In the interest of time and space , I am putting all of my Activities events in the one post.

Activities were different than Workshops. Shorter in time, larger in participant numbers. Some activity leaders provided indepth notes, others had little guidance, but provided an opportunity to do some sketching that I would not have otherwise done.

Recording a Musical City with Caroline Johnson.

Manchester Jazz Festival was on. Our group paid five pounds each to see, listen, enjoy and sketch Alabaster De Plume – spoken word, saxophone, piano, violin, percussion,  all with a sense of theatre, full of humour, slight pretention and yet down to earth. Listen here

Making Time for Postcards with Andrea Matthews

Three watercolour postcards and a stamp . We immediately queued for more stamps. I sketched the two darker archways on the day and the more traditional Manchester red arch a few days later. Unfortunately only one has arrived in Australia.

I have always taken those watercolour  postcards with me when I travel, but never sketched on them ! At last I gave myself the opportunity!

Lettering, Line & Balance with Pat Southern-Pearce

Based high up in Manchester School of Art’s Benzie building, looking out over the Manchester skyline. This was a structured session with copious informative notes. I learnt a lot about thinking about layout and page formatting. And then about lettering on the page.
My main takeaway was to stop and think and plan the page – not just the sketches, but also the white space and the words (dates, titles and thoughts). After this Activity I immediately began using red pen on each page of my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook to write the name of the place or city that was on that page. This gave structure and consistency to the pages of my travel sketchbook.

Draw if you are Sober Nelson & Vicente

Based at the Peveril of the Peak, the Urbans Sketching Symposium pub, this Activity had us amongst all of the other sketchers, but with set goals. 1) Capturing the pub environment by sketching its objects or furniture 2)Draw people of the pub (locals, not Symposium participants) 3) Draw people and the place as a scene, telling the story.

Great fun to sketch with a purpose!