Today, Sunday 3rd August, marks my second complete year of continuous drawing and posting on this blog (730 days). It also coincides with the second summer of #DrawingAugust on Twitter.

When I began this challenge I mainly drew on my own – now I often have company through Facebook, Twitter or by being part of classes and events with other artists. Yesterday was a great example of this – I joined the Urban Sketchers of London on ‘Sketching Wren’s City’ an all day walking and drawing search around London for the churches designed by Christopher Wren. Pete Scully made a brilliant map and list of all 27 churches and organised the whole event. A group of people gathered at The Monument at 10.30 to begin and for the rest of the day we came across each other at various locations until we all met on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral at 4pm.

with thanks to Urban Sketchers London for this

It was great to gather at the end of the day and have the chance to see all the different approaches and results. Many of the churches are surrounded by other buildings and this makes drawing them quite a challenge: some artists were able to set the church they were drawing against the modern buildings that now surround it or even use them to solve that challenge. I loved the way that many of the artists used pen and wash – something I occasionally have a go at and now what to work on – using line to build up the shape, pattern and texture was so effective. One artist had the perfect sketchbook – with a long concertina-ed page that lent itself to drawing buildings against the skyline. Going on days like this is such a boost and posting eleven drawings yesterday was a bit out of the ordinary!

You can read more about Urban Sketchers London here – Urban Sketchers London

You can look at photos of the sketches here – Urban Sketchers London on Flickr

Over the last two years drawing every day has become an enjoyable habit and I look forward to posting  for the next 270 days until I reach 1000 drawings…