Hugh Lane Gallery - Dublin Sketchers

First Sketchers session of the year! It's nice to be getting back into a regular routine. As Hugh Lane was the location that was picked for today, I dropped over to the Olivier Cornet Gallery on my way to look at their current show, Élévation, a wonderful group show. A great way to get a feel for the gallery artists' works.

It took me a while to get settled - I started with a new sketchbook, a small square Derwent Grafik book, so that always takes a little while. The good news is that the paper is very easy to draw on. But it doesn't really allow for drawing across the whole spread, as the paper is different on the verso, and there is an easy-tear line. I tried a couple of room sketches with people, using a technique I had just read about in one of my Christmas presents (I always get art books for Christmas) - the tip was to anchor the scene by drawing the walls and floors before starting on people. And if people move, to go back to the anchor, and do a bit of work on the ceiling or the paintings on the walls until someone else moves into place.

Then I went upstairs to have a look at the Michael Kane exhibition, and I found a lovely quiet little room with a beautiful fireplace, and I knew that was my drawing for the day! And I even used what I've learned from Liz Steel's Foundations course: I actually did a quick measurement with a watercolour pencil, to make sure the proportions were right. And that was my assignment for Lesson 7, so I can now progress on to the next lesson!