Get Outside!

It’s so worth it.

Yesterday I had a wonderful time, live illustrating at my local park. It’s a place I used to go when my son was very small, as it’s a fairly large green space to run about in or practice falling off your bike.

In one corner is a section of garden, which is often sadly neglected. Sometimes though, as happened yesterday, the best of humanity comes together and starts to repair the damage and encourage the plants to grow again. Organisers and volunteers transformed the area in a very short space of time- grabbing litter and chopping down the long grasses. Pushing a wheelbarrow became a very popular activity with the children!

I didn’t do any of that action-packed stuff though. I sat down to draw, chat and eat cake.

Immediately, people came up and wanted me to draw them, which made me so happy. I was offering to draw a portrait of their faces for 3 minutes; or a full body fashion pose for 10 minutes.

Everybody chose the portrait option and I was busy all afternoon! We had to stretch the 3 minutes though because sometimes the rain came to visit- and a lovely helpful person stood behind me with an umbrella- or a strong gust of wind popped in and all my papers took flight.

It was a lovely, uplifting afternoon and a great way to spend time together in the park. It’s also a great way to connect with people and discover who some of your neighbours are- as well as being impressed by volunteers who have travelled across the city to help, and to give something back to the community.

Here are some of the lovely people and their portraits (oh, and me as well!).