Sheffield's 1st Sketchcrawl

On Sunday Sept 26th, the Sketchcrawl phenomenon reached Sheffield with a bang. Over 25 people, most of whom had not met before, got together in the city centre and braved the cold, to spend the day together drawing.

Richard Bell

We toured round as a group, visiting various venues for an hour at a time, drawing what we saw. It was great fun and there was a lovely, supportive atmosphere.


Some of the group were professional artists of various kinds, but most were not, and one or two brave souls had never done any sketchbook drawing before - a HUGE well done to you guys!

Richard Bell

I am hoping that everyone will find a way to send their drawings to me for inclusion in this gallery, but these are the sketches and photos I've gathered so far.

Janet Lilley

I think you'll agree that everyone did a great job:

10.00am - travelling to / meeting up in town:

Jo Mincher

Lynne Chapman

Cath Gittins

11.00am: 1st real stop - the Peace Gardens and Town Hall:

Sian Hughes

Richard Bell

Krishna Alageswaren

Martyn Rotherham

Colleen Penny

Micheal Lee


Tina Spencer
Richard Bell

Jo Mincher

Ellie Price

Martyn Rotherham

Sian Hughes


Barbara Morris

Barbara Rimmington



Lynne Chapman

Barbara Morris

Barbara Rimmington

12.00: 2nd stop - the Winter Gardens (indoors - hurrah!):

Tina Spencer

Jo Mincher

Barbara Morris

Richard Bell


Tim Rose

Tim Rose

Micheal Lee

Barbara Rimmington



Julie Whitham

Martyn Rotherham

Sian Hughes

Barbara Rimmington

Krishna Alageswaren

Barbara Morris


Barbara Morris

Lynne Chapman

Cath Gittins

Dot Rason

1.00: lunch in the Millennium Galleries cafe (well earned, though 1 or 2 keen folks were still sketching I noticed...):


Cath Gittins

2.00pm: 3rd stop - inside the various galleries (warmth...):

Sian Hughes

Lynne Chapman

Richard Bell

Sian Hughes

Lynne Chapman

Cath Gittins

3.00pm: 4th stop - The Hubs and around (oh no - back into the cold!):

Micheal Lee

Sian Hughes


Richard Bell

Lynne Chapman

Janet Lilley

Sian Hughes

Cath Gittins

4.00pm: 5th stop - the pub!

If you are local, and are inspired to have a go yourself, email me and I'll send you details the next time we plan get our sketchbooks out.

If you want to hear more about how I draw, take a look at one of my short videos or take a peek inside some of my other sketchbooks, such as those from my travels, to countries like China, Namibia, Vietnam, Australia and various places all over Europe.

Meeting another Urban Sketcher

I spent a fabulous day with fellow Urban Sketcher Liz Steel, talking about drawing, doing some drawing, looking at each other's drawings...


We did a lot of eating and drinking tea too. We had so much to talk about, we only had a short while to actually go out sketching, so we walked to the local cemetery, which is chock-full of tumbly-down tombs and huge, stone-slab gravestones, leaning at all sorts of precarious angles.


Above is Liz's sketch (you can just see me in the far left) and mine is below. We spent around 45 minutes on them, perhaps an hour. Liz uses pen and watercolour, mine is watercolour overlaid with conte line-work.


This is me posing with little Borromini Bear, who is accompanying Liz on her travels, all the way from Australia to America, and then round Europe:


Good luck on the rest of your adventures Liz!

Dressing in Glass

Some more photos I took on my day off, of those exquisite glass dresses by designer Diana Dias-Leao. Apparently, she started out in the fashion industry, but didn't like the attitudes and the pretension, so moved onto the world of glass instead.

They are wearable (just about) - there are photos of someone in them at the exhibition in Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery.

Big Bad Wolf's Friends From Oz

I love the internet: how else could I have been able to see my biggest Big Bad Wolf is Good fans, smiling at me all the way from Australia!

This is the lovely Peterson family, and here they are being sad with poor, lost no 5:

Great faces guys! I'm so pleased that you love my big, furry friend.

Train Portrait

I came across this train sketch that never made it to the blog. I thought you might like to see her - what a wonderful Roman profile!

Fabulous New Young Illustrators!

Here is a more detailed look at just a few of my favourites from the Nottingham Illustration Competition:


I was especially impressed with the winners from Fernwood School, who had put an extraordinary amount of work into their projects. They wrote surprisingly sophisticated stories, and not only illustrated them with loving care and delightful creativity, but bound them into actual books, complete with illustrated front and back covers and blurb!


