Category Archives: urban sketching

Ship ahoy!

Museum sketches from Stockholm. First some of the haunting facial reconstructions of bodies found in the C17th Vasa shipwreck (and the skulls they worked off) at the wonderful Vasa Museum. Then looking down from an upper viewing platform on galleries of visitors looking at the ship … Continue reading

Posted in bamboo dip pen, boats, faces, figures, museum, nautical, Naval museum, people watching, skulls, Stockholm, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gothic horror

Here’s the amazing C15th statue of George and the Dragon in Stockholm’s Storkyrkan. It’s huge, gruesome (body parts are scattered on the ground beneath the dragon) and made of wood and deer antlers (the spiky bits on the dragon). That’s the … Continue reading

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Urban bamboo

Trying out the bamboo dip pen around town, people (and dog) watching in the parks and streets. It’s great for gesture drawing and foliage, something about the nib invites a playful wandering line, feeling out the shapes and shadows. From the top: … Continue reading

Posted in bamboo dip pen, Bath, buskers, coloured ink, figures, park, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sketches of sketchers, some sketching

Sketchers at the recent wonderful Manchester Symposium, and sketches of me by other sketchers, sometimes while I sketched them; the Symposium felt like a hall of mirrors at times, a walk-in Escher! From the top there’s Lapin not sketching, Favian EE … Continue reading

Posted in comparisons, concertina sketchbooks, figures, Manchester Symposium, people, sketchcrawl, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Muji pocket palette

Here’s my new homemade pocket palette. It cost about £8 and two hours to make, weighs almost nothing (53 grams or less than 2 ozs, including paint…) and has lots of room for pigments and mixing. It’s small enough to be part of … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, kit, palettes, technique, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Busy busy

Sitting on the lawn in front of the Royal Crescent trying to sketch everyone that passes by during a sunny 20 minutes, sometimes just catching their feet, sometimes seeing them in the distance. It’s a sort of survey/sampling exercise, a bit messy, … Continue reading

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In transit

Travelling to Stockholm and back; the view from 38,000 feet (both ways), and fellow passengers at Heathrow and Arlanda (so many free models…). I’d never noticed the plane’s fuselage reflected on the engine before, a good example of the way … Continue reading

Posted in airplane, airport, clouds, figures, journeys, kit, people watching, travel, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Stockholm hot rods

We were surprised and delighted to find a massive unofficial hot-rod rally taking place on Sveavägen, the main drag where we were staying in Stockholm. It was the annual city gathering of ‘raggare’, fans of old American cars and 50’s ‘greaser’ … Continue reading

Posted in cars, marker pen, night, parades, Stockholm, street scene, urban, urban sketching, vehicles | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

En Route

Two wide-angle train carriage views, one heading North to Manchester for the Symposium, and the other heading home. Both were done in a concertina sketchbook, and stretched across the table while I sketched. I asked the passengers if they were … Continue reading

Posted in concertina sketchbooks, dip pen, figures, journeys, Manchester Symposium, panorama, trains, travel, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Heading North…

All packed for four days of sketching indulgence at the USk Manchester Symposium, which starts tomorrow. I’ve done a few final brush-pen sketches about town (thumbnails of street-scenes and quick portraits of passers-by) in rehearsal for my demonstration, and have finished sourcing … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, brush pen, figures, ink brush, Manchester Symposium, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments