Pencil-Rock for Carnival Night!

Last Thursday evening, we had another go at the SketchJam idea, this time at the White Lion pub on the London Rd, for a night of carnival. No, not masks, feathers and floats (wouldn't that be fun to draw?), but a rock band called The Carnival.

It was rather louder on the ear than the old fellas at The Grapes, but more what we originally had in mind when Martin and I conceived the SketchJam idea.

I'm not really one for rock music these days, but it turned out to be brilliant fun, and I was amazed at all the rock classics that I knew.

Honestly, after a couple of halves of lager, I was singing along, drawing like a demon, whilst simultaneously doing the rock-chick, head-banging thing! Good job there were no photos taken...

When the music eventually wound up and I finally made a dash for the loo, I looked at my watch for the first time and realised it was midnight - we'd been drawing for nearly 3 hours!

I started the evening using some new Artist Pens I bought that morning - a cross between a fine-point and a felt tip - but I switched to pencil after a bit, as it worked better at speed.


Isn't it interesting: you can really see in the drawings above and below, of an almost identical pose, how I warmed up as the evening went on.

The band were really interested and looked at our books. Joolz, the lead singer said that, in 20 years of performing, it was the first time they'd ever been drawn. He is dead keen to put some of the sketches in their website.


The White Lion is a great venue for sketching, as there is plenty of room and you can get up really close to the musicians. They have monthly folk and a jazz nights, so we'll go for one of those next time. Email me if you fancy joining in.