Dame Street with Dublin Sketchers

Dublin Sketchers have adapted to the times we live in. So we're sketching on the streets of Dublin like we do every Sunday, except we’re staying home. So the last Sunday in March, we went on Dame Street, an area rich in interesting architecture, but which is always too busy to sketch in real life. There are a lot of bus stops and the footpaths are not wide enough to accommodate sketchers.

So this was a good opportunity to draw a building I've always admired - the AIB building at the entrance to Dublin Castle. I don't know the history of this building, but it definitely wasn't a poor house! Actually, it reminded me of the Museum Building in Trinity, and now that I'm reading about it, that's confirmed, it was based on the design of the Museum Building, which was built twenty years earlier.

My first attempt was a little bit stiff, I was overwhelmed by all the windows, and the perspective of it. But in a way that's ok - this sketch turned out to be more about he modern building on the other side of the laneway, and the little stand of trees that I've sketched before in the piazza beside City Hall!

'some men can be dreadfully aggravating drive you mad and always the worst word in the world what do they ask us to marry them for if were so bad as all that comes to yes because they cant get on without us white Arsenic she put in his tea off flypaper wasnt it I wonder why they call it that if I asked him hed say its from the Greek leave us as wise as we were before she must have been madly in love '

For the next sketch, I zoomed in and introduced a few people.

'theyre all so different Boylan talking about the shape of my foot he noticed at once'

For the last one, I decided to be less literal, and just enjoy the line, and also to make the colours more harmonious rather than realistic.

'and I saw his eyes on my feet going out through the turning door '

At this stage, we don't know whether the Bloomsday festival will be going ahead or not. But I'm still enjoying sketching around the text of Ulysses.