RWS Sketching Day in South Kensington

Our scheduled RWS Sketching Day on Sunday was at the Science Museum in South Kensington to sketch but it was a such a lovely day in London that I opted for sketching outside.

I ended up sitting in the shade on the steps of the Royal College of Music sketching the back of the Royal Albert Hall.

South aspect of the Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington
11.5" x 8.5", pencil and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Followed by sitting in the Cafe Consort in the Royal Albert Hall sketching the architecture Royal College of Music above where I'd been sitting.

I can highly recommend the first stop for music while you work as the students had the windows of the basement music practice rooms open and I can cofnrim that get a very good standard of piano practice at the Royal College!

Royal College of Music from the Cafe Consort, Royal Albert Hall 11.5" x 8.5", pencil and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

It was an interesting day in relation to studying the impact of light on red brick. The first sketch of the Albert Hall was in bright sunlight and one of the Royal College was 'contre jour' with all the brickwork in shadow.

We had lunch in the Blue Cafe at the far end of the Science Museum. There's lots to sketch (the Apollo 10 command module 1969, Stephenson's Rocket locomotive 1829 etc) - just not a lot of places to sit to sketch out of the way of people on the ground floor. I should think week days might be quieter.

I came home with a present from the Science Museum bookshop for "he who must not be bored while I sketch or watch art programmes" - a facsimile copy of an Eagle Annual with a selection of highlights from the 1950s!

I too used to read the Eagle comic when I was little - Dan Dare rules OK?!

Links:

• Royal Albert Hall
• Royal College of Music
• Wikipedia - South Kensington
• Wikipedia - Eagle Comic
  
• Wikipedia - Dan Dare