Five years ago I enjoyed ‘street photography’, trying to catch telling moments in Bath’s weekend busyness. After a while the hobby lost its appeal, it wasn’t quite as satisfying as it had been, and it was around then that I started drawing. Five years later I realise I’ve come full circle… I still love going into town to catch city life unfolding, and the same things seem to catch my eye, but now I’m sketching them. It’s harder to catch life on the move with pencil and brush-pen, but I find the challenge deeply rewarding and I think it’s why my urban sketching is mostly focussed on people!
Mostly drawing 
What a great collection of photos and drawings! I too came to urban sketching from a short period of photography. For me it was also about coming out of my own juvenile preoccupation with myself and my inner life. I simply got bored with myself and more interested in the world around me. Drawing offers a deeper emersion in the moment, I think, than photography does. Perhaps it is the challenge of drawing that gives that hightened focus. I never knew any practice as rewarding, on so many levels. 🙂
Thanks Viktoria, I also love the way the amount of challenge can be so subtly gauged, making sure the experience is rewarding and not over-whelming! Ed
Excellent sketches! Another big benefit of sketching over photography is that many people would have a problem if they saw that they were being photographed, but most don’t notice they’re being sketched.
Tina
Thanks Tina, I was a fairly covert street photographer, which always felt a bit shifty! As a sketcher I seem to vanish for passers by, partly through staying still in one position for so long; I become part of the furniture…
Great stuff. Would like to see more of this contrast of photos and sketches — they seem to enliven each other. Such different ways to make a picture, but they both catch the fleeting oddness of everyday life.
Cheers Jim, I’ll post more in the same vein. It’s been interesting revisiting the old photos, realising the continuity between the two approaches.