Category Archives: street scene

Waiting in town

A bus queue lined up alongside Bath Abbey, and more tourists sat on benches (previously, and here). Drawing directly with ink means ‘mistakes’ are visible, recording the process of feeling out where the lines need to go. Usually I just restate the line, … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, body, buildings, figures, from life, inks, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, people, street scene, technique, urban, waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Cars, at rest

Parked cars on the road approaching Lansdown Crescent (where the sheep were). Below is the picture without the water-colour glaze, then without the Lexington grey ink washes, revealing the ink drawing that I did on site.  The pencil grid helped with the basic placing … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, buildings, cars, from life, grisaille, Lexington grey, line drawing, street scene, technique, urban, vehicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

55 passers by

I’ve added a new page to the blog, sharing books that are currently inspiring my sketching; the first is Hokusai’s Manga (‘manga’ originally meant ‘light drawings or sketches’). After copying some of his very simple but individual faces (bottom of post) I sat … Continue reading

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Wiry views

Drawn at dusk, sat on the bottom steps of The Shrubbery (previously), looking down Harley Street in Bath. My eye was caught by the telephone wires and chimneys silhouetted against the winter sky. I was sorry that I didn’t get … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, buildings, cars, coloured ink, from life, grisaille, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, sky, street scene, urban, vehicles, waterbrush | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Buskers, home and away

The large numbers of tourists visiting Bath means that it is blessed with many good street entertainers, excellent models for a quick sketch, and mostly fine performers. So here’s another collection of buskers, this time including one I saw in Japan. … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, buskers, coloured ink, coloured paper, figures, Japan, line drawing, people, street scene, urban | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Sketching cars #2

A second collection of car sketches. First a very cute Corvette I saw near our home; lots of beautiful details in this car, all the way down to the sting in the tail of the  ‘G’ in the logo. Next there’s a full-size wire-frame model of … Continue reading

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Still lives

A family waiting outside the Bath Grand Pump Rooms, next to the Roman Baths. They sat silent and still for about 20 minutes, which made drawing them much easier. I was about 30 yards from them and couldn’t see whether they were serene, … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, coloured ink, family, from life, Lexington grey, people, street scene, urban, waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

An urban stroll

I’ve been reading Freehand Drawing and Discovery by James Richards. Richards is an architect so his drawings look like planning proposals, but it’s got a lot of good tips on creating simple but effective urban landscapes. It also mentions ‘serial visions’, a … Continue reading

Posted in buildings, from life, inks, journeys, line drawing, sequential, street scene, technique, travel, urban | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 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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