Walkie-Talkie: new to London's skyline

London's drive for a distinctive skyline continues unabated. Following on from the Shard and the Gherkin, taking shape now are the Walkie-Talkie and the Cheesegrater. (The half-finished Helter Skelter is currently on hold, and the Scalpel is in the pipeline, as it were.)
The eyecatching feature of the Walkie-Talkie, at 20 Fenchurch Street, is that it curves outwards towards its top, so the highest floors are larger than those lower down, giving it the appearance of a giant telephone receiver popping up through the city's buildings. Designed by Rafael Viñoly, it is due to open in April 2014, and while most of us usually have to make do with the external appearances of towers in the financial district, this time there will be a "skygarden" open to the public. The plan is that it will be free, but require advanced booking. We'll see how that goes.
There's more about the Walkie-Talkie at www.james-hobbs.blogspot.com.

Walkie-Talkie: new to London's skyline

Spring at last!

After what seems like forever, the weather's finally getting warmer. My favourite time of year is when the blossom is out in full bloom; some trees are a little early this year but the rest are just starting to catch up. I couldn't resist getting outside today and drawing these trees near where I live, in Brockley - I meant to draw them last year but they blossom for such a brief period that I missed it last time around.

I've not had the opportunity to do much sketching outside lately, so it was nice to make the time, doubly so for being able to sit in the sun without worrying about taking a jacket!

I'll be trying to catch a few more blossom trees before it all gets blown away. Although he was referring to hawthorn blossom, which arrives slightly later, David Hockney's term 'Action Week' applies equally well to the cherry blossom; it doesn't last long, so it's worth making the time for a sketch!

Spring at last!

Green Lanes supermarket

Of course, I use supermarkets like everyone else, like this one up the road at Green Lanes in north London, but a minor war has waged closer to home where there a planning application has been made to build one in a street of small, quirky independent shops that give our locality its distinct flavour.
The campaign has already won concessions - there will now be no customer car park, for instance - but the planned store would still be out of scale and out of place. The big supermarkets seem to get whatever they want, and we the people shouldn't be steamrollered. But I can't help thinking that perhaps I'm just turning into a middle-aged, grumpy, Nimby.

Green Lanes supermarket

Albion road, Stoke Newington

Albion road in Stoke Newington (London suburbs). I was waiting there in the very early morning for the night bus N73, to start the trip home to the Netherlands.
In my eyes it's a typical London suburban street, with rows of small colourful shops mostly run by Pakistan, Turkish or Chinese shopkeepers. London must be one of the most multicultural cities I've ever visited.
One funny note: shortly before I started this drawing I saw a fox sneaking through the front lawns of Clissold crescent (the road towards the left), I suppose moving towards Clissold park. Not something you would expect in the middle of London.

Albion road, Stoke Newington

Brief visit to London

I made a short visit to London, to visit my daughter, the Sir John Soane museum and the Egyptian part of British museum.
I flew to London yesterday morning as early as 7 a.m., and returned home in Maastricht this morning at 9.30 a.m.

Above a sketch I made of a guy toying with his Iphone in café Costa, near Spitalfields.
And an impression of another highlight of British cuisine: the fish and chips lunch that we took at a local pub near the British museum. The F&C were not that good, not warm enough and quite expensive. And the mashed peas (which seem to accompany every British meal) were plain cold. But it filled our stomachs very well.

Brief visit to London

Old fashioned Pie

Now that's Englands finest. Forget about Jamie Oliver.
I always wonder how they get these peas in this radioactive shade of green.

Old fashioned Pie

Saturday at the Tate Modern

Saturday saw one of the largest gatherings we've had, as we joined forces with the Drawing London on Location Meetup.com group and members of the Sketchcrawl.com forum to participate in the 38th Worldwide Sketchcrawl. It was hard to keep track of the exact numbers, but I counted at least 70 people who made it to the Tate Modern and surrounding Bankside to spend the day sketching on a very chilly day.

Wherever you looked in the gallery there were people sketching!

I was hoping to get some outdoor sketching done, but it proved too cold for me, and after 20 minutes or so I had to give up and go back inside, where it was (slightly) warmer.

Drawn whilst wearing gloves. Tricky.

I was in more of a drawing people mood than architecture, and there was no shortage of interesting subjects to draw, most too engrossed in tea, conversation or looking at art to notice the growing army of sketchers around them. I spent a fair bit of time in the cafe on the first floor, before moving up to the cafe on the third, overlooking the Thames:

The best position I found though was on the slope of the Turbine Hall, looking through the window and into the bookshop, giving quite a unique angle and a perfect spot to draw people unnoticed.

Having abandoned the pencil for these last few sketchcrawls, my productivity for the day has really shot up, and if they're not as polished or geometrically accurate as I'd like, the benefit of getting a lot of different subjects down is worth it, and is quite freeing; I feel like I'm learning more from making mistakes in pen than having the safety net of drafting it out in pencil first.

As ever, I met a lot of great artists and fascinating people, but still managed to not meet everyone. For everyone that went, don't forget there's the Flickr group pool you can join to post and see drawings from the day. We're looking to get some of the future sketchcrawls' dates and locations decided in advance and posted up on the new London Sketchcrawls page, so watch this space! and if you have any suggestions about where you'd like to go to draw for the upcoming ones, post a comment below!

See you at the next one!

Saturday at the Tate Modern