Saturday 26 February 2011

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).

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I love these market sketches of yours Lynn, made all the better by the comments added - so British!

Windsongs and Wordhoards said...

The stall holders' comments are a great addition... I can hear all the colour and bustle of the market in your sketches...
It would be great fun to take part in a sketch crawl sometime, though it would be a bit of a hike to the nearest group to me...
I so enjoy seeing your sketch books!
Carrie :)

Anonymous said...

Hey - I'm the cafe girl that interrupted you while you drew the cobblers. I laughed my head off at the comments about Christine. The shoe guys are quiet in comparison, but that's becuase their gobby girl is always on Delia's shoe store or sat over at the cafe.

I wish I could find all of the sketches people did! Am dying to see what everyone has done! :D Come back to sketch soon please!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Glad you like them folks.

Hi Toffeeliz - I will definitely come again! Hopefully some other people from the group will be sending me their drawings and I will post them up in the Picture Gallery (link on the right hand side). I've still got quite a few of mine to scan in too. I'll post them tomorrow if I can. Thanks for saying hello!