We drew on a summer evening near Tower Bridge - 7 August 2019

We met on Wednesday 7 August 2019 for an evening of sketching by the river.  It was good to be joined by so many people, including visitors to London as well as people who sketch with us regularly.  Many people tackled the challenge of drawing the changing city skyline.  Others drew passers by at this busy tourist spot, as well as the historic landmarks in this area.

The evening was run by Lis Watkins and Jo Dungey.

We drew on a summer evening near Tower Bridge - 7 August 2019

We drew at St Katharine Docks - July 2018

(Jo Dungey writes) What is it about sketchers and the weather? I have never run a sketchcrawl where people did not complain – too cold, too wet, too hot, too uncertain. When on Saturday 28 July 2018, we met to sketch at St Katharine Docks, near Tower Bridge, it was Too Windy. Sketches flew, pencils rolled, water bottles were tossed into the air.

I quite liked that the over-hot air which had hung over London was replaced by a cooler breeze. But I have come to see these complaints as a form of bragging. Each one of us is J M W Turner, lashed to the ship’s mast to paint the storm. We didn’t just paint the marina full of boats, the converted warehouses, the views across the River Thames. We overcame a sea of troubles and still presented an impressive range of sketches, as ever.

We don’t just have sketchbooks to show – each comes with a tale of triumph over adversity.  Congratulations all round.

Wild dogs tore my sketchbook, and it has the bite marks as proof. Did I ever tell you that story?

We drew at St Katharine Docks - July 2018

Tower bridge

I just returned home to the Netherlands from a lovely weekend in London. Our daughter presently studies for her Master at the Imperial College London, and we took the opportunity to visit her and the city as well.
I drew this sitting in front of the large windows of the 1st floor lobby of our hotel (hotel the Tower). I could rest my sore feet and have a nice Guinness while drawing this scene. Sometimes you have to make your luck.

Unfortunately the perfect weekend had a nasty ending: on our journey back in Brussels our backpack with all my travel sketching gear and one of my sketchbooks was stolen. This one is the only drawing left of the trip, it was packed in our suitcase.
Infuriating, it took years to assemble a comfortable sketching set, and now it's all gone.

Tower bridge

the pool of london

Just a couple of weeks now before I am back in London for a visit, so here is a drawing from a previous trip back to the capital, on a sub-zero day in December 2010. You may recall the huge blizzard we had that winter, when the snow stayed on the ground for nearly two weeks. Despite intense cold I still got out to draw as much as possible, and one gloomy afternoon I sat by the Thames, with ice covering the Embankment and frosty Thames air biting my fingers, and sketched HMS Belfast with The Tower and Tower Bridge behind it. The 'Pool of London' this area is called, a natural harbour in the river and much busier in centuries past. To this day, I still cannot look at Tower Bridge and not think of the old Thames Television logo with that memorable little jingle, right before 'Rainbow' or something would come on. My brother once told me that the big guns on the side of HMS Belfast facing north are targeting Scratchwood Services, on the M1 out past Mill Hill, because obviously that's where the big threats are coming from. I don't know if it's true, but it's a nice story.

by Pete Scully

the pool of london