Discovering London

I didn't get to go to the symposium in Manchester this year, so I decided to compensate by spending a week in London instead. As happens with most symposiums, sketchers started flocking to the United Kingdom already the week before the event and this year was no exception.

I spent the week in a shared apartment in Piccadilly Circus with Stephanie Bower, Anne Percival and Gail Wong. It was so much fun to catch up with Stephanie and Anne, and to finally meet Gail, whose name and sketches I already knew from the online community.

Graduation in Greenwich

Westminster Palace

As the days passed, we were joined by other sketchers, first the Asian contingent with Tia, KK, Pramote, Nicholas and many more. I got a lot of inspiration from them, from Pramote in particular, who was showing me how to let loose and just have jun with my sketches.

Piccadilly Circus

Over the weekend, we joined two sketchcrawld, the first, on Saturday, organised by Urban Sketchers London. We met on Trafalgar square, continuing on the direction of Buckingham Palace(but not getting that far).

Trafalgar Square

Admiral's gate

On Sunday, we met by St Paul's cathedral to "Sketch Wren's London", a sketching tour organised by Pete Scully. He even gave us a short speech on Wren and his work. I was very impressed with all the preparations he made.

St Paul's cathedral

This week was like having a tiny bit of the symposium fever without the stress of attending all workshops and as many activities and lectures as possible.

It was my first actual visit to London and what a fun way to discover this amazing city!

You can see more of my sketches from that week on my blog.