One sketch #6 Porthcawl

I set off in hope rather than expectation today. It struck me first thing this morning that I have never yet sketched in Porthcawl, which is the nearest genuine seaside resort town to home. This is what I came up with:-

The Grand Pavilion, on the left of the sketch, is probably Porthcawl's most renowned building. Some of its architecture reminds me of the old Wembley Stadium, which is hardly surprising since they were pretty much contemporaries from the Art Deco period.

I didn't previously know the sculpture on the right, but I recognised it as the work of Sebastien Boyesen straightaway. The semi circular base is reminiscent of his 'mortal coil' which stands in the centre of Port Talbot where I live.

Difficult coming up with a verse, but this whimsical nonsense occurred to me:-

Seahorse, seahorse, don't you stop
Just let your flippers go flippety flop
Got no back legs, got no hips
Think I'd rather cod and chips.

Look, I never claimed to be Shakespeare, did I?

One Sketch #5 : Gower Heritage Centre

Today was the first day of the Easter Holidays from work (school). In a celebratory mood, I agreed when daughter number 3 rang up and suggested we take my granddaughter out for the day. We quickly recruited daughter number 2, and decided upon this, the Gower Heritage Centre.

The heritage centre is part museum, part working mill, part sort f rustic theme park. Mary and I used to take all of the kids there when they were all still kids, and we usually had a good time. I'm pretty pleased with the sketch that I've made here. On the left we have the entrance to the centre, then in the foreground a cockerel, whom daughter number three was rather scared to approach. The tractor is disabled, and it's there for the kids to play on, and my granddaughter duly did that.

I'm glad that I've been a wee bit bolder with colour here, since I'm still really trying to find my way with line and wash, and often my painted sketches tend to look washed out and pale.

I liked this sketch too much to spoil it with my rubbishy verse, but I have got one to accompany it, you'll probably be none too excited to hear.

Chickens are mean
I've never been keen
On these vicious and brutal
Egg laying machines
They can scare
with a stare
Which turns weaker hearts green
There's just no denying it
Chickens are mean.

Sorry chickens. Well, sorryish.

One Sketch #4: The World's Worst Phone

So today I had my last day in work until after the Easter Holidays. Yay! Nobody was hoe when I got back, so I settled down , made a cappuccino, and picked up a book. Then the phone rang. Now, that's a problem.

You see, our phone is awful. Oh, don't get me wrong, it looks great : -

It's a modern phone styled after an old American payphone from, I guess the 40s/50s. And when we first had it, it was fine. Over the years, though, it has become terrible. It is impossible to get through a call without having to apologise to the caller for having to continually ask them to repeat themselves because what they have said has been completely obscured by a crackle, a squeal, or any one of a bewildering variety of noises.

What made it worse today was that when I could finally make out what the caller was saying, he turned out to be a cold caller. A few years ago I took to telling them that I was the cat whenever a cold caller chanced his/her arm.
For example: -
Caller: Hello. I vant do speeek do Missis . . . .
Me: Missis . . . . not here. Did Mrs. . . . 's cat. My neem is Hero. I like feesh. Do you have feesh? I like meelk. Do you have meelk? : -
- and then every time they spoke I would mention another thing I liked and ask them for it. If you got as far as chicken, they were never going to hang up. Funnily enough, after the first time I did it we didn't have another nuisance call for weeks.

Well, anyway, here's today's verse
Compared to its crackles
Squeaks and squealing
Silence is rather
More appealing.

One Sketch - Day Three - Hero the Cat

So, I come in from work on the penultimate day before the Easter break, and both of my cats are in the front room, sitting in the sunshine. Now, one cat loves me and will do almost anything to ingratiate himself with me. For the other, though, I am nothing more than a purveyor of food. I sit down for five minutes, and he looks down his white nose at me, staring at me with a look that says - so you're going to sit there all afternoon, are you? - Never mind that I have been on the go for 9 hours with at most a ten minute break in between, and that my poor feet are absolutely aching, and that I'm also starving hungry myself. Hero stares at me, begrudging me every second of repose. So I get my revenge by sketching him here: -

and writing this verse, which I am sure is what is going through his head: -

I laze around the live long day
And with your cares I'll take no truck.
Monarch, I, of all you survey
- So go and get my tea, you schmuck.

One Sketch Day Two: School Shoes

Yes, today I decided to sketch my school shoes.

Why? What's the story? Well, basically, because today has been an incredibly busy day, when I've found myself schlepping around the school pretty much non-stop, from 7:15 when I arrived, to about 4:15 when I left. I would love to have had some way of calculating just how many miles I put in today.

It's one of the things about having moved to the new school, that it's just so much bigger than the old one. In the old school, I could walk from one end to the other, between the furthest two points, in about 3 minutes. Now, in the fabulous new building we have, I'm up hill and down dalelike a yoyo. Now, I'm not complaining. By this stage of the year in the last academic year, I was already off work with depression. And the great thing about today was that I did get a lot of things done which needed to be done today.

However, it can't be denied that when I finally arrived home, and took my comfortable if somewhat battered old brogues off, those dogs were barking, to use the vernacular.

Today's doggerel: -

Oh battered shoes
Upon my feet
By 4 o'clock
Smell none too sweet

One Sketch A Day

Have you seen the most recent post on Liz Steel’s blog? I don’t know if you follow Liz’ blog, but it’s very good, and well worth your time. In her most recent post she asked about how easy people find it to sketch every day. The answer to which, in my case, is not very easy at all.  

On reflection, I think that I found it easier when I had a specific goal or purpose, as with the recent One Week 100 people 2018 challenge. Trawling round the net, as I am wont to do when I have an ideal moment, I’ve found a number of people who have undertaken to produce one sketch (at least) every day for a whole year, reflecting their year’s journey. Hmm – says I – that’s a good idea. And being as there’s no time like the present, I decided to start today. 

