London Urban Sketchers at Canary Wharf - 16 January 2016

On Saturday I led the London Urban Sketchers Group's visit to Canary Wharf (see UPDATE: re Let's Draw Canary Wharf 16 January 2016

These are my sketches. I first took people to see the amazing sky garden at Crossrail Place where the vegetation has really bedded down since it opened last May.

This was my first sketch of the day

My first sketch was of Poplar DLR Station - from a distance

Sketched through one of the holes in the roof of Crossrail Place

I then turned my attention to the sky garden

I drew in pen and ink on the spot
- and added some colour when I got back home

Dicksonia Antartica at Crossrail Place in Canary Wharf

 - it was just above freezing on the day and I was greatly amused by the name of the tree ferns!

We shared our sketches at lunchtime in Jubilee Place - the warmth was much appreciated

London Urban Sketchers - lunchtime at Jubilee Place undergound shopping mall

This is when I discovered there was a sketch of me sketching my first sketch!

4th Annual Exhibition by Urban Sketchers London - at Timberyard Soho

The fourth exhibition by London Urban Sketchers - and the third at branches of Timberyard - opens next week on Monday 2nd November.

It's really great to be one of the launch exhibitions at a brand new branch of Timberyard in Soho - and for the exhibition to be on until the end of April 2016.

I've been busy for the last few weeks organising the exhibition alongside the core team for the exhibition of James Hobbs, Nathan Breville and Evelyn Rowland.  James does liaison with our exhibition and event partners, Nathan and Evelyn are doing the really big job which is the hang next weekend and I'm doing admin and marketing. I organised the call for entries and selection. My next job is labels! (see How to make labels for an art exhibition)

Urban Sketchers London at Timberyard Soho

From Blackfriars Bridge by James Hobbs

WHERE: Timberyard Soho
AT: 4 Noel Street, London W1F 8GB
OPEN: Monday to Friday - 8am-8pm; Saturday & Sunday 10am-6pm
WHEN: Monday 2nd November - 30th April 2016.
@timberyarduk, @urbsketchlondon

Timberyard create workplaces for creative people fused with speciality tea and coffee.

It's very appropriate that our exhibition should be associated with these brilliant coffee shops because very often after a sketchcrawl we go for a coffee. Then we admire each other's sketches and spend much time chatting about sketching kits!

Linked Events

You can get involved with any one of our three linked events planned at present - we may have more in 2016!

• The Private View is on 3rd November between 6.30 and 9pm and regular readers of this blog are most welcome
• There is a Sketchcrawl on Saturday 14th November - starting and finishing at Timberyard - Liberty's (Great Marlborough Street) to the BBC (Langham Place) - 
• There is also a Book Event on 25th November - of which more later.  I'll be signing my book alongside James Hobbs and Isobel Carmona with their books. Plus we'll have the latest books by other Urban Sketchers.

Selected Sketchers

As well as me, these the names of the other urban sketchers whose sketches are included in the exhibition: Sangeeta Bhagawati, Elizabeth Blunt, Nathan Brenville, Julie Bolus, Isabel Carmona, Jo Dungey, Katy Evans, James Hobbs, Isabelle Laliberte, Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, Choon Low,  Dolores Kitchener, Tom Ledger,  Paulina Little, Simone Menken, Olya Osipova, Simon Privett, Nick Richards, Evelyn Rowland, Sue Smith, John Swanson, Marissa Lee Swinghammer, and Tony Underhill.

The sketches are a mix of ones done on our regular monthly sketchcrawls and those sketched while people have been out and about London. Links in the names are to their websites or blogs. Do please take a look at their other work.

Previous Exhibitions

The Art of Sketching - our first exhibition at Foyles

Previous exhibitions:

• 2012: the first exhibition also celebrated the launch in the UK of the book about The Art of Urban Sketching 
• The Art of Urban Sketching - at Foyles in London and 
• USk London blog: Urban Sketchers London exhibition opens at Foyles
• 2014 Timberyard Seven Dials (January 2014): the one I missed due to writing my book was at the Seven Dials branch of Timberyard - see 
• USk London blog: Urban Sketchers London Exhibition! (Seven Dials) and 
• Urban Sketchers Exhibition Private View
• 2014: Timberyard Old Street (March - June 2014) - 
• Urban Sketchers London - new exhibition at Timberyard (Old Street) and 
• Usk London blog: Urban Sketchers London exhibition at Timberyard Old Street 

Some of the exhibiting artists at our last exhibition at Old Street 
Thomas Corrie, Isabelle Laliberté, James Hobbs and Jhin-Ren Shih

The Paragon at Blackheath

On Saturday I went on a long walk to join up with London Urban Sketchers who were sketching at Blackheath (see map at end!)

