Saturday 22 December 2018

Drawing in 2018

It's been a very long year (though still with twelve months in it) - here's a selection of sketches and memories from 2018.

January
A collage at the Reading Museum for a Urban Sketchers Reading meetup. It turns out I didn't sketch that much in January so a regular meetup helps.
February
A colleague had told us about the snowdrops at Welford Park so we decided to head out there. It was gorgeous. I'd just started reading a book by Eric Sloane who did "colour drawings in black and white" so I was inspired to try to draw in black in white. If you get the chance, go to see the snowdrops there.
But I couldn't resist using colour in February because I was given a  JoanOfArt sketching tin and some flowers and had bought a gorgeous Emma Bradbury vase.


Snoozing on the train (esp in the mornings) is so relatable (at least for me)
March
March was when it was OneWeek100People challenge. Despite saying I wouldn't do it again after last year, I got inspired by James Richards and decided to give it another go. I even managed to use a rapid sketch/self-portrait (a reflection in the train window) to use as my twitter profile photo. 





Being as it was March, we got snow so I sketched the scene during one lunchtime.

Snow also impacted the Smart City Challenge in Reading where I was asked to live sketch
(the first event where someone had requested me to sketch)


Thanks to the lovely Urban Sketchers Reading group, I found about a course running in Wokingham with Pat Southern Pearce and decided to attend an actual workshop IRL. She introduced us to using wax crayons and when I got home I tried out some of her techniques to draw the Blade.



April
I was getting a bit anxious about trying to finish the SketchbookProject in time in April (an extended deadline!). I swore to my husband that I wouldn't do this again as he pointed out I didn't actually seem to enjoy the process. And then I bought two sketchbooks for this year  - one for him (!!) and one for me (both, as yet unopened) so we can share the pain together. Hubby, when you're reading this I want you to know that you're welcome.

Late April was very sad as we lost the wonderful @declarationball who introduced us to the Whitley Pump and so much more about Reading besides. Here's a sketch at Vel which he had reviewed.


May
A couple of sketches from Cup in St Mary's Butts using the tricky KarstStone paper.

June
June sketches include a lovely battered doorway in London Street Reading .

We visited Bletchley park again after it got saved thanks to Dr Sue Black. It's amazing and you should also go.


July
The Abbey Gateway re-opened and we sketched there for Jelly's Open for Art weekend.

James Richards was doing a course and a sketchcrawl in Oxford and I decided to go along in person (his online course is pretty awesome and obviously cheaper - currently 17 quid). Oxford has many vintage, happy memories for me as well as only being a short hop on the train from Reading (apart from this particular weekend where there was a rail replacement service from Didcot).  This scene doesn't convey the flies, smells and ever-present chance of being mugged when I went out into an alleyway for one of the exercises. I love how sketches are triggers for memories. All that said, it was an intense but fun course and I saw Oxford differently as this time it didn't include friends, family and places away from the crowds.



Coffee - I love sketching the coffee over breakfast.



I also enjoy capturing people and sketching people who are at work - I sketched a lady at the Karting place in Reading.




August
WhitleyPump had asked me to sketch some Whitley/Redlands/Katesgrove sketches/thumbnails for them. I went walking about and sketching one day. This was just the right moment in Cintra Park. For the rest, check out the What's On pages every week.


They had also asked me to live sketch a meeting which was a terrifying but wonderful learning experience.


September
Folding towels at Thames Lido. I can't believe she's 3 feet tall, though. We got there early for a lovely Sitelines production by Laura Mugridge and I did a quick sketch.



October
It was Inktober and the first I'd managed to do most of! I decided to really focus on ink style and also tried to make most pages not look out of place in a graphic novel - so I really enjoyed looking through the sketchbook I made of it. Here's a couple of my favourites.





The amazing Clays had requested a sketch to announce their Xmas menu and I did one for them. As I type there's a doggy bag in the fridge from a visit where we ordered with our eyes instead of our heads. It won't go to waste.

November
It is lovely being asked for illustrations to accompany pieces. WhitleyPump asked for one to go with their ode to old pubs. Read the poem by the Anonymous Bard.
They also asked for sketches for Diwali at the Reading Hindu Temple (here's one of them).

MERL has been a favourite for sketching at and we often go there for UrbanSketching. 




December
Scenes from the lovely Faja dos Padres in Madeira








I also enjoyed watching the fishmonger prepare the ever present scabbard fish and men playing cards in the parks.


And as is fitting for a long post (certainly one including holiday sketches) - here's a person snoozing.



Merry Xmas and here's to a joyous New Year (one can but hope!)




Sunday 19 August 2018

A year of sketching with the Reading Sketchers

I had heard about the urban sketching movement through Koosje Koone's SketchbookSkool klass a few years ago and desperately wanted a local chapter but never managed to find one though I did manage to find one very lovely person to have a coffee with regularly who was also looking through that community.

copyright Therese Lawlor
Thanks to Jelly's wonderful Open for Art Festival in 2017 I finally discovered Reading's urban sketchers. We have had at least one urban sketchcrawl every month come rain, (snow) or shine and last July we celebrated a year of doing these by taking part in the Open for Art Festival 2018 where one of our newest members Nichola wrote about the experience. We applied to become an official chapter but you can still find us listed on this map thanks to another of our members.

Urban sketching gives you a chance to meet others who are sketching the same location at the same time as you, but in their own style. You're alone but together drawing the world. The best thing about this is it gives people the courage to sketch in the open when strangers may speak to you - somehow, saying it's part of the sketchcrawl makes it ok. Secondly, you meet other people who share tips about equipment, books, other artists and of course experiences. In every meet up there's a new convert to pastels, water-soluble (or not) crayons, and Sailor Fude pens or discussing paper/sketchbooks (e.g.concertina & use of tinted or brown paper) and where to purchase them. I like the general buzz after having spent a couple of hours doing something for yourself sharing our experiences and excitement.  Sometimes people are reticent in sharing their sketchbooks but they find it is a lovely non-judgemental environment. Our group is on Facebook that you are welcome to request to join but recently we set up on twitter and Instagram (no posts yet!) so that it didn't exclude anyone from finding out about us.

I've included photos that a couple of our regular sketchers (and a new member) were happy to share for this post.
copyright Mohan Banerji by the River Kennet
copyright Therese Lawlor at Bel and the Dragon using pastels
Over the past year, we've been in Reading town centre (St Lawrence, Forbury, the Abbey Quarter, St Mary's Butt, Broad Street, Reading Museum, MERL, Blake's Lock and Bel and the Dragon, by the river), Sonning, Harris Garden and Wokingham

 Revisiting these places at different times or going to new ones is always exciting.


 copyright Liz Chaderton


copyright Therese Lawlor at MERL 

copyright Mohan Banerji at the Reading Hospitium
copyright Therese Lawlor in Forbury Gardens
copyright Therese Lawlor 

copyright Huma Jehan (sketching the freezing sketchers in Wokingham)



Sunday 29 April 2018

Sneak peek at my submission to Sketchbook project


















Yes the paper is very thin. If you would like to know a bit more about what works I wrote some notes up in September (not all the tools are there as I got more since) or you could replace these pages with your own and rebind the book.