Sketching the Pastel Society's Private View

People at Pastels Today - 110th Annual Exhibition of The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries
9th June 2009 5.30pm
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the less well known ways of getting exercise is walking around exhibitions. Yesterday I went into town to the Mall Galleries to pick up an artwork for a friend and to go to the Private View of The Pastel Society 110th Annual Exhibition.

You can read more about this in Exhibition review: The Pastel Society's 110th Annual Exhibition

For this sketch I adopted my usual approach as outlined in 10 Tips for How to Sketch People. With this particular sketch I started by sketching in the outlines of the frames behind the people. That gave me both scale and context for the sketch. I was able to use them to find how people of different height fitted into the picture. I then sketched the couple of ladies who are seated in the bottom right quadrant. They also served to provide a different sort of scale - for people sitting down. Then came the couple of chaps standing up and after that I fitted people in as they came and went. One particular lady was actually standing in a quite different part of the gallery but because I'd got enough information by then about relative scale I was able to fit her in quite easily. Having said that - I'm still not sure I got the lady in the left foreground right in terms of scale - as I actually sketched her after she left!

One of the things I see people doing sometimes when sketching people is to fit EVERYTHING inside the four lines of the picture frame. Personally I don't find crops which isolate the subject inside the four lines to be very persuasive of real life. By way of contrast I'm always trying to find ways of explaining why this is a slice of life that I'm sitting in the middle of - and I have no problem whatsoever in slicing people in half or only showing part of one shoulder - while of course trying to avoid ending up with a really weird unexplained shape! This post explains a bit more about this subject Making a Mark: Composition - the four most important lines

Sketchercise: This outing and trip around the Mall Galleries created a total of 4,907 steps or 2.323 miles (264 calories) for the day - but I was also good and resisted having a muffin with my cup of tea in the gallery! It would have been a lot more but for the tube strike which meant I had get home sooner than I'd planned.

A second group - Sketchercise on Flickr

It's obvious quite a few of you like the idea of Sketchercise!

However it was very sad yesterday to have to turn down about half the people who applied for membership of Sketchercise yesterday. This is because while our Ning community is still very new and getting off the ground we're limiting new members to people who are already active in terms of sketching combined with some form of activity. What that means is that I take a look at your website or blog to find evidence of what you've achieved so far - in terms of combining sketching and exercising.

Some people were engaged in only one - but not the other activity.

Bert on Heron Bridge 4th June 10.30am
8.5" x 11.5", pencils and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
(see sketches from the same walk in Herons, coots and goslings - grooming, housekeeping and babysitting)

A second Sketchercise Group

As a result, I've decided (a bit like Urban Sketchers) that's there's going to be a need for a place where people can join in while they develop their sketchercise habit.

So I've set up a new group on Flickr - called Sketchercise on Flickr! See http://www.flickr.com/groups/sketchercise/. This is the description of how it works.

Sketchercise is for people who enjoy sketching AND taking exercise to maintain or improve their health outside a gym!

Sketchercise is a new community with two groups

SKETCHERCISE ON NING All you need to do to join the Sketchercise on Ning group is to enjoy sketching from life (no photos!), have already developed the sketching habit AND have found ways of getting out and about - with a sketchbook. You can walk or cycle or paddle your own canoe - so long as it involves activity and sketching! This group is for people who've already got the Sketchercise habit and we review your nominated website for evidence of this before new memberships are approved.

SKETCHERCISE ON FLICKR If you like the idea of Sketchercise and want to have a go at Sketchercise and develop a Sketcercise habit then this NEW FLICKR GROUP is the place to post your sketches and show us how you're getting on. Post all your sketchercise sketches in this group and tag them all with 'sketchercise' and that makes them easy to find.

So Sketchercise on Flickr will be the group which in future I will refer people to if they apply to join Ning but have very little demonstrable evidence of sketching and exercising at the same time.

It has a few rules which are detailed below. The emphasis is on the process rather than the output - we're not expecting drawings or paintings which are exhibition ready!

The focus of this group is the process of sketching and exercising and the Group rules are very simple

1. Upload up to 3 sketches each day - in any media
2. The sketch must be done from life and ideally done plein air (no sketching from photos at home!)
3. The sketch must be done while taking exercise
4. Say where you went and how you got there
5. Tell us what you noticed while out exercising and sketching

Sketchercise on Flickr

If you are by any chance writing about Sketchercise on your blog, would you mind linking to this post and highlighting the difference between the two groups - thanks! :)

Note: My sketch is another one for the Ecology Park pond series and is of Willow Pond and was done while on my walk last Thursday morning. You can see Bert the Heron sat on Heron Bridge in the foreground!

Sketchercise - plus sketching stools and chairs

Visit Sketchercise


Today I launched the semi-public version of Sketchercise over on Making A Mark (Sketchercise!). I'm not going to repeat what it says over here.

However I will reiterate the introduction to Sketchercise so you know what it's all about.

Activity to maintain your health or become healthier doesn't need to be done in a gym. All you need to do to join this group is enjoy sketching from life (no photos!), have developed the sketching habit and have found ways of getting out and about - with a sketchbook. You can walk or cycle or paddle your own canoe - so long as it involves activity and sketching!

We review the websites you nominate for evidence of the above before new memberships are approved.

The important issue is about how the walking (or whatever) combines with the sketching to give you a whole new perspective on yourself, your environment. One of our members Martin Stankewitz put it very well.

I think that the combination of drawing and walking leads to a more intense experience and perception of space and place or landscape, which would not be achieved by drawing or walking alone.
Martin Stankewitz

I'll be writing more about Sketchercise on this blog in the future.

In the meantime, for those considering taking up sketching, here are a couple of reviews of some essential kit:

• Product Review: Blacks Compact Stool (for sketching)
• Product Review: Phillips De Luxe Folding Chair