I got there in time for lunch and then spent the afternoon sketching The Paragon which started life as seven pairs of houses linked by colonnaded sections built as part of the Cator Estate. They've now been split into flats. My friend Jean and her husband live in the one on the left

Western end of The Paragon at Blackheath
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchboook

We sat for most of the sketching in the afternoon under leaden grey skies - wondering if we'd need to whip out umbrellas very fast. It was certainly cold. Then just as I was getting to the end of the drawing the sun came out and produced one of those very pale turquoise skies.

Then the clouds came over and it went back to being grey!

I finished the drawing while sat in the cold but added the colour when I got home. I also need to add more grass cutting lines!

More sketches - from lunch and tea - to follow.

These are the people who came to Blackheath on Saturday - I'm taking the photo.

London Urban Sketchers at Blackheath - the end of the day lay down of sketches and group photo

This is the map of my walk. The walk from Cutty Sark Station on the Docklands Light Railway is very pleasant as it takes you through the park (uphill for most of the way) and then across the heath - so only a tiny bit of traffic for the whole walk.

From the station to the Princess of Wales pub (where we had lunch) in Montpelier Row in Blackheath is 1.4 miles and is uphill for half the distance. It's supposed to take 28 minutes and burn 114 calories - which (according to my invaluable Citymapper app) apparently equate to 0.6 packets of crisps or O.6 pints of beer. Just so you know....

The walk from Greenwich Cutty Sark Station to Blackheath.
(click to see a larger image)

Admiralty Arch and Horse Guards

On the 16th August I organised the London Urban Sketchers sketchcrawl to St James Park, The Mall, Horseguards and Trafalgar Square.

Below are my sketches - and a little bit of history about the two important London buildings I sketched Admiralty Arch and Horse Guards. Both are Grade 1 Listed Buildings - meaning they are very important in terms of both architecture and heritage.

I've already written about the sketchcrawl for London Urban Sketchers and I'm not going to do it again. However you can READ more about the sketchcrawl:

• the results August 2015 Sketchcrawl - Notes, photos and sketches and
• the plan Let's Draw - Trafalgar Square, The Mall & St James Park - Sunday 16th August 2015
• plus view the map of the locations

Plus you can SEE more photos of both sketches and the sketchers that I took in the London Urban Sketchers - August 2015 (Mall) album on our Flickr account. You can also see the sketches done by other people that have been posted to Flickr in the Urban Sketchers London - Group Pool.

Admiralty Arch

Admiralty Arch - drawn while sat in the middle of The Mall (16th August 2015)pen and ink and coloured pencils

What you do on a Sunday morning after the VJ 70th anniversary commemorations the previous day!- sit in The Mall behind the traffic cones and draw something you could never normally draw from this perspective!

I focused on the drawing and added more colour when I got home- building up layers to get intensity of colour can sometimes take a bit of time

Admiralty Arch was commissioned by King Edward VII - to commemorate the reign of his mother, Queen Victoria - which is why her name is written in Latin at the top on The Mall side.

It used to be used as government offices and Ministers used to have flats at the top but it's now been vacated and let for use as a hotel (which as yet has not yet happened).

The central gate of Admiralty Arch is typically only ever opened to allow the Monarch to pass through. If you sit the other side of it is a great place to get a full view of The Mall when the traffic is normal - unlike when we were there and most of The Mall was coned off for pedestrians only.

Horse Guards

This is my sketch of Horse Guards and the Parade Ground - which is where they held the drumhead service for the VJ 70th Anniversary.  It's also where they hold the trooping the colour every year on the Queen's Birthday.  You can see a drawing of what it looked like in 1695 at the end of this post.

Did you know that Horse Guards houses the space used for the Tilt Yard used by the original Whitehall Palace?  (see a map of this in 1680 at the end of this post)

I had great plans to include the London Eye but needed a different perspective or a wider sketchbook! I think I'm going to go back and have another go. It's a view I walk past regularly and I've always wanted to have a go.

A view of Horse Guards and the Parade ground (16th August 2015)pen and ink in a Moleskine sketchbook

Plan of the Palace of Whitehall 1680 
- right click and open in a new tab to see a much LARGER version
The Tilt Yard is at the top. The map has the river at the bottom and the parkland at the top.

View of the Palace of Whitehall by Leonard Knijff, c. 1695-7
- right click and open in a new tab to see a much LARGER version
Thames is at the bottom of the picture and the space now occupied by St James Park is at the top
You can just see the entrance to Horse Guards in the middle

The VJ Day 70th Anniversary Drum Head Service on Horse Guards Parade Ground

PS. I've been very slow getting sketches on to this blog of late - and am now trying to catch up. It's not that I haven't been sketching - just that I haven't been scanning and photoshopping and blogging!

London Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl - Let's Draw St Paul's to the Thames - 26 April 2015

I'm organising the next London Urban Sketchers' Sketchcrawl. You can find all the details and maps and some suggestions of possible subjects or views to sketch in this post Let's Draw St Paul's to the Thames - 26th April 2015 on the Urban Sletchers London blog.

Everybody is welcome - the only requirement is that you stick to the terms of the manifesto (see end).

Here are the basics:

• On Sunday 26th April 2015
• Starting: 11:00 on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral
• Lunch at 1:30pm on the Roof Terrace of One New Change - where we might just try a "Draw the Dome in 15 minutes Challenge"! (I think I've been watching too many episodes of "The Big Painting Challenge"!)
• End at: 3:30pm at Paternoster Square

St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge from Tate Modern

URBAN SKETCHERS' MANIFESTO

1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
3. Our drawings are a record of time and place.
4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
6. We support each other and draw together.
7. We share our drawings online.
8. We show the world, one drawing at a time.

Sketches from Victoria and Albert Museum Sketchcrawl

Only a week late this time - here are the sketches from the London Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl at the Victoria and Albert Museum last Saturday.

It was so sunny that I say in The John Madejski Garden - the courtyard with a pool in the centre of the Museum - all afternoon drawing people sat in the sun.

Sitting in the sun, The John Madejski Garden, Victoria and Albert Museum 7th March 2015
pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook (11" x 16")

I started with the chap sat next to the external corner of the building (top left) and then worked my way across the page relating one person to another. Of course they were never all present at the same time as people came and went as I drew - and some of them moved rather a lot while I was drawing! Which accounts for why some are half finished!

I also drew some London Urban Sketchers. On the left is Jean Edwards (a drawing a day) and on the right is Pavel Miller. You can see what Jean and Pavel were sketching in the Tweets below my sketch - they were both sketching the architecture of the V&A at the time.

London Urban Sketchers hard at work
Pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook

@UrbSketchLondon @makingamark2 #thedailysketch an enjoyable and productive day at the V and A https://t.co/Vq97fkNXOi pic.twitter.com/9itVWhuRD9
— jean edwards (@JeanEd70) March 7, 2015

Awesome day sketching in the sun with @UrbSketchLondon at the @V_and_A can't wait for the next one! pic.twitter.com/aGBwIQ3eOv
— Pavel Miller (@PVMill) March 7, 2015

Sketchcrawl at the British Museum (February 2015)

I always seem to be late posting sketches from Sketchcrawls! These are three from last month's Urban Sketchers London visit to the British Museum.

I avoided the architecture and stuck with the artifacts in the cases and a rather splendid sculpture above one door.  Some of them are very difficult to draw - but I'm not showing you my failures!

Painted Statue of a Woman 2000-1600BC (Old Babylonian)

British Museum 7 February 2015

Not quite sure what the name is for a statue above a door This is Indugud (c.2,500BC) - it looked like an eagle and stags to me but it was about 25 feet up in the air!
British Museum 7 February 2015

These are African Masks made from all sorts of things - but wood is very popular
The masks at the top are of Women and the ones at the bottom are of wild animals
British Museum 7 February 2015

Today there's another sketchcrawl at the V&A Museum in South Kensington which I'm leaving to join now.  It finishes at 3.30pm so still time to get along and join in!

Sketching a lighthouse and lightships in London (Urban Sketchers London Sketchcrawl 16th November)

Tomorrow lunchtime I'm going to go to a place not far from me to see a lighthouse I never knew existed. It is in fact the only lighthouse in London - and it's at Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London, which is situated at the confluence of the River Lee and the River Thames.

Plus there's

• a couple of lighthouses , 
• a pier with a good view of the O2, a container city and 
• an American Diner - a painting of which won the Sunday Times Watercolour competition this year.

