I love to sketch. Do you? Lately I’ve noticed that unless I go on a course I don’t do much sketching anymore.
When I bought Sketch Your World by James Hobbs earlier in the year I had all the good intentions of going out to sketch. Did I? Of course not!
I was therefore doubly delighted when I saw that Moleskine had announced City Stories, in partnership with Urban Sketchers where four artists were invited to draw life and to provide free workshops in Covent Garden. Guess, what, James Hobb was one of the artists. Result! I quickly booked myself on to his session and on the day went along!
James Hobbs is a London-based freelance journalist and artist who started drawing in sketchbooks at art school 30 years ago. His work was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition, and he is a founder member of London’s Urban Sketchers.
It was great to meet the man himself.
The event hubs used were The Moleskine Store at 40 King Street and the London Graphic Centre. Here, artists of all abilities dropped by to meet the sketchers and take part in one of the Learning Sessions. Moleskine were also giving away 140 Moleskine Sketch Albums, which came in handy on the day!
I really enjoyed that it was a very casual event. James Hobbs talked about his own experiences of what sketching means for him while offering guidance as we, the participants, undertook our own drawings in and around Covent Garden.
James Hobbs sketchbook page.
James Hobbs sketchbook page.
James Hobbs sketchbook page.
This, here below, is our group. What I hadn’t accounted for was that it was more of a speed drawing sketching session. We literally had 10 minutes on site before we returned to the event hub, looked at each others drawings and handed our drawings over to be collated and sent on to Moleskine for their travelling exhibitions.
An here’s my 10 minutes attempt. I think using a thicker black marker and this very short time frame is a great way to force myself to look and put down marks in a quick manner, without much thought or analysis. The colouring can always be done at a later stage.
I had a great time and would like to thank Moleskine and the Urban Sketchers for this experience.
So, back to my original question. Do you sketch? This post will stay live until Thursday 9th October.