Edinburgh: Sketchbook (castle, shops, aerial view)

Three sketches (and their real-life counterparts) from Friday and Saturday out around town.

{As always, click to enlarge, or mouse over for commentary.}

Edinburgh Castle from below

I think I’m learning to make better use of my pens (compare to some of the earlier sketches). Street sketching isn’t as tiring anymore either; I’m getting faster, and I even did one of these from partway up a hill trail. :)  

Shops on Princes Street

Sketch held up alongside the "real" view

The following is the sketch from partway up the hill. Erik and I went together on Sunday and climbed the trail to the top (photos another day!).

Sketched view from hill trail

Sketch held up side-by-side to the actual view

Hard to believe, but we only have 11 days left in this storied city!

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17 responses on “Edinburgh: Sketchbook (castle, shops, aerial view)

    • Thanks, Jason! Me too — it just makes me really happy and I’m not even sure why. Going to play with that style some more in future; I was going to try it for life drawing last night but I left the pens at home. :(

    • Ahh, I did make it look like those shops are the gallery, didn’t I? The gallery isn’t visible (I’m standing next to it). But thank you. :) I’m always at a loss for how to draw the little people running around in my street scenes, and with this one I feel like I made a good attempt.

  1. Pingback: Edinburgh: Up!!! (Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat) | satsumabug.com·

  2. always love your ink sketches. always inspires me to work on my own more!

    what kind of sketchbooks did you bring with you on your trip? how did you make those decisions and what do you do once one is full?

    • Oh yay, that’s wonderful to hear. :D I love your sketches too!

      I brought several sketchbooks: the homemade watercolor one I brought to Asia last year, an 11″ x 14″ spiral-bound sketchbook (the paper is ok for watercolor, but not so high quality that I feel I’m “wasting” it if I only use it for dry media), and one of those little blank Moleskine cahiers. Also a quantity of good-quality loose watercolor paper. Originally I thought I was going to use the homemade one most, like I did in Asia, but as it turns out I’ve used it least. I’ve brought the big spiral-bound one to drawing events, and the Moleskine is the lightest for carrying around in my everyday bag (and I bought the markers in Glasgow so I’d have something easy to use with it). It’s a little tricky because I have a variety of media I can use for sketching on the go — pencil, marker/pen, watercolor pencil, and watercolors — and they all require slightly different kinds of paper. ;b So far I haven’t completely filled out any of the books, maybe for that reason!

      • ahhh yes i imagined it must be tough with so many different types of media! what size moleskine cahier did you bring? 3.5″x5.5″, 5″x8.25″… something else? the cahiers tend to be pretty thin… do you see yourself running out of that one soon? for my “acquired goods” sketchbook project i’ve been using 3 of the 3.5″x5.5″ ones and one thing that bothers me a bit is that they have the perforated pages at the back which start to tear away slowly if i’m not careful and/or turning the pages too much. i guess cuz it’s meant as a “notebook on the go” to use and toss out and not “keep” :P

        • It’s the 5″ x 8.25″ and I wish I’d brought several! Bright gave me a 3-pack before we left and I only brought one because I thought I would be using my watercolor sketchbook and wouldn’t need it. Ah well. I haven’t been doing a whole ton of sketching (basically what you’ve seen on the blog is what I’ve done) so I don’t think I’ll use it up very soon, unless I massively up my output (which I do kind of hope to do). I know what you mean about the perforated pages! I’ve done that too. I must say my cahier is getting pretty battered too — I’ve been schlepping it around in my purse — but it’s the kind with a slightly plastic cover rather than the brown paper, and that helps. Meanwhile, my journal is the same size but with a normal stapled paper cover and that cover has simply fallen off. ;b

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