RWS Friends Sketching Day - 20th March 2011

Wonderful day along the river today! We visited the RWS Spring Exhibition first, with one of the Friends giving us a guided tour through so many inspiring paintings (some others not so much!). Then we headed off towards the Tate Modern. One of the Friends and I found a nice spot on the steps just below the Millennium Bridge and, although it was crowded as usual, the view was not interrupted. I liked the overall view with the modern and sinuous silhouette of the bridge and the very classic St Paul's Cathedral at the end. I did underestimate, however, the very complex shape and perspective of the bridge! I also realised, after so many years sketching in London, that the colour palette that I use the most is always the same: cobalt blue, yellow ochre and ivory black.....not very exciting! I think I'm going try a different approach next time, I'll take out these three colours from my sketching kit and let's see what happens.

RWS Friends Sketching Day - 14th November 2010

Pencil Sketch

St Michael, Cornhill, City of London

It was another cold day for outdoor sketching, one figure temperatures and rain. I spent a good 40 minutes in the district line from Wimbledon to Tower Hill, I had forgotten how slow this line is! On my way to station I picked a bunch of leaves: a Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba) leaf and a very red leaf from another tree which I can't find the name. I tried to do some pencil sketches while I was in the tube, but I've found it a bit difficult to keep my hand steady. Although it was raining we did a tour around Pepys tramping ground and I stopped to sketch in St Michael's Alley. It took me a long time to get the sketch done as I wanted to use a pen & wash technique. Unfortunately, I didn't feel very confident using a pen straight away, so I did a pencil sketch first, then pen on top and some watercolours to finish off.....it took me over 1 hour to do that!!

RWS Friends Sketching Day - 27th June 2010

Holland Park - The Arboretum

Holland Park - The Pond behind Lord Holland's Statue

Holland Park - Kyoto Garden

Had a fantastic day yesterday in Holland Park. It was about 30degC and the watercolours were drying very quickly. The sun was so strong you could hardly see the real colour of things. I managed to get three small sketches done before meeting for lunch at the cafe' (it was too hot to sit in the sun!). I also spent a bit of time taking some pictures with my new camera, but had to revert to the auto mode as I'm still not ready to use the manual settings!

RWS Friends Sketching Day - 21st February 2010

Walk from Golden Jubilee bridge to the London Eye

Golden Jubilee Bridge

Another cold and gray day in London, but at least it didn't rain! It was nice to be out sketching again after a few months.

Sketching Day: Kensington Gardens - Sunday 26th July 2009

Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall

Serpentine Bridge

Another wonderful day out sketching in Kensington Gardens with the RWS Friends. I wish I had more time to do more drawing, but it became at bit wet in the afternoon....you can see some rain spots on the sketch of the bridge!

Sketching Day: RWS Spring Exhibition and Riverside Sketching - Sunday 29th March 2009

Blackfriars Bridge

St Paul's Cathedral

Tate Modern

I met with the RWS Friends on Sunday for an outdoor sketching day along the river. We did a tour of the RWS Spring Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery and then Salliann Putman RWS did a talk on Bonnard's sketchbooks. It was a sunny day and we spent the rest of day sketching outside the Founder's Arm.

Saturday Night at the Library

We stopped at the library near Picadilly Circus, after meeting with some friends on Saturday. It was so calm and quite inside that it felt like we were miles away from the crowded and noisy streets of London.

High Holborn under the rain

It rained all day yesterday....but it wasn't too cold. I was able to sit outside Pret a Manger and sketch the surroundings while drinking a hot miso soup.

Bloomsbury Square Gardens

I draw this yesterday during my lunch break. There were still snow on the grass and patches of ice on the footpath. It was very cold, but the sky was clear. I added the colour later at home.

First post.......and first snow!

Just a quick sketch to celebrate my first post on the blog and the first snow of the season.
It had just started to snow when I did this sketch and I had to open the window to see what was going on, but couldn't keep it open for long......it was too cold.