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The chutney, above, is one of the delicacies I took to our Mad Hatter's Tea and Sketching Party back in January. Inspired by, my drawing buddy, Lynne Chapman's work it was created with colour pencil alone. I'm amazed by the way she uses this medium, from the depth of colour to textures she achieves. Now I often use colour pencil but it's always with other media, whether that be ink pens or ballpoints. But, here, I thought I'd challenge myself to make a drawing purely with colour pencil. As the great Judge Judy says everyday should be a learning experience. I'm quite happy with it but I'm not sure colour pencil (alone) is for me. I just love the impact and intensity you get with inks. So, I guess that's what I learnt; I love ink!

And, as promised, below is the recipe for Eyeball Chutney. I'm kind of kicking myself because I intended to add a spoon to the jar in the drawing. I felt that would have completed the composition. Who knows I might try to worm one in there yet.

Saturday saw our sketch crawl group's monthly meet up and we ended up at Lynne's house again (well, it's still very cold in these parts). This time we gathered there for a curry. Us Brits LOVE our curries.

Now, it might look like all we do on these meet-ups is eat, but we do actually get some drawing done too. No, really we do.

I've recently started using this little mini Moleskine, in fact I've dedicated it to our sketchcrawls. I'd never used one of these pocket Moleskines before. This one has been on my bookcase for a couple of years. I'm sure I won it as a prize back then, but I never fancied drawing in such a small book (A6). While it will never take the place of my larger Moleskine sketchbook, I'm enjoying using it. It's a really cute size and, of course, the paper is as beautiful as ever. Plus, it's always good to have the choice, isn't it?

Anyway, back to our curry sketching day. A couple of the members of the group did us proud with five different homemade curries. One of my drawing buddies, Matthew Midgely, not only made three curries but also drew up the recipes for each. This (below) was one of the stars of the show. It was amazing and I, for one, will be giving this recipe a go.

Check out Matthew's blog for the other recipes HERE, and while you are there have a look through his gallery. There's some lovely work on show.

More drawings from this sketch crawl to come. Cheers!

Last Saturday we held our monthly meeting of the Sketchcrawl North group. Well, actually Lynne held it at her house. To keep out of the Sheffield cold and rain we had a sketching tea party. A Mad Hatter's Sketching Tea Party to be precise. There were a few rules. Everyone was to
a) wear a hat
b) bring some interesting crockery
c) make some food for the party.

A great effort was made by everyone. Specifically Lynne's husband, John, who kept us in cups of tea all day. The biscuits below were made by our newest member of the group, 9 year old Josh.

I went the French route with my hat, and took my spotty and stripey tea pots. For food, well, I focused on the word 'Mad'. So, if you'd like my recipes for Eyeball Chutney and Allotment Antipasto I'll be sharing them in my next post.

For now, go check out Lynne's fabulous drawings and photos of this magical day HERE. Can you spot my spotty tea pot? It's never looked so good.

Yesterday the Sheffield sketchcrawlers got together for it's monthly sketchathon. This time we did something a little different. Instead of going out and about (well, have you ever tried sketching outdoors in Sheffield in January?) we assembled at Lynne Chapman's gorgeous house for a Mad Hatter's tea drawing party. Much more from the fabulous day in my next post. for now here's a couple of pages from my sketchbook.