Another way of drawing people

I've spent all week drawing life models in Channel 4's new Life Class and writing about it on Making A Mark. Most of the time though, I draw people who aren't models and who are sitting having a drink or a meal in a tea room, cafe, bar or restaurant. Plus they have clthes on!

The other differences are I get to sit down, eating can be a bit awkward - and you have to warn the staff in advance not to expect to rush the food to my table or to expect to get their table back quickly!

Lunch at the National Dining Rooms
11.5 x 17", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I never really draw faces - that's the quid pro quo for drawing people who don't know they're life models. They might know who they are but I'm not sure anybdy else would!

I don't know which is more difficult - drawing an unclothed model who's being paid to pose or drawing people who aren't aware they're being drawn and consequently MOVE the whole time! I've found that drawing people who are not models makes me observe much more carefully and draw much more quickly.

I always take a look at what stage a party has got to with their lunch before starting to draw. It's no good starting on people who are just starting their coffees when if I look in the other direction I can find people just getting their first course.

This particular sketch was done in the National Dining Rooms at the National Gallery. That bit of green is the tops of trees in Trafalgar Square. You can see previous sketches from the National Dining Rooms and the Bakery area in:

• Lunch at the National Dining Rooms - and sketching in the National Gallery (October 2007)
• Sketching the Olympics in Trafalgar Square - and afternoon tea! (August 2008)

I'll be adding this post to Interior landscapes with food - a Sketchbook which is a compendium of blog posts about sketches of interiors

Tuesday 19th September: The grass is greener in Vermont

Bert Dodson in Vermont
8" x 10" pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

What's the ultimate challenge? Well my personal artistic 'top ten' has probably got to include doing a quick sketch over lunch of the man who wrote one of the best selling books about drawing - and then trying to colour it afterwards purely from memory!

My sketch is of Bert Dodson, the author of "Keys to Drawing". This book, published by North Light Books, is on the shelves of many people keen on learning how to improve their drawing. It's certainly sat on my shelves for nearly 20 years ever since I was able to find time for art again after I finally came to the end of my long haul through post grad qualifications/degrees.

When I planned the trip to New England I had no idea that Bert lived in Vermont within a 'day trip' driving distance of Nicole. I knew he had a new book coming out as we had corresponded off and on. Anyway, he emerged from under all the page proofs at last and we suddenly realised that there was scope for me to visit and see his studio and for him to learn more about blogging - which he was interested in.

So on the Tuesday morning I set off for his studio in Vermont.

Bert with some of the page proofs of the new book - "Keys to Drawing and Imagination"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Bert is lovely man and he's a lot more smiley than my sketch indicates - the photo is a much better image of Bert.

It was huge privilege to be able to see inside Bert's large studio on the third floor of a local community building. It was filled with images - drawings for different clients from children's books to the Metropolitan Opera House, postcards of images he liked pinned close together; large portraits hung on the upper parts of the walls of this high ceilinged room and current work covered his drawing tables and working space. I tried hard not to look too closely at the very many books on art that he had otherwise I'd have been dying to look at them all!

His main studio was however dominated by several large screens on which were pinned all the page proofs of his latest book which is about drawing and imagination. (Keys to Drawing With Imagination ). Bert told me that he emptied his sketchbooks into this new book and that it contains over 500 drawings by Bert and another 100 by other people including R Crumb and Maya Lin. Having seen the page proofs I know that the emphasis is very much on the visual communication of alternative options for stimulating imagination and the creative process. I also read little bits of the text and this seemed very succinct. I can hardly wait to see the real thing and be able to read it all through from beginning to end.

We walked his dogs before and after lunch and talked about the nature of the drawing process - how very often the issue is less about having a great idea and more about getting something down on paper and letting a drawing evolve from there. We talked about creativity and producing publications in a wider sense, he talked about how a book gets created and I shared my information about how a blog is created and shared with others. And we both pondered on the different ways information is shared and what really makes a difference. Bert has me tagged as maybe a 'connector' and probably a maven. Hence I read "The Tipping Point" for the first time on the flight back home and I think he might just be right on that one!

We also talked about how being part of a non-'work' peer group can be really helpful to both creative and critical processes. After I quoted from another one of my art heroes - Charles Reid - on the subject of the 'big blur' and how that carries over from painting into drawing, Bert showed me a photo of the group he used to paint with when he was younger. It turned out to include a couple of other well known names one of whom just happened to be Charles Reid! So nice to have it confirmed yet again that the people I like also like the people I like!

