Category Archives: figures

Lots of buskers

Lots of buskers, mostly in Bath, and some of their audiences (ranging from the totally disinterested to the partially engaged). There’s a few more sketches of barefoot Ben Powell, a bottle-neck slide cigar-box guitar player, and a couple who were accompanying … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, buskers, comparisons, figures, ink brush, Lexington grey, monochrome, people, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Homework…

I rarely sketch from photos, but the wonderfully encyclopaedic People of the Twenty-First Century by Hans Eijkelboom is a treasure trove of reference images for the urban sketcher. It’s a beautiful catalogue of real people going about their lives, and copying the pictures … Continue reading

Posted in faces, figures, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, people, sequential, technique, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Bird’s eye view

Three sketches from the Urban Sketchers Bristol/South West group visit to Bath last weekend. We spent an hour in the Abbey tower and on the roof, enjoying wonderful views over the city centre, and after lunch sketched in the adjacent square. … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, buildings, buskers, church, drawing buildings, figures, ink brush, monochrome, people, rooftops, sketchcrawl, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Oxford Museums #2

After graveyards and guns I’ll lighten the mood with some cheerier items from the Ashmolean, “the oldest public museum in Britain, and the first purpose-built public museum in the world”, which grew out Tradescant’s Ark, a C17th ‘cabinet of curiosity’. First there’s a … Continue reading

Posted in animals, exhibitions, faces, figures, museum, sculpture, statues, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

End of the line?

I love a good memento mori, and this is the most striking one I’ve sketched so far. It’s a decommissioned crematorium oven (!) in the museum at Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol, found while on a sketchcrawl there with the Bristol/South … Continue reading

Posted in Bristol, brush pen, cemetery, death, figures, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Analogue selfies

Um, here goes… thirty self-portraits done over the last few years, usually late evening when I can’t find anything else to sketch to keep up the daily habit… I’m really quite a cheery soul, but the combination of staring into a mirror, and … Continue reading

Posted in body, clothing, comparisons, faces, figures, self-portrait, sketching, watercolour sketch | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

54 people, mostly seated, and 2 dogs

During the Summer holidays I binged on sketching the general public in Bath, my default approach to ‘urban sketching’. I enjoy the seasonal differences: sunglasses, shady hats and bare arms in Summer; compared to high collars, long coats and wooly hats in Winter! … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, clothing, comparisons, figures, ink brush, Lexington grey, monochrome, people watching, seasonal, sketchcrawl, technique, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Regency Parade

Quick ink-brush sketches of yesterday’s ‘Grand Regency Costumed Parade’, part of the annual Jane Austen festival held in Bath. The parade ended appropriately in Parade Gardens, where some of the 500 participants stood still long enough to be drawn.  On the right is … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, clothing, figures, parades, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

At the fair again

Carters Steam Fair (“100 smiles per hour!“) have been back to our local park. I didn’t draw the Steam Boats, as promised last time, but I did try sketching the merry-go-round horses; this was tricky as they kept setting off again every 2 … Continue reading

Posted in animals, Bath, coloured paper, fairground, figures, line drawing, park, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

More pencil

I’m still enjoying using the Grafwood 6B pencil, with no rubbing out so no hesitant and uncommitted lines! It’s very smooth, perfect for quick contour sketches of people, and can go from light to dark with the lightest touch. Here … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, buildings, eye, figures, line drawing, pencil, people, self-portrait, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments