Drawn of the Dead

One thing I enjoy is drawing movie locations - the more obscure the better. Of course in London there's plenty to discover. I'm also a big fan of Simon Pegg, so with Halloween on the way, I thought it would be a good time to finally sketch some locations from seminal Zom-Com ("zombie comedy") Shaun of the Dead.
When I moved into the Haringay area 10 months ago, I was excited to learn that a lot of the Shaun movie was shot near where I now live. The one that grabbed my attention was Shaun's house itself, a few streets away from Crouch End Broadway. The street features in two great identical long takes of Shaun walking from his house to the shop and back, the first time when things are normal, the second when the zombie outbreak has begun.

there's a different gate now...

There were no zombies in sight when I started sketching, but I did feel a bit odd to be drawing a purely residential view with no obvious landmark or attraction - still, no one looked twice at what I was doing. It started raining by the end, but I persevered under an umbrella.

The most well known location of the movie is The Winchester, which in actual fact was filmed down in South London, in New Cross, coincidentally near where I previously used to live. However, I was intrigued to discover the real Winchester pub on Archway Road, less than 5 minutes from my current house. Although no filming was done here, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost used to be regulars and it was here the idea for the film was born.

Built in 1881, I especially love the original iron scrollwork above the door. The pub's been closed for a few years now it seems, but lately there's been signs of its ...re-animation ...ha ha ha ..sorry, zombie joke. Anyway, yes, over the summer, there was some concerted building work going on with the 'luxury' flats above, the brickwork was all cleaned, and the pub was given a brand new paintjob. While I was there sketching, I could see some activity inside, suggesting it's grand re-opening is imminent. I'll probably pop in for a pint to see what it's like, although no doubt the days of Frost and Pegg drinking in the corner are long gone...

Drawn of the Dead

Let's Draw Blackheath followup

I've been away on my holidays recently so I didn't get chance to scan my drawings from the last sketchcrawl until now. Thanks to all those who came to the Blackheath sketchcrawl - the weather wasn't too promising but it stayed dry, if a little chilly, and there was even some sunny spells. It was also nice to meet new people and get the chance to find out a bit about everyone, which can be difficult sometimes when it's a larger group.

Blackheath is such a big, flat, open space that it can be quite challenging to capture on the page. Instead I tried to focus on details or look at the architecture. There's also still a nice village feel to Blackheath, but on a slightly grander scale.

During the course of the day we had about 25 sketchers - special thanks to those who came from outside of London! As ever, if you want to share your drawings from the day, you can find the London group pool over at Flickr.

Now that summer is over it's only going to get colder, so make sure you wrap up for the next one, in Chelsea, on the banks of the Thames. Personally I'm looking forward to sketching the Royal Chelsea Hospital, which is an amazing building, founded in 1682 no less.

Let's Draw Blackheath followup

Let's Draw Blackheath - Saturday 5th September

Hello everyone - here are the details for Saturday's coming sketchcrawl.

Blackheath in London

 The Start

Meet 11.30am - in the car park next to Blackheath Railway Station.

For most people, the train or car will be the best way to arrive into Blackheath, so this seems the easiest meeting spot - it's not normally too busy, but just look for the people clutching sketchbooks.
If you're coming from Central London then it will be immediately adjacent to the platform you alight from. If coming in from further South, then you'll have to go up the stairs to cross over.

What with the bank holiday weekend just gone, I'm sure I don't have to remind you to bring an umbrella, but still, this being England, it's good to expect the worst. It might be rainy, it'll probably be cold and a bit windy.

Blackheath tends to get lumped in with Greenwich because they're so close, but there's actually plenty to explore by itself. However, for those who haven't already seen it, it would be worth the walk over to Greenwich Park on the other side of the heath, for the city skyline view from the Royal Observatory, simply because it is magnificent, and if you're an animal lover, there's also the deer park.

If the weather proves too much, there's plenty of coffee shops, pubs and tea rooms to sit in and sketch some people or interiors.

Braving the elements there's the heath, with lots of interesting views, kite flying, and the dramatic solitary presence of All Saints Church. I also hope to show you some of the less obvious sights, including a few impressive vistas and intriguing architecture hidden down some of the side roads in the area.

Lunch

Lunchbreak will be at the Princess of Wales, overlooking the Heath, at 1.30pm. Family friendly and spacious, with a decent pub food menu, however don't feel obliged to eat lunch here; if you prefer you can find somewhere else or bring your own  to eat on the heath should it be sunny enough, this is merely a gathering point for those of you who want to, with outside and indoor options.

