Visit from a Parisian Sketch-Buddy

Until last week I'd never met Yves Damin, fellow sketcher and graphic designer, living in Paris, but I had admired his work on-line. Then a few weeks back I got a Facebook message, saying he was coming to the UK and would be visiting family in Sheffield. He asked if I would like to meet up, to do some Urban Sketching together. 

When Liz Steel came to visit once, all the way from Australia no less, we had a great time, so of course I said I'd love to meet Yves. I contacted the other members of SketchCrawl North too, so we would have a fitting welcome committee.

The weather forecast wasn't great, so we decided to meet the others in Caffe Nero, as there are big windows with views out over the city centre. As crazy chance would have it, Yves's Sheffield-based family live two minutes walk from me so, just before 9am on Friday morning, we took the bus into town together.

We sat at an outside table, because Yves said he would prefer that, and other people gradually joined us. It was a wee bit chilly, but we got coffee to warm our hands. 

But as time went on it got colder and colder. I managed the drawing above (in my Inktense pencils and white chalk) but, by the end, I was losing all feeling in my fingers (that's my excuse for the slightly wonky tower) so we went inside for the next one. Nice and cosy: 

But Yves was made of stronger stuff: Paris must be even colder than Sheffield! He continued to brave the outdoors:

While Yves was painting the town hall, I got a bit obsessed with the water-balls in Millennium Square:

We had a little break after that, because there was an Urban Sketching exhibition on at the Millennium Gallery: paintings and drawings from the Recording Britain project begun in 1939. The exhibition is on loan from London's V&A until November 2nd. It's really varied and contains some real gems, so I would definitely recommend it, if you haven't seen it yet.

Fully inspired, a handful of the group left the exhibition to squeeze in just one more quick sketch before Yves and I had to head back. Yves went outside again with Rich Wells, while I sat indoors with Lucie Golton and Andrea Joseph, who drew the sketchers and people in the cafe:

This time we were in the warmth of the Winter Gardens cafe - another one with lovely, big windows into the world outside, so perfect for softie-sketchers!

We girls ate lunch before starting to sketch (a very nice roasted-veg and hummus roll - mmm...), after which there was even less time to get something done. As usual, the time constraint loosened me up nicely:

It was so lovely to have the chance to meet Yves and I was really pleased that so many of the group managed to get out to draw with us, despite it being a weekday. You can get a proper look at the sketches Yves did, if you take a look at his write-up of the visit.

Come back soon Yves (or maybe next time I'll see you in Paris!).