And the title for this post? Well - Vermont was very green - very few trees had changed colour, which I have to confess was a bit of a disappointment for me. We walked over some very green grass while walking the dogs. And quite a lot of people have made Vermont their home because of the quality of life it can offer. And it rained so much on the way home (we're 'New England' rain here - which is heavy!), it made me think there might just be another reason why the grass is greener in Vermont!

But it also brought home, in a very real way, how great it is to be an artist and illustrator who can live in a wonderful place and produce work for organisations and publications located many miles away. Small pause for thought...............

Links:

• Bert Dodson Bert Dodson is a painter, teacher, author and illustrator. He has illustrated over 80 books for children.He has authored two books on drawing; Keys to Drawing (North Light, 1985), and Keys to Drawing with Imagination (North Light, 2006).
• Keys to Drawing With Imaginationis due to be published in hardback at the end of November and is available from Amazon.
• Keys to Drawing
• North Light Bookstore
  
• Making a Mark: my blog review of Keys to Drawing
• Making a Mark: Bert Dodson and "Keys to Drawing with Imagination"

Technorati tags: art , Bert Dodson, drawing, keys to drawing

Sketching The Big Draw East

The Big Draw - Drawing Together in the "Big Picture Frame"

with Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan
16" x 11", pen and ink and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Big Draw 2007, organised by the Campaign for Drawing, was launched yesterday with The Big Draw East involving 45 different drawing events in the East End of London. I went to just a few of these and have organised my sketches and photos by location below.

Over 1,300 Big Draw events take place across the UK throughout October. Venues range from royal palaces , museums, galleries and castles to parks, schools, hospitals and village halls. Collectively they demonstrate that drawing is a universal language connecting people of all ages, abilities and cultures
The Big Draw Press Release

The main themes for the Big Draw 2007 are:

• Shape the Future - Designing for Sustainability
  
• Changing Cities;
  
• Inside/Out;
  
• Body Science/Body Culture; and
  
• Drawing Differently.

For more information see the Campaign/Big Draw website or my post Big Draw events around the UK in October on my main blog.

Queen Mary College, University of London

In the Octagon at Queen Mary College (University of London) there were various workshops and drawing opportunities linked to the Body Science/Body Culture theme.

I sketched a small boy and his Mum. He was having a great time drawing animals on the interactive drawing board. He seemed pretty passionate about drawing and even managed to get into two of my sketches!

The face paintings were some of the best I've ever seen - children were being made up to have hybrid fish/animal qualities

I then sketched the children and their parents participating in How One Cell Made Me - which focused on biology and drawing animals. Huge rolls of drawing paper ran right across this large room and people were crouched either side totally absorbed in drawing their animals. The big purple patch is a dolphin who was apparently swimming with a little girl called Emma. I thought the best animal was the 30 foot snake which ran along the edge of one sheet of drawing paper!

Drawing Animals #1 and #2

8"x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I had no need of my own colouring pencils as tins of pencils from Derwent were spread all round the room - there were huge numbers of Coloursoft, Graphitints, Inktense and sketching pencils.

Museum Gardens

In Museum Gardens I visited the Big Picture Frame - where teams of guest professional artists and illustrators were scheduled to draw for an hour at a time. (This Big Picture Frame makes a reappearance at the National Big Draw Day - held in Covent Garden over the weekend of 13-14th October.)

I arrived just after Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan had started their stint. After they had finished, one of their assistants spotted my drawing of them both doing their drawing in the big Picture Frame (see top) which includes two versions of Zandra Rhodes. So then we had photos of the sketch and photos of them both with me - but you're not seeing that as I managed to pull the most awful face which is not about to appear in public! They were, of course, both extremely photogenic!

They were followed by Gavin Turk and Jessica Voorsanger - who did drawings of children in the bearskin helmets worn by the Footguards. Posie Simmonds, one of the Patrons, was also due to appear later in the day.

The Campaign for Drawing - Big Draw and the Save the Children Fund are working in partnership to improve the lives of children in war torn parts of the planet. Millions of children around the world never see the inside of a classroom. Funds are to be raised to help children round the world go to school through a Big Draw/Save the Children competition where the winner gets to work with a famous artist. Drawings need to be about "The best thing about school". Materials and details can be downloaded from the web. All drawings are entered together with a donation of a £1. Drawings and cheques have to be sent to the Save the Children Fund before 31st October - see websites for further details. Big Draw East also had a Save the Children Fund tent with lots of children engaged in making drawings.

