Big Draw Dinosaur Day!

On Wednesday, I spent another day at my exhibition. The theme was Big Draw Dinosaur, so I concentrated on reading Gnash Gnaw Dinosaur! and showed people how to draw their own T Rex, like this one by Bethany:

I knew I'd have to draw lots of different dinosaurs on the flipchart too, so had to swot up on my other dinos - I haven't drawn most of them since I finished the original illustrations back in February of last year!

I sat on the train with lots of scrap paper and practiced drawing diplodocuses, pteradons, kronosauruses, stegosauruses etc. etc. until they were passable. I caught the odd person peeking, obviously wondering what I was up to.

This meant that I didn't sketch at all on the way there, but luckily did quite a few on the way back as you will see.

The day was great fun: I was on the go pretty much constantly, with a grabbed sandwich for lunch, but not even time to eat my banana! As well as my workshops there were other activities going on, including decorating dino foot-prints, which were then stuck onto two enormous diplodocuses on the stairs:

When it was all over, I relaxed with a coffee and a slab of excellent walnut cake at a local cafe, with an old friend who'd come all the way from The Lake District to see the show before it finishes next week. Thanks Mary!

Then I got my train home and began sketching: the man below is the one the hands above belong to. I think he was marking exam papers.

I wasn't very happy with this next sketch and nearly didn't scan it in, but when I'd played around with colour in Photoshop, it seemed to work a lot better, even though it's not a very accurate depiction of the subject:

This next guy was sitting next to exam-man, and was getting on my nerves. He kept changing position, so in the end I abandoned him altogether. But I came back, and almost finished him off just before Sheffield, which was when I noticed he was reading Plato. I was sufficiently impressed to forgive him!

Before I go, I'd like to say a special hello to anyone from St. Stephen's Primary who's reading - it was lovely to see so many children turn up on to see me. Your books are finally on their way by the way!