February Sketchcrawl, Brighton

Enjoyed another great Brighton Sketchcrawl on Saturday. Is aways such a nice gang of people there - some familiar faces, some new, but always friendly and chatty.

When we arrived, the pier was deserted, so was strange drawing all the rides (accompanied by loud disco music) with nobody around, apart from the ride operators. Soon though people did start to stroll by. The pier was pretty sociable drawing experience for me - lots of children asking to see what I was doing and quite a few elderly couples. Had a chat with a Belfast couple holidaying in Brighton for their golden wedding!

The Dolphin Derby (my favourite attraction as a child) seemed to attract waves of customers. Will make a point of going back there, as was so much to draw and you get these really interesting clusters of people.

Despite the February chill, I really loved drawing around the pier. There is such a huge amount to draw.

Onto 112 Church Street for pub lunch, then Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, where I drew a couple of exhibits.

The Vespa drawing prompted a couple of interesting conversations with older couples reminiscing about the mods and rockers in Brighton during the 1960's.

So after all that drawing, I retreated for a quick coffee and a spot of people watching.

Last stop was The Eagle pub for a post sketchcrawl drink. A great day!

Looking back at Christmas

Looking back over some Christmas drawings, now I have my new scanner.

Are all imperfect drawings, generally done very quickly and are rather messy, but I love the way they capture those moments so much more accurately than any photo.

This was Sunday

Another diary page

Blogging via my phone

Am experimenting with blog posting via my phone. Seems like a fantastic idea - take a quick photo of a drawing, crop it and then post it. Love the spontaneity of it.

This is a page of my visual diary - snippets from my day. Spot the deliberate mistake in this one... Too much looking at typography and not spelling :)

I know I shouldn't moan....

I am a lucky person who has a million things to be grateful for.

But I am struggling with this ongoing, wintery lack of daylight and the abrupt temperature change. For weeks in the UK, we have all been saying "Isn't this mild weather amazing!" We have even sat outside having a coffee in JANUARY! That changed this week and the temperature dropped and a bitter wind appeared. So I have spent the past week walking around, feeling as if the skin was going to curl off my face and fantasising about whether it would ever be acceptable to wear a balaclava around town? Have concluded no, but do so wish it was yes, though as a full time spectacles wearer, I appreciate that extra element would make the look even more unsettling.

So to cheer me out of this state of moaning and groaning, I bought these bunches of daffs at the car boot for ONE POUND! They have filled the whole basement of the house with a sunny scent for days. I can almost imagine the clocks have changed.....

The drawings are as brash as the flowers and I like them even more for that. The daffs have to be the bargain of the week! Hurray for daffodils! Slices of sunshine in the Winter gloom!