A spring sketch crawl

Storm battered poppies in ink

It's been ages since I've been to a sketch crawl. The WSA has taken over the organisation so competently that they've been trundling on throughout the winter quite nicely thank you very much; while I've been staying home and keeping warm. But last Saturday was such a perfect warm Spring day and I couldn't resist an excuse to be outside in pretty Parana Park. The Waikato River is still very high, up and over the banks and flooding the footpath in places.

Every time we moved to a new sketching spot I chose a different type of pen or pencil. I had carelessly brought along the journal that is almost finished so I ran out of pages after an hour or so and then had a snooze in the sun.

My best sketches were of flowers, but I also drew boats, butterflies, people, lichen and an aeroplane on a plinth.

Red hot pokers rendered in a novelty multicoloured pencil souvenir from the Cairns Regional Gallery.

Sketchcrawl the Tron #2

A few of the sketchers starting out at the Waikato Museum forecourt

Our second Sketch Crawl in Hamilton was a huge success, with about 18 people sketching together. That's about three times as many as our first Sketch Crawl the Tron, including established artists, lots of art students and people who hadn't drawn since they were at school! It was very exciting to see so many people enjoying sketching, chatting and walking. We sketched at the St Paul's Cathedral, the band rotunda, and down to the river and the cute little gazebo under the bridge.

I experimented with my new watercolour pencils, using a brush dipped in tiny a jar of water to get a painterly effect on the go.

We had glorious early winter weather- crisp and clear; warm enough in the sun to comfortably sit around outside. I didn't need to wear all the layers I brought until very late in the day. There was one shower, perfectly timed for our refreshment stop at Metropolis Caffe, where we sketched eachother and the dishes on our tables.

A full spread of the opposite side of the table at Metropolis

After eating and drinking, people started to drift away, but not before I managed to snap photos of most people's sketches which can be seen in the Sketch Crawl the Tron Gallery. It was fascinating to see how almost all of us got more confident/looser/'better' at drawing over the course of the afternoon. (All the sketches illustrating this blog post are my own).

The sci fi corner of Browsers as seen from the gold velvet sofa

As the sun disappeared behind the buildings, a small, committed core of sketchers flopped into Browsers bookshop. Browsers is one of those spacious yet cosy second-hand bookshops scattered with sofas and armchairs. I managed to resist buying any books only by drawing them instead. I love the look of books on shelves and in piles on the floor.

Last drawing, at dusk at Rodeo Bar, Anna looking a bit like Emma Thompson, which inspired us to go see Last Chance Harvey that night.

It was a great day, but it's left me a bit burned out from trying, not terribly successfully, to take care of everything. Next time I'm going to find someone else to photograph the event and the sketches. I just couldn't get my act together to write down people's names to identify their sketches. I also didn't get as much drawing done as last time, though I was bolder in experimenting with colour and different kinds of marks. Despite my exhaustion, I am looking forward to doing it again in a couple of months.