50th WWSketchCrawl: Colchester

Yesterday afternoon, I arranged for the Colchester Sketchers to sketchcrawl at the bottom of the High Street. Tucked down a lane is the Coffee Cube café, which is where we arranged to meet. After a week that saw sleet and rain, we were amazed to have a blue sky and sunshine, so half of us sat outside to sketch the castle.

First sketch underway.

Being the organiser, I spent more time talking than sketching at the meeting point, but did manage to spend half an hour on my sketch of the castle. Luckily, as the sun disappeared behind the clouds, it was time to move on.

My first sketch

 Our second location was Hollytrees Museum, which is a museum of domestic life and childhood. Several of us were attracted by the Alice in Wonderland temporary exhibition.

The Queeen's croquet game.

  Our final location was the new Tiptree Tearoom at the Minories Gallery. I think we were all so interested in each others sketches and having some tea, that nobody sketched there. I plan to return another day as the choice of teas and cakes demand a proper "sketch" visit.

Colchester Sketchers (minus Johnny) show off their sketches.

  Where did you sketch?

47th WWSketchCrawl in Barcelona

Tramvia Blau, Tibidado. ©Sue Pownall 2015

Yesterday was Worldwide Sketchcrawl day and I was fortunate enough to be in Barcelona and able to join their sketchcrawl. I missed the start due to having a lovely catch-up breakfast with a friend, so I took the tourist tramvia blau up to Plaça Dr. Andreu arriving shortly before the other sketchers. My first sketch of the day had to be the tram, but as it only stayed a short while, the sketch became a composite of the trams.

Montse & I sketching the Funicular de Tibidabo.

 Whilst trying to capture the tram, I started my second drawing, this time the building for the Funicular de Tibidabo. Despite an underdrawing it fell off the page, which is a problem that keeps occuring.

©Sue Pownall 2015

 Taking the funicular up to the Parc del Tibidado, we gathered for a mid-way point photo. Coincidently, the park mascots wandered past and were coerced into the photo.

Photo by Mar Villarino Chico.

 Unfortunately, the "spectacular views" were hidden behind cloud, so I started drawing the plane, which was one of the original rides from the park's opening in 1928. As with the tram, I had to start a second sketch as I could only capture it as passengers got on and off, hence the sweet cart on the left page. I'm not one for doing spreads, so after sketching the people at a bus stop, I copied Elena's idea of linking them with the old, big wheel. Finally, I added the genuine American hotdog stand.

Spread drawn in Parc del Tibadado

 I'm quite pleased with how the spread came out, what do you think?

Manchester sketchcrawl

Sketching the River Irwell sat on Calatrava's Trinity Bridge

 Yesterday,  I joined the Manchester,  Yorkshire,  and Society of Architectural Illustrators (SAI) for a sketchcrawl in Manchester. It was a surprisingly blue skied sunny day, but with an icy wind, which made outdoor sketching a challenge. As you can see from my sketches below, I alternated between outside and inside locations.

River Irwell from Trinity bridge. Sketch 1

I accidently bought a scone when I went for a warm up cuppa. Sketch 2.

Piano practice in Manchester Central Library's music library. Sketch 3.

Shivering and sketching at the end of the day. Sketch 4.

It was lovely to meet so many sketchers from all over (40+ at the interim lunch meeting) and hope to get up to Manchester and sketch again... albeit in a warmer month.

Show and tell social at the end of the day. Photo by Hakym.

2014 in review and resolutions

One of my last sketches from Oman.

This is how I started the year 2014:

1. I wish to be single-minded with my art by which I mean I will be selfish with my art time and not let people nor events cut into it. The obvious exception is Degas. 
2. I still want to move Degas and I to Barcelona, so will continue to organise my finances, whilst helping my parents.

In order for these to be goals rather than wishes, I have an amount to achieve by October. Also, I am setting aside a minimum 8 hours each weekend for art production. Finally, I want to produce a minimum of 6 ink drawings within the year.

As many of you who regularly follow me know, my year did not go to plan neither personally nor professionally. It was also a year full of highs and lows and I am still struggling for the middle ground.

44th WWSketchCrawl, Portobello Road, London.

I made several trips back and forth between Oman and UK following the hospitalisation then death of my father in January. Then I took 3 months unpaid leave through the summer, to pack up my parents' house, whilst trying to keep my mother happy, and finally moved back to the UK full-time in September. A constant throughout the year has been my guardian angel, Degas, who flew to UK with me in June and loves it here.

What                       Result              Positive thought                           .

Finances?               No                    I do have a lot of air miles though!

Barcelona?              No                  I'm in Europe.

8 hours?                  No    

6 ink drawings?      NO

As you can see above, there are only 3 ink drawings, and 1 ink and watercolour experiment. The ink boat I have just had rescanned and am looking to add some colour to it as it is flat and lacks something, so that's 2 I'm pleased with.

