I’m an Urban Sketcher…

Categories
-
-
Archives
Blog Stats
- 477,626 hits
Gallery
Tags
- bamboo dip pen
- bamboo dip pen sketches
- Bath
- Bath Abbey
- brush-pen sketching
- brush pen
- cafe sketching
- city
- coloured paper
- daily drawing
- De Atramentis inks
- dip pen
- every day matters
- fountain pen
- fountain pen sketch
- fountain pen sketches
- fountain pen sketching
- ink brush sketches
- ink brush sketching
- Istanbul
- Kuretake #8
- Lexington grey
- Lexington grey ink
- Manchester Symposium
- marker pen
- monochrome
- noodlers inks
- objects
- people
- sketching in Bath
- sketching people
- Stockholm
- Talking Heads
- The Clash
- The Kinks
- urban sketching
- urban sketching kit
- urban sketching technique
- Venice
- white gelly roll pen
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: 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 Bad Blue Heron, Bath Abbey, Brown 41, coloured paper, fountain pen, Gil Scott-Heron, Noodlers inks for sketching, people in the city, people watching, seated people, sketching in ink, sketching people, urban sketching, water-brush filled with ink
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
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 docks, fountain pen, kayak, Nina Johansson, ship, sketchcrawl, sketchers, Stockholm sketching, The Doors, urban sketching, water
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
Posted in Bath, coloured paper, from life, line drawing, people, street scene, urban
Tagged Bath, checking phones, coloured paper, free life-drawing, gesture drawing, head down hands up, reading newspaper, seated figures, sketching pedestrians, Spacemen 3, street scenes, tourists queuing, urban sketching
1 Comment
‘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 blogging, Bounce, conference, daily practice, Danny Gregory, from life, improving, lecturing, Matthew Syed, sketching, standing figure, Woody Guthrie
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 Ben Powell, busker, fingerstyle, flip flop, fountain pen, guitar, guitar player, John Williams, singing, Steve Robinson
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
Posted in Bath, coloured paper, from life, hands, Lexington grey, monochrome, pencil, people, sketching, urban, watching
Tagged bench, hat, Jim, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, reclining chair, sketchcrawl, sketchers
Leave a comment
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
Posted in Bath, clothing, from life, Lexington grey, line drawing, pencil, people, sketching
Tagged concert, groups, Mendip Male Voice Choir, Monty Python, old men, shirt and tie, singing, The Suzan
Leave a comment
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 Aberporth, beach, dogs, dogs on the beach, fishermen, fishing, Kraft paper, people watching, Pulp, tractor, waves, wet-suit
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
Posted in Bath, botany, buildings, coloured paper, flowers, from life, park, people, seasonal, sketching, Spring, urban, waiting
Tagged Botanical Gardens, magnolia flower, Mother's day, North Parade Buildings, old couples, park bench, Spring, Uni Posca brush pen, walking sticks, white gelly roll pen
Leave a comment