Annotated aerial view of Trinity Buoy Wharf and sketching opportunities

If you want to find out more about the Sketchcrawl and other events which form part of the Recording Britain events tomorrow - see What to see and sketch on Sunday at Trinity Buoy Wharf on the Urban Sketchers London blog

What: Sketchcrawl
Where: at Trinity Buoy Wharf. Meet at The Electrician's Shop Gallery, Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, London E14 0JY
When: 12 noon - 4pm on Sunday 16th November
How to get there: it's not difficult - see the blog post for details or the TBW website

Sketching three Wren Churches in the City of London

Earlier this month, on Saturday 2nd August, I spent the afternoon drawing three Wren churches as part of the Sketching Wren's London Sketchcrawl, organised by Pete Scully for Urban Sketchers London.

The area I covered was very familiar being located very close to the Puddle Dock Offices in Victoria Street where I used to work when I was a management consultant at KPMG in the 90s.

St Andrew by the Wardrobe, Queen Victoria Street
pen and ink and coloured pencil in Stillman and Birn Epsilon ringbound sketchbook, 9" x 12"
© Katherine Tyrrell

St Andrew by the Wardrobe is the last church designed by Sir Christopher Wren for the City of London.

Sir Chrisopher Wren
Image: Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• The original church (no longer standing) dates back to the 13th century and was associated with Baynard’s Castle, which used to be located where the Mermaid Theatre is now.  The church was located close by to the place known as the The Great Wardrobe - where the state robes and other associated materials were stored.
• It was the parish church of Shakespeare when he worked at the nearby Blackfriars Theatre - which was also located just to the north of the church
• The church was burned down in the Great Fire of London - hence Wren's involvement
• It was then damaged in the Blitz - it completely lost its interior - but has subsequently been restored.

I've been sent some of the Stillman & Birn sketchbooks to review and this was the first time I'd taken out their Epsilon sketchbook (9 x 12" / 22.9cm x 30.5cm - ring bound / 100 pages).

I'll be publishing a review when I've used it bit more - I'm only just getting back into sketching having spent most of the year writing my book about drawing and sketching!

I really liked the paper which is heavy weight paper designed for pen and ink (100 lb. / 150 gsm - with a plate surface) and it certainly is an excellent surface for that.  The other big advantage is that the pen and ink does not show through the paper so you can work both sides without causing a problem when it comes to scanning. It also worked really well with coloured pencil as well and smudged beautifully when I used a tissue to blue the colours in the dark clouds behind the church.

I'm much less keen on the ring binding as it causes a problem when it comes to scanning.  I also need to remember that the sheets are 9" x 12" which means they're very slightly bigger in both dimensions than the A4 size permitted by my scanner.

I then walked up the road and swopped to a pen and ink sketch of The Guild Church of St Benet, Paul's Wharf on a double page spread in my trusty Moleskine Sketchbook.  This was drawn using an unusual 'portrait' format. I tried to get it all in but in the end lost the top of the tower.

This is the Welsh Anglican Church in the City of London and has a Baroque style.  It was originally located just to the east of the watergate of Baynard's Castle - and both castle and church burned down in the Great Fire of London.

This 'new' church was designed by Wren and built between 1677 to 1685. This is the English Heritage listing for it. See if you can spot what they're referencing in my sketch (it's not all theer!). I was located to the north of the church - looking south towards the River Thames - which means west is on the right and east is on the left.

Square compartment of 3 bays with north aisle and short west aisle to south of west tower. Exterior of red brick with modest dressings of painted stone and richly carved festoons above windows. Modillion eaves-cornice of timber. Hipped, tiled roof, in 3 sections to north aisle. Blind panel to centre of east front. Pedimented doorcase at south end of west aisle. Simple tower in 3 main stages with quoins, circular and round-arched windows and stone frames, simply mullioned belfry openings. Timber cornice capped by lead-covered cupola with lantern and weathervane. Flat ceiled interior has order of Corinthian pilasters and colonnades screening aisles, their high pedestals supporting galleries with carved fronts. Vestry (formerly entrance vestibule) beneath west gallery. Entrance now under tower. Fine, carved reredos communion table and rails, pulpit, west door, marble font with corner etc. Modest sword-rest. Wall tablets. Marble paving. Inscribed slabs. One of the least altered of Wren's churches.