Museum of Childhood

At the Museum of Childhood the focus was on Changing Cities and I took a peek at what the children were doing. A range of activities included:

• Lots and lots of Quentin Blake birds - suitably decorated in a variety of ways (above)
  
• 'Building Lines' - using thread to recreate Cutler's Wharf which used to be home to the East India Company's sugar, cotton and tea warehouses
• Drawing People and Places - recording people moving around the museum
• Changing Cities - building a gigantic city with roads and 3-D homes (below)
  

Changing Cities' - drop in and help create a miniature 3D city. Using card, paper and pencils, draw and build the structures that make up your city; houses, schools, shops, cinemas, museums and swimming pools.

I'd like to make a point of noting that I was hugely impressed by the truly enormous quantities of pencils and paper made available by Derwent and Tullis Russell respectively for the launch events yesterday. HUGE rolls of paper and tins and tins (and tins!) of Coloursoft and Inktense and Graphitints and Sketching pencils and pastels! Lots of very helpful volunteers in blue Big Draw T- shirts too.

Queen Mary College

My final visit of the day was to the Draper's Lecture Theatre at QMC for a lecture on 'Visual Imagination and the Invention of the Body' Dr Sarah Simblet, artist and author of 'Anatomy for the Artist' and The Drawing Book (Dorling Kindersley). She had some amazing slides of how drawing bodies had changed over the centuries. I loved the one with the skeleton with the rhinocerous in the background - but there were no opportunities for sketching in the blackout required for the slideshow.

Amazing day - my only reservation about it was that there was too much good stuff going on. I wanted to go and do all the Changing Cities events for adults over in the Spitalfields area as well! The panoramic sketchathon sounded very interesting. Events spread over two days would have been maybe made that possible.

NOTE: The Campaign for Drawing is a charity. Read about its history and its plans for the future plus its endorsements and funding partners and supporters here.

Its patrons are Quentin Blake CBE, Lord Foster, David Hockney CH, Sir Richard McCormac, Andrew Marr, Sir Roger Penrose OM, Gerald Scarfe and Posy Simmonds MBE.

Links:

• The Campaign for Drawing - the new website and The Big Draw and The Big Draw East
• Big Draw / Save the Children Fund event - Drawing Competition
  

Sketching Tate Modern people

There's no great secret to how to learn to sketch people. You have to practice. You can of course go to life drawing classes and I would certainly advocate that as a very good idea for those who want to master the art of drawing people from life. However you still need to practice.

So if you want to practice you need to find somewhere where there are lots of people.

Tate Modern People
11.5" x 8.5", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the best places for practising the weird and wonderful effects of foreshortening is the grass lawn in front of the Tate Modern on a sunny day. You can always guarantee there will be lots of people sitting or spawling on the grass, on their own, or with a partner or in a group. Accompanies by various bags and/or small children or both.

Here's what you do:

• Sit yourself down on the rather nice big black benches on the Thames side of the grass.
  
• Face Tate Modern
• Start drawing.
• Start with one person and then build from there.
  
• Your sketch doesn't need to be exactly what you see in front of you - you can move people around
• However do pay attention to their relative distance from you as that dictates relative size.
• Fill the gaps - but also leave space between people - much as they do in real life.
• You don't have to fit everybody inside the four lines of the picture plane - you can crop people right down the middle! It is allowed! :)
  

You can repeat this exercise anywhere where you can find people in the sun.

Where's your favourite spot for sketching people?

Note: This was the sketch I drew on my home from the Drawing London group outing to the Royal Festival Hall (see A view of Charing Cross Station and Embankment Gardens). On my walk home along the South Bank I stopped to draw this scene in pen and ink. I spent about 20 minutes on it and added the green to the grass when I got home.

An exercise in posture and floor polish

Watching people: Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition, Mall Galleries
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Molsekine Sketchbook, 8" ax 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I went to see the Annual Exhibition 2010 of the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition which was back at the Mall Galleries last week - for one week only.  The last day is today so you need to get your skates on if you want to catch it before it closes

A review will follow on Making A Mark however this is about my sketch done as I watched people looking at the paintings.

