I travelled from to Southwark Cathedral (our agreed meeting place) via the District Line, Monument Tube and London Bridge - so all of this is about 30 minutes from my home in London.
I produced 5 sketches in total, 3 large (double page spread in my black hardback Daler Rowney sketchbook) and two small (double page spread in the Moleskine). I used a pen with sepia ink, pencil and coloured pencils. If you click on any of the sketches you can see a larger version.
In order the sketches are:- a fish, poultry and game stall stall in Borough Market (which was established at the foot of London Bridge in the 1200s (completed 1.35pm) The market has stalls belonging to suppliers from all over the UK. This particular stall belongs to the Furness Fish, Game and Poultry Supplies who are based in Ulverston in Cumbria.
Borough Market has gained prominence as a place where the true foodies shop. (my small haul was limited to vine tomatoes, chestnut mushrooms and salade de mache)! Jamie Oliver reputedly shops there and a number of films have been filmed in and around the market including Bridget Jones Diary, Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
- the view standing at the southern end of London Bridge looking east. From left to right are: the Tower of London, HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge - with 1 Canada Place at Canary Wharf in the background. (completed 2.25pm)
I was really fighting the wind at this point and was holding on to everything as I had to stand up to see this (which due to the disability in my feet is not at all easy!) and rest the sketchbook on the parapet of the bridge. Then of course I was also a minor attraction and free tour guide for all the visitors to London!
- - the scene outside the main entrance to Southwark Cathedral - with the amazing magenta pink fold up seats (completed 3.20pm). Met up again with the rest of the sketchers - including Chi Chi who has run into major tube problems. Swopped notes and agreed we all needed to do this again - probably in the same area as we only began to scratch the surface. Some sketchers then went off to watch the footie.
- Not being a huge footie fan, I continued to sketch. The next sketch is of the the scene at Wright Brothers, an Oyster and Porter House in one of the roads which borders Borough Market. It was completed at 4.20pm - just after the England versus Portugal match kicked off. Take a look at the link - little did I know what I was sketching - plus it has recipes!
- Finally, the scene from the side of the Thames looking towards Southwark Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral beyond. Completed at 5.35pm - at which point I headed back home - and got home just in time for the penalties. Need I say more?
All in all, a good day's sketching despite the extreme heat (for London). It was even more satisfying to get back home and find that lots of people were posting their sketches in the International Sketchcrawl Project that I started on the Wet Canvas website (for link see below). It was especially pleasing to see people producing sketches who had never sketched either from life and/or in public before my recent sketching class. Well done to all of them. It was even more satisfying to hear that many of them also had huge fun doing the sketchcrawl! :)
Links:
Sketchcrawl Forum (This is where details about all local sketchcrawl activities are posted + photos and sketches after the event))
Wet Canvas 10th International Sketchcrawl Project Discussion Thread - 30+ participants sketching all over the world -
Wet Canvas International Sketchcrawl Gallery of the sketches here
Sketching for Real - my sketching class
Technorati tags: art , drawing , coloured pencils , moleskine , pen and ink , pencil , plein air , sketching , sketchbook , sketchcrawl
I've been waiting for this post! What delightful sketches, Katherine! You are absolutely indefatigable, foot problems or not! I can't wait until our October drawing adventures! (Sorry about all of the !!!!s, but I'm so charmed by all of this!)
ReplyDeleteL(lines)
Lovely Sketches Katherine! I particularly like the sketch of the bridge over the river and the Cathedral. I am also very happy to see your success with the porject at WC.
ReplyDeletelovely sketches. You really know some great places that I've never seen in London. I tend to come down with specific exhibitions to see (and Cork Street, I like to go there) and never see the markets and byways.
ReplyDeleteI forgot that I'd said I'd moderate comments on my blog - sorry if I ignored your posts and thanks for the info on the coloured pencils
Vivien
oh fantastic Katherine! the colors in these are so fabulous, composition too, these are so lively! and you teach me again that contour lines are not the only way of seeing (and that I might get more done if I tried your method!)
ReplyDeleteThese are lovely. I do so like coloured pencil used in sketches. I can just see you now with fistfulls of coloured pencils battling with the wind and curious tourists,
ReplyDeleteKatherine, great sketches! I love the way you use the pencils to create depth. Great figures, too! Thanks for sharing your SketchCrawl!
ReplyDeleteBill Fulton
I'm amazed you can produce so much - I seem to find coloured pencils so slow - I especially love the fish shop one - how you just catch a moment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments - much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteLaura - I kept thinking about you and October and the Big Draw as I was going around. I think we should organise a sketchcrawl maybe in the same area as our contribution to the Big Draw. Maybe we could do a circuit involving this area, St Pauls and some of the old city churches. There's also a great view from the balcony of the Tate Modern - looking across to St Pauls and the Millenium Bridge. What was interesting is the time you lose stopping, putting stuff away, walking to the next bit, finding somewhere to sit, getting everything out again, remembering you meant to buy some tomatoes as you walked through the market etc. I reckoned on about an hour per sketch with only 40 minutes max for the sketch. Most were more like 30 minutes.
Vivien - you must come on our sketchcrawl. This is an old stamping ground for me - twenty years ago ( :-o ) I used to work just around the corner.
Julie - never a truer word was said! Are you coming on our sketchcrawl in October?
Alison - coloured pencils can be really fast if you get good ones and can scribble/hatch.
Mary, Cin, Bill - thanks again.