Category Archives: urban

A mixed bag

This month I have been mostly using Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils, in ‘dark indigo’. They’re my new favourite mark-maker; soft and responsive on the paper, lots of pigment for rich lines, and barely any smudging. They combine well with watercolour, … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, benches, collections, figures, pencil, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Just a scratch

Quick sketches while being vaccinated over the last few months. The centre was very quiet, very calm, and oddly normal given the strangeness and relative novelty of what was going on.

Posted in Bath, pandemic, pencil, people, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Slight return

A quick post after many months of absence, apologies. The sketching has carried on in the meantime (I passed my ten year anniversary of daily drawing in March!), but the website had gone into hibernation. Here are some recent Bath … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, cafe, park, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Pocket drawing board

(I don’t think I’ve done a ‘sketching kit’ post for a while. They’re usually popular so here goes…) To keep up the daily ‘drawing from life’ habit (nearly ten years now) I make sure I’ve always got sketching materials on … Continue reading

Posted in airplane, clouds, figures, kit, pencil, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Post lockdown park-life

Here are around 170 people enjoying fresh-air, benches, sunshine, ice-creams, solitude and company. It’s been busy busy busy in Bath’s parks, not surprising with fine weather after months of lockdown. Due to foreshortening, trying to fit them all onto the … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, Duke Confucius, figures, park, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Virtually sketching

Lockdown’s lack of group sketch-crawls has led to regular virtual meet-ups. Using Google Streetview you can freely wander a static location, get lost in side-streets and find a view that suits, joined by other sketchers on Zoom. Transcribing photos/2d images … Continue reading

Posted in drawing buildings, Istanbul, Portugal, Spain, street scene, urban, virtual sketching | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lockdown #2: people (and birds)

Given social distancing I’m having to be more resourceful to sketch my favourite subject… Here’s a 2m distanced supermarket queue, neighbours sat outside their front doors on VE day, a man doing tai-chi in the park, three Zooming sketchers watching … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, dip pen, figures, line drawing, park, people watching, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

London Calling #2

The second of three posts collecting sketches from  recent trip to London. This time, mostly museums… To the Museum of London to pay homage to a sacred relic, Paul Simenon’s bass guitar, as smashed on the cover of London Calling. … Continue reading

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London calling #1

The first of three posts collecting sketches from a recent trip to London, all drawn with a Duke Confucius Fude pen, some onto pre-stained pages, with various washes/colours etc Fellow passengers waiting on the opposite station platform…Myself in the window … Continue reading

Posted in coloured paper, Duke Confucius, fude pen, London, people watching, trains, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Blue and gold

Five more sketches on pre-coloured paper, with blue and golden yellow backgrounds this time, the idea being to approximate skies and Bath stone, ish. I used the same process of drawing with the juicy fude pen, and then adding the … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, buskers, cafe, coloured paper, Duke Confucius, fude pen, monochrome, sketchbooks, urban, urban sketching | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment