved to a day earlier - SATURDAY 25th APRIL - which coincidentally is also the next International Sketchcrawl date.

The reason is that the London Marathon is being run on Sunday 26th April. Although the Marathon route actually takes the runners under the area we will be (through the tunnel) there will still be lots of people around and the travel issues relating to the huge numbers of people who come to London to watch will make travel very much more challenging than usual.

The logistics problems will be much reduced on the Saturday.

PLEASE SHARE with anybody you think is coming and don't assume they have seen this or the notices in the Facebook group.

Please also go on Sunday 26th April and sketch the Marathon if you don't mind crowds and transport delays/problems!

Let's Draw in May

The next Let's Draw event will be at Kew Gardens (admission fee of £14) and the provisional date (to be confirmed) is Sunday 17th May.

Let's Draw! DATE CHANGED to 25th April

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

For our next London Urban Sketchers' Sketchcrawl we're got the scope to draw some big buildings and big views!

St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• WHERE:  St Paul's to the Thames
• WHEN: Sunday 26th April 2015 CHANGED TO Saturday 25th April 2015 (due to the London Marathon)
• START: 11:00am at the top of the steps (right hand side) of the Main Entrance to St Paul's Cathedral.
• LUNCH: 1:30pm on the Roof Terrace of One New Change (if dry; wet weather venue to be notified)
• END: 3:30pm Paternoster Square - between St Paul's Cathedral Steps and St Paul's Tube Station (if dry; wet weather venue to be notified)
• MAP: A map has been created in Google Maps/Drive of the area and key places
• TUBE: Stations: St Paul's (Central Line); Blackfriars and Mansion House (District and Circle Lines)
• RAIL: Thameslink @ London Blackfriars and City Thameslink; Cannon Street

Last time we were at St Paul's - in August 2014 - we sketched the churches of Wren's London.

London Urban Sketchers on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral
at the end of Pete Scully's Wren's Churches Sketchcrawl August 2014

On Saturday 25th April 2015, London Urban Sketchers are going to be sketching the part of the City of London around St Paul's Cathedral - down to the north bank of the Thames.

The view of where we're sketching from Tate Modern 7th floor
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Birds Eye View of the area around St Paul's Cathedral
right click and open in a new tab to see much larger version

Above is a top down view of the area - right click the image and open in a new tab to see what's there. The suggested boundaries of the area are:

• North: Paternoster Square, the London Stock Exchange and Christchurch Greyfriars Garden
• West: Ludgate Hill and the narrow allies between Ludgate Hill and Queen Victoria Street
• East: One New Change - this is a brand new shopping centre which is open on Sunday from 12:00. On the Roof Terrace (accessible via the lifts) there are great views right across London plus a really up close view of the top of St Paul's Cathedral
• South: The north bank of the River Thames and the Millennium Bridge - accessed via Peter's Hill - south of St Paul's - which has lots of views off either side of churches and alley ways.

Here's another view of the area - taken from the map near the City Information Centre across the road from the Main Entrance to St. Paul's

Map of the area around St Paul's Cathedral

What you can sketch

There's masses to choose from whatever type of sketching you like doing. Here are some suggestions

St Paul's Cathedral and Churchyard - lots of architecture from lots of different perspectives around and about. You can find great views of it from:

• Fleet Street and the bottom of Ludgate Hill looking up to the Cathedral

"Ludgate Hill - A block in the Street" by Gustave Doré- from London, A Pilgrimage, 1872
The view caught by Doré of the view up Ludgate Hill to St Paul's Cathdral.
It's a bit different now - but you could try sketching it!

• From Peter's Hill looking up from the Thames and the Millennium Bridge

The view of St Paul's from Peter's Hill walking up from the Millennium Bridge

• From the Churchyard - just looking up
• From the Roof Terrace of One New Change - where you can get a whole new perspective on the Dome.

I created "The Leaning Dome of St Paul's" the last time I sketched it
from the Roof Terrace!

You can also draw people just sitting the people sitting on the steps...

Take a walk down Peter's Hill to the Millennium Bridge

the view down Peter's Hill to the Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern

On the Millennium Bridge take a look at the view east up the Thames of The Shard and bridges over the Thames and, if you're lucky, the exposed shoreline complete with timber sticking up 

The view east from the Millennium Bridge
- of the tidal beach, the Shard and bridge along the Thames

Go below the Millennium Bridge and there's some great views to be had of Tate Modern. Trying to draw the Millennium Bridge is tricky from any angle!

The view of Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge from the north bank of the River Thames
below City of London School
Katherine Tyrrell

PLUS (excitement!!) we're also going to be able to sketch Shaun the Sheep ;) who is taking up residence in various guises in the City of London between now and the end of May. You'll be able to see

• one called 'Out of this World' Shaun at the City Information Centre, (- just to the south of St Paul's Churchyard) designed by Josh and Aimee Williams
• two more - 'Fine & Gandy' by David Gandy and 'Wolly Wiggle' by Zandra Rhodes - at One New Change

AND.....

If people are up for it we may just try a "Draw the Dome in 15 minutes Challenge" over lunch at the Roof Terrace!  You can of course just watch!

After the Sketchcrawl

You can add sketches to the

• London Urban Sketchers Facebook Group - please add them to the St Pauls Sketchcrawl Album https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.353603474837411&type=1

OR

• London Urban Sketchers Flickr Group Pool https://www.flickr.com/groups/usklondon-grouppool/

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

I'm not sketching much lately, but... (1)

I haven't been out on location drawing much in London recently, so ! haven't had much to post here on the blog. What I have been doing is a lot of printmaking, and some of these prints have been based on drawings I've done on location in London.
I thought it might be an idea to post some of the prints and their original drawings, for your interest.

Here's the first: a  drawing I made in 2010, joining  4 sheets of A4 paper to allow me to draw from my feet up to the clouds











Later I got round to making a woodcut of the image, cutting on two large pieces of  maple plywood and printing them together on a single sheet of Japanese paper 90cm long. Can you see the join?

I'm pleased to say that this print has just been accepted for the Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition in March 2014

I'm not sketching much lately, but... (1)

St Paul's Cathedral from Tate Modern

The City of London, St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge
from the Members Room, Tate Modern
11.5" x 16", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Members' Room at Tate Modern is on the sixth floor and provides stunning views of the City of London and the River Thames

You can see what I mean via this virtual tour of the Members Room At Tate Modern - complete view views

This sketch was done sat at one of the tables next to the windows looking out at the view. In the background is the dome and structure of St Paul's Cathedral. In the foreground is the City of London School and the Millennium Bridge.

One of the other attractive features of sketching from a position which is so high up is that you also get a brilliant perspective on some great clouds.

St Paul's Cathedral from Tate Modern

a South Bank Saturday stroll

Here are some happy campers. A few more sketches from my recent visit to London. People came from all over the UK to wait by the Thames for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant earlier this month, many bedding down on the banks of the river to be sure of seeing the flotilla pass by in the pouring rain. Long to rain over us, eh! Well it wasn't raining on the day before, when I strolled down the South Bank sketching, soaking in the excitement. I love a party with a happy atmosphere, as someone once said.

 

It was windy though, and that bunting on Southwark Bridge was taking a battering. I was fine, sheltered away from the breezes, but I couldn't block out the sound of a rather less-than-stellar street band playing in the tunnel behind me. I didn't want to put on my iPod headphones though, because it was nice to have little conversations with people as they passed.

  

This charming house is right next to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and after sketching I was surprised to learn that this is where London's great architect Sir Christopher Wren lived during the construction of St.Paul's!! Convenient location (except there was no Millennium Bridge in those days, so he probably took a ferry, or just sloshed over the muddy river in his boots).

And here is the Anchor, an old pub on Bankside, decked out for the Queen's big party. I sat for about an hour and drew this, finishing off much of the brickwork later on. I popped in to have a look around at the interior, but it was pretty busy, full of passing tourists, and so I decided against an interior sketch and went for a grilled halloumi sandwich at Borough Market instead (highly recommended!). I do love to sketch a London pub, on location. Though many are disappearing there are still so many out there, ready for us to draw (and we should, in case they do vanish, or become trendy). One flickr group I enjoy looking at is London Pubs, devoted to photos of pubs around the capital. (If you're interested here is my own Flickr set of pub drawings from London and elsewhere in the world). I would love to do an old London pub-sketch-crawl some time!
 
I am looking forward to seeing some other sketchers' London posts!

by Pete Scully

a South Bank Saturday stroll

Sketching people - on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral

One of the things I like to do is to find places in London where it's easy to practice life drawing ie sketching people - without having to pay the life models!  It's also a great way of getting people doing things naturally rather than those funny poses that life models like to strike at times!

The best way that I've found of finding people to draw is to sit somewhere that people tend to congregate and wait a while.  There's quite a few of those in London.

Sketching people on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral
11" x 8", pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

One of the best places to find people sitting and taking a "time out" is on the steps in front of St Paul's Cathedral.  Here's my sketch of people sat on the steps and done while I was sat at the top of the steps waiting for fellow Urban Sketcher Liz Steel (Liz and Borromini - from Sydney Australia).

Did I tell you how Urban Sketchers is also a great way to meet other sketchers from all over the world?

[Sketch first published in Sketching people on steps of St Pauls Cathedral in Travels with my Sketchbook] 

Sketching people - on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral