Sketching in London

I have had the opportunity to spend quite a few days in the city of London over the spring and summer months. Slowly growing in confidence I have started sketching in the galleries. At first I felt very self conscious but after a while this wore off and I attempted a few outdoor sketches as well. I picked spots out of the way of the main tourist routes so I wouldn't attract too much attention. This has really helped me to take that next step and when possible I shall try to visit the city once a month to sketch outdoors when the weather allows or from the galleries and museums.

These red indian studies were all done at a free exhibition of George Catlin 

at the National Portrait Gallery.  

Study after William Etty on my second visit to Tate Britian.

This was a first attempt at cafe sketching down past Tower Bridge.  I had a lot to

learn about this as I was totally overwhelmed by so much information.

This was also a first, standing with sketchbook in hand balanced on

the railings at the entrance to the National Gallery.  It's a very busy spot for photographers

so I did this as quickly as I could.

I did this over a few weeks sitting in the common room at Lavender Hill Studios,

before my class started.

Study after Terrick John Williams, Bonhams auction house

One of my art teachers told me about an auction of 19th century Victorian art and that you can go 

along and view the paintings. So I went along, I hadn't even heard of Bonhams but what a great way to view some amazing paintings before they disappear into private collections again. Apparently most of the auction houses tend to theme there auctions around the same periods. So we also visited Sotheby's and Christie's. This was a great way to see some great paintings for free and broaden my knowledge of artists.

Study after John William Godward, Bonhams auction house.

Study after Dame Laura Knight, National Portrait gallery.

Sketchbook

Here are some pages from one of my sketchbooks. Mainly from life except for where I say otherwise. Thanks for looking.

Study after Don Maitz, concept artist.

Study after Alphonse Mucha.

Business Cards

I decided it would be a good idea to have some business cards to take to the Conceptart.org workshop. I ended up doing a stylised portrait of myself from a photo I took painting it in photoshop. Ended up a little bit too smooth with some edges being too sharp. This was the first time having something like this printed so I was fairly happy with the card stock weight, printing and it was a relief that the colour didn't shift too much and the text although fine was still clear.

For those that are interested I used overnightprints.co.uk and found the ordering process on the website very smooth. As I was short of time I paid for the express service and they turned up on time without problems. I had an email from them the day after the order to query the image bleeding of the card dimensions but I was able to quickly confirm this was correct so my order could proceed. All in all a good first experience with this printer.

Painted in Photoshop from photo reference.

The printed cards.