SketchCrawl in Edale

I'm having an incredibly creative summer. Within days of getting back from the Urban Sketchers symposium, I was off again with my sketching gear, hopping on the train for a SketchCrawl North meeting. 

I decided we should re-visit the beautiful Edale, in Derbyshire (where we had a summer event last year), while the weather is warm and dry: it's just half an hour from Sheffield.

I was a bit worried actually, as the weather has been so very hot, I thought we might all get sun-stroke. Luckily it calmed down for our day out and was a perfect temperature for sitting on a hill with a picnic, or pottering around the village.

I took several different books, so I could keep going while my paint was drying, by starting a new sketch (to stop me being impatient and ruining things). While I was there, I experimented with a new Japanese Moleskin - the pages pull out into a continuous, concertina-fold. I got one for Christmas, but been too afraid to use it. We were given another free at the symposium (Moleskin were a sponsor), so that forced my arm. 

It was perfect for the panoramic view across the valley: I worked on three pages at a time and just kept folding out more as I went along. It was fun with the wind though, and I was glad of a couple of bulldog clips to keep everything from taking off.

After lunch, we walked back through the village for some variety. A farmer was sitting on a motorbike with a lamb across his knees, cutting barbed wire from where it was tangled into the poor thing's fleece:

I had another go with my Japanese sketchbook. It's good for building up a tableaux of linked pieces. During our sharing session, sitting outside the pub, I finished it off nicely by drawing someones dogs. 

It was a lovely, relaxed day. We had some regular members, but also a few very recent additions and a couple who had never been before, which was great. If you are in our area and would like to join us for a future SketchCrawl, just drop me an email and I'll send you some info.