The End

We will end outside All Saints Church at 4pm,  for a chance to show sketches, catch up and take some photos.

As always, the event is FREE and open to all, don't forget your pencils!

Look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Let's Draw Blackheath - Saturday 5th September

sketchcrawling around Hampstead

On Saturday we had our now monthly sketchcrawl; June's location was Hampstead, North London!
Thanks to everyone who came - with each event now I seem to meet more and more new people joining us for the first or second time, which is great - apologies if I didn't get chance to speak to you all, but I hope everyone had fun. Please upload your sketches to our group on Flickr if you want to - it's always inspiring to see everyone's different styles and interpretations.



It was a somewhat grey, chilly start to the day, but the rain just about held off, and by the end there was even some sun. I ended up getting an early tea at our lunch spot - the Buttery café, and staying there to finish my drawing.

the outside area of The Buttery, at the Hampstead Museum

 After warming up inside and seeing something of what others had been drawing, I headed off to see a bit of the heath.

Hampstead is a beautiful area, not only the heath (the most famous reason for going) but the neighbourhood itself - although it doesn't feel quite so rural and far removed from London as it did in Constable's and Keats' time, it still retains something of the peaceful village atmosphere, with its genteel houses, cobbled streets and abundant greenery. So it was nice to spend time walking around admiring the streets that normally I only have time to rush along going from A to B.
Perhaps I did too much admiring and not enough drawing, as I only got 3 sketches done, but that's the problem - there's a lot to take in.

On my way back from the heath, I came across Daphne Du Maurier's house, which I'll have to come back and sketch another time, as I spent too much time looking at the Affordable Art Fair (which cost a rather unaffordable £15 to go in), and all too quickly it was time to get back for the finish.

Just some of the sketches done on the day 

Thanks to all of you that attended, and I hope to see you again soon! The next sketchcrawl will be a summer holiday! - a daytrip to Oxford, for anyone that fancies it, we'll be joining forces with the urban sketchers of Oxford as the finale of their annual workshop - keep an eye on the blog for a post from Isabel with further information; briefly - Saturday July 11th, 11am outside the Museum of Oxford. It's free to take part, as ever, but you will have to make your own way there and back I'm afraid - trains run regularly from Paddington, and there's also the "Oxford tube" coach service running from Marble Arch.

See you there!

sketchcrawling around Hampstead

Let's Draw Hampstead - 13th June 2015

Hampstead Heath, by Nathan B

WHERE:  Hampstead village and heath

WHEN:    Saturday 13th June 2015

START:    11:00am at the alleyway in Flask Walk, near Hampstead Tube

LUNCH:   1:30pm at The Buttery Café, Hampstead Museum - we can grab some food, share our sketches, and snap a group photo

END:        3:30pm - back at the flat traffic island between Flask Walk and Well Walk, opposite Hampstead Museum - to have a look at more sketches and take any more photos, with the option of retiring to the nearby Flask pub, or a cup of tea at the Buttery café!

TRAVEL: Hampstead Tube Station (Northern Line, Edgware branch)

MAP: 

• Hampstead and surrounding area on Google Maps (with above locations marked)
• City of London Map of Hampstead Heath

Organiser: Nathan Brenville (please leave any queries as comments on this post or on the Facebook Event Page)

John Constable's House, Well Walk, by Katherine Tyrrell

Click on  map above to see a specially created map with the timings and locations of the sketchcrawl as well as other interesting locations - use the menu to click on each point to find out more information. Thanks to Katherine for doing the map.

For those of you interested in sketching on the heath itself, there's also a detailed map here of points of interest.

If you do want to draw on the heath, it's worth noting that it's pretty big to say the least (!) so you may not want to trek all the way back to meet at lunchtime at the museum - this is perfectly fine, we can always catch up at the end at 3.30 instead.

Additionally, if you don't want to do a lot of walking, it may be best to choose either Hampsead village OR Hampstead Heath rather than attempting both, but it's up to you!

Hopefully June means that it's a fairly safe bet that the weather will be fine, but in England who knows! Hampstead Heath is fairly lacking in shelter, other than trees!

As always, it's free to join, you just need to bring your own sketching materials... and perhaps an umbrella and/or suncream.

Hope to see you all soon!

