#USkglobal24hrsketchwalk

On Saturday 11th November 2017, Urban Sketcher (USk) chapters from around the globe held sketchwalks in their cities to celebrate 10 years of Urban Sketchers. (There are more than 200 official chapters). Using GMT time, photos from each chapter were uploaded in turn at designated times to the USk Instagram account starting with the first chapter to see daylight (Auckland, New Zealand) to the last chapter to see the sunset (O’ahu, USA). The hashtag was #USkglobal24hrsketchwalk. 

I sketched on the train going to the Melbourne Urban Sketchers sketchwalk for the #USkglobal24hrsketchwalk. 

I only attended the morning session held at the Block Arcade in the Melbourne CBD (the afternoon session was held at Flinders Street Station). 

The Block Arcade, Melbourne. 

One of Melbourne’s most richly decorated interior spaces, it was erected in 1892, the design inspired by an arcade in Milan. There was a poignant start to the sketchwalk when the whole CBD observed a minute’s silence at 11am for Remembrance Day.

A rather daunting scene but here is my sketch, drawn and painted in an hour, a rush job as I was expecting to be pounced upon by the manager of the arcade who was going around telling us sketchers to leave. 

Management later changed their minds, welcomed our presence and said we should come more often! The sketch group got a lot of attention from shoppers.

An unexpected bonus was entertainment by opera singer Sarah Lobegeiger. She caused a painting in a shop to fall and smash when she hit a high note!

I was chuffed that she shared my sketch on her Facebook page!

And here's the group photo (courtesy of Melbourne Urban Sketchers). 

How exciting to have been part of this USk event!

Marker pens, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourAlbum, 5x8”