The Guild Church of St Benet, Paul's Wharf, Queen Victoria Street
pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook, 10" x 8"

© Katherine Tyrrell

View of the steeple of
St Augustine, Watling Street

The last church I sketched - St Augustine, Watling Street  - was one that doesn't actually exist any more. It's located to the east of St Paul's cathedral (visible in the photo on the right) in what used to be the cathedral's churchyard.

I also sketched it while sat in a Cafe Rouge which had windows which opened up on to the scene (see right)

The original church - located immediately to the east of St Paul's cathedral - dated back to the 12th century with the earliest recorded reference being in 1148. At the time it was 61 feet long.

The church was destroyed by the Great Fire of London. It was then rebuilt to a design by Wren in 1682-1695.

It was then destroyed again in the Blitz.

All that was left after the Blitz was the tower and the steeple. This time rather than restoring what was damaged, it was left. Subsequently, starting in 1965, the tower and steeple were incorporated into the buildings which comprise the St Paul's Cathedral School - for the choir of boys who sing in the cathedral.

I reverted to the Epsilon sketchbook for this last sketch - using it in portrait format - and this time I only lost a tiny bit of the spire of the church.  This time it was a pen and ink sketch using my much loved Pilot G-TEC-C4 gel ink rollerball (sepia ink). The plate surface makes this sketchbook an absolute natural for sketching in pen and ink

The tower and steeple of St Augustine, Watling Street
pen and sepia ink in Stillman and Birn Epsilon ringbound sketchbook, 12" x 9"
© Katherine Tyrrell

This time I located the drawing of the Church's tower and steeple againt the more modern architecture which surrounds it. Immediately behind is One New Change - a new shopping complex. Beyond that is Richard Seifert's Tower 42 (which I still call the NatWest Tower), 30 St Mary Axe - better known as "the Gherkin" and 122 Leadehall Street aka the "Cheesegrater"

You wonder whether these designs would get built if the architects and those commissioning the buildings had any idea what they might become known as!

Locations:

• St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe Parish Church, St Andrew's Hill & Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 5DE
• The Church of St Benet Paul's Wharf, Bennet's Hill, City of London, EC4V
• St Augustine, Watling Street - St Paul's Cathedral School, 2 New Change, London EC4M 9AD

An invitation to a Private View and a Sketchcrawl

Next Thursday evening, the Private View for the third exhibition of drawings by Urban Sketchers London takes place at Timberyard's Old Street branch on the evening of Thursday 10 April.

All those fellow sketchers who know me and can get to it are invited! I'll be there on the night sketchbook in hand! Leave a comment below if the date fits your diary (sorry for the short notice!)

Timberyard, 61-67 Old Street, London EC1V 9HW

Drawings by (top) Katherine Tyrrell
(bottom Jhih-Ren Shih

In addition to an opportunity to meet the artists - and maybe sketch with them - there will be live jazz from students at the nearby Guildhall School of Music.

The work of the six artists, Thomas Corrie, James Hobbs, Isabelle Laliberté, Jhih-Ren Shih, Katherine Tyrrell and Zhenia Vasiliev, ranges across everything that makes London the beautiful city it is: architecture, parks, its inhabitants, its iconic views and the forgotten and often overlooked corners of the city that stopping to draw can often bring into focus. The exhibits range in styles and approaches, but are all drawn from observation.

"Drawing in a sketchbook makes you slow down and look at your surroundings in a more reflective and inquiring way," says James Hobbs, an advisory board member of Urban Sketchers and the author of the newly published book Sketch Your World. "And cafes like Timberyard are popular places to relax, draw and share those images through social media."

Thomas Corrie and his friend relax
after hanging his artwork

Exhibitors include:

• Architects Thomas Corrie and Isabelle Laliberté
• James Hobbs, freelance editor and author of Sketch Your World
• Katherine Tyrrell, who has a book about drawing published later this year
• Digital designer Zhenia Vasiliev
• Graphic designer Jhih-Ren Shih

Private View: 10th April 2014 (evening) at Timberyard www.timberyardlondon.com

61-67 Old Street, London EC1V 9HW

Exhibition: The show continues until 30 June and follows the second exhibition by different members of London's Urban Sketchers at the Seven Dials brand of Timberyard branch earlier this year. 

See the video taken during the hanging of the exhibition.

Sketchcrawl (date to be announced): There's also going to be a Sketchcrawl - using Timberyards as a base - in the near future but we've still to agree a date! Everyone is welcome to the event – the date is to be announced on social media shortly. The cafe will be the starting point for a planned sketchcrawl – a relaxed gathering of artists of all backgrounds, ages and abilities – that will work its way, around Old Street and the Barbican, stopping to draw on the way.

