I’m an Urban Sketcher…

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Blogroll
- Antonia Santolaya/Enrique Flores A chance to browse through 26 travel sketchbooks. Lots of fresh watercolour, ink and pencil location pictures.
- Buttnekkiddoodles Don Colley’s blog, sharing fabulous brush-pen drawings of people and much else. He’s a big fan of Pitt Artist brush pens.
- Danny Gregory His book ‘The Creative License’ got me sketching, and his other books have helped to keep me going. He has a wonderfully loose style, using dip-pens, saturated colour inks etc.
- Handprint Exceptionally comprehensive information on watercolour paints and equipment. Exhaustive details on pigments, translucency, comparing brands etc. Essential viewing for the true obsessive.
- James Gurney A mine of information on ‘plein air’ painting and sketching from the author of ‘Dinotopia’. Daily posts, always interesting.
- Nina Johansson Stockholm based urban sketching, with lovely clarity and glowing colours. Lots of useful information on sketching kit that helped to get me started.
- Russel Stutler Lots of very useful information on brush pens, palettes, sketching techniques. Based in Japan.
- Steven Reddy Great use of pen drawing and grey ink washes, sometimes combined with clear colour on top.
- The Sketching Forum Informal sharing of ideas, techniques, pictures and general chat about sketching. Set up by Russ Stutler.
- Urban Sketchers A constant parade of individual responses to the challenge of urban sketching. Always good for some inspiration, a new approach to try…
Category Archives: line drawing
Back in the city
“Hey, I am just a city boy, I’m really not the country kind, I miss the city streets and the neon lights. See the train comin’ round the bend…” The first sketch is a passenger on a train back to the city (Bath, not … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, cafe, figures, hands, line drawing, people watching, trains, urban sketching, waiting
Tagged cafe sketch, fountain pen sketches, seated figures, sketching in Bath city, sketching people in the city, sketching people on train, sketching people using phones, urban sketching, Velvet Underground
6 Comments
Mind the Gap
Spring has sprung and people are out and about, enjoying the extra light and air. Here’s a batch of recent sketches of the public around Bath, mostly in parks. The limited range of colours makes them look oddly like Gap adverts! (the wonderful original track … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, clothing, coloured ink, figures, line drawing, people, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching
Tagged blow up a go-go, drawing passers by, fountain pen sketches, James Clark, simple figure drawing, sketching in parks, sketching people around town, urban sketching
4 Comments
Edding 30 marker pen
I’ve used marker pens before, reloaded with different inks, with some mixed results. I tried a new one when I went to London last week. The bold lines were great for very fast sketches, and the ink is water-based (so doesn’t ‘bleed through’ the page), fast drying and … Continue reading
Posted in figures, from life, inks, kit, line drawing, London, marker pen, musicians, people, sketching, technique, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Edding 30, Great Western Railway Paddington Band, James Hobbs, London sketches, marker pen sketches, sketch of crows, sketch of police, sketch of sketcher, sketch of tube travellers, The Clash, urban sketching
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Back in the kitchen
More monochrome kitchen scenes, with lots of ellipses, variety and repetition in all the jars, cans, bottles and packets. Made a mistake with one? Draw another, and keep going till you fill the page! Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, A5 – … Continue reading
Posted in collections, coloured ink, coloured paper, domestic, home, kitchen, line drawing, marker pen, monochrome, objects
Tagged domestic sketches, drawing ellipses, drawings of bottles and jars, Hot Chip, kitchen sketches, lexington grey sketch, monochrome sketching, sketching at home, sketching collections of objects, water-brush sketches
1 Comment
Urban jungle
Following the weeds, here are some more urban plants around Bath… Monochrome foliage on a Japanese Maple, ‘sticky weed’ amongst nettles (including initial line drawing), and a couple of attempts at ivy (the last one using a dried up marker pen and tea). … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, botany, from life, garden, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, urban, urban sketching
Tagged drawing plants, monochrome plant sketches, sketch of nettles, sketches of ivy, sketching urban foliage, sketching weeds, The Kinks, urban jungle, urban plants, urban sketching
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Weedy
Spring, sunshine and showers, and months of neglect, so weeds are flourishing in our garden. Each week a different one appears, competing with the others for light and space, and ripe for drawing… First a mostly monochrome sketch of some wild strawberry flowers amongst dandelions and other … Continue reading
Near the Easter processions…
Back in Cordoba with people waiting for Easter processions to start, watching them from a balcony, and some band members recovering after hours of playing in the heat! I think drawing groups of figures is my default for ‘urban sketching’; I love picking out … Continue reading
Posted in coloured ink, coloured paper, Cordoba, figures, from life, holiday, line drawing, monochrome, parades, people, street scene, travel, Uncategorized, urban, waiting
Tagged band members resting, Cordoba sketches, drawing a street scene, figures on a balcony, fountain pen sketching, Mike Nesmith, Semana Santa sketches, simple line drawings of figures, sketching groups of figures, urban sketching, waiting for Easter processions
4 Comments
68 feet
Commenting on my recent cafe sketches Chris said “How about a focus on feet and shoes for your next post? They drive me mad, and can make or break a quick sketch.” Be careful what you wish for… Here are all the … Continue reading
Posted in brush pen, cafe, coloured paper, Feet, from life, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, objects, sculpture, sketching, urban
Tagged cafe sketching, collection of feet, drawing feet, fountain pen sketch, Hokusai manga, ink sketches, Michelangelo's David, Ride, sketching sculpture, sketching shoes, urban sketching
10 Comments
In the kitchen
More late night monochrome sketches, this time corners of the kitchen. In the first sketch I was drawn to the way that strong overhead light made shadows wrap around the apples. In the second one it was the tilted ellipses in the collection of bottles … Continue reading
Posted in coloured paper, from life, fruit, grisaille, kitchen, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, objects
Tagged domestic scenes, drawing ellipses, drawing jars and bottles, drawing shadows, fruit sketch, kitchen sketches, line and tone, monochrome sketching, overhead light, Peter Gabriel, sketching with fountain pen
1 Comment
Cafe life
People watching in cafes, mostly this year in Bath, but the last one’s from Istanbul a couple of years ago when I was using a marker pen. If you can get a good table a cafe’s a great winter sketching location; strong light sources, sheltered, … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, cafe, clothing, coloured ink, coloured paper, figures, from life, Istanbul, Lexington grey, line drawing, marker pen, monochrome, people, urban, waiting
Tagged Bath cafes, cafe sketching, drawing shoes, fountain pen sketches, Hafiz Mustafa, marker pen sketch, Rolling Stones, sketching people, sketching seated people, urban sketching
6 Comments