Urban sketchers again

After the excitement of the north it was a quiet weekend back at home. I spent Saturday sitting quietly (although I did get a haircut - sick of it blowing in my face!) and then on Sunday I went and joined the Urban Sketchers meetup again. This time it was at Parliament House, which was a bit like a work day for some of us, but we met in the gardens which are always beautiful.

I decided I'd do the beehives. There were lots of long vistas and big buildings and gorgeous landscapes ... all of which frighten me and none of which I think I can do successfully. I felt like tackling something a lot smaller. The only problem with the beehives was you can't get too close for obvious reasons, so I took a few photos and just zoomed in when I felt I needed more detail. 

I am unusually pleased with the finished result, although I did use a lot of artistic license in the layout. I felt like just using pen rather than trying to capture the landscape (dull gum-tree brown mostly) but it was a bit boring so I added in the bees! Completely wrong species of course, I think they are more bumble bees, but fun to do and got the point across.

Here is the group throw-down of all the sketches, some are absolutely amazing. Everyone is so supportive though, no matter what people do, I really like it.