Urban Sketchers London: The group is part of a growing worldwide community of blogging artists – www.urbansketchers.org – who draw on location in and around the cities and towns where they live and visit. For more information about the show and London's Urban Sketchers visit urbansketchers-london.blogspot.com or follow @urbsketchlondon on Twitter

Urban Sketchers: Urban Sketchers was started by the Seattle-based reportage artist Gabriel Campanario in 2007, and now has regional blogs in more than 30 cities, an annual symposium and more than 32,000 Facebook followers, and it raises funds for artists grants and scholarships.

Urban Sketchers London - new exhibition at Timberyard (Old Street)

Urban Sketchers London has a new exhibition - its third - at Timberyard (Old Street) which is one of those very trendy coffee shops with great food and even better coffee.

Thomas Corrie, Isabelle Laliberté, James Hobbs and Jhih-Ren Shih

The six members of Urban Sketchers London who made the trek to Clerkenwell this morning to hang their sketches are:

• James Hobbs - author of Sketch Your World
• Thomas Corrie
• Isabelle Laliberté
• Zhenia Vasiliev
• Jhih-Ren Shih
• and me!

Most of the sketches have been hung in the basement. They're a great range of styles - as you can see from the video (below) and include those of three people who will be featuring in my new book about drawing and sketching! I've included short profiles of them below - with some photos which are looking awful because I adjusted a setting - and forgot to change it back!



There's going to be a private view sometime very soon for those in London who follow my sketches and those of other urban sketchers - I'll let you know the date as soon as it's confirmed.

In the meantime here's my pics of some of the work

Thomas Corrie produces some stunning pen and ink drawings of architectural features which take his fancy.

I am an architect and I draw to help me see and understand buildings and cities. Every year I take part in 28 Drawings Later, a challenge to draw something for every day in February. To keep focused I decided to use entrances as a theme for my sketches and I travelled to every location on my bicycle, usually in the morning before starting work. I sought out places I had not previously visited as well as going to some familiar sights.

Thomas Corrie with his drawings produced using pigment ink liners in a 200mm sketchbook

Jhih-Ren Shih (a.k.a. Lion Ren on Flickr) is an MA student from Wimbledon College of Art who had a very nifty app on his iPhone for testing out whether he had got his frames level!

I started sketching around five years ago. I saw a book talk about the urban sketch that evokes me to depicting my daily life. As a foreigner from Taiwan, I’m very exciting when I came to London, the exotic atmosphere intrigue me to drawing more and more sketches here. I like to explore to city with my sketches, especially when I found some scenes interesting or special. It not only just record my daily life in UK, also help me to communicate with the places I been to. 

Works by Isabelle Laliberté

Isabelle is an architect.

I have always drawn and painted a little, but joining Urban Sketchers in 2008 really freed my practice.  Sketching allows me to have richer memories of my travels.  Unlike a photograph, which is done in an instant, a sketch allows me to absorb more 'meta-data': the weather, the sounds, the smells, the light and the people are all embedded into a sketch.  As an architect, I have a natural tendency to draw the built environment - not only do I love buildings, but they tend not to move around so much...

James Hobbs is the ex-Editor of Artists & Illustrators, the current Editor of Discover Art and the author or Sketch Your World - which has now been published in the UK, USA and Asia.

Drawing in a sketchbook can change your view of the world. I usually carry an A6 and A5 sketchbook around with me, along with a small selection of permanent marker pens. The urban landscape, particularly that of my adopted home of London, is for me an endlessly diverting and energising subject. I sometimes use these drawings to make colour digital prints, which I sell in limited editions. 

Zhenia Vasiliev and Naomi Hobbs were a fabulous support in hanging my work. (I fall over too easily these days!). Unfortunately my photograph of his work is too bad to show.

For me, as both a graphic designer and illustrator, artistic practice is about a process of thinking rather than producing a finished piece. I love to think about the visual appearance of things - and drawing helps me with this, so sketching is a big part of my profession

my sketches of Syon Vista and Syon Reach

Skating on the Natural History Museum Ice Rink

Sketch of the skaters and Christmas Tree on the Christmas Skating Rink at the Natural History Museum - complete with penguin stability aids for the little ones

Wishing all regular readers of Travels with a Sketchbook
a Merry Christmas 

and Happy Sketching in the New Year

Skaters at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've been saving these up since the beginning of the month when we visited the museums in south Kensington with London Urban Sketchers!