Boating Pond, Hampstead Heath, by Katherine Tyrrell

Let's Draw Hampstead - 13th June 2015

Urban Sketchers go to Silvertown (part 2)

Isabelle Laliberté, Millennium Mills

As James said in his post below, it's hard to put your finger on the appeal of places like Millennium Mills: a vast area of broken stone and glass, weeds, graffiti, and emptiness. Perhaps because they are modern-day ruins, if that isn't an oxymoron. Like visiting Rome for example; it's startling to come upon huge sections of a city that were so obviously important and full of life at one point, now abandoned and crumbling, but with an added shock value that rather than belonging to a distant bygone age, it has occurred within our own lifetimes - the Royal Victoria Docks only finally closed in 1981.

Nathan Brenville

Originally built in 1905, Millennium Mills was partially destroyed first by the infamous "Silvertown Explosion" of a munitions factory in the First World War, 1917, and then again in the Second World War, by German bombing. As you can just make out in my sketch above, the building was rebuilt both times - on the left in 1954, and on the right it says 1933. What attracted me to drawing it was that the building was now such a wreck - the company didn't really have much luck, did it?

Olha Pryymak, sketchbook pages

Sue Pownall, Powerful

Olha Pryymak, sketchbook pages

BBC "Ashes to Ashes" - silo D in the background

The area is not only popular with us sketchers and the location scouts for film and tv, but with "urban explorers", who are, I suppose, similar to urban sketchers but without the pencils, (and with a slightly more reckless attitude to going into places they're not supposed to go) - a quick Google reveals a wealth of photos from inside, on top of and around the Silvertown site that are well worth a look.

Isabelle Laliberté, Grain Silo D

Sue Pownall, Silo D

On the far side of the site, with a stretch of water separating it from the Mill, is an intriguing and large section of open land, which from what I can gather was approximately where the munitions factory was in 1917 before it caused London's biggest ever explosion. I suppose after that they must have rebuilt something on there, but you'd be forgiven for thinking they'd just left it, as rubble and rubbish lies strewn around all over the place, and not much else, except for the odd looking "Dome". Maybe it was supposed to echo the Millennium Dome (which can be seen in the distance) but at any rate it is the most recent addition to the landscape - used as a pop-up cinema during the Olympics.

Nathan Brenville, Weird Dome Thing

Capturing the changes at this site will be an interesting experience, and one I hope we can involve many more sketchers in over the next few years, getting different styles and perspectives as redevelopment continues. It seems to be a similar project to Kings Cross, which when I first arrived in London in 2001 struck me as a desolate, bleak, industrial shell of a place, but is now (rather successfully, I would say) completely regenerated. Seeing the redevelopment that's already occurred in the Silvertown area and the space (unusual in London) for new buildings, I'd say it's a safe bet that it will gradually become much more popular in future.

Urban Sketchers go to Silvertown (part 2)

Top Marx All Round!

Today is apparently Karl Marx's birthday (born 1818), so I thought I would post some sketches from my recent visit to Highgate Cemetery, where he is famously interred.

Above is his monument, normally where all the visitors flock to, although only a few came to take photos while I was sat here drawing, probably due to it being a very cold and blustery day despite the sun. He, of course, isn't buried here, but rather somewhere more discreet, further down the hill, beneath a very modest and plain headstone, beside his wife, amongst hundreds of identical headstones, as befits a man who preached equality - he in fact specifically requested that there be no monuments erected to him upon his death. As you can see, his wishes were ignored.

Actually, I hadn't gone to see Marx myself, but Douglas Adams, author of "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which I'd just finished reading. I was reading it because several months previously I'd visited Highgate Cemetery for the first time and saw his grave and thought "Ah, I have his book on my shelf at home, I must re-read it!". I'd been a big fan of his books when I was a teenager but couldn't remember much about them, so reacquainting myself with his unique and hilarious style of writing was a real pleasure. 

I've since moved into the Highgate area, and it's now just a short walk for me across the beautiful Waterlow Park to reach the cemetery, so upon finishing the book, I decided to pay him a return visit to thank him for his literary gifts to the world. He characteristically said nothing, of course, owing to the fact that he's dead, but I took his silence to mean that he understood my reasons for being there, that he was pleased and humbled, and that really he had a much better spot than the Karl Marx bust anyway, so he was quite alright, thank you very much.
But then again, it might just've been the wind.

Top Marx All Round!

