We were out and about for drawing class yesterday, at the Southbank, a much diminished group, either because the others didn’t get the email, or because they all had a hot date.
Spend any time at all at the Royal Festival Hall and its environs and you will see pretty much all of life. There’s the river, the bridges, the lights, performers, tourists lingering, office workers rushing by, people scavenging through bins outside the shops and restaurants……people sketching.
Inside the Hall, there are people having business meetings or conducting job interviews, people on their own hard at work on their laptops, concert goers having a drink before the performance, and others just sitting and looking and listening in to their conversations (unless that’s just me).
Watch out especially for anyone sketching, because, if you sit still for too long, you might find yourself the subject of a drawing.
We were outside for the first hour, struggling, some much more successfully than me, to capture something of the scene in the dark. My fascination with the structure of Hungerford Bridge overcame my certainty that it’s far too tricky for me to be able to draw, especially in the dark , when it’s difficult to see the piece of paper on which I was trying to do it; but heyho, it’s a class, and it’s about trying things out, isn’t it?
An hour outside in February is enough for anyone, so after fingers had recovered some warmth, we were set loose inside, to draw people.
I think this man suspected I was looking at him and his friend, but I pretended to ignore him when he looked my way
Reading and Writing 