To be fair, I didn’t really find much of an opportunity until about 5pm this evening. In my day job I’m a teacher – not Art, I add, since I have no qualifications in the subject. Today we had a Parents’ Consultation evening. I had large gaps between my appointments, and so I used a couple of them to make this sketch. 

This is the new charger for my Surface Pro computer. The school in which I taught for several decades was recently amalgamated with 2 others in a brand new school. Part of our embracing the future has been that each teacher has been given the use of a Surface Pro. The way it was presented to us was – this is yours until such time as you leave the school – use it as if it’s your own. (Within reason. I would imagine that, if you’re a devotee of the seamier side of the internet, it’s probably a good idea not to go there with your school Surface) To be fair, mine has become pretty well travelled, being much lighter and smaller than my laptop. It’s travelled with me to Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary just in the last two years.  This is actually a very powerful wee machine, and there are many pros to using one in class.

However –

Although the battery can keep it going for hours, it still needs charging. And the chargers are fiddly little buggers. Back before Christmas I accidentally shut the business end of mine in the car door. I went to see the technician, who said that he could order a new charger, but it would take weeks before I got it. Now, even allowing for the fact that I could charge it up in the staff room, where would that leave me at the weekend? So, I decided that it was my own fault for shutting it in the car door, and went on Amazon (other online retailers are available) and ordered an official Microsoft replacement.

An official Microsoft replacement which cost the best part of £30 and packed in last week, after about 4 months of work. This one was not caught in the car door, or mistreated in any way. You can maybe understand how I wasn’t so eager to buy a replacement this time. But. . . the fact is that I needs the machine. So this time I bought a cheap(er) and cheerful generic charger for about a third of the price. This is it. I used it today, and it worked for today. So, fingers crossed . . .  

I also decided to try to write a little verse – let’s not call it poetry – to accompany each sketch. This one is: -  

O Surface charger,

I hope you’ll go

Far longer than

Your expensive bro.  

(I was going to do some of Dylan Thomas’ stuff, but then he never does any of mine.)

Your Own First Sketchcrawl

If you’ve taken the time to stop by and look at the blog, there’s a good chance you’re at least interested by the idea of urban sketching. It may be that you’ve never thought about it before, but would like to give it a try. In which case, here’s a few observations which I hope might prove helpful to you.

·       When you start , you’ve got the choice of whether you join an Urban Sketchers group and start on an organised sketchcrawl, or whether you go solo to start wih, then see if you like it enough to want to join a group.

Both options have their advantages. We’ll look at them separately now.

Join an Urban Sketchers Group

If there’s an Urban Sketchers group near you they will organise regular sketchcrawls, and will welcome you with open arms. I know of the best part of 20 chapters in England, for example, although most of them are centred in the cities.

You might feel nervous about joining a group, but don’t worry. Everyone in the group was once in your position. You might feel a little happier if I tell you this: -

·       Urban Sketching Groups consist of a huge range of diverse people. Don’t worry that you won’t fit in because of your age, gender, race, educational or social background. The only thing that links the members of a particular sketchers group is that they all want to sketch. That’s all you need.

·       Members of a given Urban Sketching group can also range from complete novices to accomplished artists. Your level of ability or skill is totally unimportant. Nobody will judge you or your work. Everyone will be supportive.

·       Nobody is likely to force advice on you, but it will be available if you ask, for example – “I love what you did there, how did you do it? “

·       Nobody will give you a hard time if you have to miss a sketchcrawl for whatever reason.

You can probably see, I’m a big fan of Urban Sketching groups and organised group sketchcrawls. I wish I’d have had the sense to find and join the South Wales group while I was just starting urban sketching 18 months ago. If you’re wondering what’s involved in a group sketchcrawl, well, let me give the example of the typical South Wales monthly sketchcrawl.

Each sketchcrawl usually starts in the discussion we have at the end of the previous one. Ideas for possible venues are discussed, and if possible a consensus is reached. Then later on the group administrator on Facebook will post the venue for the coming month, giving members as much notice as possible. So far this year’s three sketchcrawls have taken place in different venues in Cardiff. Members are asked to indicate whether they can make it or not.

On the day, we gather at the venue at a specific time. I was a little nervous my first time, but it was easy to identify the group, and once I’d made introductions it was plain sailing. Once everyone has arrived who are going to arrive, then a time to meet back up is agreed upon, usually between 2 and 3 hours. After that, you go and find something to sketch. When you’ve finished, then you pick something else. In practice this means that at times you’ll be sketching by yourself, and at other times sketching alongside another group member.

At the agreed time, then you all meet up, and take turns to discuss your sketching day, and show what you’ve done. I love these sessions.

Now, I do understand that actually showing your sketches to someone else is a problem for some people when they start out. After the first time you take part, it really won’t be any more.

Still, you may well think that you don’t really want to start off with a group crawl. Maybe the ‘show and tell’ aspect is too much of a mental hurdle for you. In which case, there’s nothing stopping you undertaking your own sketchcrawl.

Go solo on your own sketchcrawl

I like group sketching, but a solo crawl is usually a very enjoyable experience as well. As a rough rule of thumb I like to have a specific venue in mind, rather than just setting off hopefully in one direction and following my nose.

If it’s your first sketchcrawl, I’d advise you to pick somewhere which is not that far away, but far away enough that you’re not going to have to worry about being seen and stopped by people you know. Ideally, pick a place that you wouldn’t mind spending a few hours in, so the success of the trip isn’t just riding on the sketching.

The axiom among sketchers is – if you don’t need it, then don’t take it. Even now I don’t carry more than two sketchbooks – A4 and A5 – a pack of 4 sketching pens, an HB pencil and sharpener, a small set of watercolours, a small waterbottle and a brush. An A5 sketchpad and a pencil or sketching pen is enough a lot of the time. If you’ve already got these, then use what you have rather than buying new. There will be time for that once you discover you enjoy it. Even fairly basic equipment can bring you good results, although as with anything else, better quality equipment s usually more expensive.