As my resolutions didn't go to plan, what did go well this year?

April, I ran my fourth annual charity event and raised £434.50 both through collecting at the event and an online donation site. All the money went to UNICEF UK's Children of Syria appeal.

Mayor of Colchester looking at my drawing at the opening.

July, My drawing Into the Shadows was juried into the Colchester Art Society's Summer Show.

August, I attended the 5th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Paraty, Brazil. I wrote in my first after-trip post:

"... I am jealous of the sketching others have done in that beautiful country. Whilst I had a fabulous time... I am not very happy with my sketches... obviously workshop sketches are experimentations and are not expected to be great yet... it would be nice." 

I may not have been happy with my sketching, but the wonderful people at the symposium made up for it. I re-met sketcher friends and made new ones. One of my happiest memories is sketching with the Brazilians of the sketching group, Croquis Urbanos Curitiba, on the last day.

With Croquis Urbanos Curitiba.

November, I have been taken on as an art tutor for the charity WEA and had the pleasure of teaching a sector of society I normally would not associate with. I summed up the course in this post, Lessons learnt. I really enjoyed teaching the course, and look forward to teaching more soon.

 So that was my year, now what about 2015?

Art resolutions: 

1. Produce a series of illustrations to be sold as greeting cards.
2. Produce a minimum of 1 fine art piece a month (preferably 2/3 per month).
3. Enter 4 open exhibitions throughout the year.
4. Run 4 art workshops.
5. Participate in a group or solo show.

Marketing & networking resolutions:

1. Post daily on FB page, www.facebook.com/suepownallartist
2. Blog every Saturday or Sunday.
3. Attend 6 networking events.
4. Look at feasability of art fairs.

There are a few other goals I have for my art business, but I won't share them here. Let's see what the year brings.

What about you? Have you reviewed your year or set resolutions? You are welcome to leave a comment or share the link to your post here.

BRAZIL! Pt. 2 Búzios

 After Rio, with fellow urban sketcher Béliza, I travelled to the far end of the state to the resort area of Armação dos Búzios. (You can read Béliza's account here: Goodbye jetlag). We decided to explore with a mini-sketchcrawl starting at breakfast in a delightful café overlooking the beach. Whilst sipping freshly squeezed orange juice and munching on croistants we set to painting the scene. The boats were so colourful they cried out to be painted.

Breakfast sketching with Béliza

After breakfast, we wandered along the seafront and stopped near a couple of sculptures, which conveniently were near both shade and seats. Even having someone to sketch with, I struggled all day to draw taking ages to settle and decide on subjects.Whilst my friend started her second sketch in that location, I finally made a poor attempt to capture a blue building nearby. 

A bit further on, we stopped for a drink, and I quickly painted (with no under-drawing) the couple sat in front of us. Having wandered around, my final sketch of the day was trying to capture the hews of a nearby tree and the yacht club beyond, but it failed badly.

Yacht club

On our second day, we took a boat trip. Even thought the water was cold (it is winter in Brazil) I swam at one of the bays we stopped at, but chose to stay warm and dry at the next one and tried to capture the turquoise sea of Ossos bay. (sorry the scan has changed the colour)

 

The following day, we took buses the other end of the state, massively delayed due to the Tour do Rio and I did this last sketch staring out of the bus window, not moving through Angra Dos Reis.

 

Part 3 is to follow. What do you think so far?

Monologue

Wren's St Mary Abchurch 2 August 2014

A while ago I received an email from Monologue asking if I would like to review their sketchbooks. Naturally I said yes and a little while later a courier delivered this lovely parcel.

They are designed to be used with a variety of mediums listed on the wrap: charcoal, chalk, graphite, pencil, pastel, oil pastel, wax crayon, red chalk, acrylic, collage, oil, marker, spray, tempera... Everything except ink, my prefered medium. As I am part way through the A5 Seawhite sketchbook, I decide I would test drive the soft cover A4, with holding elastic.  It has a handy niche on the edge keeping it both in place and away from the pages - neat!

Wren's Monument to the Great Fire of London

Pete Scully had arranged a sketchcrawl of Wren's buildings,  so I thought that was a good time to testdrive the sketchbook.  Aren't new ones scary? At the meeting point lots of peeps were busy sketching the buildings or craning their necks to draw the top of Monument. Eek. I drew 2 construction workers on their break at the bottom.  The sketchbook liked my pen, so that was a relief.

St Magnus the Martyr

Getting my map of locations,  & sticker for my sketchbook,  I drew the church clock and spire of St. Magnus the Martyr listening to the chimes of the bells. I added the watercolour,  which the page handled well  I am very lazy,  mixing colours direct on the drawing with quite a bit of water. It crinkled a little but not much at all.

