Railway Union Food Market

Another rainy and cold day. We did get some nice weather in between, but it never seems to be on the day I'm sketching!

Louise found this great location - the Railway Union Food Market near Sandymount. There was room for us to sketch without being in the way of customers and traders. There was an area with benches under an awning to get out of the rain. And there was bathrooms!!

And I did get a hot chocolate to warm up after doing my initial sketch. And a salad bowl (delicious), a cookie (sooo good!!) and three small cacti (the cutest) to take home. I must go back again to check out their other offerings. There was a lovely flower stall, a big vegetable area and a minimal-packaging grocery too. 

I started with a little warm-up people sketch, to get a feel for what was there and how I could put it all together.

I did leave the cute dogs out of my sketch in the end. I focussed on the vegetable stall, which had a lot of variety. I sketched the main structures and people while standing up, so I could get my proportions right. Then I sat down to add the detail. And when the rain got too heavy, I went to the sheltered area at the back to add colours. Which was a good idea as I changed the colours to increase the focus on one area only, using more muted colours for the other elements.

The sheltered area at the back faces towards the cricket green and not much of interest close by. So I did two sketches of the roofs and chimneys in the distance, including the Poolbeg power station chimneys, which were literally disappearing in the mist when the rain got heavier! So iconic Dublin.

I did two versions, one in direct watercolour, and one in ink and grey marker. I like them both!