Funny how waiting in a queue is now something I enjoy. There’s always something to draw. I started with one foot, then a bit of leg then another…
Back to this month. I’ve had a great time sketching in Burslem, the mother town of the Potteries, starting with this one of Market Place, one of the streets which I’ve already drawn formally a few years ago which you can see here.
Post Office (new-ish) and the Leopard, Burslem
Good to see the repairs on the Post Office by Horsley Huber Architects looking nicely weathered in.
I then moved down to St John’s Square to sketch the New Inn.
New Inn, Market Place, Burslem.
This Bank Holiday Monday the town burst into life with its summer festival “Our Burslem Unites”
Stoke Urban Sketchers got together for the event and to enjoy capturing the flavour of the day. Here are a few of mine.
Looking out from those big Wedgwood Doors
Fun and Games on the Corner of Queen StreetHook a Duck – a prize every time
This week, Stoke Urban Sketchers celebrated international recognition as they were granted the status of ‘Regional Chapter’ within the global community of Urban Sketchers.
The group met up for a sketch this Saturday in the New Vic and the group founders, Laura Green and Rhomany Klair Scattergood were interviewed by the Sentinel for a feature as part of the Stoke bid for City of Culture 2021. There’s a taster video of the sketching session here filmed by Rhomany.
Instead of sharing my recent sketches, I thought I would rewind a bit to where I began keeping a sketch book. A few years ago, it was a wish of mine to become a member of the Urban Sketching community. I loved the confidence and simplicity of sketches from life and how people would share their sketches from all over the world. The range of skill is quite dramatic – from hurried sketches to accomplished works of art.
Breakfast part one and two
Even with my background in architecture, I still found it quite daunting to sketch out on the street, but that was only until I came across the work of Danny Gregory and his genius idea of Sketch Book Skool.
Pets and washing on a sunny day
I think I was the eighteenth person to enlist on ‘Beginning‘, that first round of Sketch Book Skool lessons, which was such a brilliant experience. There must be thousands enlisted now. Danny and his co-teachers taught us all to just go for it – to sketch our days and in so doing we sketch our lives.
For these sketches, I was following a lesson given by Prashant Miranda, recording a day from start to end, my early dip into sketching from life, which is all urban sketching is about.
Peg out washing, sand windows or sketch? At the end of Easter Monday – it’s bubbles!
If you are thinking of joining a local group of Urban Sketchers – it is really informal and you’ll be made very welcome!
Thanks for reading!
Drawing the Street 