Christmas Skating Rink in front of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell 

Note the novice skaters clinging to the edge in the background.  The children had penguins to cling on to as they skated around - they seemed to work very well

Click this link for details of the skating rink at the Natural History Museum

Urban Sketchers London - Sketchcrawl #3 in South Kensington

Today's the day of the third Urban Sketchers London Sketchcrawl - and everybody is welcome!  

Details are on the flyer below.

• start in the Central Hall (the one with the skeleton of the dinosaur) of the Natural History Museum at 11.00am
• finish inside at the Victoria & Albert Museum at 4.30pm (when it will be dark outside)

There are also opportunities to draw skaters on the ice rink outside the Natural History Museum - and below is the sketch I did last time I visited and sketched in Winter!

The nearest tube is South Kensington (Circle, District and Piccadilly Lines) which is right opposite both museums.  Couldn't be easier! (This is the map of the planned closures on the Underground this weekend)

PS If you're planning on sketching outside bring your thermals - it's cold!

Greenwich Heritage, Canary Wharf and the O2 Dome

Following on from Sailing ships and the City of London from Greenwich Park, here are two more double page spreads which made up my Greenwich Park Panorama

The middle section looks:

• over the Equestrian Arena in Greenwich Park constructed for the Olympics and 
• past the Queens House and the Old Royal Naval College which form an important part of "Maritime Greenwich" (the Royal Borough of Greenwich's UNESCO approved World Heritage Site)
• across the River Thames (past the Thames Sailing Barge with its rust red sails)  
• to the Isle of Dogs and the new business centre at Canary Wharf.  

If you keep going past the tall office buildings at Canary Wharf you'd come to where I live in East London!

Greenwich panorama sketch towards Canary Wharf11 x 16" pen and ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

You can also see this sketch on Flickr where I've annotated it with the names of seven structures,  places and objects in the sketch.  You have to love your cursor over the picture to see the white line boxes which relate to each item which has been annotated.

The Eastern 'downstream' section of my panoramic sketch is below.  It's looking over North Greenwich and Stratford on the other side of the Thames.

Greenwich panorama sketch towards O2 Arena (former Millennium Dome)11 x 16" pen and ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Ditto - the sketch on Flickr hows you what you can see - including the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.  Move your cursor around the Flickr Version to see the annotations explaining the buildings - and see if you can find the Olympic Stadium!

If you want to visit Greenwich and also sketch this view see the map of Greenwich Park (pdf file).  I was sat at the end of Blackheath Avenue just to the right of the Royal Observatory

Sailing ships and the City of London from Greenwich Park

This is the first of the sketches from the Greenwich Park Panorama - my 48 inch wide panoramic sketch of the view from the top of the hill in Greenwich Park.

The City of London and the River Thames from Greenwich Park
11 x 16" pen and ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Sailing Ships and Maritime History

While people looking at this view typically pick out all the tall buildings around and about the City of London, few realise that they are also looking at a place which has played a huge part in British Maritime History.

Here are the site of the Prime Meridian - which helped sailors navigate; the place where the Royal Dockyards were located for 350 years; the place were Brunel built enormous steam sailing ships in the ninteenth century and finally the home of the Cutty Sark - one of the fastest tea clippers ever built,

What's in the sketch

Looking left from the hill - past the trees and bushes which populate the slope below the Royal Observatory at Greenwich you can see a variety of buildings which I've annotated on the Flickr version of this sketch.  Hold your cursor over the image in Flickr to see where all the places and buildings are located.

You can see - from left to right

• The path up to the Royal Observatory and the marker site for the Prime Meridian zero degrees longitude aka the Greenwich Meridian (just off to the left and out of frame)
• The 34 storey tower at Guy's Hospital - the tallest hospital building in the world
• The Shard - the tallest building in the UK and Europe at 309.6 metres / 1,016 feet high
• the area in Deptford which used to be the Royal Naval Dockyards - building sailing ships for war and exploration for 350 years - after it was commissioned by King Henry VIII in 1513 (see image below).  It built and refitted many famous ships in British maritime history.

Deptford Dockyards by Joseph Farrington

• St Paul's Cathedral - now a rather smaller landmark in the City of London when compared to......
• Three tall buildings in the City of London
• the former NatWest Tower
• the Gherkin at 30 St Mary Axe
• Heron Tower - now the tallest building in the City of London
• In front of these is the Wharf in Millwall on the western shoreline of the Isle of Dogs where Isambard Kingdon Brunel built the steam sailing ship the SS Great Eastern which was the largest ship in the world when it was launched from Millwall in 1853.  This is also where the famous photo of Brunel was taken - against the background of the chains used to launch the Great Eastern
• Peeping above the trees in the middle ground are the two masts of the Cutty Sark - the tea clipper which has recently reopened after the massive refurbishment project
• On the right and in the foreground are the Equestrian Arena and other buildings built for the  London 2012 Olympics

The sketch was the first to be drawn on 15th September when I drew the panorama of the view from the top of Greenwich Hill during the course of the 2nd Sketchcrawl hosted by Urban Sketchers London.

Urban Sketchers London SKETCHCRAWL in Greenwich tomorrow

Many of you will have seen Greenwich Park and some of the heritage and very historic buildings to be found in Royal Greenwich while watching the Olympics and Paralympics.

Tomorrow you can sketch them with Urban Sketchers London.  You are invited to join us in Greenwich for a day of sketching around and about.

This is a link to the Cutty Sark DLR Station where people will be meeting up.  Use the TfL Journey Planner to get to the station - and remember to make sure that the DLR option is enabled.

What to sketch in Greenwich

There are masses of places to sketch in Greenwich.  The problem is working out where to start and how much you can fit in on the day!

Below are details about some of the things you can see.  (Why not bookmark this post for tomorrow?)

• Links in the address are to a map of where this is located. The aerial view on the Royal Museums website for Greenwich gives an excellent view of the location of the different museums and what Greenwich has to offer.
• Links in the names of the places are to the website for that place

The Cutty Sark

• Address: Cutty Sark Clipper Ship, King William Walk, Greenwich, London SE10 9HT - 
• Opening hours: Monday–Sunday 10.00–17.00, last admission 16.00.  Note that entry to the ship is by time ticket only
• Did you know that you can now go on board and go beneath the vessel? The rehabilitation of this very famous tea clipper has resulted in vastly improved viewing facilities

The Royal Observatory 

• Address: Blackheath Ave, London SE10 8XJ
• Transport: road | tube & rail | cycle | bus | river
• open daily between 10.00–17.00, last admission 16.30 
• This is at right at the top of the hill in Greenwich Park.  This is also.....
• ... the home of the Prime Meridian aka the Greenwich Meridian

Greenwich Park

• this was used for the equestrian events in the Olympics.  
• There's a stunning view of London from the hill.   
• You can download a detailed map of the Park
• Public access to Greenwich Park this summer is the official statement about which parts of the Park will have been reopened by 15th September. 
• From 14 September the areas of the park which will not be immediately accessible to the public include area in front and to the west of the Queen's Field and an area behind The Children's Playground, near Maze Hill Gate.
• Public vehicles will be permitted in the park from 14 September with vehicle access to Blackheath Avenue and parking possible from this date.

The National Maritime Museum

• Address: Park Row, Greenwich London SE10 9NF Located at the bottom of the hill and south of Romney Road.
• Transport: road | tube & rail | cycle | bus | river
• open daily between 10.00–17.00, last admission 16.30 
• 
  

The Old Royal Naval College 

• This is a site map
• Painted Hall - a good place to go if it's wet - but always worth seeing whatever the weather.
• this provides the classic Canaletto view - but you have to go north of the river to see this! (Or to my blog post - A Canaletto View).  This is not impossible as you can use the Greenwich Foot Tunnel to walk under the Thames.  I've not done this for years but my recollection is that this is only for those who like steps.  To check the current status of the foot tunnel, you can call 020 8921 8334 during office hours or 020 8854 8888 after hours. However the website says this 

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel is now accessible on both sides by stairs and lift 24 hours a day. The stairs in the Greenwich tunnel may need to be closed on a short-term basis during parts of the works, but the lifts will remain open.

A Canaletto View (2nd June 2007)
(the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich from Island Gardens on the Isle of Dogs)
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Queen's House is closed until 22 September.

Greenwich Market provides lots of opportunities for sketching for those who like markets - but can get a bit crowded

Views of the River Thames - from the walkway next to the Thames.

• The Trafalgar Tavern provides a good place to view the Thames or a place to be sketched!

NOTE:  This is the Meetup page for this Sketchcrawl.  You can register if you intend to come on this Sketchcrawl