Category Archives: people

28 bench-sitters

Another collection of strangers, mostly tourists, sat on benches in the square next to Bath Abbey. They’re chatting, reading, texting, pondering, relaxing, waiting, eating ice-cream, and just watching, like me. The square’s a great place for sketching people, they usually stay … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, coloured paper, from life, inks, kit, Lexington grey, line drawing, people, sketching, street scene, urban, waiting, waterbrush | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Seated

A seated figure sketched while waiting for a couple of minutes at the Sports Village at Bath University; I used the rest of the page to test inks on top of paint. One corner of the testing was oddly beautiful, the … Continue reading

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Stockholm sketching

Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, A5 – one hour We spent last week in Stockholm, and I was delighted to have the chance to go on a sketchcrawl, kindly arranged by Nina Johansson. Here are Tina (on the fence) and Nina … Continue reading

Posted in buildings, from life, holiday, journeys, people, sketching, Stockholm, urban, waves | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

46 strangers

Urban sketching turns the busy city centre into a giant, free (clothed) life-drawing class. It’s great practise for gesture drawing, and you’ve got to be fast to catch the pedestrians, but some are sitting ducks… Here are members of the public around Bath over … Continue reading

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‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall?’

Dilute Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, water-colour, A6 – 20 minutes Here’s Matthew Syed presenting at a conference I went to recently. He’s a journalist, former UK table-tennis champion, and the author of ‘Bounce’ where he explains the importance of ‘purposeful practice’, and how … Continue reading

Posted in body, clothing, from life, hands, Lexington grey, line drawing, people, sequential, sketching, technique | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Buskers

Here are two of the many Bath buskers. The first is Ben Powell, an impeccable finger-style guitar player who I’ve sketched a few times before (see below). The weather’s been fine so he’s barefoot this time. I showed him the … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, body, clothing, Feet, from life, hands, line drawing, musical instrument, people, sketching, street scene, urban, white pen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sketchcrawl

Lexington grey water-brush, pencil, white pastel, A5 – 30 minutes Here’s Jim busy drawing when six of us met up for a Bath sketchcrawl this weekend. One of the main motivations for starting this blog was to try and meet up … Continue reading

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All together now…

Pencil, Lexington grey water-brush, water-colour, A6 – 20 minutes A small part of the excellent Mendip Male Voice Choir, pencil sketched while they sang ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ at All Saints Church in Weston, Bath. I added … Continue reading

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Beside the sea #2

Some more from Easter at Aberporth in West Wales. People and dogs on the beach observed over 30 minutes (spot the soggy wet-suit walkers); a tractor pulling a boat out of the sea after the morning lobster-pot check; and fishing from the beach … Continue reading

Posted in animals, beach, coloured paper, from life, gouache, holiday, Lexington grey, monochrome, people, sea, sketching, vehicles, Wales, waves | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Spring has sprung

Pencil, Lexington grey water-brush and fountain pen, watercolour, white Gelly Roll pen, blue Uni Posca brush pen,  A5 – various times A double page spread from last weekend, when the weather was fine, the clocks went forward and everyone was out … Continue reading

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