I haven't been out with the urban sketching group group for a few months, so I was really looking forward to this session. We were sketching at the Hastings Art Gallery, a building I thought I could really enjoy sketching. There are some days where you just struggle to draw, and today I really struggled to draw the building. I did all the setting up in pencil, and started to draw, but I just really struggled. I gave up on that and started again with details, looking at the details of the site, the building, my friend sketching in front of the library, and so on. In the last image i was just struggling to draw properly. In this situation, you just have to give up and move on. So that's what I did. I just stopped drawing, turned the page and moved on to another sketch.

I didn't really get into art until I started studying art (duh) while I was working on getting an Industrial Design degree. It struck me so much that I had to see it with my own eyes, to the point that I went to Italy with my wife for three weeks to see as much as I could. The Renaissance was my favorite period and right after. It was there in almost every building, many of these I saw on the walls and ceilings. It was an amazing experience that I would like to repeat some day. Do you have a favorite painting, sculpture, or building that is mesmerizing to you? Something that stuck with you after you saw it?

I went to my capital city and sat down for a sketch of our national museum, Te Papa. The original photo had kids in it, so used AI on my phone to remove them. The sketch is all original though.

I am new to the group and located in northern Germany ! I started with sketching about 1,5 years ago but really practiced more and more over the last 6 months. I did (and am doing) a plenty of video tutorials and am a beginner when it comes to sketches outside and „on the street“. I am looking forward for your tips and inspiration!

I went out for a walk on Saturday to find something to catch. This is a iconic part of the town where I live, and it's called the Soundshell. The Soundshell, and its collonaded surround, was built in 1935 following the 1931 earthquake. Designed by Napier architect J T Watson, The Colonnade and Sound Shell were projects undertaken by the Thirty Thousand Club. "It was the Thirty-Thousand Club that funded the Sound Shell, dancing area and colonnade. The Art Deco Sound Shell was the first to be built in the country and it trumpeted Napier's intention not just to rise from the rubble and ashes of the earthquake and fires, but to reinvent itself in the process. Not from Brighton Beach did this design come - but, from tinsel town, from Hollywood. And with it went the Veronica Sun Bay, a colonnade, three grand arches - including the so-called 'New Napier Arch' and, most daring of all - an outdoor dancing area. The citizens of Napier paid for the later by 'purchasing' individual paving slabs. Napier was being restyled as a modern city of the future, a place for fun and pleasure." Extract from: Cultivating Paradise Aspects of Napier's Botanical History - Dr Robin Woodward