The above sketch, across double page spread in my small Moleskine, is an exercise in drawing people and trying to capture their postures in just a few seconds.  In other words, how real can I make people look when there is no time at all and they're not posing for me.  It made me glad I've done life drawing classes with warm up exercises of a few seconds for each pose! 

It also reminded me of the tip which I first read about in a Charles Reid book of making sure that you go for the big shape when drawing groups of people.  You know they're separate people but often the lighting doesn't separate them effectively.  Thus trying to draw them as separate people can make them look a little unreal - while joined up they look perfectly normal! 

The people are not all there at the same time.  I did them one by one and filled in gaps as people came and went.  The trick was to make sure I got the height right.  

Towards the end of the sketch I got very distracted by the highly polished floor - its colours and the shadows from the people as they moved around the room.  It soon became clear to me that what would make the sketch 'real' would be to try and capture the multi-colour and diffuse nature of the coloured shadow shapes on the floor.  What do you think?

That floor was fascinating - I could really get into drawing shiny floors!

Sketching and quotations from the NEAC Exhibition

I sketched at the Annual Open exhibition of the New English Art Club yesterday. What follows are some very quick sketches plus one longer sketch of the panel for the drawing discussions interspersed by various quotable quotes.

I invite you to picture me, during the guided tour with past president Ken Howard with my Daler Rowney hardback sketchbook in hand, writing down comments in pen at the back and sketching in pencil at the front of the same sketchbook! ;)

This is KH on what painting should be about.

"A painting should be about revelation, communication and celebration"

"In general, people see what they expect to see, what they know is there. An artist shows you what is there.

"Paintings are about form and content"

Ken Howard, Past President of NEAC

He said things which would have resonance with the art students in the audience.

"When I'm looking at an exhibition by amateur painters I'm looking for people who have a love of the language of painting"

"You've got to move away from a photo otherwise you might as well show that."

"I've never known a good painter who cannot draw, but not all good draughtsmen can paint."

"If you buy somebody's work, you need to love it enough to buy it from the gallery"

Ken Howard, Past President of NEAC

KH and his audience #2
8" x 11", pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

KH on the subject of intent and integrity

"If you can explain a painting in words then why bother to paint it"

"A painting works whichever way round you look at it because it should work as an abstract composition"

"If I had my time again, I'd take one subject and paint it again and again all my life - every time you paint it, it's new."

"San Marco is different every hour, every day, every week, every season, every year" (see website and Light Triptych entry to RA Summer exhibition)

"Good painters don't compromise"

Ken Howard, Past President of NEAC

Drawing - a discussion
8.5" x 11.5", pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Members of the Panel for the Discussion on Drawing from left to right in the sketch above are: Bill Packer, Jason Bowyer, Andrew Wilton, Charles Williams, Arthur Neal, and Karn Holly.

"Drawing is about looking and looking hard"

"Observational drawing has gone out of fashion"

"Drawing is a fantastic excuse to get people sitting in front of things for hours and hours and hours"

"The process of creativity is taken care of through the process of trying to understand your subject"

"Drawing is a lightweight violin - it exercises the muscle in your head which needs nutrition"

"People in this country are hung up about what the subject of a painting is rather than its content"

Members of the Drawing Discussion Panel

And afterwards....a cup of tea
pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Exhibitions and guided tours are really good places to practice drawing people in groups - especially as they don't stay still! All of the sketches, except for the one of the Panel took about a couple of minutes or so. Plus KH's head in KH and his audience #2 took a little longer.

Links:

• Making A Mark:New English Art Club - plus commentary and discussion
• New English Art Club (Parts of this need updating)
  

Sketching at The RA - The Friends Room #1

This week I'm going to post a series of sketches done in Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy of Arts (the RA) in Piccadilly.

Drinking tea and drawing people

8" x 10" pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm one of the 85,000 Friends of the RA. I'm a Friend primarily because it means I don't have to pay for exhibitions, don't have to queue for tickets, get to go to exhibition previews and can visit an exhibition as many times as I want plus take an adult friend in for free.

But one of the other perks is use of the Friends Room to have a cup of tea and hopefully sit down on a sofa before starting out again. I don't even have to visit an exhibition!

If I have time, whenever I go to the Friends Room at the RA I also try to sketch. It's one of a few places where I can usually create a composition which includes people at a distance and close-up in the same sketch.

This particular sketch is from the week before Christmas 2005 and accompanied the third post Drinking Tea and Drawing People on my brand new blog Making A Mark - when I was still in beta mode and wasn't publishing to the world at large! The text which accompanied it is below.

______________________

Yesterday I went to the New English Art Club Exhibition at the Mall Galleries just before it closed. Many excellent works of art on view. This was followed by lunch with a very old friend and, inevitably, some Christmas shopping and - as it was nearby - a much needed cup of tea and a seat in the Friends Room at the RA which was packed, probably with people with very much the same idea! I was surrounded by lots of people having animated conversations so out came the Moleskine sketchbook for more sketching with some interesting lighting effects.

I enjoy doing drawings where you can't design who is in the picture or how they are going to sit and all you can do is decide what/who to do and where to crop to create the picture frame. Drawing people and working from life are both excellent ways of making you make such choices.

Links:

• Royal Academy of Arts
• Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
• Planning a visit
• Become a Friend of the RA
• Google Maps - location of Burlington House
• Pastels and Pencils - Interiors - this gallery on my website features sketches of interiors
  

Drawing Covent Garden Big Draw

Drawing the crowd drawing spaces

8"x11" pencil on HP paper

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

On Saturday I drew some of the participants in the Covent Garden Big Draw weekend (see above). This is part of the Big Draw which is a nationwide celebration of drawing held at over 1,000 events across the UK throughout October. It kicked off off on 30th September with Big Draw East which I wrote about in Sketching the Big Draw East.

It's the first time the Big Draw has launched its nationwide day in the iconic Covent Garden Piazza designed by Inigo Jones and there was a a lot going on:

• a marquee in which cartoonists helped people learn how to develop a cartoon trip and how to caricature from members of the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain. This is what a girl called Jasmine produced - I think it's a splendidly funny cartoon strip
  

Sausage Dog! by Jasmine T
a cartoon produced in the Cartooning Marquee of the Covent Garden Big Draw

• easels and another marquee were set up in front of the portico of the church for 'Picture the Past' which involved both children and adults drawing models dressed in the costumes of different historic figures. I contributed a head of Nell Gwyn to a big sheet of paper.
  
• workshops on drawing different modes of transport were being held in the Transport Museum - which is due to reopen in November.
• the celebrity frame where artists, cartoonists, designers and others drew their drawings.
  

Below are two small girls sat on the cobble stones in the Piazza watching Posy Simmonds draw a cartoon of the Owl and the Pussycat nursery rhyme. You may think they're drawing - whereas they are in fact tucking into waffles with what looked like chocolate sauce! Those of who are long-standing readers of the Guardian will remember Posy's cartoons of the middle class lives of three families in the 80s with huge affection.

Two girls eating waffles
8" x 11", pencil on HP paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Meanwhile, I got a teeny bit fed up waiting for the Walk and Sketch Tour to get going and so sat myself down and started to draw people drawing - and their audience! (I loved the little girl with her sensible Ugg boots and pink frilly ballet skirt combination!)

I came across the view at the top - and just found it amazing to see so many people - young and old - sat down on steps, and pavements and cobbles drawing architecture! What was interesting for me was to try and capture that look of intense drawing concentration and associated posture.

I also tried out my new wheeze for drawing en plein air - using a Daler Rowny drawing portfolio with loose paper inside. It worked reasonably well but I remembered too late that I get very irritated by lots of tape to tie a bow. I think I'm going to have to invest in some robust wide elastic tape! Or maybe velcro?

Two drawing
4" x 8", pen and ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Links:

• The Campaign for Drawing
• The Big Draw
• The Covent Garden Big Draw
• Travels with a Sketchbook - Sketching the Big Draw East
  

10 "Dos and Don'ts" for how to draw people while eating

Images of sketching people in interiors in London
- see Interior Landscapes - Drawings by Katherine Tyrrell
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I frequently draw people in public places while eating in public places as restaurants, cafes and gallery tea rooms. In fact I've drawn in cafes and restaurants all over the world - in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Lots of people tell me they'd never ever be able to do this. What follows are my dos and don'ts for being able to sketch people and interiors while eating - without it causing a problem for you.

Do let me know if you try my tips and they work for you.

DO...........

