Walkley Festival - our 9th SketchCrawl

On Saturday we drew our way around hilly Walkley, as part of their local festival. Although I led the day, this time all the hard work and research was done by Cath, Krishna and Lizzy, who live locally.

Our first stop was the Primitive Methodist Church: a formidable building, towering over the main road. Everyone lined the pavement opposite, to try and get far enough away to see it properly:

I still found it a bit huge to tackle in full, so I focused on the massive inscription 'Ebenezer', carved into the sooty stone, while various pigeons watched from on high:

Because publicity for the day had appeared in the festival brochure, we got quite a lot of new people, including another couple of younger members, Ruben and Zoe, with their mum. This is them at our second venue:

We split between two gardens on Carr Road and I went for Nancy's garden a bit further down the hill - both owners had kindly given permission for us to invade:

Again, I struggled to find a longer view I was happy with, especially as the sun kept going in and out and changing all the shadows, so I zoomed in on details like these hydrangea heads:

This tree was a real quickie, as I had just begun when I realised we were out of time and almost everyone else had moved on without me! I used compressed charcoal instead of pencil, so it's bolder:

I hurried up the road to the other garden, where everyone was still scribbling away, including John:

I was just about to round people up, ready for lunch, when the garden's owner announced he was going to open one of his bee hives if we wanted to watch.

Togging up, getting the smoker going (just in case) and opening up the hive

I know I should have been sketching him rather than taking photos (and Cath actually did - bravo!) but there was a lot of movement so I went for the easier option.

Finding the queen and sliding that section into a glass-sided viewing box

They were preparing the bees to take up to Ruskin Park, as part of the Fun Day celebrations. We followed them up and enjoyed a wonderfully sunny lunch break, sitting on the grass, listening to live music and sipping pear juice. 

Then we crossed the road to Blake Street, an outrageously steep hill, even by Sheffield's standards: it's so steep it has a special ridged pavement and an iron handrail for winter!

The view back down over Sheffield was astounding, but I chickened out and drew this small section of it, seen through a bramble bush.

I think my favourite sketch that I did was this one though, the narrow path leading into a tiny nature reserve tucked away behind Blake Street. I got out my latest toy: my masking fluid applicator (you draw with a nozzle so no gunky brushes required - perfect for outdoors). 

We walked back up to the park at 3.30, where some people carried on sketching, but I just enjoyed sunning myself, sitting on the grass, chatting and people-watching. We did the usual sketchbook sharing where we were, as it was such a beautiful afternoon, then we sauntered into the Blake Hotel to reward our efforts.

As usual, I will put other people's sketches into the Picture Gallery as they come in. If you want to join us next time, just let me know and I'll put you on my mailing list.