Sheffield Folk Festival: SketchJamming

Here are a few of the sketches I did at The Shakespeare pub, SketchJamming with Les, during the Sheffield Folk Festival.

Everyone was so incredibly friendly and very interested to see how they had turned out in the sketches. The smiling man above invited us to be Artists-in-Residence at another folk festival that he organises in September!

I really enjoy sketching to music: it really seems to help the creative process. Folk music works well too, as at least some of the musicians stay pretty still, so you're in with a chance!

Ediburgh Festival SketchBook

I took a little A6 sketchbook to the Edinburgh Festival this year, to record what I could as I went along. I was only there for a day and a half, including the time I was actually working, but it took 4 hours each way on the train, so plenty of people-sketching time:

Here are the drawings I did on my way: 

Here are some I did during my time at the actual festival (you can see more and read all about it on my main blog post):

And here are some I did on the way home again:

Gala Day pics

Though I took my camera to the NCBF Gala Day, I forgot to get it out, so I've had to wait for other people's pictures.

This is a nice one of Julia Jarman and I, signing after our event. Love the face painting, especially that cute tiger!

"D'ya know what it is yet..?"

Here is Julia, leading the pirate singing, during our Class Three all at Sea storytelling:

While she was doing that, I was unfortunately looking like this:

Edinburgh Festival with Julia Jarman

If you read my blog on the festival, you will remember that my camera died almost immediately, so I got very few pics. Fortunately, Tom Breslin, husband of author Theresa Breslin and a friend of Julia Jarman, took photos.


This is us on stage, as the audience are let into the theatre. Doesn't Julia make a dashing pirate?

When the event finishes, you are taken to the festival bookshop, where you do your signing. This is also a lovely opportunity to chat to people who enjoyed the show enough to buy a book.


You only hope you're not unlucky enough to be signing on the next table to someone like Julia Donaldson: every author/illustrator will at some time suffer the humiliation of sitting like a lemon, trying to look busy, while their more famous neighbour slogs through a queue stretching 3 times round the block!


As you can see though, Julia and I had a great time, as we always do when we perform together. We are both as giddy as each other.

Thanks Tom!