OCA preloader logo
Urban sketchers take over museum - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

Urban sketchers take over museum thumb

Urban sketchers take over museum

The Campaign for Drawing does a lot to bring art into the public eye.  The web based international group Urban Sketchers does a lot for those of us who love to go out and about sketching but sometimes feel a bit inhibited being out there on our own. Through this group regional and local sketching groups have been set up all over the world, and local ‘Sketchcrawls’ take place in the oddest locations.
The most recent Sheffield Sketchcrawl took place in Weston Park Museum and park.  Click here to review the blog post about our day: Around 25 of us were to be seen on stools, sitting on the floor, drawing polar bears, rhinos, armadillos and roman artefacts.  A couple of inexperienced sketchers said how much they enjoyed it, and added that they would never have gone out to sketch in public on their own but felt safe and comfortable in a group. Why not set up a local sketching group yourself? Or post something on the forum to see if there are nearby OCA students you could sketch with? We were out nearly all day, and then retired to a pub to compare sketches.  There were two of us with iPads as well as sketchbooks, and when I played back my ‘rhino’ drawing for others to see, everyone felt this playback facility on the iPad Brushes app could be a tremendous learning tool. What do you think?  Playback my Rhino below:


Posted by author: Jane Parry

11 thoughts on “Urban sketchers take over museum

  • Jane, it was fascinating to watch the rhino emerge detail by detail. Now I understand what you meant about an iPad drawing, and I can see it has potential as a learning tool.As I watched the drawing take shape I had the sense that it could be used in a way whereby one would pause the video long enough to try out the marks and washes, and then go back to it. Now all I have to do is put that thought into action! Thanks for posting your drawing here – and all the best with your future iPad work.
    Roberta

  • That was fascinating. I’d no idea you could do that on an iPad. I want one even more now. Oh well.
    I see that David Hockey’s currently exhibiting iPad sketches. His work looked really interesting (as always).

  • I love the rhino sketch!The iPad has great potential as a learning tool. I hadn’t heard of ‘Urban Sketchers’ before.It’s a great idea!

  • Jane,
    I didn’t realise you were a drawer-I’m impressed! It would be useful to know if you used a drawing tablet or drew with a stylus onto the screen directly?, and whether you can print that out as a hard copy(ie is the resolution high enough to work with?)
    makes me want to go out and buy an ipad for sure…

  • You may want to try looking on YouTube for a man named Kassan (I think his first name is David but I am not sure). The video shows him producing a fantastic portrait using an I Pad – well worth a look.

  • I have just got an iPad and would love to learn how to sketch using Brushes or any other app. Anyone know of any short courses?

  • If you live near Sheffield am happy to give you some training. Otherwise Brushes is in fact a really easy app to use. A way of getting tips is to upload your images to iPad and Brushes art groups on Flickr and take part in discussions with others as well as looking at other Brushes work. Have a look at some more of my iPhone and iPad art work on Flickr:search for thejanehorton.

  • Jo, no stylus is necessary with an iPad, you draw directly with your finger. It works fine because you can enlarge the image to draw detail just by pinching your fingers on the screen and then stretching them out. I think I ought to get commission(;-)) but really painting on an iPad is great fun. I even take mine to life drawing workshops. And yes, you can print out to around A4 size without any loss of resolution.

  • Is the advantage of the ipad over the ipod touch the size of the screen? as I have noticed the ipad doesn’t have a camera

  • Yes naturally it really helps to make drawing more gestural on the bigger screen. I hardly ever draw on the iPhone anymore. However the great advantage on drawing on an iPod or iPhone is that you always have it with you and you can be drawing people quite close up and they dont realise what you are doing. Re the lack of camera on the iPad … I have heard there may be a camera on the next version….

  • Delighted to look at the sketches people have done. I have run a summer sketching group for 10 years for the local U3As very few come regularly, but it does not stop ME especially on holidays
    including quick views through the window at the changing scenery.
    go nowhere without my sketch book.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to blog listings