Castle Market SketchCrawl: Part 2

Today I finally got round to scanning in the 2nd half of my sketches from Castle Market.

Normally the group would have moved to a new venue after lunch, but there was so much to draw at the market, we just carried on, milling amongst the stalls, much as we had in the morning.

I went into a different hall though and, in a kiosk selling ribbons, masks and various dressing-up outfits, I found the perfect subject, sitting at a table, sewing her wares:

Unfortunately, almost as soon as I began, a customer arrived and stood between us, blotting out my view, so I drew a manikin in front of the stall, while I waited:

But, when the customer eventually left, instead of carrying on with her sewing, the woman came over to see what I was up to. We chatted for a while, then she obligingly went back and sat down in the same position, so I could finish her off.

I found this wonderful old weighing machine on the Lower Ground floor, outside a mobile phone shop with a flashing sign of tiny lights:

It took a while so I had to rest on the top of a big waste bin (yuk). people kept coming up and throwing things into it while I was drawing!

Afterwards, I went back upstairs and, at a small cafe opposite one the exits, found this rather sad-looking, elderly man, sitting alone over an empty mug of tea:

I liked the buzz of the food hall, but it was difficult not to be in the way, as this was by far the busiest area. I found a corner though, where I got a good view of these poor boiler chickens:

While I was mid-way through, someone behind me yelled 'Goal!!!!!!!!!' so loud and long, it echoed through the hall. I gathered from the banter that one of the butchers' stalls had the football on the radio. There was much taunting back and forth about who supported who.

The butchers were enjoying watching me draw and so I did a second sketch, with a couple of them in it. 'You've drawn him really fat,' said someone. 'Well,' I said, 'he is.' The man laughed: 'You can get a Wybourn Kiss for sayin' a thing like that,' he said. 'You 'eard of one of them?'

After my drawing was done, it was time to head for the pub. We showed round our sketchbooks as usual: it was such fun, seeing what everyone else had done. As usual, there were some fabulous drawings that I wished I'd done!

And then it was all over and time to get the bus home. I had to wait absolutely ages and it had suddenly got dreadfully cold:

I was extremely grateful when the bus eventually decided to show, as was everyone in the shivering crowd who had gradually formed at the bus stop. I didn't really want the day of drawing to stop, so I sketched the people on the bus, which also took my mind off the whiffy B.O. of someone sitting next to me!

I'll post other people's sketches from the day in the Picture Gallery if they send them to me.

The next SketchCrawl is going to be on bikes on Sunday March 27th: a Tour de Sketch out in Derbyshire! If you are not already on my mailing list and would like to join us, either to draw or to do some creative writing on-the-move, email me.