Sketchcrawl : June

Last week the Sheffield Sketchcrawlers met in the very overgrown and slightly creepy cemetary and mausoleum. The weather forcast was for heavy rain all day, and despite our optimism, we only had about an hour of sketching before the heavens opened. 

  

I really struggled to draw the open spaces and all the greenery. I was hoping for interesting grave stones and sculptures, but they were pretty scarce and the ones that were around were in hard to reach places - or not under the shelter of the trees. (I was cleverly using watersoluable pencil). When the rain got too heavy we decided to move to the botanical garndens, thinking the victorian greenhouses there would be warm and dry - in fact they were neither. It appears that these fussy plants need air and some precise temperatures, which means the roof opens and closes all the time,  and it seemed wherever I sat I got dripped on. Again, there was so much to see it was a bit overwhelming, so again I went more for details - preferably ones that were near a seat (I really need to get me a little sketching stool like most of the others). By 1.30pm I was busting for the loo (what with all the dripping) and due to the toilets being repainted I had to brave the elements and go out looking for somewhere to 'spend a penny'. I ended up walking virtually all the way back to my car, and so decided just to go home - dripping.

I dunno why but I always forget to take pix of the other people etc once I start drawing. If you're interested, you can see some here http://lynnechapman.blogspot.com/ (including one of me, giving a bit of an evil stare - I think they just caught me off guard). Today I decided to try to use a couple of my sketches to make something else. Think I need to do more.