it's all too beautiful

Last Saturday Sketchcrawl North went sketching in Chesterfiled. In complete contrast to the week before, when we were sketching in a wintery Buxton, the day was hot and sunny and perfect for drawing outdoors. I've always wanted to visit Chesterfield. That may not sound that ambitious, or difficult, as I do live in Derbyshire but I've only ever passed through it. Every time, though, I become distracted and mesmerised by it's famous crooked spired church - which is a concern as I'm usually driving. The crooked spire is a thing of beauty. It really is. There are various theories to how it became twisted, from untreated wood to the lead they used, however it happened the results are quite stunning.

Inside the church I came across this notice board and stopped for a while to draw it. I'm really kicking myself now that I didn't go up into the spire. I have no idea why. It's apparently as crazy a structure from the inside as the out. I'm also kicking myself that I didn't go into the church gift shop. I can only imagine the array of spire souvenirs I could have laid my hands on. Actually, it was probably a good thing that I didn't.

Finally, I squeezed this little sketch in, below, before we all met up at the pub. It was literally a five minute sketch which is probably a record for me. I kinda like it though. These three drawings were made in my tiny Moleskine sketchbook I also made a couple of larger sketches from various places in the town but I'll pimp them up before posting them.