It can help you get the most out of your sketchcrawl if you set yourself a challenge or a target before you set out. On my last few sketchcrawls I’ve set myself the target of filling a double page spread in my A4 sketchbook. When you’re making your first sketchcrawl, making two complete sketches is a useful target, and you’ll feel a sense of achievement when you reach it – and an even greater sense of achievement when you exceed your target.

For me, the solo sketchcrawl starts the moment that I leave the house, and everything is fair game for sketching from that point. So my most recent sketchcrawl, where I ended up making a round trip of slightly more than 40 miles, actually began with me sketching a lovely old car from the 1950s which was parked just 4 streets away from my house. Was that fair? Of course it was! Part of my trip was noticing the car, which was a pretty unusual thing to see.

When you arrive at your destination, you might want to have a bit of a walk round to see what you might like to sketch. Outdoors or indoors, building, object, person or people, the choice is yours. Ideally, something that conveys a sense of that particular time in that particular place, but this isn’t something to worry too much about. Usually that comes with the territory. Once you’ve selected what you’re going to sketch, pick your vantage point – which angle you want to create your sketch from. Sometimes this may be a bit of a compromise between the angle you want, and the spot where you can be most comfortable. I can sketch standing up, but would rather sit down if it’s an option. Have a think about how you’re going to feel if people start looking at you, or your sketch as you’re making it. It’s only natural to feel a bit self-conscious, but this should soon fade. If you show that you’re not bothered by just getting on with it, then most people will not bother you. If you smile, show what you’ve done, and maybe exchange a few pleasantries, then in my experience people respond very pleasantly. Actually this is one aspect of sketching in public that I really enjoy.

So, on that first sketchcrawl, when you’ve finished your first sketch – congratulations! Your sketchcrawl is already a success, regardless of how accomplished your sketch is, or whether you choose to make any other sketches. Make sure to reward yourself. I like a cappuccino, but hey, whatever works for you. Maybe you could make another sketch while you’re enjoying your coffee.

I wouldn’t look too critically at your sketches at this point – wait until you get home, and you’re more likely to be objective about them. There’s no hard and fast rules about how long your sketchcrawl should last. Once you’re happy that you’ve spent long enough, then go.

When the crawl is over, you might want to have a look your sketches a little more critically. Don’t rp them to shreds obviously, but just think about whether you’d do anything differently , and try to put it into practice on your next trip. The Urban Sketching Manifesto explicitly states –“we share our drawings online’ and this is something I’d encourage you to do after your very first crawl. If you don’t like the response, if any, that you get, then you never have to do it again, but chances are the response that you get will show you that there is honestly nothing to be shy or worried about. Whatever else you do, please don't be tempted to destroy or throw away your sketches. If your first sketch you ever made on a sketchcrawl was as good as you were ever going to make, then there wouldn't be all that much of a point in doing it. Put them away if you want, but you will always be able to look back on them, to measure how far you've come. Remember that these sketches are the start of your journey , not the finish. 

Atfer that , well, ask yourself – did you enjoy it? Hopefully the answer will be yes. In which case maybe you can start planning your next sketchcrawl, or even better, start thinking about joining your nearest group.

Vale of Glamorgan - 24th March

The plan was to post these yesterday just after the car. Family business intervened - sorry about that. So yes, even after kicking off with the previous sketch I posted of the old Austin car, which was just 4 streets away - even after that I did get as far as the Vale of Glamorgan.

Why the Vale of Glamorgan? Well, this time last year I was suffering from clinical depression. Actually saying it like that gives the idea that I'm cured. I'm not free of it yet - maybe I never will be. Still, back then I was off work and trying to come to terms with it. Now, at least, I'm still in work, and trying to keep myself on an even keel for most of the time. So, anyway, with weeks of free time that I've never had since I started work 30 years ago, I took to taking some days out, going for drives to places I'd never been before, getting fresh air, and trying to make sense of things. One of the places I went was Llantwit, and it struck me as rather a nice little town, still laid out on its narrow and winding medieval street plan.

I started off with this page in my book.

As usual, my scanner hasn't quite picked out the colours accurately, but there we are. The largest building to the right is the 15th century Town Hall. There's a free car park behind it - always an appreciated facility on a sketchcrawl.

Time was getting on, and my stomach was rumbling. I was pleased with the car sketch and this one as a morning's effort, so I got back in the car and headed back towards the A48. However, as I was going, a few miles down the road I saw a heritage sign advertising the presence of a 12th century Prior Church not far off. Thinking that this might well be a good way of bringing the sketchcrawl to a conclusion, I turned off the main road, and a couple of minutes later came to Ewenny Priory.

I was tempted to go inside the church, which was open, but then I find it very easy to spend a good hour nosing around a church, and so I decided to save that for another day.

This illustrates something about one of the things I really like when I'm sketching. I like planning an expedition. I like working out where I want to go , and how and when I'm going to do it. But I love just noticing something, which I never knew was there in the first place, and sketching it there and then.

Now there's a turn up

A free Saturday - well, free after my daughter picked up my grandson at 11:30 - is the best opportunity of the week to set off on a sketchcrawl. Preferably one of the South Wales Sketchers group monthly sketchcrawls, but otherwise a solo effort.

This month's group crawl was a fortnight ago, and so I set out on my own today. The objective was the beautiful Vale of Glamorgan, not far away from me by car. The engine was not even warmed up, and I was only 4 streets away when I saw a beautiful old 1950s Austin car parked up. This was too good to miss. I parked relatively close, whipped book and pens out of my bag, and got cracking.

I very rarely sketch inside my car. For one thing you have to sit in the passenger seat, and there's not a great deal of room for everything. Also, in a way it felt a little bit artificial. Not that I would have wanted to stand outside and make the sketch standing up by my car.

