SCBWI Conference - a Journey in Pictures

I recently did a long train journey, down to Winchester, to spend the weekend at the SCBWI conference. Here's what I drew.

First leg - 1hr on the 15.23 from Sheffield to Birmingham:

Changing at Birmingham onto the 17.03 (except it's running 25 minutes late):


On the way back it's a mad dash and I'm just in time to catch the 17.50 back to Birmingham:

Two bits of bad news drop on me half way home. Firstly I find my hotel room key in my handbag (oops); secondly my connecting train at Birmingham is 20 minutes late, then 30, then 40... and finally arrives, 50 minutes late, so it's nearly 9pm before I get back underway (groan):

Whenever a train is late, twice the amount of passengers appear by magic from somewhere! It's so full I can't get near my reserved seat:

I get home just in time for bed at 10.45pm - what a marathon!

Weston Park Sketchcrawl

Yes, the 1st one was such fun, we did it again almost immediately. As it happens, International Sketchcrawl Day was last Saturday, so some of the same folks as last time, plus some new ones, met up for another day of sketching.

We started in Weston Park Museum, drawing various stuffed animals, pinned insects and odd exhibits of all kinds:

Jane Horton:












Micheal Lee:

Cath Dunn:

Nicola Kirkman:


Louise Taylor:





Bryn Hughes:
Dorothy Rasen:

Lynne Chapman:

Sian Hughes:













We ate a packed lunch and then the boldest of the party braved the outdoors, to draw in the grounds around the museum:

Sian Hughes:





Bryn Hughes:
Louise Taylor:

Lynne Chapman:





Dorothy Rasen:







Of course, it rained almost immediately, so after a damp and rather chilly hour and a bit, we retreated indoors again for a final warm-up sketch:

Sian Hughes:



Micheal Lee:

Lynne Chapman:

We rewarded ourselves with a drink at the nearby University Arms and passed all the sketchbooks round. As you can see, one or two people still couldn't stop sketching!

There always exciting to see the variety of techniques and all the different ways people interpret the same subjects.



If you look carefully above, you can see that one person even brought an iPad instead of a sketchbook (Jane's iPad drawings are at the very top).



What an amazing day out. Please email me if you'd like to take part next time - everyone is welcome, whatever your age, experience or ability, and it's all free. What could be better eh?