We all met on the steps of the V&A for the urban-sketching’crawl’. the idea is that you can draw anything in your own style in any medium; then after 2 hours you all meet up and put your work out for each other to see. Of course at the V&A there are lots of wonderful things inside as well, but it was a glorious Spring day – too nice to sit inside, and so not sure if I was being crazy, I opted to draw the V&A facade from the side. If I had sat across the road, traffic could have been really bothersome.
I had to work out how to begin and I thought that if I looked through my square viewfinder, I could decide on what to include. Then I started with a simple shape near the centre and tried to get it’s proportions right for the eventual drawing. I chose the flat pillar in the middle just behind the turquoise V&A banner, I built all the proportions from this pillar, and it’s more or less correct, with a little artistic licence in the placement of the phone box.
I felt okay about the results even though I found the final drawing a bit tight – at least it wasn’t disastrous. And you know what – form here onwards I can only loosen up and I hope I will. It took about 1 hr 45 minutes of intense concentration. Just where do you begin to choose what to omit?
At 1.00 pm we all met in he courtyard for the show and tell.Now you’ll see some wild and wonderful works!
I think it’s a wonderful thing to do. I have often taken my sketch book to places and never opened it – this is going to change!
In fact this was a prelude to me starting a local group called Village sketchers. Please visit the page and join the group (even if you don’t come ever sketching); and give me a “like” https://www.facebook.com/groups/villagesketchers/
Our first meet is on the Monday 8th June at 9.45am in a really sweet village near me.
Brave of your and you turned out such a beautiful piece. Well done. And all in 1h45mins!