Around Thomas Street

I am near the end of Sketching Now Watercolour On Location, and I am pushing myself to fit in more sketching every time I go out. So when I would normally do 1 or 2 sketches with our gang, I'm doing 3, and hopefully will build my stamina

Laura features in a lot of my sketches. She often arrives first. I arrive second. And we sketch each other! She's the warmest, bubbliest person I know. I always feel uplifted, just by spending time with her! She's just amazing. On this occasion, she was sitting at the window, with the sun streaming behind her, with all the crazy plants on the window sill providing the perfect backdrop to her beautiful red hair! She was sketching me while I was sketching her, which is why she looks so serious here!

Before going to the café, I had gone to John's Lane Church on Thomas Street. The heating was on. And then the sun appeared and lit everything up. It was unreal! I dried my watercolour over the radiator before heading back out.

And before I went home, I felt the need to sketch one more, standing up on Thomas Street, with my back to a closed shop. I did pen only on location, and added watercolour at home. This building is known as Miller's Hall, I believe. And seems to be shared by Spar and Lidl now. It's a busy road, so almost impossible to sketch without a car in the foreground. Thankfully this one was parked right in front of me just long enough to sketch it without panicking.

The versions below are as they were done on location:

 

A few photos