Did I actually get to the Vale of Glamorgan today after that? Watch this space.

Taking Inspiration

In my previous post I described the South Wales Urban Sketch group’s monthly sketchcrawl, to the Cornerstone Café and Gallery, to see the exhibition of the work of our friend Gary Yeung. I knew they were good, but until you get close up to them you don’t realise just how good they are. One of Gary’s pictures was sketched in Café Zest in the House of Fraser in Cardiff. The sketch looked out of the window. Everything outside the window was painted in line and wash, while everything inside was left as line drawings. I thought it was extremely effective, and so I decided to take inspiration from it.

This view is from the Gaucho Tower Bridge steak house restaurant. Great view.

Looking at it, I think I’m on the right lines and got close to what I was trying to do without quite scoring a home run. I think that the line drawing foreground is still just a little fussy, and could have done with simplifying. Likewise I think I should have gone even bolder with the colours, since it just looks a little washed out. I need to persevere.

Urban Sketchers South Wales Chapter: March Monthly Sketchcrawl

I'm a member of the South Wales Urban Sketching chapter, and every month this year we've held a sketchcrawl. So far each venue has been in Cardiff, although we have definite plans to hold one in Swansea in the near future. In January we sketched in the National Museum of Wales. This was my first sketchcrawl, and I only managed two sketches. Since then I've been working hard to develop both my speed and my style.

In February the chapter met for a sketchcrawl at Insole Court in Cardiff. I was picking my wife up from the airport on the same day, so was unable to make this one. However, I have been sketching every weekend, and quite extensively during a week off from work.

Last week we were scheduled to meet in the Cornerstone Café and Art Gallery in Whitchurch Road Cardiff. One of our own, a highly talented artist called Gary Yeung, from Hong Kong, who travels extensively sketching, has his work on exhibition there, so it made for a suitable venue. The snow last week forced us to postpone until today.

Only three of us made it. Still, this didn't dampen our enthusiasm at all. I produced several sketches across a two page spread -

top page - the counter (monochrome) - two line and wash views through the front windows, and a monochrome sketch of a customer head and shoulders

bottom page - the gallery - a nice vase of flowers and two of Gary's pictures. 

Counting the vase and pictures as two separate sketches, that makes a total of 6, which is what I was aiming for, and I'm quite pleased with the way that I've merged the sketches on the top page.

I loved the sketching - I always love sketching, but in particular it's the post mortem which is the best part of the whole thing. If you've never been to a sketchcrawl yourself, the way it works is that you meet at the chosen venue, agree on a time, and then basically off you go and get sketching. Then, at the agreed time you meet back up, and basically show and tell. It's just the best thing, and really invaluable for getting tips from others, advice and encouragement. I'm looking forward to April and just hoping that the date doesn't clash with when I'm abroad.

#oneweek100people2018 Day Five - Reflections on the whole experience

I am a cynical old so and so at times. So when I see even great sketchers whom I totally respect making claims such as – try the 100 People One Week Challenge and you’ll find that you really improve as the week goes on – then I tend to take it with a pinch of salt. Well, a pinch of salt will be handy for seasoning the slice of humble pie I’m going to be eating, because, well, because looking over the week, I have to say that I think it’s true.  

In terms of statistics, on the 5^th, day one, I sketched 27 figures. On day two, I misnumbered my sketches. I thought that I’d sketched 23 to take it up to 50, but on a recount I found I’d actually sketched 24 to take it to 51. On day 3 I sketched 20 to take it up to 71. Then on day four I sketched 30 to take me past the target. Today I took it a little easier as this is just for fun, and added another 13 figures. 

So how have I improved? Well, actually, I’d say that it’s not for me to say that I’ve improved as such. That’s for other people to judge. But things have happened. I feel I’ve loosened up with my sketching. I also feel that I can work a lot more quickly than I could at the start of the week. For example, let me compare my two self portraits. This one I made on Monday: -  

Now, it’s in biro, which is not my favourite medium, but was what I had to hand at the time. It was also based on a photograph I took with my work computer. It took about 20 minutes. Compare it with this self portrait I made on Thursday: - 

Now, you’ll have to take my word that this is actually far more like me. Again, admittedly I was using a sketching pen which I prefer. This time however I used the camera on the computer so that the computer was like a mirror, and I was therefore far closer to sketching myself from life than from a photograph. Look, I’d had a hard day. This one took no more than 10 minutes, though, and to me , is a better sketch.

Here's today's figures

#oneweek100people2018 : Day Four - Sketches 71 - 100

Yes, I've made it! Today I completed about 10 in work, and then another 20 later. I'll reflect a little on th experience when I post again tomorrow, but for now I'm just enjoying the achievement. Here's today's sketches:-

#oneweek100people2018 Day Three

A harder day this one. For one thing I decided not to make any sketches in school today. I didn't have time apart from anything else. Still, it did put a bit of pressure on otherwise. I decided to do more full length figures, and try a couple of watercolours sketches as well. This is where I am: -

I was rushing deliberately, but I'm quite pleased about how the two queues turned out. This one I really like: -

#oneweek100people2018 : Day Two

As yesterday - so again today. The problem with working in a school is that if you do sketches in the school they can often be a bit samey. I made the cricketer and the boxer before I went to bed yesterday - then managed to do ten figures on lined paper in biro in work. A visit to Tesco after work provide me with a few more figures at the ATM and the self service checkouts. The last few were based on photos.

This brings me up to 50 - halfway there and three days to go. This one sketched at the checkouts in Tescos is my favourite of today's sketches from life as opposed to photo

#oneweek100people2018 : Day One

OK - it works like this. If you divide the 100 people between 5 days, that means that you need to aim for an average of 20 each day. Well, I knew that I wasn't going to get 20 figures done in school - I'm amazed that I managed the 12 that I did. The others were all sketches I've made at home today, based on photos, magazines etc.

