SketchCrawl in Buxton

Saturday was February's SketchCrawl North day and we had a trip to Buxton in Derbyshire. 

It was a beautifully sunny day so, although we were on a pub-crawl (much like the one we did in Sheffield recently), I braved a bit of street sketching outside the pub, to kick things off: 

But, even in my fingerless gloves, it was colder than it looked. It's always chilly in Buxton! I retreated into The Old Clubhouse when bits of me started going numb, only to find most of the rest of the crew tucked up in comfy chairs with cups of coffee and perfect views of the Buxton Opera House through the picture windows - no discomfort necessary. 

By the time I'd got my own coffee, I only had 20 minutes before we were due to move on, so no time for colour, just my fountain pen. It's such a wonderful building. I managed all its colourful glory last time we visited Buxton, sitting on the pavement in September sunshine (oh, for warm weather...).

We did a quick detour on the way to the 2nd pub: one of our team had noticed a great 2 for 1 deal on sketchbooks at Rymans. We descended like a plague of locusts and left the shelves virtually bare!

The next stop was The Cheshire Cheese. I was about to settle in, when my friend (a local) said I really ought to be drawing inside the second-hand bookshop opposite, or at least should take a look. So the two of us went off-piste for a bit.

Scriveners is indeed fascinating: one of those crammed-to-the-rafters bookshops, but with all sorts of interesting bits and bobs as well as books (as well as help-yourself, coffee-making facilities upstairs). It went up and up, a twisty-turny place with lots of little rooms opening into yet more rooms. When we got near the top, this rooftop view called to me. Unfortunately, I could only see it properly by piling heavy books up onto the stool of a harmonium and perching there like a rather old pixie.  

We next visited the New Inn, a quite small and very 'local' feeling pub. There was a roaring fire and a group of men at the bar, sporting a selection of dogs. I asked one man if I could draw his dog. He was bemused, but then got into the idea and pulled Elvis nearer the windows, so I could see better.

But Elvis, who had been quite docile and still till then, now got very twitchy. It turned out he was frightened of a tiny little dog, Axel (with ears like a fennec fox). The man said that was nothing - big but totally soppy Elvis was frightened of the dark and of his own shadow!

Axel didn't keep still either: he was too interested in everything. He was cute and very delicate, but we were warned he was inclined to remove your fingers, given a chance. Perhaps Elvis was right...

Having broken the ice with the locals, I got up the courage to draw a couple of the men propping up the bar. They never noticed me though:

When I was done, I weighed up whether to show them. They weren't bad likenesses, so I went for it. It was the right decision: they seemed pretty pleased and all their mates gathered round to have a look, as they'd done earlier for the dog pics, which were a great success. We left the pub with lots of waved goodbyes and promises to check us out on Facebook. I so love that aspect of Urban Sketching.

Unfortunately the Buxton Tap was heaving by the time we got there, so we returned to The Old Clubhouse for our 'sharing' session. We had to pull 3 tables together to get everyone round. It's such fun looking at everyone else's sketches from the day and you get so many new ideas.

Thanks to Kate and Stefan for organising the day - another great success and a brilliant turn-out.