From Piccadilly to Docklands

At Waterstones Piccadilly

It was a busy weekend this week, first at Waterstones Piccadilly's first art book fair, where it was great to meet publishers, writers, artists and book lovers in Europe's biggest bookshop, and sign copies of Sketch Your World. I sat with Owen Gildersleeve, the author of Paper Cut – he cut paper rather more meticulously than I drew the scene through the crowds to the Tate Publishing desk opposite.

The O2 arena across the Thames from Trinity Buoy Wharf, London

The following day London's Urban Sketchers joined the Dining Room Drawing Club at Trinity Buoy Wharf at Draw Britain Now organised by the Campaign for Drawing. The wharf is post industrial, right across the river from the O2 arena, the home of London's only lighthouse, and hosting work by 23 artists shortlisted for the 2014 John Ruskin Prize (the exhibition continues until 30 November). The rain came, and it started getting dark in mid afternoon, but there was still a lot of drawing going on when we met to compare work at the end of the day. (The Fatboy Diner got a lot of sheltering custom that afternoon.) The wharf is a great place to visit – I'm going back.

Book signing at Waterstones Piccadilly

The view from a Piccadilly cafe

Waterstones Piccadilly is hosting the first Piccadilly Art Book Fair on Saturday 15 November at its five-storey bookshop in the centre of London – Europe's largest bookshop — and I'll be there signing copies of Sketch Your World. (The store is about a two-minute walk along Piccadilly from where I drew the cover image for the book.)

The fair runs from 1pm to 5pm, is free, and a great chance to meet artists and authors, get involved in drawing workshops and see what great art books are out now. Come along and say hello. I'm taking some sketchbooks. Bring some of your own to show me!

There's more information at the Waterstones website.

The following day, Sunday 16 November, there is a London Urban Sketchers sketchcrawl at Trinity Buoy Wharf, in the East End. There's more information about that at the London USk website. I hope to see you there, also.