Now, strictly speaking, only the first 12 are really urban sketches, but nonetheless, I think 27 is a good start, especially if I do a few more this evening. You never know, at this rate I may even be able to take Friday off.

One Week 100 People Sketch Challenge

I've just been looking at the blogs of two of my favourite urban sketchers - Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel, and I found out all about this challenge. This is from Liz Steel's blog: -

"

March 5th – 9th, 2018, urban sketchers Marc Taro Holmes (Montreal, CA) and Liz Steel (Sydney, AUS) invite the world to join in with #OneWeek100People2018.

Every aspiring artist has heard the advice ‘Carry a small sketchbook at all times!’. We’re all told ‘Practice drawing every day!’.

This is great advice, but sometimes we need a little extra motivation.

Feel free to work from photos, or do a self-portrait series. It’s all fair game. However you choose to do it, the simple goal is: Draw 100 people in one week.

You can use any media you like: pencil drawings, or pen and ink, maybe digital sketches? Whatever you’d like to practice most.

The goal is PRACTICE. Not perfection. Think of us as your gym trainers. standing behind you yelling ‘Get out there! Keep your hands moving!’

100 people is a pretty fair goal. It’s a lot, but it’s not impossible.

It’s going to mean working hard or working fast. If you’re doing 1-minute gestures, it’s only 20 minutes of work each day. (It can take you more time to find a group of people to draw :)  But, if you’re doing 20 minute watercolors – you might have to find a way to catch up later in the week.

We’re committing to draw about 20 people a day, and we’ll be posting our work every day for the week of March 5th-9th. If you want to join in, please use the hashtag #OneWeek100People2018 so everyone will be able to find your work across all the platforms people use.

We encourage you to search that hashtag every morning, and see what other people are doing!"

I can't promise I'll do a hundred, but I'm going to give it my best shot. 

Cancelled Sketchcrawl

Yes, it's a shame, but South Wales along with many other parts of the UK was hit by unseasonal blizzards last week, and so the transport situation to Cardiff yesterday was still rather dodgy. So the South Wales Urban Sketchers chapter cancelled our scheduled monthly sketchcrawl in the Cornerstone café. It's a shame, but it's one of those things, and definitely the most sensible decision under the circumstances.

Still, it wasn't too difficult to get into Swansea, and I made this sketch of one of my favourite derelict buildings - the Palace Theatre. This is actually a listed building - it's one of very few original music halls left in the UK.

I've been urban sketching since August 2016, although I've always sketched, and while you can always improve, I'm not that unhappy with my line drawing with an ink pen. However, I've always struggled with colour. It's probably fair to say that water colour has not been my medium in the past. Still, I'm very aware that adding watercolour washes can really enhance a sketch, so I have been trying to improve by metaphorically puling myself up by my own bootlaces.

In particular I went back to Marc Taro Holmes' book "The Urban Sketcher"and I tried to use his -tea - milk - honey method of applying successive washes to this sketch. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly a step along the way to where I'd like to be with it. If you compare it with a sketch I made of Kidwelly Castle less than a year ago, you can see what I mean: -

I made it with the same small travel set of watercolours, but it looks pale and washed out, even though I did try to paint in some of the detail on the stonework. If anything it seems to shrink back into the page, while yesterday's sketch seems to come forward out of the page. I do admit that the picture above is a scan. Mind you, my scanner for some reason does struggle to pick out blues. That's why the sky looks so patchy.

The sketchcrawl at the Cornerstone Café has been rescheduled for next Saturday. Watch this space.

Lessons from my own Urban Sketching Journey

My Urban Sketching Journey, and a few simple lessons I’ve learned along the way

My urban sketching journey began in a funny kind of way. I’ve always dabbled in sketching, and then in 2015 I joined a local art group on a whim, and began painting in acrylics. I’m no great shakes as an artist, but hey, I found it’s something I really enjoyed, and so when, in 2016, I went to visit in-laws in the Alicante area in Spain I took my paints and brushes with me. 

I didn’t often paint en plein air at that time, but I wanted to give it a try, and I painted this picture of the local Cerveceria – bar to you and me. I used a pad of acrylic paper, which I haven’t used very often. Using acrylics in Spain in the height of summer is an interesting experience – they dry quickly enough as it is, but they dry much quicker there. Anyway, I was pretty pleased with the painting – it doesn’t take a great deal to make me happy, And I posted it to an online forum. One of the comments that came back was that the person who made the comment was thinking of trying urban sketching himself. To which I replied – Urban what? – and that’s how I first came to learn of urban sketching. If you want to get right down to basics, urban sketching is just giving a name to something that loads of people have been doing for a long time – sketching the world around them. As a movement, it began in Canada, as a group of sketchers in an online forum  “for all sketchers out there who love to draw the cities where they live and visit, from the window of their homes, from a cafe, at a park, standing by a street corner.” I suppose that the big difference between this and the thousands of people who had already been doing this themselves was the idea of a community, and the use of the internet – Facebook, blogs etc, - as a forum and gallery. 

 What is the Urban Sketching Manifesto?

Basically, it’s the agreed set of rules and standards which true Urban Sketchers live by. It states : - 

1. “We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
3. Our drawings are a record of time and place.
4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
6. We support each other and draw together.
7. We share our drawings online.
8. We show the world, one drawing at a time. “
   

You’ll notice that there’s nothing there which speaks about your ability as a sketcher, or the quality of the work you produce. In my experience, urban sketchers genuinely value every sketch each other produces. There’s no stipulation on the media or methods you have to use to produce your sketches, only that you try to do them on the spot.

I started urban sketching making a promise I couldn’t keep. I promised myself to make at least one sketch every day. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this idea, but in practice I found it difficult. The picture opposite is a vase of lilies, which was on my telephone table on the first day of my urban sketching journey.

*There’s nothing wrong with sketching everyday things all around you, especially when you’re starting out and trying to build up your confidence. 

