Hull SketchCrawl: Streetlife Museum

I am back on my travels again this week, Nottingham this time, doing more of the storytelling through illustration workshops in primary schools. So, in the meantime, I thought I would share the drawings from Saturday's SketchCrawl.

This year, we broadened out our membership to include sketchers from all over the north of England (basically anywhere that is within day-trip travelling distance), so you may have noticed that we've also been visiting other cities, not just sketching in and around Sheffield. Members have been taking turns to organise days in their area and this month Kerry, who lives in Hull, set up a day drawing in the Streetlife Museum.

It was a fantastic choice: if you don't know it and are anywhere near, do pay a visit. It has all manner of early vehicles set into mock-up streets, ranging from the late Victorian era through to the 1950s. As well as cars, bikes and trader's vans, there are trams, train carriages and even a plane, as well as shops complete with contents, recordings of mock-conversations from the appropriate era and occasional dummies leaning out of tram windows etc, which kept fooling me all day! 

There was even a view down the river from a glass gallery, where we could draw a ship, which was also a museum. I'm quite into skies at the moment, so only managed the masts:

I found the drawing much harder than usual, as vehicles are not my usual thing - I'm not much of a one for accuracy, so it took me longer than usual, worrying about proportions and curves. When we shared the sketchbooks though, I saw how loose some other people's drawings were and realised that, of course, I didn't have to be so 'illustrative', just because it was cars. The sketch below and at the top are by Dominic Li - I love the energy of his approach, and his vehicles are not tight at all:

Which is one of the main points of the SketchCrawl: being inspired by others, discovering new approaches and having your assumptions challenged. Cheers Dom!

Towards the end if the day, we nipped down the road to the Ferens Gallery, which had the touring Leonardo Da Vinci drawings, as well as an Andy Warhol exhibition. Then we said our goodbyes and the Sheffield contingent got back on the train. 

We had a lovely journey back, looking at more of our sketches and comparing / trying out each other's art materials. Then it was all over for another month. 

Thanks so much to Kerry for the organisation of the day. A great success!