An English Fool Abroad With His Sketchbook: Gallery

Ieper 2016

This is the sketch of the Cloth Hall that started it all, the first urban sketch I produced - sitting on the terrace of a café just down the road.

Prague 2017

This was one of the first ink urban sketches I made on the spot where I was really pleased with the effects of just black and white ink from a sketching pen. The arch is the last arch of the famous Charles Bridge.

This is made from the bridge itself. It's not so much that it's a great sketch, but that I managed to capture that serendipidous moment as the monk walked across the bridge.

I love this one because of what I achieved with shading and detail in it.

I love trams so I particularly loved this café in the middle of Wenceslaus Square - even if the coffee was terribly overpriced and not especially good.

I didn't spend all my working hours in Prague on trams, but I did spend quite a bit of time, and if I wasn't riding them, then I was sketching them. I like this ink and wash sketch - took ages, mind you.

Cardiff - 2017

This one is a little bit special. The two figures in the foreground are my daughter and son in law, Jess and Dan. They had just become engaged, and by happy chance we passed by this bridal shop. I sketched them quickly, then filled in the rest of the picture at some length. I like the other two sketches made the same day in Cardiff which are underneath, as much for the silhouette figures as for anything else.

Alicante area 2017

In Alicante in 2017 while staying with my in laws I really wanted to work on my use of watercolour washes for urban sketches. In the three I've chosen here I did start to think I was making just a little progress. These second two are in San Isidro, the village where my inlaws live, and they do actually look like the places depicted in them.

Berlin 2017

I loved Berlin, rather more than I loved the sketches I produced there. The line and wash sketches for some reason were a retrograde step - maybe because of the cheap paper I was using. Still, there were at least a couple of ink sketches I liked:-

I've done better sketches than this one, but it's quite stylish, with the contrast between the very sketchy trees, and the detailed façade of the Altes Museum, and for some reasons it really caught the attention of passers by while I was making it. Got me a free ice cream as well - and all this while I was waiting for the bus back to Tegel Airport on my last morning in Berlin.

Something about trams brings out the best in me when I sketch - mind you, if the tram hadn't been stopped at the end of the line in the Alexanderplatz I'd never have made this sketch.

Platform of the Postdammerplatz S Bahn station

It's a long trip to the Olympia Stadion on the U Bahn, but even so this is a composite sketch. I had to go like the clappers with each figure. Mind you, the people were all so polite that they pretended not to notice that I was actually sketching them.

Budapest Autumn 2017

My time was so limited in Budapest that I was either moving to the next thing I wanted to sketch, or actually sketching the next thing I wanted to sketch for pretty much the whole time that I was out. Still I did make several sketches that I really liked. This shows the Elizaveta, or Chain Bridge, designed by William Tierney Clark - no relation.

Yes, another tram. This is the end of the line, so I had enough time to sketch it before we had to go.

This is St, Matyas Church, a magnificent Gothic confection within the Buda Castle complex - well worth a look.

Swansea 2018

In 2018 I started really to make pages in an illustrated journal style rather than single one off sketches - and this is one I really liked. Close to home - literally a 20 minute drive from my house.

Kaunas 2018

Again, I did make some line and wash sketches, but most of them were pants, possibly due to the cheap sketchbook I used for all bar a couple of them.

No trams in Kaunas, but some nice trolleybuses, which I suppose you'd call the next best things.

This is the old town, and he Town Hall. It's a simple trick - leaving the outlined building with minimal shading to contrast with the silhouettes of the figures and the trees. Effective though.

This church, which belongs to a seminary, is just to the right of the town hall as viewed in the last sketch. I only took about 15 minutes on this, because my hands were frozen.

This amazing art deco building stands on the top of a hill overlooking the town. It's not so much that it's a brilliant sketch, but that the building really moved me when I read of its history.

Another on the spot line and wash picture that I quite liked as I made it - although if I did it now I'd have put in a little more of the street and the surrounding buildings to provide a contrast.

I Included this one because it was an impromptu spur of the moment thing. I had about half an hour before the bus from the station to the airport was due, and about 100 yards around the corner I found this unofficial street market going on, Great chance to jot down some figures, and I was pleased with the result.

The old town - more character than you can shake a stick at - I was absolutely frozen when I finished it.

Wales Spring 2018

I made this in Newport. I like what's here - again, I just wished I'd included a little more of the surroundings in the background on either side of the statues.

This statue is in Port Talbot and within walking distance of my home - but I've included it because it's such an improvement on a line and wash sketch of it I made in 2016.

Madrid - Alicante August 2018

Most of the sketches I made during this long trip were part of my illustrated journal, and while I think some of them are quite nice, there aren't really too many I'd want to include here, certainly not the ones I made in Madrid.