My earliest sketches were all in ordinary HB pencil, like this, and I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with using pencil. It has the advantage that you can create much more subtle shading effects with it than you can with pen. However, I did want eventually to start using something which made more of a contrast with the white paper.

*You can use whatever medium you like. It’s worth trying a few different ways to get an idea what you’re really comfortable with, and what you get your best results from. 

During the summer of 2016 I progressed from just taking advantage of whatever happened to be around, to actively going out and looking for sketching opportunities. 

This is one of the sketches I made at this time. It wasn’t very far from home – this statue is a war memorial in the nearest park to my home. It was while I was sketching this, sitting on a nearby bench, when I had my first interaction with a member of the public while I was sketching. A young lad on his bike came over, had a good old look, which I facilitated by holding the sketchbook up for his inspection, then said, “Hmm, you quite a good drawrer, ain’t you?” I’ve had wore compliments than that in my life. 

* You can find inspiration all around you – you don’t necessarily have to go very far from home all the time.

This one, made a few days later, was one of my first urban sketches of a building. This is the Pump House Restaurant in Swansea Marina – in a previous life it was the Pumping House of Swansea Docks. While making this and the previous sketch I found that I actually enjoy interacting with passers by while I’m sketching. I rather like people having a look at a sketch while I’m making it, even if it isn’t working out or it isn’t very good. 

*In my experience, if you respond to people who seem interested in your sketches in a positive way, they will respond in a positive way back to you. 

I’m glad that I did these few sketches in public when I did, because towards the end of August of 2016 I went to Ieper to visit the grave of my great grandfather, who was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele. I’m not sure otherwise that I would have plucked up the nerve to sit in public and produce this sketch of the famous Cloth Hall, and another of the equally famous Menin Gate.

I think it’s a good idea to look after your sketches and keep them safe, and look back at them from time to time. The received wisdom is that if you keep sketching, you will get better and better. 

*If you keep your sketches you can certainly look back and see how your style has evolved. 

If I sketched the Cloth Hall again now, two years later, then I’d do it differently. Not necessarily much better, but just differently.

This is one of the worst urban sketches I’ve made since I started, but it’s pretty important to me. For

this is the first pen sketch I made. I made it in Brussels airport, on my return from Ieper. Now, even though it claimed to be a sketching pen, its tip was far too thick, and the ink seeped into the paper. Nevertheless, simply working out what was wrong with this sketch, and with the pen with which I made it was a step in the right direction to getting a pen which I did want to work with. 

* Even though you might think a particular sketch is a failure, chances are there will be something you can learn from it. So don’t throw it away – it has value. 

After finding a pen I liked, I pretty much carry the same things in my pack whenever I go out sketching.

My basic equipment consists of one sketching pen, and an A5 sized sketch book, but this is the stuff I have with me all the time, in case an opportunity for an unplanned sketch presents itself. For a sketching trip I carry a pack of sketching pens, an A4 sketchbook and an A5 sketchbook, a very small set of half pan watercolour paints, a small bottle of water, and two paintbrushes. That’s plenty, it’s not too onerous to carry round, and gives me plenty of options about how I want to make my sketch. I could go even lighter if I carried a waterbrush instead of the bottle, but I prefer using water bottle and traditional brush. 


As for clothing - well, it's a matter of common sense. There's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing, as they say. As a rule of

thumb, you need to wear warmer clothes in winter than you do in summer. Even in summer you're well advised to carry a light waterproof in your pack, bearing in mind how changeable the great British weather can be. Think in terms of what is going to be most comfortable for you - nobody says that you have to suffer for your art. On a personal level, I have a particular flat cap that I like to wear when I'm sketching outside - keeps the rain and the cold out nicely during the winter. 

* When it comes to sketching, a little equipment can go a long way. As a rough rule of thumb, aim to travel light. If you don’t need to carry it around in your pack, then don’t. 

I continued sketching at weekends throught the Autumn and into the winter. This next sketch is one of the first that I did with a sketching pen that I felt really

comfortable with. It shows part of the Pierhead building in Cardiff, a striking red building faced with glazed terracotta tiles. It was opened right at the end of the 19^th century as headquarters of the Bute Dock Company, and is now used by the National Assembly. 

* When you sketch a building, or a piece of sculpture, or an object for the first time, you end up looking at it far more closely than you would otherwise have done, and this is often very rewarding.

During the early Spring of 2017 I could feel that things were not right with me, and I was actually diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression. I was signed off work for two months, and during that time I would say that medication played the biggest and most important part in my recovery. However sketching played its part as well. In order to sketch, I had to go out and find something to sketch. That was positive. Then making the sketch would involve sitting down, and becoming totally absorbed in something other than myself for however long it took to draw it. That’s never a bad thing, in my opinion. Since returning to work in May I’ve had one day off with illness – man flu as it happens – and I don’t want to take any more time thank you very much. However depression is a funny beast. I don’t know whether it’s like alcoholism which stays with you for life, where you can be dry for years, but if you took another drink it could start you off again, or whether it is something which will eventually fade out of my life for good. I don’t know. I tend to think of it as being like a little demon on my shoulder, whispering bad things to me whenever it thinks I will listen. (I don’t actually hear voices. This is a metaphor.) The key is tuning it out, which is easier to do at some times than at others. But sketching definitely helps. 

Two weeks out of the 8 during which I was off work were actually my Easter holidays. I had booked a short city break in Prague, where sketching was on the agenda as well as sightseeing. A delegation of my family all sat me down, and drilled it into me that actually, this was exactly the sort of thing I needed. And looking back, I think that they were right. I made quite a lot of sketches while I was in Prague. In particular I love the sketch directly on the left. I made this one on the famous Charles Bridge across the river Vltava. I was crossing, and this monk passed in front of me. I whipped out my book and pen, and very quickly sketched in his outline and a few shadows. Then, when he’d gone, I just picked on other figures as they approached me and added them to build up the scene. They were all there, just not at the same time, which makes this a composite sketch. Then, finally, I sketched in the bridge details and the houses – which don’t tend to move around so much as people do. 