• DO tell the restaurant that you want to sketch when making a booking. This is the time for them to tell you you can or can't. If they don't say you can't then they can hardly object after you've placed your order! I mainly do this so I can make sure they know I'm on my own, won't be rushing and so they won't put me in the traditional 'bad table' for people on their own! I sometimes also tell them that their restaurant will feature on my sketchbook blog! That usually gets a positive reaction
  
• DO tell them you want a good view as you intend to draw the restaurant. Be prepared to turn down the first table they offer you and indicate one which is better. I've always been offered better tables. I recommend back to a wall and in a corner. You then get an angled view. The bottom line is making sure you've got something to look at!
  
• DO find out which restaurants continue to serve all afternoon. This connects with what time to turn up (see DON'T turn up when it's crowded below) For example, the National Cafe and the National Dining Rooms at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square are open all afternoon.
  
• DO tell staff that there's no need to rush with the food and an interval between courses is OK. Otherwise you'll NEVER get any sketching done! Do remember to eat though! I always try and order something which still taste good even if goes cold. Of course sketching what you've ordered is also allowed!
  
• DO leave a nice tip if you want to go back and do the same thing again. Being nice to the staff is ALWAYS a smart move! You'll find lots of the waiting staff will want to try and see what you've done. then they'll tell their friends and before you know it they'll all be coming over to admire your sketches! Remember people who can't draw at all are often envious ("I wish I could draw") and/or in total awe of anybody who can!
  

Images of sketching people in interiors in London
- see Interior Landscapes - Drawings by Katherine Tyrrell
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

DON'T.....

• DON'T be mean. You are probably going to take more time than the traditional customer so make sure you place an order which is commensurate with the time you think you;re going to spend occupying the table.
  
• DON'T turn up when it's crowded or at really busy times expecting to be fitted in. I only sketch over dinner in the evening when travelling on my own. Most of the time I sketch at lunchtime or in the afternoon. I find the best times for being fitted in as a single sketcher is if I get there very early when I get the best choice of tables I'm likely to get) or turn up after the main lunchtime rush when they're always pleased to see another customer.
  
• DON'T be too obvious about drawing the people in the restaurant. For example, I don't recommend sketching the people right next to you! You don't have their permission to draw them. However people often don't mind at all. If you get approached, don't assume they'll be annoyed. I've had people come across more than once to see how the drawing of them turned out. They're ever so impressed if you explain that you're an artist!
  
• DON'T draw faces. If people can't be identified they can neither object nor can they be upset if your drawing of them isn't flattering. Which is why the people in my sketches lack features. I draw their bodies and posture rather than their faces. You can do a lot with a good back!
  
• DON'T linger too long if they want to close up before the next service. If I know the place shuts between lunch and dinner then I always turn up very early.

You can find my blog posts about sketching while eating in Interior Landscapes - with food

You can see my sketches of people in interiors in two places on my website:

• the Interior Landscapes Gallery
• the Travels with a Sketchbook gallery - particularly trips overseas

Do you have any suggestions for how best to draw people and interiors while eating.

Hesketh Hubbard Setting Up

My post about the The Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show reminded me that I hadn't posted another sketch done from above looking down at a group of people engaged on an activity.

Hesketh Hubbard - Setting Up
16.5 x 11", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyrigh Katherine Tyrrell

This sketch was done after going to see an exhibition at the Mall Galleries.  I was late and the people arriving for the meeting of the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society were beginning to set up.

The idea of drawing people who were about spend an evening drawing people appealed!  So I stood on the mezzanine entrance level, got my large Moleskine out and started to draw all the people beginning to arrange themselves and their chairs and easels.

The Hesketh Hubbard Art Society has about 150 members and prides itself on being the largest life drawing society in London. Founded in 1930, it has been meeting regularly ever since.

The Hesketh Hubbard Art Society offers both amateur and professional artists the opportunity to work from live models in untutored sessions.  The Society meets at the Mall Galleries once a week, either Mondays or Fridays, and members may choose to work from four models: three ‘life’ providing 15 minute poses, 30 minute poses or a ‘long’ 2 hour pose and one clothed portrait.

Membership is £200 a year, for which there are 48 drawing sessions and no cover charge.

The NEAC Discussion Panel 2008

NEAC Discussion Panel - Can you teach art or drawing?

(L to R) Alex Fowler, Francis Bowyer, Charles Williams and William Packer
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Last week, the New English Art Club arranged a Discussion Panel at its Annual Exhibition in the Mall Galleries - on the topic of "Can you teach drawing or painting?"

