Speed-Sketching Workshop in Perth

The good news is, we are now ready to go with the 2nd full-day sketching workshop I'm running here in Perth, WA. This one will happen on Saturday March 24th and you can sign up for this, or my Sunday 18th workshop, any time from now on. Both are capped at 16 participants, so don't leave it too late if you don't want to be disappointed -  I'm guessing I probably won't be back in WA for quite a while!

This workshop is called Quick on the Draw and is aimed at helping people learn techniques which will make their sketching speedier.

That's always one of the trickiest challenges, isn't it? And really important, especially when you haven't got all day to fiddle.

I always try to work as fast as I can anyway, as I find that the more fluid, instinctive sketches are almost always my favourites and definitely the most fun to do.

You can find out more details and sign up for your place here on Eventbrite. 

Urban Sketching Workshop in Perth: 'Getting the Best from your Concertina'

If you are reading this from Australia, especially Western Australia, and you are a fellow sketcher, or someone who would like to learn more about how to be a sketcher, this is the post for you! 

As part of my residency at UWA, I am doing two full-day workshops in Perth, on different aspects of urban sketching. They will be on Sunday March 18th and Saturday March 24th. I will cover different things each time, so you can book one or both - they work independently of each other.

Both workshops will be suitable for anyone, from beginners through to more experienced sketchers. They will start and finish on the UWA's beautiful Perth campus and will include a picnic lunch. The first workshop is now ready for booking. You can find out more details and get your place secured here.  

I will be sharing lots and lots of tips to help you feel more confident with sketching in a concertina, as well as loads of ideas for different ways to use them. I have also hand made a watercolour concertina sketchbook for each person who takes part in the March 18th workshop.

Details of workshop no 2 (which will look at different techniques for sketching quickly) will follow very soon. Watch this space!

A Croc-and-Bull Story!

Last week I did manage a little bit of stitch work, but also spent what felt like days catching up on boring stuff after my residency - oh, those emails!! I managed to escape the computer on two days though, and had heaps more fun, doing illustration workshops and very silly storytellings in a couple of schools (hello to all at Nettleworth and Cavendish primaries!). This is me explaining about drawing emotions - the little girl in white is acting out a 'shocked and horrified' face, to feel what happens to her eyebrows. I asked them to imagine a huge bear had walked in and was eating the children nearest the door:

For this visit to Cavendish School, I was actually a prize - the school had won me by having more children complete the Summer Reading Challenge than any other school in Greater Manchester. Well done kids - great job! I'm not surprised they won, having met the children: they were all so focused. The older ones asked such perceptive questions and everyone was so obviously into books and creativity. So that's a big congratulations due to the teachers too, I reckon.

This is me with about 100 Foundation children, having just read An Itch to Scratch, we sang an itchy song and did lots of scratching, like Big Gorilla in the story, hence the silly pose! 

While I was there, the lovely folks from Manchester Library Service, who looked after me all day, gave me a little present: some of the brand new publicity leaflets for Manchester's children's library cards, starring Class One, as they appear on the first page of my latest book Class One Farmyard Fun, just before they get into all that bother with the bull...

The library card itself it attached to the inside of the leaflet, featuring my sneaky, dancing crocodile from Kangaroo's Cancan Café. Do you remember, a couple of years ago now, my characters started to appear on the new-look library cards?

It makes them look so much more enticing to kids than a boring old plain card, like the poor grown-ups get. I can't wait to show author Julia Jarman, my friend and partner in all the books featured. I know she'll love having our new book on the front!

Beginner's Sketching Workshops at Orchard Square

On Saturday morning, I held an Urban Sketching for Beginners workshop, as part of my residency at Orchard Square. I wanted to inspire new people to give it a go, and help them to feel less intimidated by the prospect of sketching from life in a public place.

I had a dozen people book in, which was a perfect size, as I could give people plenty of attention, but the group was large enough for them to not feel too exposed. We were just able to squeeze into my studio space, for me to talk to them as a group and brief in various exercises as we went along:

I shared various techniques, for instance, ideas to help them decide where to start and how to find simple things to tackle amongst the very complex world at large.

I also had a special trick up my sleeve to get them drawing in a confident, rather then a hesitant way, which worked really well...

As beginners, most of them had not come across contour-drawing before and it proved a revelation, which really freed people up and made their drawing much speedier.

It was very fortunate that I had a handy balcony outside my studio, so people had a great view over the shops and were able to work without the pressure of being in the throng of other people coming and going, and potentially looking over their shoulders.

This vantage-point proved especially useful because, as with the surprise Steam Punk event at my previous workshop, this time round we had a Morris-Dancing festival in the courtyard below! This gave us lots to draw all day, but it made things quite busy down at ground level, so it was good that we could watch and sketch in relative privacy.