* Any sketch has its own value, but there’s something special about sketches which tell a story. 

Not every sketch I made in Prague does tell a story. Producing this kind of picture is a skill I’ve yet to master, to be honest. Most of the sketches were just of buildings which I liked. As far as I know there’s nothing particularly special about this Church, which is fairly close to Wenceslaus Square. I just liked it, and so I sketched it while I was sitting on a bench by the street market.

The other Prague sketch which maybe tells a wee bit of a story is the sketch that I made of the Tramway café. Prague has great trams – and if there’s one thing I do like it’s a good tram, and two older trams have been parked in Wenceslaus Square, and some clever entrepreneur has made a café out of the two of them. Now, to be honest, the cup of coffee that I bought there was certainly the most expensive that I bought in Prague, certainly not the best tasting, and certainly brought to me by the most surly waiter I met in Prague. Still, I didn’t make a fuss, since I felt that buying the coffee entitled me to sit on the tables outside the tram itself, and make this sketch. I look at the sketches that I made in Prague, and at least part of me thinks that if I hadn’t made the sketched while I was there, I wouldn’t probably have realised that I did actually enjoy the trip, and that it did help me. I was into my 4^th week on medication while I was there, and it had the effect of calming me, but at the same time distancing me from what was happening. In a way it was a little bit like watching a video of myself doing all those things. But the sketches helped. That’s a fact. 

As I recovered, and felt able to go back to work, I wanted to continue with my sketching. Every weekend, I would set out with my pad, and try to capture something which showed an aspect of Port Talbot, the town I live in. This is one of my favourites, because although it looks relatively simple, it was quite a difficult sketch to make. I had to go very quickly to  get the cyclists down in outline before they disappeared, and then filled in some of the dark patches from memory. The lady with the dog thankfully didn’t move anything like as fast. Looking at it now, I can see how I was developing into sketching whole scenes rather than single buildings.

* If you challenge yourself from time to time, it won’t always come off, but when it does, it feels great. Even if it doesn’t you can still learn something from it. 

Speaking of challenges, when I realised that I’d made over 50 sketches of Port Talbot, I challenged myself to make this into a hundred. Challenging yourself is not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea, but I found that having a focus like this made me more likely to get out and look for different aspects of the town that I could try to sketch. I even created a blog called “100 Faces of Port Talbot” to showcase the sketches. 

I think I learned two main lessons from the challenge. I’d never really tried to get to grips with using colour in sketches before this. My earlier attempts at line and wash, were frustrating. When I make a sketch with a pen, much of the time it ends up looking the way I want it to look, or a way that I’m happy with it looking. I struggle with colour, and when I use watercolour, it rarely ends up looking anything like I intended. Still simple persistence meant that I could, after a time, produce something like the picture on the right which actually looks a bit like the place its supposed to. The urge to try to use colour came when I was chatting to the Head of Art at work, who mentioned that he’d seen the sketches in “100 Faces of Port Talbot” and suggested I might like to try using watercolour washes, as in his opinion I might be able to bring a whole other dimension to my sketching if I did.

* Encourage criticism and advice. It can really help you by pointing out things you hadn’t thought about before. 

By the start of the summer holidays towards the end of July I could, on a good day, produce

something like the next sketch, of which I’m really rather proud. It shows the Masonic Hall and various buildings around it in the centre of Port Talbot, and I think that I just spent a bit more time than normal really looking at the colours. It also helps I think that I didn’t do too much with the pen and ink before I started applying the watercolour.

One other thing you might have noticed is that I’ve written quite a bit more on the picture than I had been doing previously. This came about throught the blog really. One of the things I really enjoyed about making the blog was writing the text to go with each picture, explaining what it was, what it had to do with Port Talbot, the context in which I made the sketch etc. This has begun leaking it’s way onto the pictures themselves. 

The summer of 2017 marked both a return to European travel, and the first anniversary of my making the painting which led to the start of my journey. I made quite a few sketches in both Alicante and Berlin, lots of them of nice buildings, but not all of them.

The latest step in my journey has been joining the South Wales Urban Sketching Group. We have a Facebook account, where we can display our work to a wider audience, and meet once a month for a ‘sketchcrawl’. Basically we meet at a venue, then go off and sketch for a couple of hours, coming back together to meet and share work. I don’t need any excuse to sketch, but if I did, then this would provide it. This picture of the statue of Perseus and another of a stuffed buzzard were both made in my first sketchcrawl in January of 2018, over a period of a couple of hours in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

* If you enjoy urban sketching anyway, joining a group is a good way to enhance that enjoyment. You’ll get support, encouragement, and good advice. 

So, coming bang up to date, in less than 2 years, urban sketching has given me a huge amount of pleasure, and contributed to an improvement in my mental health. It’s just enjoyment for me, and I don’t look on it as some kind of competition, either against somebody else or myself. Yes, I’d like to get better at it – wouldn’t we all – but I’m never going to beat myself up over it. 

 I am trying to focus more on figures than I’ve done in the past. With a couple of noticeable

exceptions, like the monk sketch, when I have included figures in a sketch they’ve tended to be small silhouettes – for example in this picture I sketched in Prague. As you can see, they definitely add to the sketch, but they don’t really add much to the ‘story’ of the picture, if indeed there is one. Still, if I think about the way that the picture would have looked if I hadn't included the figures, then it was at least an indication to me that I should be thinking of integrating figures into my sketches.

Part of my difficulty is that I get hung up on detail. That’s not a problem when you’re sketching buildings, or statues, or stuffed birds, or anything which doesn’t move around a lot. However people don’t stay still, so you really have to move quickly to capture them. The sketch on the left is one that I made in Alicante Airport in the summer of 2017. If I look at it critically, then I can say that it’s not quite as successful as I would have liked. My original purpose was to focus on the figures sitting in front of me.

