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!

October Brighton Sketchcrawl

Some belated sharing of my Brighton Sketchcrawl drawings. Was a great day! The sun shone and as always, there was a fantastic bunch of people to go drawing with.

We started at the Palace Pier. I ran out of time there (as always!) - would have liked to draw some rides, but instead just did these 2 foreshore drawings.

We then wandered towards the Level, stopped for some lunch and ended up at the Victorian Extra Mural Cemetry.

It is the most amazing place - you could wander and draw for days there, as the site is much larger than I imagined and has a valley, woodland and wildflower meadow, as well as the most amazing monuments, graves and chapels. Was so lucky to have a lady join the sketchcrawl who knows an amazing amount about it, Moira McQueeney, and who generously gave me a short guided tour at the end of the sketchcrawl.

Will definitely go back there and it really did strike me chatting to Moira how important it is to preserve and publicise such a large and amazing green space in Brighton city centre.

You can see some more drawings and photos of the day on Jake Spicer's blog