Walking the walk

Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed a new badge in my sidebar as I joined Sketchercise last week. It's a new group created by Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark for those who enjoy sketching and walking. OK, I admit, I don't do a great deal of sketching when I'm out but I hope this will give me the impetus to do more. We don't have a car so at least I do qualify on the walking front as without it I have to go out a lot more - those weekly and twice weekly bulk buying expeditions are out! Fortunately, here in Geneva, those old granny shopping trolleys you wouldn't be seen dead with in London or anywhere else, are perfectly normal here. In fact, there are some funky designs available and I'm replacing mine soon for a spotted version!

I'm an expert now on knowing how much to buy to fit my 'chariot' (I love that French translation!) and how much is too heavy so I can't lug it onto the bus or tram! I also know which buses and trams are the better designed - usually the older ones - when trying to manoeuvre into a seat and not block the aisles.

So without a car every trip is normally used to bring the essentials back, I rarely go out and come back empty handed. It also means having to do so eats into my drawing time so I don't dilly dally and that normally means the only drawing I do is on the tram. (And, you might remember, that my normal walking route to the local shops is extremely boring!)

I don't post them often as I find the backs of heads a bit uninteresting and mostly they are, well, rubbish! This one below, is one of the better ones, drawn on the bus this week. I swear there was no suspension on this bus so I was pleased with how it turned out! I liked her prominent cheekbones, the twiddly bits on her glasses and long ear lobes.




















The trams are much smoother. This lady had a black jacket and a red bag that caught my eye.




















Quite often, because I time my expeditions to avoid lunch times and rush hour, I see this -!






















There are two tram designs here and this is the older one, which I prefer. The newer ones have seats facing both ways so it's not easy to draw without being seen!

Finally, I came across a really funny blog via The Telegraph this morning and found a way of incorporating it into this post. It's called Maybeyoushouldn'tbuythat.com and it highlights 'the most expensive and worthless items in the world'. Just check out this apple holder from Hermes - surely it's what the best dressed Sketcherciser should be carrying along with the sketch kits? Mark and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversery yesterday - dang, he's a Trekkie and had I seen this blog earlier, he could have been the proud owner of this bit of loveliness. (I laughed out loud at this one.) Perhaps it's a good thing no-one wants my drawings for huge amounts of money if this is the best you can buy with it?!