Random Sketches

While in London, I filled four sketchbooks:

But not everything in the sketchbooks will make it into the final graphic novel.  So I thought I would share some of my favorite sketches, and the stories behind them.

Often, I would draw people on the Tube.  This was a woman on the Hammersmith and City Line reading one of the London tabloids.  On the opposite page are some of my spring break musings about having the apartment to myself while everyone else was away on trips (I stayed in London), and also some of my thoughts about the imminent arrival of Chris, my boyfriend, to London (why I stayed in London for spring break, hehe.)

This is the first sketch I ever drew in England.  Our friends Janet and Haley, both girls from my major, took me and Allie (my flatmate and good friend) out for a drink at the Queen's Larder, the pub near the SU Center.  The pub predates the Revolutionary War (or, as the Brits call it, the War for American Independence), but when we walked inside the first night they were playing Otis Redding.  We spent the night talking, laughing, and drinking hard cider.  

In late April, we had a school-sponsored trip to Brighton, on the coast of England.  This sketch is of a bunch of my friends relaxing on the pebble beach.  

In early April, I went to get my hair cut in the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden.  The buildings were all such cheerful colors-- neon pink, sunny yellow, bright blue.  (Sadly, my pages are in black and white.)  The left side of this spread is the exterior of the building where I got my hair cut, and the buildings on the other side of the street.  The right side of the spread, with the windows on its side, is actually a very interesting story: the little circle with text in between the window shutters is a historical plaque saying that building was Monty Python's studio.  And I love me some Monty Python, so naturally I had to sketch it. 

I was having a bad day in early April, and took a walk to Hyde Park.  It was a grey, misty day.  I sat by the lake and drew the water, and the bridge in the distance.  As you might be able to see, in the water it says "London calms me down."