All these illustrations were done by Y7 children - amazing eh? The work you can see here was done by prizewinners Amin Ahmadi, Laura Ajouz, Lucy Jennings, Parris Rawson and Ashar Burney. Well done guys!


There was some brilliant work done by all the children that took part and it was an excellent project, devise and organised by the folks at Quadrant C Leading Edge Partnership.


I'm sure you'll agree that there are some wonderfully talented children in Nottingham and very possibly a few future authors or illustrators!

Worldwide Sketchcrawl Day 2010

Here are some more photos of us all hard at work, during the Wakefield Sketchcrawl on May 15th: Wordwide Sketchcrawl Day.


The one above is in the orangery garden at Beam, below we are loitering on a bridge, drawing each other and the Chantry Chapel:

This is my in my museum corner drawing the Victorian doll:


And here we are rewarding ourselves with a nice lunch in the sun:

If you would like to join up to take part in a sketchcrawl in your area, join the Sketchcrawl forum.

My goodness - don't look at that double-chin...

Thanks again to Dave Hanvey for the photos - we were all far too busy scribbling!

Wish You Were There..?

John took this took this pic of me while we were in Italy, sketching the Centro Storico (old town), perched high on the cliffs above the bay.


I originally had the chair half in the water, so the sea lapped my feet (lovely...) but the chair legs sunk deeper in the sand with each wave, putting it at such a rakish angle that I nearly fell out into the water!

Sun, Sea, Sand and a Sketchbook

More drawings from my holiday in Italy, the ones I couldn't fit onto the main blog about the trip:

Because I had a few days in one place on the island of Procida, I was able to do more sketching during the day, mostly sitting on the beach (jealous?).

The sea's a bit hard to do much with, so I mostly sketched the cliffs, although I had a go at the waves on the one below, and was really pleased with how it turned out:

The 90's film Il Postino was filmed on Procida and the two sketches above are in the bay that features in it.

Sorry - my funny feet, yet again. I always love to paddle, whatever time of year. The sand was gritty and very dark.

The one below was on the sister island, Ischia. The beach was divided in two by a rope: one half you had to pay for, with fancy loungers etc, the more scabby end was free. Being cheapskates, you can guess where we sat...

Oh, and here's one that escaped earlier, from the 'walking between mountain villages' part of the holiday:

Thanks for taking the time to look in!

More Old Men

Here are a few more sketches from the first half of the holiday in Italy:


I didn't draw as often as I would have liked: the weather was a bit chilly and wet for sitting too long in one place, and we were walking most of the day anyway, and needed to get to our destination. No time for lounging about with a sketchbook!


As you can see though, I did capture quite a few old men, mostly either in bars or, more often playing cards in the evening.


I showed the sketches around when I'd finished, as I think it's a fun way of making contact with local people when you don't share their language. When they recognised their friends, there was much nodding, laughing and pointing.


The man's balcony was immediately above the two in the previous picture. I tried out my pen again, for a change:

If you want to hear more about how I draw, take a look at one of my short videos, or take a peek inside some of my other sketchbooks, such as those from my travels, to countries like China, Namibia, Vietnam, Australia and various other places all over Europe.

Margaret Beaufort School Workshops

Remember my visit to Margaret Beaufort Middle School down in Bedford?

After my lectures, the children had a great afternoon, trying their hand at a whole range of different book-related workshops, and I popped my head in on as many as I could manage.

Mrs Wickins, who did a sterling job of organising the whole thing - a momentous task - sent me these photos, as well as a few pics of some of the results...

One workshop was to create silhouette book illustrations (lovely sense of movement here!):

Another was for groups to work on whole books. This was a 'touch-&-feel' picture book, with lots of collaged textures. Every page of this book is a different bizarre pizza topping, with a lift-the-flap comment:

Yet another project was for groups to make split-page books, where the reader can create crazy combinations while trying to match things in the right order:


Other children made lift-the-flap French recipe books, and maps and charts to illustrate stories. This is a painted book illustration. The children were given various poems and stories excerpts to choose from. Can you spot the evil creatures hiding in the woods behind the poor unsuspecting dragon?

Apparently Mrs Wickins and I did very well: the children declared it their 'best Bookday ever'! I was very proud to be a part of it. Glad you enjoyed yourself guys!

If you haven't already seem them, take a look at the comics some of the boys created.

Me!

Here are rather funky portraits of me by Y1 and Y2 children at Emmaus Primary School in Sheffield: