Mole Man's house, Dalston

I stopped to draw the Mole Man's house in Mortimer Road, Dalston, as I cycled home the other day. It's been like a building site for years, but now there is activity above ground as it is developed for the artists Sue Webster and Tim Noble, who were reported to have bought it at auction before Christmas. It was previously the home of William Lyttle, aka Mole Man, who tunnelled beneath it in all directions over more than 40 years, until complaints led to his eviction. (He was rehoused in a flat and, with nowhere to dig, was dead within a few years.)
Papers report that the architect David Adjaye, who designed the forthcoming National Museum of African American History and Culture in the National Mall, Washington, DC, among other buildings, is overseeing the development, although it doesn't look anything special yet, apart from being a shrine to scaffolding and corrugated iron.

Euro-Coaster, Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park

The big winter fair in Hyde Park over Christmas, called Winter Wonderland, had this roller coaster among the labyrinthine commercial sprawl. Euro-Coaster? Get on that, Nigel Farage.

I drew these on a recent numbingly cold sketchcrawl with London's Urban Sketchers: why not drop in on the group's new Facebook group page.

Christmas on James Street

The 73 bus at the end of our road runs to Oxford Street and there are still some presents to be bought, so we head on down. What possesses anyone to shopping there at Christmas? We take a break at a quiet cafe down James Street as darkness falls.
Season's greetings! I'll be posting images on Instagram and Twitter over the break, do drop in and follow me if that's your thing.
Have you just been given a copy of Sketch Your World? Visit its Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/sketchyourworld

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.

Out now: Sketch Your World in Chinese

I'm not sure I saw this coming when it was first published ten months ago, but with the recent release of a Chinese edition, Sketch Your World is now available in six languages.

Along with English editions in the UK, US and Asia, it has also been published in French, German, Korean and Taiwanese.

The US edition has recently been reprinted, and the UK edition has been reprinted three times.

There is more on this Facebook page about Sketch Your World, or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I'll be posting shortly about some forthcoming events.

Gabriel Campanario's new book

Gabi's new book

I am happy to say that I have a drawing in Gabriel Campanario's new book The Urban Sketching Handbook: Architecture and Cityscapes published in November (US) and December (UK) by Quarry. Gabi is the founder of Urban Sketchers, a staff artist at the Seattle Times, and the author of The Art of Urban Sketching (2012, Quarry).

This new book, the first in a series on urban sketching, comes in a format that matches Moleskine's A5-sized sketchbook, complete with elasticated band. It's easy to imagine it being dropped into a bag with drawing equipment by people on their way out.

Melanie Reim's drawing on the left, mine on the right

A few other old mates also have their work in the book:

• Inma Serrano, who I met in London this summer

• Simone Ridyard, who I kind of met over different microphones when we were on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live earlier this year, and

• Melanie Reim, who I met in New York a couple of years ago.

Many of these, and Gabi, have drawings in Sketch Your World.

Sketch Your World: now in German

I'm happy to say that Sketch Your World is now available in a German edition: Sketch Your World: Unterwegs mit dem Skizzenbuch, published by Englisch Verlag. It's on sale at the usual German online places and in bookshops.

Wondering what it's about? It features the drawings of 60 artists who work in sketchbooks, and is available in UK, US, Asian and French editions, as well as German. You can find out more about Sketch Your World at www.facebook.com/sketchyourworld.

On the streets of Seven Dials

Seven Dials, a throbbing junction on the north side of Covent Garden, soon gets crowded with pedestrians, especially when the curtain is about to rise on Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, which is at its heart. On Saturday it was busier still with people taking part in Moleskine City Stories, a drawing event organised by Moleskine in collaboration with Urban Sketchers at Moleskine's King Street store and the London Graphic Centre in nearby Shelton Street.
I was there representing Urban Sketchers with Andrea Joseph, Olha Pryymak and Adebanji Alade; we drew and led learning sessions through the day, and contributed to a growing gallery of drawings in each venue. It was a learning experience – for me, I mean. There was the usual fantastic range of people taking part, from children to elderly, and from totally inexperienced to professionals, and the usual amazing range of approaches to observational drawing. And to talk was to share ideas and connect in a way that you don't if you draw in isolation.
Thanks to everyone who came, and those who donated their drawings to the cause of the non-profit Lettera27, and its mission to support the right to literacy, education and the access to knowledge.

Coming soon: Moleskine City Stories

Like the idea of a live sketch event? Urban Sketchers and Moleskine are teaming up for a day of drawing in and around Covent Garden, London, on Saturday 6 September 2014 with events planned at the Moleskine store in King Street and the London Graphic Centre in Shelton Street.

James Hobbs, Covent Garden

I'm one of four artists – Adebanji Alade, Andrea Joseph and Olha Pryymak are the others – who will be drawing at the stores and in the streets nearby, ready to talk about drawing in sketchbooks and taking part in learning sessions, for which you'll need to reserve a place. I'll be at the London Graphic Centre with Andrea from 11.30am to 5.30pm, and Olha and Adebanji will be at the Moleskine store around the corner. During the day, an exhibition of drawings will gradually be built up in each store.

Moleskine is also giving away Moleskine Sketch Albums – limited to the first 150 visitors to each store who present a coupon downloaded from its website. Get one if you can, but if you're too late, come and draw anyway. And say hello.

To find out more, to book a place on a learning session, and to find out how to get a Sketch Album, have a look at Moleskine City Stories.

Upstream London

This is the view along the river Thames that tourists from around the world turn their back on as they photograph the very recognisable shapes of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Beyond the boats moored before Lambeth Bridge lie the tower blocks of Vauxhall, and further still, the cranes of Nine Elms, a rapidly developing part of the city that will house the new American Embassy, among much else.

This stretch of the Thames looks undistinguished but it's stuffed with history, of course. Handel's Water Music was played here for the first time in 1717. King George I, heading upstream on the royal barge, liked it so much he made the floating orchestra play it four times, an hour each performance. Lambeth Palace, hidden to the left of the bridge, has been the London home of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century.

Turning your back on a city's great sights to draw what is behind you has always interested me. They are sights that say much more about the place than the scenes you see on postcards. I'm not convinced that the average Londoner is so emotionally attached to the great buildings of state, or Buckingham Palace, or the tourist attractions. London is a city of villages that have become congealed, and the local always has a strong pull. I'm more attached to Hackney Town Hall, the scene of happy, family events, than St James's Palace or Admiralty Arch, for instance.

Along the Ardeche

Labeaume, France

We're back from a holiday on the scenic banks of the Ardeche river, which carves its way through central southern France. There are gorges of impressive limestone cliffs, wooded sections and water that is deliciously cooling to swim in when the temperatures get into the 30Cs or more. Watching kayakers heading downstream, and sometimes taking an involuntary dip, is evidently a popular pastime for those lazing on the pebbled beaches.

Balazuc, France

Part of the joy of visiting this region is to search out quiet bathing spots among the trees that seem to be popular with the locals – although the drawings here of Labeaume and Balazuc, while still quiet when compared with coastal resorts, are of scenes firmly on the tourist trail.

Our six-hour journey home by train from Avignon gave plenty of opportunity for drawing fleeting scenes from the window. After spending days drawing geological formations shaped over centuries, it was invigorating to try to capture the landscape as it passed at 200mph.

From a moving train south of Paris

Portobello: a London sketchcrawl

Assorted sketchbook users from London and further afield landed on Portobello Road market on 12 July. When sketchcrawls take place in such crowded venues it can be difficult to know just how many people are taking part, but even with the massed ranks of antique buyers, fruit and veg consumers and Notting Hill location spotters, it was somehow never difficult to spot someone drawing.
Isabel Carmona, Swasky and Miguel Herranz were in town straight from their Oxford USk workshop, and it was great also to meet Inma Serrano, whose work I particularly love. (Inma and Miguel, visiting from Spain, both have drawings in Sketch Your World.) It was a scorching day, and some had fallen by the wayside by the time we took shelter in the Castle pub later in the afternoon to restore fluids and meet old and new friends.

London sketchcrawl: Portobello Road, Saturday 12 July

There's a sketchcrawl along Portobello Road, London W11, this weekend on Saturday 12 July, attended by Urban Sketchers from this week's Oxford Urban Sketchers workshop. The weather forecast isn't looking too bad, so come if you can.
The plan is to meet at around 11am at Charlie's Portobello Road cafe, which is at number 58, and finish at around 4pm at the Castle pub.
There's more information here, and a plan of the route here.
Bring your drawing materials and join us.

Timberyard Old Street: show extended

The group show of drawings, including four by me, and Urban Sketchers Thomas Corrie, Isabelle Laliberté, Jhih-Ren Shih, Katherine Tyrrell and Zhenia Vasiliev at the Timberyard cafe, Old Street, London, has been extended for another few weeks – the final closing date is Saturday 12 July.

Timberyard, 61-67 Old Street, London EC1V 9HW
until 12 July
Open Monday to Friday 8am-8pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-6pm
www.timberyardlondon.com
@jameshobbsart

Town hall to cemetery: a Stoke Newington drawing tour

Last Sunday, as part of Stoke Newington Literary Festival, in the part of north London where I have lived for the past 23 years, I was joined by an evolving cast of about 50 artists as we drew our way along Church Street, the neighbourhood's epicentre. This was partly to publicise my book, Sketch Your World, but also because it is such a good place to draw: it is historic, crumbling, gentrified, leafy, literary, organic, unstuffy, siren-filled, unrelentingly urban and many other things, too. And the arrival of summer was timely.

The great thing about this kind of event, of course, is that although you can stand on your own and draw any day of the week, doing it as a group means you stop and look at things and in places you may not otherwise. It's never easier to sit on a kerbstone and draw than when you're in a group. The usual fantastic range of abilities and experience were among us, but for those of us new to drawing on location, this was a chance to blend in and feel confident as we worked. For about an hour and a half, as we worked our way along from the town hall, people seemed to be drawing everywhere you looked...

Our mission, in blazing sun throughout, ended in the shade and birdsong of Abney Park cemetery, where we cooled off, and shared and compared our endeavours – thanks once again to Seawhite of Brighton, who kindly supplied its Eco sketchbooks for the event.

Thanks for coming, if you did. And thanks to the team at Stoke Newington Literary Festival for inviting me to do this. Sketch Your World is a book about getting out and drawing rather than sit around discussing, and there's a chance a similar event may take place at next year's festival.

Drawing event at Stoke Newington's literary festival

Stoke Newington Church Street

I'll be at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival on Sunday 8 June from 12 noon for a special free drawing event. To take part, simply come to the town hall foyer with your drawing equipment – a limited number of free Seawhite sketchbooks will be available while stocks last – draw the many hotspots of Stoke Newington, meet other artists, share your drawings online and find out more about the burgeoning Urban Sketching community. It's relaxed, free and you can come and go as you like. It's good for adults and children, all abilities, all levels of experience, all everything, in fact. Find out more about it here.

Signed copies of my book Sketch Your World will be on sale.

Many thanks to Seawhite of Brighton for generously providing the sketchbooks.

There's more information about the literary festival at www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com. There are plenty of great events taking place from 6 to 8 June.

London sketchcrawl: Saturday 24 May

Old Street roundabout

There is a London Urban Sketchers sketchcrawl on Saturday 24 May 2014, meeting at 11am at Timberyard cafe, Old Street, where there is currently a show of drawings by five of the London group (including me, actually). The idea is to then head east towards Shoreditch to finish around 3.30pm at the Shoreditch High Street overground station. Want to come? Need more information? There's more at the London Urban Sketchers website. It's free, relaxed and everyone is welcome — just bring something to draw on and with. And stay as long as you want.

Timberyard, 61-67 Old Street, London EC1V 9HW
www.timberyardlondon.com
@urbsketchlondon

Signing Sketch Your World: 17 May

I'll be signing copies of Sketch Your World and bringing along a selection of my sketchbooks to a drop-in session at Cass Art, Islington, on Saturday 17 May from 2pm to 4pm. Cass Art kindly lent me art materials for product shots in the book.
It's free. Come and talk drawing. Bring some sketchbooks. There's more info here.
Cass Art, 66-67 Colebrooke Row, London, N1 8AB
Angel tube, buses 19, 38, 56, 73, 341, 476

Reprinted and on shelves

Sketch Your World has been reprinted and is on shelves and in online warehouses again now. I dropped in on the recently renovated Tate Britain – through the main entrance past groups of art students sitting on the steps, which suddenly transported me back to my student days – to visit its bookshop where copies are on sale. (It has a different cover if you are in the US or Asia.)

There's more information about the book at its Facebook page. Let me know if you have problems getting hold of a copy.