It's Proper Friendly in t' North

Earlier today, I had the most fun I've had in ages, during our Castle Market SketchCrawl. No writers took me up on the invitation, which was a shame, but a knot of about 10 sketchers met at 10am, and at least another half dozen joined us during the day. We disbursed throughout the various halls, but almost everyone found this big fish (a marlin?) impossible to resist:

It was the wonderfully friendly Sheffield people who made it extra fun for me. The relentless banter from stall holders was brilliant, so I wrote bits of what they were saying down on the sketches. People were so interested, they came from behind their stalls to see, and called colleagues over to look too, flipping back through my book.

Although there were 200 stalls, everyone instantly recognised Christine from the fruit stall:

Bob & Jo (below), at R & J Quality Butchers, were especially lovely: they even made me a mug of coffee. It turned out to be a family business. They had Son No 1 working with them, though I didn't get to draw him, and Dad showed me a photo of them with Son No 2 as well, all lined up in their fab stripy blue aprons.

The market was very busy and I worked in a tiny A5 sketchbook, so I could draw standing up and tuck myself into nooks and crannies, out of the way. For the same reason, I stuck to pen and pencil: no watercolour this time (a pity, as it was all extremely colourful).

The 'shoe-menders' below was my last sketch of the morning. We stopped at 12.30 for a fry-up in one of the little cafes dotted throughout the market. Reckon we earned it.

We welcomed more newcomers to the fold today and, as usual, had a massive age span. Tom, our youngest SketchCrawler to date, at age 12, lost his title (sorry Tom) to Mia, aged 6, (yes, 6..!) who arrived with her Mum, clutching an A4 spiral-bound sketchbook, which she proceeded to fill with her observations. Stunned? I was! More of Mia later.

We carried on drawing until 4pm, but I will show you the fruits of my afternoon's sketching next time, as this is becoming a bit of a long post (again).