On Saturday I had an amazing day at an Urban Sketchers Sydney event in Chippendale. Over 60 sketchers turned up (so many people) so I spent most of the morning chatting (as usual) but managed two sketches before lunch.

We had a fun lunch together at Spice Alley and I wanted to keep sketching! Alex Snellgrove and Peter Rush were keen too, so when Alex saw some interesting shapes in an ugly blue building we sat down and sketched together. It was really good to sketch a building I wouldn’t normally notice, or would dismiss because it was so ugly. Thanks Alex and Peter for a super fun and inspiring afternoon!Check out their work from the day: Alex’s sketch, Peter’s sketch.

I had that lovely ‘tired but creatively buzzing’ feeling which comes from being around inspiring artists after a big day of sketching.

I’ve been using a Hahnemuhle Nostalgie sketchbook for the last few weeks and it was good to test it properly on this occasion. The super smooth paper is very different to work on, but I’m liking it a lot despite not achieving as much granulation as I normally prefer.

I posted the sketches on their own to Instagram on Saturday, but in this article I’m sharing the final pages with all my notes, some borders and a simple map to fill up a blank page.

Here they all are:

I started the morning with a coffee and a little work at Goodfields…

Morning sketch No. 1

Morning Sketch No. 2 (not finished)

Afternoon: Blue building version 1

Blue building version 2

A simple map to fill in a blank page

Final sketch of the day – super quick one of the building I sketched earlier in the day.

Did you get out sketching this weekend? On your own, with friends, or with a group?