I'd drawn the panel at the discussion at last year's exhibition and wanted to do the same again so made sure I got there in good time and had a good view. Nobody on the Panel sat still of course so the sketch was completed in snatched moments as people settled for short periods - and I was darting back and forth between people all the time I sketched.

I find that the most difficult thing when sketching people like this is trying to guess which is the 'comfy' pose - the one an individual will always return to whenever they move.

I should have posted about the discussion last week as, although interesting, I can't now remember some of the points made in the debate. I do remember there was a long discussion about the various models of teaching drawing and painting which have been used over time - in particular comparing how people were taught themselves in the past and how they have to teach now - within whatever context.

Having qualified as a teacher myself in the dim and distant past, I do remember thinking I was less interested in how drawing and painting can be taught and more interested in how people learn to draw and paint in an effective manner (ie going beyond achieving a likeness).

In my view, in order for teaching to be effective the approach used does need to be based in an understanding of how people learn at different stages of their development as an artist. Sometimes you need to learn how to do and sometimes you need to be left to get on with trying to find what you can do with what you've learned. It did strike me me that maybe some of the approaches employed over time haven't always factored in how learning works - and that some approaches will have too structured and constrained for some and too vague and loose for others. I guess the question is a good one - even if it's not always easy to answer!

Note: NEAC has a Drawing School called, unsurprisingly, the New English School of Drawing. The information on the website is somewhat out of date but does provide a contact email for latest courses.

Links

• New English Art Club
  
• New English Art Club - Annual Open Exhibition 2008
• Sketching and quotations from the NEAC Exhibition

Interior landscapes with food - a Sketchbook

Lots of my sketches on my travels end up being done in restaurants, cafes and tea rooms. One day I may do a book.........

In the meantime, this summary post:

• lists all the sketches by title, with their locations. I've organised it geographically in case anybody else fancies having a go at sketching the same view.
• links to the locations in the title of the place

I'm also planning to post more of my sketches in various restaurants and other eateries which have already appeared on my other blog - see 'Making A Mark' - Interiors. While most of the sketches are of interiors (hence the title), a few involve facilities where the eating and drinking frequently takes place on a terrace outside eg Kew Gardens. Some are purely are of my view while I was taking refreshments.

Also ...... a post about my tips for people wanting to sketch in restaurants and other eateries.

10 "Dos and Don'ts" for how to draw people while eating

An Orangery Afternoon Tea
Kew Gardens

London (from west to east)

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

• The Royal Botanic Gardens in June
• Taking tea at Kew Gardens
• Sketching the Japanese Landscape at Kew Gardens - and people on the terrace outside the Orangery   
• Tea at The Kew Greenhouse

Chelsea

• Croissant and cupcake at Gail's, Fulham Road Chelsea

Kensington Palace

• Chocolate cake at Kensington Palace Café

Rex Whistler Restaurant 
Tate Britain, London

Tate Britain

• Dining and Sketching at the Tate Britain Restaurant
• Sketching the First Landscape

Piccadilly - Royal Academy of Arts

• Sketching at The RA - The Friends Room #1
• Sketching at The RA - The Friends Room #2
• Sketching at The RA - The Friends Room #3
• Sketching at the RA - The Friends Room #4 and #5 
• Sketching at the RA - Friends Room #6 
• Sketching at the RA - Friends Room #7 
• Lunch at the Academy Restaurant at the RA
• More from the Friends Room at the RA

St James Restaurant
Fortnum & Mason, London

Piccadilly - Fortnum and Masons

• A Day out in Piccadilly
• Lunch at Fortnum and Masons
• Tea at Fortnum and Masons after the Summer Exhibition
• The Parlour Restaurant
• Cheese and biscuits at Fortnum & Mason

Mall Galleries

• RI Exhibition at the Mall Galleries
• The Private View (199th RI Exhibition)

Wallace Collection

• Cornish Cream Tea at the Wallace Restaurant
• Sketching at the Wallace Collection

National Gallery

The National Cafe
National Gallery, London

• Lunch at the National Cafe
• Drawings from the National Gallery
• Lunch at the National Dining Rooms - and sketching in the National Gallery
• Sketching the Olympics in Trafalgar Square - and afternoon tea!
• Lunch in the National Cafe #2
• Another way of drawing people

