Category Archives: Bath

Urban bamboo

Trying out the bamboo dip pen around town, people (and dog) watching in the parks and streets. It’s great for gesture drawing and foliage, something about the nib invites a playful wandering line, feeling out the shapes and shadows. From the top: … Continue reading

Posted in bamboo dip pen, Bath, buskers, coloured ink, figures, park, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Muji pocket palette

Here’s my new homemade pocket palette. It cost about £8 and two hours to make, weighs almost nothing (53 grams or less than 2 ozs, including paint…) and has lots of room for pigments and mixing. It’s small enough to be part of … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, kit, palettes, technique, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Busy busy

Sitting on the lawn in front of the Royal Crescent trying to sketch everyone that passes by during a sunny 20 minutes, sometimes just catching their feet, sometimes seeing them in the distance. It’s a sort of survey/sampling exercise, a bit messy, … Continue reading

Posted in bamboo dip pen, Bath, dip pen, figures, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Heading North…

All packed for four days of sketching indulgence at the USk Manchester Symposium, which starts tomorrow. I’ve done a few final brush-pen sketches about town (thumbnails of street-scenes and quick portraits of passers-by) in rehearsal for my demonstration, and have finished sourcing … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, figures, ink brush, Manchester Symposium, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Hospital visit

Apologies for the lack of recent posts, all was put on hold due to an unplanned trip to hospital. I’m out now, thoroughly resting and with enough time and energy to post the sketches I made during all the empty hours in hospital… … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, body, hospital, Manchester Symposium, pencil, urban sketching, watercolour sketch | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

American artefacts

A couple of speedy sketches from the highly recommended American Museum in Bath, “The only museum of American decorative and folk art outside the United States”. First a small bronze version of the famous 1909 statue ‘Appeal to the Great Spirit’. Then … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, body, exhibitions, figures, museum, pencil, sculpture, statues, white pen | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

And now for something…

…completely different. My last post was unexpectedly popular (a six-fold increase in visitors to the site!), and hopefully there are wooden sketchbooks now emerging from book-presses all over the world. Here’s a sketch from a small exhibition at the Victoria Art … Continue reading

Posted in animals, Bath, exhibitions, objects, statues, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Groups and crowds

After many sketches of individuals and couples about town here are some attempts at drawing crowds and larger groups, trying to catch the body language and brief gestures that help to connect the figures. The first three were sketched from the top … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, cafe, comparisons, figures, Inktense, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Street photography and sketching

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, ink brush, Inktense, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Busts

Sketches from last weekend’s USkBristol/South West sketchcrawl in Bath. Fourteen of us started inside the Abbey (it was too wet to go up the tower) where I sketched a memorial bust and inscription. We then moved to the Guildhall market where I drew a … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, cafe, figures, ink brush, Inktense, people watching, sculpture, sketchcrawl, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment