I’m an Urban Sketcher…

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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…
Tag Archives: urban sketching
Car Parklife
I think a key part of urban sketching is depicting the stuff of everyday life, no matter how banal. So here are three quick views from the car while parked at motorway services during the trip to Scotland and back. That’s it, nothing to add! … Continue reading
Posted in cars, coloured ink, coloured paper, holiday, journeys, Lexington grey, pencil, travel, urban sketching, vehicles, waiting
Tagged drawing cars, fountain pen sketches, line drawings of cars, motorway services, sketches from a car, sketches of car parks, sketching the banal, sketching while waiting, sketching with ink and pencil, Talking Heads, urban sketching
3 Comments
More pencil
I’m still enjoying using the Grafwood 6B pencil, with no rubbing out so no hesitant and uncommitted lines! It’s very smooth, perfect for quick contour sketches of people, and can go from light to dark with the lightest touch. Here … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, buildings, eye, figures, line drawing, pencil, people, self-portrait, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Jr Walker and The All Stars, pencil drawings of people, pencil sketches around town, selfie pencil sketch, sketch of windows, sketching in Bath, sketching people, sketching people walking, urban sketching
2 Comments
The bends
Bath has a lot of steep streets, and lots of them have hairpin bends; so here’s one I pass fairly often (Streetview here). The first sketch was done in full sun last week (it’s followed by the initial line drawing; I added the … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, cars, figures, line drawing, street scene, technique, urban, urban sketching, vehicles, watercolour sketch
Tagged Aretha Franklin, comparing sketches, fountain pen sketching, hairpin bend sketch, hairpin bends, line drawing, sketching in Bath, steep streets, street scene sketch, urban sketching, urban sketching technique
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In praise of pencils
I’ve tried to like pencils, really I have. I love their woody simplicity, but never found one that felt right on the paper (too waxy, too smudgy etc). But a couple of weeks ago I tried a Grafwood 6B. It’s consistently … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, blind drawing, buildings, cars, figures, hands, kit, line drawing, pencil, people, street scene, technique, urban, urban sketching
Tagged drawing of hand, pencil sketches of people, pencil street-scenes, sketches of Bath, urban sketching, urban sketching kit, water-colour rose
7 Comments
Back in the city
“Hey, I am just a city boy, I’m really not the country kind, I miss the city streets and the neon lights. See the train comin’ round the bend…” The first sketch is a passenger on a train back to the city (Bath, not … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, cafe, figures, hands, line drawing, people watching, trains, urban sketching, waiting
Tagged cafe sketch, fountain pen sketches, seated figures, sketching in Bath city, sketching people in the city, sketching people on train, sketching people using phones, urban sketching, Velvet Underground
6 Comments
Mind the Gap
Spring has sprung and people are out and about, enjoying the extra light and air. Here’s a batch of recent sketches of the public around Bath, mostly in parks. The limited range of colours makes them look oddly like Gap adverts! (the wonderful original track … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, clothing, coloured ink, figures, line drawing, people, people watching, street scene, urban, urban sketching
Tagged blow up a go-go, drawing passers by, fountain pen sketches, James Clark, simple figure drawing, sketching in parks, sketching people around town, urban sketching
4 Comments
Edding 30 marker pen
I’ve used marker pens before, reloaded with different inks, with some mixed results. I tried a new one when I went to London last week. The bold lines were great for very fast sketches, and the ink is water-based (so doesn’t ‘bleed through’ the page), fast drying and … Continue reading
Posted in figures, from life, inks, kit, line drawing, London, marker pen, musicians, people, sketching, technique, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Edding 30, Great Western Railway Paddington Band, James Hobbs, London sketches, marker pen sketches, sketch of crows, sketch of police, sketch of sketcher, sketch of tube travellers, The Clash, urban sketching
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Urban jungle
Following the weeds, here are some more urban plants around Bath… Monochrome foliage on a Japanese Maple, ‘sticky weed’ amongst nettles (including initial line drawing), and a couple of attempts at ivy (the last one using a dried up marker pen and tea). … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, botany, from life, garden, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, urban, urban sketching
Tagged drawing plants, monochrome plant sketches, sketch of nettles, sketches of ivy, sketching urban foliage, sketching weeds, The Kinks, urban jungle, urban plants, urban sketching
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Inside the Mezquita
Back in Cordoba, this time inside the Mezquita. The first sketch is an attempt to describe the famous forest of columns, mostly inhabited by tourists; as the columns recede in all directions it feels slightly like being in an Escher … Continue reading
Posted in buildings, collections, coloured ink, Cordoba, faces, monochrome, monument, people, travel, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Cordoba sketches, Escher, faces on tomb, inside the Mezquita, Kasabian, sketches of people taking photos, stone faces, tourists taking photos, urban sketching
3 Comments