National Portrait Gallery: Portrait Restaurant and Portrait Cafe

• High spots in Westminster and Trafalgar Square
• Drawing, tea and DVDs at the National Portrait Gallery
• Westminster at night
• Lunch at the Portrait Cafe
• The Portrait Cafe
• The Cosmic Conversation + RA Sketchbook

Tate Modern

• Room with a view
• Sketching with Liz Steel and Borromini

"Fish! Restaurant, Borough Market
Bankside, London

Bankside

• In the Pink - at the Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum
• Fish! Supper in Borough Market

City of London - Smithfield

• Carluccios - 12 West Smithfield 
• The Courtauld, Old Bank of England and West Smithfield

East London

• St John Bread and Wine, Spitalfields

Northern England

• Staffordshire - Biddulph Grange: Drawing people and delaying the cream tea
• Manchester Art Gallery - Gallery Cafe: Eating in the Gallery cafe at Manchester Art Gallery

The Ferry Inn, Cookham
Berkshire, England

Southern England

• Cookham: Cliveden, Cookham and Stanley Spencer
• Moreton-in-the-Marsh: Moreton in Marsh - galleries, cakes and tarts  
• Perry Green: Sketching in a barn at Hoglands
• Clavering: Lunch at The Cricketers, Clavering, Essex

Europe

Menu du Terroir, La Grillade Gourmande, Épernay

Auberge du Terroir
Servon, Normandy

France

• Paris:
• Eating international in Paris
• Petit déjeuner @ Dolce e Amaro
• Dining out in Paris - Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Prés
• Servon, Normandy: Auberge du Terroir, Servon
• Château de Boucéel, Normandy: Petit déjeuner at the Château de Boucéel
• Épernay: Épernay and The Grillade Gourmande
• Crillon Le Brave: 
• The view of Mont Ventoux from Crillon Le Brave
• Another sketch of lunch at Crillon Le Brave
• Dinner at Restaurant du Vieux Four, Crillon Le Brave
• St Remy de Provence: Lunch at La Maison Jaune, St Remy de Provence
• Bedoin: Dinner and sunset at Le Mas des Vignes, Bedoin
• Bourg en Bresse, Ain: Les Quatre Saisons in Bourg en Bresse
• Gevrey Chambertin, Burgundy: Lunch Chez Guy in Gevrey-Chambertin
• Boulogne sur Mer: Restaurant Nausicaa, Boulogne sur Mer - my last meal in France

Italy

Trattoria alla Madonna
Venice

Venice:

• Harry's Bar: Venice - Sunday May 8th 2005
• Quadri's, Piazza San Marco: Venice - Wednesday 11th May 2005
• Trattoria alla Madonna: Venice - Friday 13th May 2005 (lunch and afternoon)

USA

USA - California

Tommys
San Clemente, California

• San Clemente: "The big cheese on the pond" - eating and drinking in San Clemente, California
• Pacific Grove: Driving Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway
  
• Carmel-by-the-Sea: Carmel by the Sea and a marine inversion
  
• San Luis Obispo: The best breakfast of the trip - at the Big Sky Cafe!
• Malibu: The end of my drive down Highway 1 and the start of "concrete freewayville"

USA - Arizona

• Yuma: Breakfast in Yuma
• Yuma: 2,000 miles later - Louise drives the desert with style!

Cafe on Route 66
Grants, New Mexico, USA

USA- New Mexico

• Truth or Consequences: Chillis and a big elephant butt
• Santa Fe: Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe
• Grants: Back in time to Route 66...and a bit more

USA Massachusetts

• Cape Cod - Orleans: Cape Cod National Seashore
• Cape Cod - Chatham: More sketching at mealtimes
• Rocky Neck, Gloucester: Rocky Neck and Rockport, Massachusetts
• Boston Airport: to follow

Burdicks, Walpole,
New Hampshire, USA

USA - New Hampshire

• Walpole: Apple orchards, maples and a chocolatier

USA - Vermont

• Bradford - The grass is greener in Vermont

USA - Maine

In Good Company,
Rockland, Maine

• Bath and Rockland : The Farnsworth, the Wyeths and the rain
• West Falmouth: The Interior of the Quaker Tavern B&B

More travel sketches 

You can see more of my travels with a sketchbook on my website or by clicking the links to the summaries of blog posts for different areas in the right hand column. These are the links to my travels with a sketchbook in London; England; Venice and the USA.

This post will be updated as new sketches are added to this blog.