I asked everyone to bring coloured pencils as I also wanted them to learn a few simple ideas for adding colour to their sketchbooks. It makes such a difference. we experimented with adding text too: personal observations, feelings, overheard sounds...

At various stages, we got together to share what we had done and learn from each other. I had a bigger, upstairs space I could use for the workshop, which was great for putting out all the books on the floor:

I really enjoyed the morning - it was such fun to be sharing techniques which were entirely new to people and which, though often fairly simple ideas, can be complete game-changers when you are starting out. It really felt like I was making a difference and there seemed to be quite a buzz by the time we had finished.

A big thanks to everyone who came. I hope you enjoyed it. And thank you to John too, for giving up his Saturday to be my right-hand man and for taking all the photos.

If you want to hear about any future workshops I run, either for beginners or more experienced sketchers, sign up for my mailing list.

Sketching Workshops: Capturing People

My recent afternoon sketching workshop, People at Play, was completely different to the morning's session on sketching architecture. This time, I was sharing techniques for sketching people, out and about in public.

We met at Sheffield's Botanical Gardens. It's a gorgeous, big park, where lots and lots of people hang out on the grass on a sunny Saturday. Imagine how relieved I was then, that it was not just dry (well, mostly), but also hot. We started with a picnic, while people gradually arrived and watched, in amazement, as a huge group of oddly dressed-up people milled about really close by. One of our number went to ask what it was all about and, with INCREDIBLE good fortune, I had picked the same afternoon as the Sheffield Steampunk Society picnic. Fantastic for sketching!

We started with an easy exercise: using contour drawing to loosen up our arms. This is also a great way to sketch very, very quickly - perfect for capturing people who might move at any moment.

Next, I shared a technique that was shown to me some years ago by Inma Serrano: using just one, at most two colours, to get down very simple shapes in watercolour, finished off with line. This is so speedy to do, especially if you pre-mix a couple of colours. You need to look for the key angles and shapes - the V of the legs, arms in the air, a bent back etc. You can get the gist in 15 seconds.

Then I did a demonstration, to show how, with 5 minutes, rather than 1, you can 'draw' with watercolour, but in a very simple way, not bothering with detail, just capturing shapes again. The trick with people-sketching, is to learn which bits of information are crucial to get down and which you only need if you have time before they move. You can add different coloured line-work, just to define things here and there, but really quickly, keeping 2 or 3 pencils ready at hand, adding as little as you can get away with.

Everybody did really well and worked really hard. The steampunk people loved being drawn and kept coming over to have a look.

I finished with another demonstration, as I wanted to show people how, if I know I have more like 20 minutes to spend, for instance on a train, or sketching friends, I might use my Inktense watercolour pencils to create something more detailed.

Since we couldn't guarantee any of the members of the public would keep still for long enough, someone's friend sat for me. Which isn't strictly speaking urban sketching, but was the best way for the demo. As you can see, I create the whole thing in line first and only add water with a waterbrush at the end.

I don't run sketching workshops very often but, as I mentioned last time, there is another day coming up very soon, on September 16th. It's all part of my new residency at Orchard Square. The morning is for beginners and is also suitable for children, the afternoon is for adults with at least a little previous sketching experience.

Email me if you want to book a place on either of these workshops. They are almost full, so be quick! 

I'll also be doing and an informal talk about my sketching and textiles work and the ways in which they are linked. If you would like to find out more about this,  or future events, you can join my new mailing list.

In the meantime, you might be interested in some of my other top tips on sketching people or, if you've not seen it already, there's always my book.

Urban Sketching Workshops: Scary Buildings!

Remember the 10th anniversary celebration workshops for Urban Sketchers I'm involved in? The first two I ran were in June; the 2nd pair were just recently.

The morning's session was about finding ways to tackle big, scary buildings: sort of coincidental, given my last post about Chicago. I can remember when I used to be put off anything with fancy arches or lots of windows, so I thought I'd share what I've learned since then, about ways to make such things more manageable.

We started off at a coffee shop, for a bit of an intro to what we would be doing. I brought lots of examples of my sketches to show, to help to convey what I meant and hopefully to inspire people.

Then we walked down the road to Upper Chapel, tucked away from all the people on the main roads, with it's own courtyard garden. We even had benches to sit on. I chose it because, apart from the handy setting, the building is only a little bit 'nasty', so not too challenging as a 1st exercise.

I got people to use collage to approximate the overall shape, before sketching and then asked them to try and underplay the amount of details added on top. I did a very quick demo first, as I personally find that is very helpful when I'm trying to learn new techniques. Then they had a go:

I took this little video of them, because they looked so great as a set:

I stepped it up next, with the Victoria Hall. There was a bit more to go at with a tower and different shaped windows. I liked that the building had two basic colours: the brick and the stone, which helped with the technique I wanted to share. I showed them how to use watercolour as a first stage, to help you to simplify what's there before you draw:

I also wanted to demo how to actually use watercolour, showing people the quantities you need to mix up and how to apply the paint: confident, powerful marks, but applied with a light touch, good and wet, so the paint flows about. The idea is to say all the basics in paint and only add the line-work you really need.