Next it was St Marys Abchurch and I loved its poor green, damp covered, neglected side. I spent a long time on this sketch as I built up the watercolour glazes to emulate what I saw. I'm pleased with the result and the way the Monologue sketchbook took the paint. 

I'm not so pleased with my last sketch of St Mary le Bow Church as the church is soooo vast, my initial marks were way off. The café shot is the best way to view it. I then had to head home to walk my lovely assistant and missed the final meet up at St Paul's.

I had a lovely day, thanks to Pete's planning,  and look forward to using the sketchbook more as so far I think it's really good. I must try some other mediums for a thorough test. 

Sketching St Mary Abchurch rear entrance

St Mary le Bow

Monologue's facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/ilovemonologue

WWSketchCrawl #44: London

44th WWSketchCrawl. Photo thanks to Isabel Carmona.

 Poor neglected blog. ... Here's the beginning of my attempt to catch up.

 The 12th July was WW SketchCrawl day (more info here) and being in the UK, I traveled up to London for the SketchCrawl arranged jointly by the meetup group Drawing London on Location and the Urban Sketchers from London and the Oxford Workshops.

Train people

 I started my day sketching people on the train using a blue Micron in the SeaWhite sketchbook. Then, at Charlies' Café in Portobello Road, I  met up with some sketchy friends, including some from Barcelona, and leant against the café to sketch from the shade. (Who would expect London to be hot in the summer?!)

Opposite Charlies' Café, Portobello Rd.

Photo thanks to James Hobbs

After a while, James, Nathan, Evelyn and myself, braved the huge mass of tourists in Portobello Road as we searched out both a shady spot and something to draw. The crowds kept blocking our view even as we sat behind the stalls.

I left the others in search of some food and headed off the main road where I met Emily sitting outside Biscuiteers. Ordering a cuppa, I joined her in sketching the Mediterraneo restaurant opposite.

Mediterraneo, Kensington Park Rd.

As it was almost time for the end of the sketchcrawl, I headed to meet the others at the Castle pub, Portobello Road, where we chatted about our day and shared our sketchbooks.

With Spanish sketcher Swasky. Photo J Hobbs

After the group photo of the sketchers who were still around, I headed home and did this final sketch of a man texting.

Did you participate in a sketchcrawl? You are welcome to leave a link to your blog post on it in the comments.

Sketch Muscat for Charity & WWSketchCrawl #43

Nonwaterproof ink & watercolour

Saturday was my fourth annual charity event. It started with an idea from Enrico Casarosa, creator of Worldwide SketchCrawl, who suggested that the 2011 April SketchCrawl should be a benefit drawing marathon for Japan's Tsunami relief. I arranged an event in Doha and on a rainy day, a small group of us gathered to sketch. With sponsorship and donations from participants, we raised US$470.

1 cityscape, 3 versions

After the success of that event, I decided to do something annually choosing a different charity each time. 
In 2012, I organised Sketch Muscat to raise funds for the Omani Cancer Association. I chose a cancer charity partially as a local charity (I'd moved countries) but mainly as I had a friend who was going through treatment for breast cancer and it is partially due to her awareness and quick action (& good medical treatment) that she received an all-clear. That time US$430 was raised.

The crane drove off before I could finish!

Last year, I chose a small local charity, Awladna, to raise funds for their children's road safety campaign. We raised a massive US$530 with which the charity bought children's bicycle helmets. Which leads me to this year and helping more children, but this year the funds are in aid of UNICEF's #ChildrenofSyria appeal. Living in the Middle East this is something that is regional, but I feel we should help to stop children's suffering wherever we live. 

With Alexandra Höpfner of MuscArt at Sketch Muscat for Charity

As this year seems hotter than the last two, I approached the gallery manager of MuscArt to see if I could use their gallery as the venue, which the owner quickly agreed too. It is a great space with duel aspect windows on to the cityscape and we set up still-lifes inside too. I love that my Sketch Muscat events attract children. This was by Khalid, aged 12

and this by 5 year old Dareen.

As well as collecting at the event, I set up a donation site, which remains open until July.
 So far I've raised $276 (£164.50) there, but would appreciate more donations. Please click the link:
  fundraise.unicef.org.uk/MyPage/Sue-Pownalls-annual-fundraiserSketch-Muscat-for-Charity

Here are the event totals:

 The donation site funds go direct to: UNICEF UK 
The money raised at the event will be presented by cheque to UNICEF Middle East and North Africa 's Oman office. 
*****  

 WWSketchCrawl #43: 

As people here are reluctant to visit different locations to sketch, I did a quick sketch at home before I nervously went to see if anyone would turn up for the event. On my return, I got out my sketchbook but Degas demanded attention after being left all day, so I ended up with a 2 point SketchCrawl. I used Van Gogh watercolours (from #uskbcn2013) as my W&N were already packed in my bag. The actual painting is a lot brighter than it seems in this photo.