Urban sketching in Castlefield, Manchester

At last...a perfect afternoon for urban sketching. Here we are, the Manchester Urban Sketching group happy in the Manchester sunshine! We're in Castlefield, a historic and Victorian city centre regeneration area on a sunny Sunday afternoon in June. My sketch is of the Bridgewater canal basin, I really enjoy drawing narrow boats; my father had a boat on the Bridgewater canal for years, and I spent much of my adolescent years messing around on boats and canals. Quite a loose sketch, another instance of not having enough time, but enlivened with bright splashes of colour. Deansgate Chapel and the iconic Beetham Tower in the distance. Great output, some lovely work!

Manchester Urban Sketching group

Bridgewater canal basin, Manchester

Collected work from Manchester Urban Sketching group

Padstow Harbour, Cornwall

Padstow Harbour, Cornwall, a photo by simoneridyard on Flickr.

Shudehill Transport Interchange, Manchester

Another complex urban sketch....so much to capture and so little time! Couldn't settle on a view and ran out of time, part view of tram platform with Shudehill car park and iconic Co-operative CIS Tower behind. Out sketching with Manchester Urban Sketching Group last Wednesday afternooon. Small turn out but some lovely work produced.

Shudehill Transport Interchange

Group session sketches

My post on Urban Sketchers Symposium blog

http://bcn2013.urbansketchers.org/2013/05/greetings-from-manchester-uk.html

London urban sketches

I have just spent a couple of days in London and wanted to share my sketches. The first one of Borough Market was sketched at dusk on Thursday evening and then the view from my hotel room was just so complex and busily urban, I wanted to capture it in a sketch rather than photograph. Yesterday walking along the Southbank, I spent an hour (I gave myself a fixed time) on an unseasonably bitterly cold afternoon, to complete a pretty challenging view from St Paul's round to Tate Modern. Lots of urban clutter and bold splashes of colour make for an exciting urban sketch!

Recent sketches of railway stations

I find myself drawn to sketching railway stations, maybe it's the thrill of being on the move to somewhere else - often in my case crossing the country to Cornwall, or perhaps it's all that perspective! Platforms, columns, signage, trains (of course!) all receeding into the distance. And people, lots of them. Bags, cases, seating, lighting. A whole medley of urban clutter to capture in a few minutes whilst waiting for my train. 

Here are 3 recent sketches:

Birmingham New Street Station...arguably the most cluttered UK station of all.

Como Station (for Lake Como), in the beautiful Italian spring sunshine.

And Crewe, Cheshire, such complicated roof structure makes for an intoxicating perspective sketch.

My website and thoughts about Etsy

I have made a few updates to my website, I want to try to illustrate how my work has changed recently with all my urban sketching...I wear my 'I'm an urban sketcher' badge with pride. I also now have links to my etsy site on my homepage with thumbnail images. Etsy has been a bit slow for selling, but I do think there is a good potential audience out there, particularly in the USA / Canada - and I do think the site is graphically very pretty. There is lots of lovely work on it, if only I had more time to browse it more regularly.

http://www.simoneridyard.co.uk/

https://www.etsy.com/uk

Salford Art Gallery 1

Salford Art Gallery 1, a photo by simoneridyard on Flickr.

Milan Cathedral

A belated post from Milan. I took time off from visiting Milan Furniture Fair to do this urban sketch of Milan Cathedral and the Piazza del Duomo. Galleria Emmanuele Vittorio II just in view to the left of the sketch. It took about an hour and a half. I gathered quite a crowd at one point! I wanted the watercolour to be quite subtle and not too distracting from the detail in the sketch hence the paint is virtually monotone.

Lake Como...looking for gorgeous George (Clooney)!

Lake Como, a photo by simoneridyard on Flickr.