Nobody was allowed to plan first in pencil but, as you can see, everyone did great work and people were forced to work in a much looser way than they normally would, when faced with such a building. This is a piece by one of the participants, Lynne McPeake, who took just a section to concentrate on, but used the technique well:

Although I don't run sketching workshops very often, by coincidence there are another couple in a few weeks. As part of my new residency at Orchard Square in Sheffield, I will be running 2 workshops on September 16th - the morning is for relative beginners, which can include families with children, then in the afternoon there's one for adults with at least a little previous sketching experience, which will in fact be a repeat of the workshop that I ran in Chicago. Everyone booking for this event will get a copy of the fully illustrated handout I created (as a PDF).

Email me if you want to book a place on either of these workshops.

I'll also be doing an informal talk about my residency work on the morning of September 23rd. For details of this and other future events you can join my new mailing list.

Experiments in Collage...

 I had a very nice email last week from a lady I met briefly in Chicago. Susan Cornelis is an artist from California. She had been at the symposium with her friend Cathy and Cathy had taken my workshop. 

Cathy so enjoyed the collage element of the workshop, that she shared the technique with Susan and they both went out on a sketching day together as soon as they got home, to try it out.

They were so excited by their results that they sent them to me. How lovely is that? I though you might like to see them too.

Try it - get some coloured paper and rip a couple of random shapes. Stick them into your sketchbook before you go out to sketch. they can overlap, or not, up to you. Then do whatever drawing takes your fancy over the top.

The results are often very effective and all the more interesting because the relationship between the colour and the line is so random.

Paint & Paddle: Urban Sketching in Chicago

I am back!

Sorry for going a bit off the radar. I have had a smashing couple of weeks, drawing and painting on the streets of Chicago with my Urban Sketchers chums.

For those who aren't aware of what it's all about, every year Urban Sketchers, which is an international charitable organisation, holds a symposium somewhere in the world. This year, 600 sketchers descended on Chicago! The event itself lasts for 3 days, but people often hang out and sketch together for quite a few days more.

Instructors, like myself, are flown in from around the globe to run workshops and do demonstrations. It's fairly hard work, especially in the heat, but I can't complain, since these symposiums have taken me to Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Portugal and Spain.  

I worked with 3 different workshop groups in Chicago: one group each day. I took them to the same location, Lurie Garden, which I had to choose before I left Sheffield, using Google Maps. It was a bit of a gamble, but it turned out to be ideal: a peaceful, 'secret', wild-flower garden in the centre of the city, with the visual contrast of massive skyscrapers all around the sky-line. I arrived a few days early and went to sketch there, to get a feel for it. Within seconds of settling myself down, huge rain splots started to fall and the sky turned purple! I had to scurry under a tree to finish while thunder boomed overhead.

Luckily the next day it was somewhat calmer:

One unique thing about Lurie Garden (which made the other instructors jealous) was the cool water channels you could dabble your feet in - spot the paddling student:

And, because we were really close to the park's big, open-air music pavilion, we were mostly painting to musical entertainment. One morning we had opera, another it was pop. Fantastic!

Like all the instructors, I was with each group for 3.5 hours. Each year I devise a different challenge for my students, something which either addresses key difficulties people have when sketching on location, or which helps them to think in a new way about how they sketch what they see.

This year I got people thinking laterally about the way they combine line and colour. I got them really experimenting with the way you can layer different kinds of mark-making. It was completely different to any workshop I'd run before and a large part of it involved using simple collage. Which meant that I had to find room in my suitcase for three A3 packets of coloured paper. I was also slightly anxious about doing paper collage out of doors in the 'windy city'...

It all went really well though and we only had one incident of having to chase down brightly coloured bits that flew off. We'll get more formal feedback soon, but people said they enjoyed themselves and that the level of challenge was good. They certainly did some gorgeous work:

I of course did lots of lots of personal sketching, in my spare time during the symposium, when I wasn't teaching, but also on the few days I tagged on either side. I was particularly excited by the fiendishly tricky El train, which runs above the street. I sketched it 3 or 4 times:

I'll post some more of my sketches in a few days. I'm still working my way through the various jobs that build up when you go away.

On the final day of the symposium, there is always is big announcement: where next year will be held. There are always rumours, but I didn't guess Next year we are going back to Portugal, this time to Porto. I went there on holiday years ago. I remember it as being extremely sketchable, with twisty, old streets, interesting cafes and of course the wide Douro river at its feet, with its massive iron bridge. Can't wait! 

By the way, I have decided to set up a mailing list for my urban sketching workshops. So, I know I don't do them very often, but sign up if you want to be contacted when I am running something, to get first refusal on any places available!