They’re there, but they’re pretty loose in execution. This is highlighted by the way I sketched in the details behind and around them. If I’d taken a looser approach to putting in the surroundings, and got less hung up on detail rather than just suggestion, then maybe the figures would work a little better. As I’ve tried to say in this article, it’s all part of a learning process. 

More recently I made a sketch while I was waiting to pick up my wife from the Arrivals in Cardiff airport. This struck me as a sketching opportunity, and I zeroed in on some of the figures in

the Costa Coffee concession. I sketched the figures in extremely quickly – lightning fast for me, in fact, and then added just a few details of the background. It’s far more impressionistic and less detailed than the sketches I normally produce, but that’s not necessarily a weakness.

I’ll finish with a list of questions. These are the questions that I haven’t already answered, which I think that the 2016 me, who knew nothing about Urban Sketching before that comment in the online forum, might have asked.

*            Do you have to have any qualifications or skill?

No, of course not. I haven’t had a proper Art lesson since I was 13, and have no qualifications whatsoever. This is about doing something for pleasure and personal fulfillment. It isn’t a competition.

*            What can you draw for an urban sketch?

Anything you like. If you can see it, sketch it. I really like buildings and street scenes, you might like something else. There’s no rules – go for it.

*            Do you have to draw on the spot, or can you take a photograph and sketch it later?

If you want to call yourself an Urban Sketcher, then you have to get into the habit of drawing on the spot. Think of it this way. If you take a photograph of a scene, and then sketch from the photograph later, then the camera has already done a lot of the work for you. It’s decided the angles, and it’s done the work of translating a 3D scene into a 2D image, which you’d have to do for yourself on the spot, and which is a skill you should aim to develop. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with practising by making sketches from photographs. This can help to develop your skill, style and draughtsmanship, but it’s not the same as making a unique sketch on the spot, and this should be something you aim to do as often as possible. 

*            Do you have to join a group?

No. It’s your choice. I’ve already listed some of the benefits, but if urban sketching is a little corner of your life you want to keep to yourself, then good luck to you.

*            How can I improve my sketches?

Most importantly, keep sketching. In his book about the importance of practice, Matthew Syed explained that you really need 10,000 hours of practice to really master a skill. That’s a lot of sketching expeditions.

I

f you’re serious about improving, then it can help to have a critical friend. That would be someone you can trust, to whom you can show your sketches. A fresh eye can often notice things which you haven’t seen for yourself, especially if your critical friend is another sketcher. At the very least, look critically at your own sketches. If you're 100% happy with them, that's fantastic. If not, then try to figure out why. For example, on a sketching expedition a couple of weeks ago to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea I made these two sketches on a separate pages: - 

Now, as sketches there's nothing that wrong with either of them. The problem was that I only managed to make the two of them in about 2 and a half hours, and on a typical sketchcrawl I wouldn't have a lot more time than that. 

So, the obvious thing to do the next time I went on a sketch crawl, I thought, would be to try to make more sketches, not quite as detailed, in the same time. A couple of weeks later I made this set of sketches on a double page of my book during a visit to Swansea Museum.  In terms of what I didn't like about the sketches above, this was an improvement. I picked no fewer than six different exhibits in the museum, and sketched them within the three hours that I had allotted myself. I'm particularly pleased with the bust in the top right hand corner, since I only had about 15 minutes left in which to make the sketch, and I had to do it standing up at the top of the stairs. It did help that I only needed to use different shades and tones of the same colour. 

Still, once my euphoria over achieving what I'd set out to achieve had faded a little, I did start to look at the sketches with a more critical eye. I don't think that there's anything particularly wrong with any of the individual sketches. But the problem for me is that this is what they are - individual sketches which do not, although they are all on the same page, contribute to an overall picture. So I challenged myself to find a way to link different images sketched in the same place to make a consistent whole where the individual elements combine together to make something a little more than just the sum of its parts. I looked at loads of images of urban sketches I liked on the net, and then 3 days after I made that last sketch, I went to the Swansea Waterfront Museum, and made this sketch. 

There aren't as many images this time, only 4. However I did think a lot more carefully about how I was going to use them. One of the things that links them together is making the Trevithick locomotive the obvious 'star', being that much bigger than the other images on the double page. I also used colour to link them. My scanner has a problem with turning blues into greys - the glass of the building at the top left is actually blue-green, and the skies on the bottom are more purple grey, but even allowing for that you can still see the way that the colours combine and leak into each other. The only spaces I deliberately left as bare paper were the areas I knew I was going to write my captions in. There's another point as well. Many years ago I taught myself calligraphy, and for these sketches I made the conscious decision to write in Italic for the headings, and foundation basic for the captions themselves, and again, at the moment I'm thinking that they add a little bit of class to the sketch. 

Now, if I look back on the Glynn Vivian sketches, I still think they're not bad in any way. However, I think that this double page sketch is such an improvement, and for me very much a pointer for a way forward for the future. 

There are many free tutorials online, which you can find if you use google or another search engine.Then there are a number of good books which can help you develop your skills. A quick search on Amazon will bring up lists of titles, and you can read the online reviews to help you decide which one you think will be most helpful to you at this stage. I found Marc Taro Holmes' "The Urban Sketcher" was helpful getting me started. 

I don’t know if you’re likely to find a specifically urban sketching class or course, but chances are there is a course available fairly locally in Life Drawing. Although not exactly the same as urban sketching, following a life drawing course will definitely help you improve your technique. 

*            What do I do with my finished sketches?

Whatever you like. Personally, I usually keep mine. They’re a nice record of progress. I also share mine – usually digitally. I post most of my sketches on Pinterest, on the South Wales Urban Sketchers’ Facebook page, and on my blog, but there are other places you could do so in cyberspace. Flickr comes to mind.