The magic of Bank

           Through the Looking Glass. Pencil 149 x 210 mm

On the way to a Life class in Bethnal Green, I thought I'd kill time on Bank westbound platform (as you do) because it was less crowded than the other one. Bank has it's charm as it has a totally curved platform but there isn't a long enough sweep to get a cool drawing. However, if you stand just inside the connecting tunnel, a whole new wobbly world opens up.

The magic of Bank

White lion street

With this sketch, I experimented a bit more and has taken it to print room. In order to preserve sketch quality, I used a mix of dry point and monoprint - but didn't post the results here, as it obviously wasn't done on location! Here's the link.

White lion street

London's Urban Sketchers at the BBC

Richard Coles: his desk is tidier than it looks

I was invited to BBC Broadcasting House in central London this weekend to take part in Radio 4's Saturday Live, to talk, along with Manchester-based artist Simone Ridyard, about urban sketching and the sketchcrawl phenomenon. Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl fame, environmental activist Laurens de Groot and I sat around the table with the presenters Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir for 90 minutes to be gently grilled.

Simone and I spoke with Aasmah about what urban sketching is all about and the joys of drawing together in sketchcrawls. After it had ended (about 15 minutes into the programme if you follow the link below), I stayed on to draw the scene in the studio. One of these drawings, of Tracey and Laurens (although you wouldn't recognise them), is shown on the programme's website as a time-lapse sequence: over in just a minute. It also includes a gallery of images by London's Urban Sketchers.

Behind the scenes

The time flashed by. It was an insight to see the presenters Richard and Aasmah put us guests at ease and keep the atmosphere light — there was lots of lively conversation around the table during prerecorded segments, to the extent you almost forgot when you were on air and when you weren't. At the end we each signed a visitors' book that will be auctioned off in aid of Children in Need, posed for a photograph together and headed back through the new building. A different BBC radio station plays in each lift. On the pavement outside, a group of autograph hunters waited for Tracey.

Listen to the programme here. We're interviewed about 15 minutes in.

London's Urban Sketchers at the BBC

The Shenkman Bar at the RA

I was invited to a Bloggers' Evening Preview of "Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined" at the Royal Academy of Arts on Thursday.

After visiting the Kurt Jackson exhibition (closes 1 February) at The Redfern Gallery and Messums, I made my way past the gallery desert which now fills the eastern side of Cork Street (see this week's Guardian article - Galleries are forced out of their historic London home) and through the Burlington Arcade to the RA.

I filled the gap between the gallery closing and the bloggers preview starting with a cup of tea in the new Shenkman Bar in the basement of the former Keepers House.

At last - a comfy seat to sit down on and have a cup of tea - and a sketch - have returned to the RA!

I much preferred the black leather sofas in the former Friends Room but the banquettes are infinitely preferable to the hard seats in the current Friends Room. Lots of opportunities too for people sketching.

The Shenkman Bar at the RA
pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook
© Katherine Tyrrell

It's worth taking a sketchbook to the "Sensing Spaces" exhibition.  It's quite unlike anything else I've ever seen at the RA. Ostensibly about architecture it nonetheless seems to be about very large sculptural installations.  See images on my blog post on Making A Mark which follows later today.

The Shenkman Bar at the RA

Tuesday Night Geek Club

Costa, Gt Marlborough St W1. Pencil and watercolour 149 x 210 mm

The romance of intellectual artists gathering for meaningful discussion over a book and a newspaper, has been replaced by groups of laptops, all too eager to communicate their world view to anyone with a charger. But I was only there for observational reasons, and a medium latte.

Tuesday Night Geek Club

Around Covent Garden

James Hobbs, Neal's Yard, Covent Garden

I agree with Nathan: I enjoyed Sunday's sketchcrawl in Covent Garden also, and the exhibition at the new Timberyard cafe on Upper St Martin's Lane looks great. Congratulations to Adebanji, Nathan, Lis, Olha and Evelyn, and thanks to Darren for inviting us to show there.

Around Covent Garden

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!