Drawing at the British Museum

Above: I should point out that the mummy Tamut was actually a priest's daughter, not a temple singer; I confused my mummies there.

Sometimes when you go around a museum, the visitors are just as interesting as the exhibits. As someone who always feels a bit self-concious drawing strangers up close and personal, being in a museum is the perfect alibi to do so undetected. You can stand by a display (preferably with your back to a wall, as people are always nosey and look over your shoulder) and sketch out the scene in front of you. Whenever someone interesting comes along to look at the artefact, I immediately start incorporating them. Normally they're too engrossed to notice, but if they do look up, I just go back to drawing the actual object, or details of the room. An added bonus is that people tend to stay still slightly longer than they would if just walking around in the street, so you have more time to capture their pose.

When I wasn't drawing, I was browsing around the museum, and I came across a rather different example of urban sketching - in the Napoleon exhibition there was displayed several watercolour sketches done by an anonymous (and, as the British Museum put it) "accomplished amateur artist" of the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo. The surrounding villages are shown, a typical scene almost, if not for the wounded troops making their way through, while in the background, naked corpses lie, stripped of valuables and abandoned. 

The drawings are dated 2 days after the battle, but the sketchbook itself ended up in an attic in Ireland and was not found again until the 20th century.

I find it oddly gratifying to see evidence of so-called "amateurs" in action throughout the ages; people inspired by events around them to get out their sketchbooks and record it as best they can. Sometimes, as in this case, they end up being valuable historical documents, but I don't believe that was the goal, nor should it be. Simply that by observing, we are able to make sense of things a little better. And that for me seems like a good enough reason for being a little less self-concious and to start sketching more!

Drawing at the British Museum

Drawings Events Happening Soon

Hello everyone,

there are a couple of sketchcrawls/group drawing sessions both minor and major happening in the next few weeks - please feel free to come along to any or all of them!

Saturday June 28th - Brimmington Park Festival,  Peckham (near Old Kent Road)
In conjunction with the Drawing London on Location Group we'll be milling around the area making sketches of this small and vibrant community festival, and encouraging people to display their sketchbooks at our stall.
For more info, see http://www.meetup.com/Drawing-London-on-Location/events/189312502/
and http://www.brimmington-green.co.uk/

Monday, July 7th - Tour De France
It's likely to be very crowded so meeting up may prove difficult, so instead we're encouraging sketchers to find convenient spots along the route, all the way from the borders of Essex to Buckingham Palace and then share your drawings of the cyclists, the spectators etc on our Flickr group, or on Twitter with the hashtag: #drawdefrance
If you do want to try meeting up with our correspondents, Lis Watkins will be at the Fan Park not far from the finish line, in Green Park, central London for most of the afternoon, and Evelyn Rowland will be covering the Waterworks Roundabout in Waltham Forest around 2pm, whilst Katherine Tyrrell will be in the Westfield/Stratford area. Leave a comment or email the general email address for their contact details.
For more info see https://www.tfl.gov.uk/campaign/tour-de-france-2014


Saturday 12th July - 44th Worldwide Sketchcrawl - Portobello Road
In conjunction with both the USK Oxford Workshop and the Drawing London on Location meetup.com group, we hope this will be a big one! Join us in the Notting Hill area for some outdoor summer sketching!
More details here: http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=11882

We will be posting reminders nearer the time

See you soon!

Drawings Events Happening Soon

Old Street to Shoreditch Sketchcrawl photos!

Thanks to everyone who came yesterday. I thought the end of May we would have been fairly safe with the weather but no - so sorry it was a bit wet and windy at times!

It was good to see the sun out at the Barbican at least - I spotted a fair few people from the group outside making the most of it!

Check out the incredible variety of people's works on display below, and for those of you who haven't already, you can also post your sketchcrawl drawings in the Flickr group if you would like to share.

Watch out for announcements here on the blog about more drawing get-togethers for the end of June and beginning of July.

Old Street to Shoreditch Sketchcrawl photos!

Drawings London on Location - Sketching Soho exhibition - Cinnamon Soho

I recently drew a picture for inclusion in a new exhibition at Cinnamon Soho, a modern and popular Indian restaurant near Carnaby Street. The exhibition, curated by Cristiana Bottigella, is a showcase of members of the 'Drawing London on Location' Meetup.com group. There's a lot of overlap between the Drawing London on Location group and Urban Sketchers, and it's worth signing up if you're hungry for more sketchcrawls, as their focus is on regular meet-ups (hence Meetup.com!).

