USk Yorkshire in Castlefield, Manchester

Writing up this month’s outing in Buxton made me realise I forgot to post my sketches from USk Yorkshire’s June meeting in Manchester. It rained (you’re seeing a pattern now, I guess..?). I had to shelter under a grotty old railway arch to get this painting, but it was worth it. I just loved all that iron, brick and rust:

I was part of a splinter-group of 3 hardened sketchers braving the weather, but even we retreated after an hour, into the warmth of the MOSI cafe, where we found the rest of the team sitting warm and dry on squishy sofas, sketching and sipping coffee. They had pretty good views from the windows too. Unfortunately, all the soft seats were gone, so I ended up sitting on the hard floor again to do the one below – leadership clearly brings no privileges!

In a lull in the dreadful weather after lunch, I sat on the pavement for another go at the bridges, before the rain flushed me out again:

Once more, I retreated into the museum, where I’d left the rest of the group. I found I was more interested in the ironwork of the building than the exhibits:

My final sketch of the day was this microlight, which I had to do in just a few minutes, because I was already late for our sharing session. After spending ages on the painting above though, I was desperate to do something looser before packing up, so I whipped out my beloved Sailor fountain pen: