Mummy

British Museum, the Egyptian department. Above a real mummy on display. It's awkward to realise that this was a person real and alive about 3000 years ago. And now thousands of people, coming from countries he never knew existed, come to look at his remains.
I also sketched a nice model of the gifts the ancient Egypts buried in their graves, two beautiful and intricately detailed models of riverboats. The realistic pose and detailing of the boatsmen is stunning.

Mummy

Oil Sketching at night in London

This year I tried out something really weird, I tried oil sketching at night, I had done this in Bath and done a sketch of Tower Bridge at night with watercolours but I hadn't done them in oils. All these were done on  location with oils on board. The size of the board is 10" x 8". I use a head lamp and I always make sure there is a Street lamp or artificial light from somewhere around before I can make a set up at a particular Scene. It's really great painting at night as the light doesn't change. One has to be a great risk taker with the colours as they sometimes appear different when taken indoors under a different light source.

ROYAL COURT THEATRE AT NIGHT

Royal Court Theatre At Night, Oil on Board, 10" x 8", 2012

Royal Court Theatre At Night-Adebanji at work

Royal Court Theatre At Night-The Scene and the set-up

TRAFALGAR SQUARE DURING THE OLMPICS AT NIGHT

Trafalgar Square at Night during the Olympics, 20" x 8", Oil on Board, 2012

Trafalgar Square at Night during the Olympics-Adebanji at work

Trafalgar Square at Night during the Olympics-The Scene and the set-up

Oil Sketching at night in London

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

Urban Sketchers London - Sketchcrawl 3

Come and sketch with us! We'll be taking in the sights of the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and, weather permitting, the surrounding area. The Natural History Museum has an ice rink in the winter months, so should provide something different to draw, while the exterior of the museums themselves have fascinating architecture, not to mention the endless stream of tourists that even the cold can't keep away.
The nearest tube is South Kensington, and we're starting at 11am, inside the main entrance of the Natural History Museum - the big, grand Central Hall (the one with the big dinosaur skeleton). Don't forget your pencils!

Urban Sketchers London - Sketchcrawl 3

Blues dancing in Hackney

I was booked recently to play music for a group of blues dancers at the Hackney Picturehouse. Before the set, the dancers strutted their stuff to a selection of great tracks played by a DJ. Their was just time for me to draw on a double page of my sketchbook. A glass of Sngiovese provided refreshment and a handy way to get the Inktense pencil to give up some strong black tone

Blues dancers - Inktense pencil and  wine A3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blues dancing in Hackney

Royal Observatory, Greenwich: west meets east

James Hobbs, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London

It was a good day at Greenwich on Saturday for the latest London sketchcrawl, excellently organised by Nathan to the extent that even the weather was perfect (how did he do that?). Old friends, new friends and plenty to draw: a great combination. 

James Hobbs, Astronomy Centre, Greenwich, London

I headed up the hill in the park, past the Olympic equestrian stadium, which still stands for now, to the Observatory. The view, as drawn by Katherine Tyrrell and many of the others, was remarkable in its clarity, but I turned to the closer architectural features of the astronomical buildings, old and new.

James Hobbs, Peter Harrison Planetarium, Greenwich, London

I'm going to be back to Greenwich soon with the family. Drawing this planetarium and not going in was a struggle — I was keen to get down to the bottom of the hill to see the work of the other artists. You can see more at the London Urban Sketchers Flickr group.

Royal Observatory, Greenwich: west meets east

Down By The River - Greenwich Sketchcrawl

Sketchers at the start point on Saturday morning

If you passed through the Cutty Sark DLR station at 11a.m. on Saturday, you would have been hard pressed to miss the large group of sketchers gathered there for the start of the 2nd Urban Sketchers London sketchcrawl. All in all, over 50 people showed up to draw Greenwich on a beautiful sunny day. I should say thanks to the Drawing London on Location group on Meetup.com for helping spread the word. It was very inspiring meeting so many talented artists with so many diverse styles and approaches, and I'm only sorry I didn't get to see more of other people's work and watch everyone in action. 

Although I love Greenwich Park, and am excited to see it open again (at least, most of it is) after the Olympics, I knew I'd be spending most of my time around the waterfront - with both the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and the Cutty Sark ship recently being unveiled from beneath the scaffolding and boards they've been shrouded in for the past year or two, this area feels quite fresh and new to me, and I was keen to get acquainted with it.
I managed the above and started on a view of the Foot Tunnel before lunch came - fortunately I didn't have far to go, our midway point was right where I was sitting!

Sketchers gather for lunch and to see each other's work

By the time I finished this drawing I realised I was running out of time, so I hurriedly made my way past Greenwich Pier and into the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, where the sight of this tree attracted me. Because I felt I had to be quicker with this one, I deliberately cropped my sketch to this narrow column, which actually proved fun - I think I may experiment with more oddly shaped compositions in future rather than the usual 'picture frame' shape.



The last picture I did was a quick sketch of Goddard's Pie & Mash shop. I was fond of the original, which I have also sketched in the past, although the site is now Gourmet Burger Kitchen; earlier this year they reopened in a different location, and I felt I should try and draw this new establishment too.

For lunch I bought a takeaway single pie and mash here, however I didn't get to enjoy it as it was pilfered by an ambitious pigeon when my back was turned. 

 
There was just time to get to the end point for 4pm at the park gates where we had a group photo taken by Osman, a photographer for local paper the News Shopper.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to have a good look at everyone's artwork when it was laid out, as it was pretty crowded, so I hope I get to see more on the Flickr group for those who feel like posting their work (there's already a lot of great stuff up there!). I always find it hugely inspiring to see the different ways in which people tackle the same or similar subjects.

Thank you to everyone who came along for making it a success, I look forward to meeting you all again on future crawls!

Down By The River - Greenwich Sketchcrawl