I chose this viewpoint mainly for my vested interests as an animator; I was fascinated by the green building, which used to be Richard Williams' studio for many years, a pinnacle of the British animation industry. On the other side is just visible the red brick of St Patrick's Catholic church, which I also wanted to include for its attractive architecture. In the middle of the square is a statue of Charles II, carved when he was alive, and placed there when the area was first built (and originally named after him as King Square). However, I've still no idea what the odd Tudor-looking hut is for.

The Drawing London on Location exhibition is up from 27th April until 6th September, and takes 'Sketching Soho' as its theme, and features the work of over 20 different artists. You can find Cinnamon Soho at 5 Kingly Street.

Drawings London on Location - Sketching Soho exhibition - Cinnamon Soho

South East London sketching and exhibition

On Saturday I went to a sketchcrawl in my local area of New Cross and Deptford. The day started bright and sunny but within ten minutes of meeting, the rain started.
But for those of us who braved the weather, Deptford is an overlooked area in South East London with a fascinating history and plenty of rewarding places to sketch.

On Saturday there's a lot of markets around, from fish in the high street to a sort of jumble sale outside the Albany building.

Market outside the Albany Building, Deptford

interesting characters at the market

The sketchcrawl was organised through Meetup.com group Drawing London on Location, who have regular meetings each month. This one was a little different in that the aim is to put on a showcase of everyone's sketches - so everyone interested in taking part in a "pop-up exhibition" can pay £1 towards covering the cost of hiring space in New Cross. 

These kind of temporary communal exhibitions are a great way of bringing together (in a "real" rather than just online forum) the huge and diverse talent of sketchers the majority of whose work usually stays confined to sketchbooks. Hopefully we'll see more of these kind of showcases in future.

For those of you who were put off by the weather forecast there'll be a second crawl this coming Saturday (22nd Feb), and drawings done from either day will then be displayed March 8th-9th, at Hart's Lane Studios, New Cross.
For more information, see the event details at Drawing London On Location

South East London sketching and exhibition

Urban Sketchers Exhibition Private View

On Wednesday evening we had a little gathering downstairs at Timberyard Seven Dials to celebrate the opening of our exhibition there. Around 70 people came along to see the work of Adebanji Alade, Lis Watkins, Evelyn Rowland, Olha Pryymak and Nathan Brenville, and to chat to some of London's Urban Sketchers themselves. As well as the five featured artists and their work, we screened 2 short films- one a profile of Adebanji, and the other an animation I made last year about my inspirations for sketching London. We also had a slideshow of sketches by regular Flickr group contributors Francesca Albini, Shih Jhih-Ren, Owen Mathers, and Dawn Painter, and all of the contributors to this blog: Katherine, Barry, Pete, Zhenia, James. Lis also brought in a collection of her sketchbooks to view.

Thanks to everyone who came, and again to Darren for the help in organising it!
There's a nice review of the show here by Inspiring City.

Urban Sketchers Exhibition Private View

Sunday sketchcrawling!

Thanks to everyone who came out for our drawing day on Sunday, it was great to see you all!

For January we were pretty lucky with the weather, but nevertheless it was nice being inside and looking out!

The thing I enjoy most about these sketchcrawls is seeing everyone's different styles and approaches to drawing the same subjects, so if you were there and feel like sharing, you can do so in our Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/usklondon-grouppool/

There's already a few up there of Sunday's sketches from Lis and Evelyn, so check them out.

After downing a few coffees in Timberyard, we headed off to Neal's Yard, and there was even some sunshine to encourage us to try some outdoor sketching, before retreating into another nearby coffee shop to keep warm.
From Neal's Yard, we headed down to Trafalgar Square and finished with some sketches outside the National Gallery.


Here's my day's sketching.

Look out for another sketchcrawl around mid-March ! See you then.

Sunday sketchcrawling!

Urban Sketchers London Exhibition!

We're very excited to have an exhibition of London urban sketching officially opening tomorrow as part of the launch of the brand new branch of Timberyard coffeeshop.
Work from Lis Watkins, Adebanji Alade, Evelyn Rowland, Olha Pryymak and myself (Nathan Brenville) will be on display from Friday 17th January at Timberyard Seven Dials, 7 Upper St Martin's Lane, Covent Garden, London.
It's open til late, so if you fancy a coffee after work/dinner, pop in and check out some of our sketches!

