Somerset House

Sunshine and I spent all afternoon at Somerset House today - it was the launch of "The Big Draw", run by The Campaign for Drawing. What a gorgeous event run at such a fabulous venue! The Big Draw is this month-long celebration of drawing with all sorts of people and places in the UK running drawing-related workshops and events throughout October. Today saw the launch at Somerset House - and the place was just TEEMING with people drawing things. The courtyard still had lots of kids running about in the fountains, but today lots of the kids were also drawing (as were the adults there!). There were lots of art workshops in all corners of the courtyard, and in many of the rooms inside Somerset House, and King's College London next door. Sunshine and I each drew a little square for the "The People's Panorama"*, and then I sat round doing sketches of the building itself while Sunshine went off to take pictures of people.

Having been inspired by all the grid-drawings that have coming up on the EDM members' websites, I did a grid too - and it was great fun! It also meant I could fill the whole page up easily, and not have to stay in one position for too long a length of time. Here's the result (it was done in fine pencil so I've had to up the contrast in photoshop to make the lines clearer):


Here's a picture Sunshine took to give you an idea of what kinds of stuff was going on there.

* Press release for "The People's Panorama" :
Internationally acclaimed artist Ben Johnson, famous for his city panoramas that take him and a team of assistants many years to complete, will launch "The People's Panorama" at Amazing Space. 3,000 people will contribute a personal 10cm2 interpretation of a tiny part of London's cityscape (from a photograph taken from atop a buiding in Canary Wharf) to form the massive panorama. The finished work will go on show at the Museum of London.