Sketching the Olympic Park

It's less than week to the opening of the Olympics and I thought it was about time I sketched the view of the Olympic Park from the 3rd floor Gallery overlooking the Park in the John Lewis Store at Westfield Stratford.

The Olympic Park from the Third floor Gallery in John Lewis Westfield Stratford
(left to right: The Entrance to the Park; The Aquatics Centre, the Orbit and the Olympic Stadium)
pen and ink and coloured pencils in NPG Seawhite Sketchbook

Yes, that is a big black cloud up above and yes, I did get wet on the way home! What's new?

The skies are very difficult to draw this summer.  They're either incredibly grey and uninteresting or it's raining cats and dogs and you don't want to be out sketching!

I'm trying out a new sketchbook.  This one is slightly bigger than a Moleskine and the paper has more of a tooth although still smoother than most.  It's made for the National Portrait Gallery by Seawhite of Brighton and I think the paper is a heavyweight cartridge paper.  It looks very similar to this one.

It took pen and ink and coloured pencil fine - however I still prefer the Moleskine paper.  I think this one would be better for those wanting to use watercolour.