Evelyn finishes hanging her work

As mentioned in the previous post, to celebrate the opening, we'll be meeting in Timberyard Seven Dials this coming Sunday for coffee and sketching, before working our way around a few other tea and coffee establishments in the local area.

The exhibition will be up for a couple of months. Timberyard will also be hosting a 2nd exhibition of Urban Sketchers London from mid-March onwards featuring a whole new set of artists and artworks!

Please go and see for yourself! Let us know what you think in the comments section or twitter: @UrbSketchLondon

Urban Sketchers London Exhibition!

Draw: Covent Garden on January 19th 2014

Happy New Year everyone!
I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas holiday.

In two weeks time Urban Sketchers London will be launching our second group exhibition (our first was at Foyles bookshop in Summer 2012). If you're based in the Old Street/Farringdon area, you may already know Timberyard coffeeshop. Well, they have a new branch, due to open in Seven Dials, Covent Garden on January 16th, and our artwork will be adorning their walls! This will be followed by more of our works going on display later at the Old Street branch of Timberyard too.
We'll be posting more details about the shows very soon, but to celebrate the Covent Garden show, we'll be convening on Sunday 19th January at Timberyard for some coffee and sketching, and we'd love it if you could join us!

Because the end of January is usually the coldest time of year, we thought it might be a good plan to try and stay indoors as much as possible. So we'll be meeting in Timberyard at 11am on Sunday 19th January. The address is 7 Upper St Martin's Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9DL and we'll probably stick around for a coffee and some sketching before working our way over to the Espresso Bar inside the National Gallery.

The unpredictability of the weather means the schedule will have to be flexible - if there's rain or snow it may delay or speed up the route but the basic plan is to head along the quieter streets via a few other cafés to keep warm. Whatever happens, sketching will occur!

The end point will be the espresso bar in the National Gallery where we can hopefully do a final bit of sketching, have a look at other people's work and show off yours (if you want to!). We won't be going round the Gallery itself, unless, as I say, the weather forces us there early. If you do want to draw in the Gallery, bear in mind they only allow pencils (although you should get away with fineliners) - watercolours, oil paint, anything messy won't be looked upon kindly by the staff. Just a warning. Fingers crossed for the weather!!

If you can't find us on the day, you can give me a ring on 07796-210385

Draw: Covent Garden on January 19th 2014

Sketching day 5th October in the East End

Hello everyone.
On Saturday the 5th October at 12.00 noon there'll be a few of us urban sketchers outside the Museum of Childhood (right next to Bethnal Green tube station) and we will be meandering our way over to the Geffrye Museum (by Hoxton overground station), sketching anything interesting along the way. It would be great if you could join us!
The route is about one and a half miles but there will be plenty of stop offs. Last entry (entry is free) to the Geffrye Museum is at 4pm, so we aim to get there before then, hopefully more like around 3pm.

Start point: Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green

If you want to look around the Childhood Museum before we leave, it would be best to arrive before 12, as we will set off not long after. There's a couple of historical spots and the like along the route, but mostly it's about exploring and seeing what takes our interest!

One other thing, if you have one of those lightweight portable folding chairs, it might be an idea to bring it along, as there may not be a great deal of places to sit and sketch.

Everyone is welcome, so invite as many people as you like, and don't forget to bring your sketchbook and pencils!

Hope to see you there!

Sketching day 5th October in the East End

Tate to Tate Sketchers!

Thanks to the small but dedicated bunch of sketchers that came down Friday last week to join me on my walk from the Tate Modern to the Tate Britain. Although the weather looked ominous to begin with, it soon brightened up into a warm and sunny afternoon.

I think the most interesting sight along the route was that of construction workers dangling from the rafters of the Blackfriars railway bridge, like giant orange bats. It was quite unusual and I'm glad we all got the opportunity to sketch it.

We also got a special guest appearance from Urban Sketcher James Hobbs, who happened to be cycling by and spotted us!

I chose to focus on smaller details of scenes to try and get more done, as it's quite a pressure when you have to keep moving. Even with our relaxed pace, I found it quite difficult to capture as much as I wanted.

I think I'll have to draw some more people next time too!

Not everyone could stay 'til the finishline, but a few of us were able to sit down and have a very pleasant drink and compare sketchbooks at the end. 

Thanks everyone! and I'm looking forward to doing something similar again soon. Details will be posted on here!

Tate to Tate Sketchers!