Monday 24 January 2011

Sheffield SketchCrawl no 4: a House of Books and a House of God



Around 30 people turned up on Saturday for the 4th Sheffield SketchCrawl: some old hands, several brand new faces. The Sheffield Telegraph article brought at least a couple more closet-sketchers out of the woodwork (thanks David!).


We drew in 3 venues this time. Above is my quick rendition of the coffee stall in the foyer of the library where we met.


Somehow I couldn't find a long view to settle on, so I drew a detail of the old fittings from the 1930s:


But I still felt rather stiff, so I got out a fat, 6B graphite stick and warmed up on my usual fave: drawing people. There were plenty to go at in the reference library reading room:


The whole library was dotted around with us sketchers, and I kept overhearing snatches of conversation from the public and library staff: "...there's more of them outside... rather good...". While we were there, two people approached us, to ask to join the group.


It was great to be in a venue that was not just visually interesting, but a) lovely and warm, and b) bursting with comfy seating.

At lunchtime, we crossed the road to the Winter Gardens (where we drew on our first ever SketchCrawl).


I'd reserved a load of tables in the window at Zooby's (thanks Wendy for shooting over in advance and reminding them!) and we rather took over the cafe.


It was perfect: it's very hard to find places where an indeterminate number of people, anything from 10 - 30, can arrive and eat together, especially on a Saturday lunchtime.


When we'd finished tucking into the excellent sandwiches they do at Zooby's, we of course set to, drawing each other:


St Marie's, the Catholic cathedral we visited in the afternoon, was a bit dark, but we still managed pretty well. It was so quiet, we crept around, speaking in whispers, but most of the time we were the only ones there.


The stained glass windows were beautiful. I had a crack at one, but got a bit frustrated that the colour intensity was impossible to achieve, and wished I'd brought a pen for the black lead.


Standing at the railing of a little side balcony, doing battling with my window painting whilst trying to juggle palette, brushes, conte stick and A5 book, standing up, I very nearly dropped my sketchbook over the upstairs railing - what an echoing crash that would have made!

Just about everyone drew this big, carved angel at some point:


The church seemed warm when we first arrived, but we started to feel cold as time went on. When we got so chilly that our fingers were getting stiff, we snuck down the road to the Crucible Corner bar. We had to move the furniture around, because so many sketchers stayed the course.


It was, as usual, absolutely fascinating passing round the sketchbooks to see how various people had tackled the same venues.



As usual, I will post more photos and other folks' sketches in the Picture Gallery as they come in. In the meatime, I have just posted the photos from the recent SketchJam at The Grapes.


If you would like to join us the next time we go out, do email me and I'll put you on my mailing list. If you have a venue that you think would be good, do please let me know!

In the meantime, if you want to hear more about how I draw, take a look at one of my short videos, or take a peek inside some of my other sketchbooks, such as those from my travels, to countries like China, Namibia, Vietnam, Australia and various other places all over Europe.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

wow amazing number of sketchers and fabulous results.

I'll check out other people's results later.

Vicky L. Williamson said...

Looks like an amazing day!

Vivien said...

Really interesting pictures of the day's journey!

Lynne - thanks very much for advertising the children's writers' group. Because of this my daughter, who's written drafts of two books for small children, has joined the Oxford group and found the feedback and meeting others very enthusing. Some of them are going to the children's writers part of the Oxford Literary Festival in April.

Shalini said...

Very interesting.. You seem to have had a lot of fun!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Hi Vivien - so pleased your daughter has hooked up with the SCBWI group. They are such a suppirtive and friendly lot. Wish her luck from me, for her writing!

Tahirih Goffic said...

Wow! You're so productive! So many great sketches. I love the church window.

Mary Lou Rosato-Caine said...

Hi Lynne- I like your style! So I am passing on the "Stylish Blogger Award" to you. You can collect it off my site if you'd like. Have a great day!

Bethany said...

What a wonderful day! I wish I was living nearby so I could come! I love the line work in that first sketch from the library... I know it was quick but there's great light/dark contrast and the direction and thickness of line is varied enough without being confusing... it's wonderful!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thank you Bethany for this and all your lovely comments. Yes, I get really excited myself about line quality - a beautiful line can be so evocative.

ANAIS G. BURGOS said...

How many people sharing this fantastic hobby of drawing!
I'd love to join you but...I'm so far from there...

Lynne the Pencil said...

Why not start your own group Anais? I just asked a couple of friends, as a reliable core, then put out an open invitation to anyone else in the area to join us. Even with only 2 or 3 or you, it would still be fun!