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Queens Arms, Shieldfield
(0.5 marker and brush pens in A4 sketchbook)
Officially, the Sketch Crawl yesterday was to Northumbria University campus but while Mike was happy - and successful! - at tackling the intricate modern architecture of the new campus buildings, I felt more comfortable going round the corner to draw this nice old pub on Simpson Terrace. I surprised myself by getting almost all of it done within the first hour. Only a bit of line strengthening and lettering remained to finish off at home.
The mysterious "whirlpool" in the foreground is actually the worn remains of a mini roundabout. Why I stopped drawing at the edge of the page instead of finishing the building on the adjoining page is more of a mystery. Maybe I'll go back and remedy that.
We had a pleasant surprise in the form of two visitors from other Sketch Crawl groups - Andy from Urban Sketchers Yorkshire and Christine from Urban Sketchers London. Nice to meet you both and I hope we get to meet up again sometime.
[Next Time : 11th Nov., Sunderland Winter Gardens]
Ouseburn Barrage
(Mixed media in A4 sketchbook)
Time to catch up on our most recent Sketch Crawl - Saturday, 10th June at the mouth of the Ouseburn.
The weather was unkind yet again, refusing to maintain the decent sunny spell of the days leading up to the Sketch Crawl and offering instead some light rain. As a consequence, last minute changes were made to the meeting point and when I got to The Cycle Hub, rather than the Tyne Bar, there was Allan sitting outside, but under cover, drawing a view of the bridges up the Tyne.
In the Hub cafe were Mike and Richard, half way through a breakfast coffee, so I joined them and did a bit of catching up.
After a while the rain moved away, so we set about getting down on paper what we could in the time before more arrived. There was a set of huge green floats in the Ouseburn that really took my fancy and would have made quite a simple subject, but without turning my sketchbook sideways I couldn't find a composition. And yes, some people would just turn their sketchbook sideways, but not me.
The Barrage presented a much more intriguing but potentially more demanding subject and it wasn't long after starting it that I began to think I'd bitten off more than I could chew. And yet ... it all started to come together when first I added some colour with brush pens, then seated in the shelter of the viaduct used coloured pencils to force it to work. The watercolour was added at home to finally make me happy with it.
Next time : 29th July is WorldWide SketchCrawl Day, so I think we'll be aiming to join in that. Stay tuned.
Collingwood Cannon, Tynemouth
(Pitt markers, Japanese brush pens in A4 sketchbook)
It looked grey and cold on Saturday morning and even though the forecast showed some sunshine at the Coast I decided on wearing a fleece. Boy, was I glad I did when I got to Tynemouth for my third sketch crawl. It was one of those sunny days where the constant wind makes it bitterly cold.
I'd made some error in my travelling calculations and got to Tynemouth Metro Station about half an hour later than I'd planned, so everyone was busy with their sketching and I had to hunt them out. Not an easy job, because I'd completely forgotten that on Saturday there's a market held in the station and the place was heaving:
It was somewhat overwhelming and rather than try to sort out something to draw, I made a quick tour of the station, photographing my fellow sketch crawlers for posterity:
Allan Barbara
Katie
Michael
Richard
With something like fifteen minutes to spare before we moved off, I took out my A5 sketchbook and stood on the pedestrian bridge, having a go at capturing some of the people milling about below. No one - even the man who'd been standing stock still at his stall and who'd therefore encouraged me to try this - remained in one place or position for more than thirty seconds. I'd look up and the person I'd started to draw had morphed into someone else, so the old woman with the anorak exchanged her trousers for a long skirt. No men suffered this indignity, but another woman found the dog she'd been leading on a bit of string had turned into a rabbit.
Tynemouth Market people
(Pitt medium marker in A5 sketchbook)
After that it was off into town to find somewhere to draw that didn't involve being blown away. Pretty impossible, as I discovered when I tried to find shelter in a valley near the Collingwood Monument. Finally accepting that the wind would blow wherever I stood, I took up position on the steps of the Monument and drew part of one of the cannons (see above).
Although there was about half an hour left of the allotted drawing time, I headed back up the hill to Front Street and hung about outside Mr Woods coffee shop, waiting for the others to turn up. After a while I was joined by Barbara and we talked for a while in the partial shelter of a lamp post. After a further while, Michael came out of the coffee shop and apologised for having gone in soon along with the others. We joined them for a muffin and a coffee.
As well as passing round the day's accomplishments, we talked about how the summer (ha!) seemed to be coming to an end and we might have to find indoor locations for our sketch crawls. As it has previously, the possibility of sketching in Newcastle's Hancock Museum came up. We'll see ...
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