Happy Birthday to US!
The past 2 years have been an incredible ride, with a fair few challenges and many, many highs!
The biggest joy and motivation of course, has been meeting all the sketchy SUPERSTARS who have come together at our events to sketch, connect and make the creative magic happen! Your kindness and creativity inspires us EVERY, SINGLE, TIME. Collectively, you must have worked your way through at least 20,000 portraits by now - and over a million felt tip pens!!
HUGE thank you to everyone out there who has supported and engaged in our work. It means the world to know that you ‘get it’ and that you’re willing to share your creative journey with us, as we continue on ours.
Here’s to the future!
Whatever the future brings, we will remain steadfast in our mission: to activate the social and therapeutic powers of drawing, and to celebrate the joy of SKETCH!
As well as some exciting publishing and podcasting plans, we will be focused on delivering more creative wellbeing projects, collaborating with other charities and working hard to unite and empower both the London community we are based in, and the global community we’re building online. And of course, we’ll continue to roll out our plan for #SketchyBitches to take over the world!
Look out - this sketchy mission has only just begun!
A few highlights…
There are too many to mention so we’ll just mention a few! Here’s a little look back over some highlights from the past 2 years….
Launch day!
Unveiling our brand and plans to launch a magazine, at The House Of Illustration on 1st July 2018
Our magazine (and book deal)!
Possibly the most exciting moment of the past 2 years was the day 3000 copies of our magazine arrived!! Devised, designed and written in 6 weeks with no previous design or publishing experience, it was no mean feat to put together but it was SO worth it!
It was made with a lot of love, determination and a heartfelt belief in the power that drawing has to unite, empower and change lives. And it wouldn’t exist without the incredible input and support of Judy Andrews, Sarah Fox, Kayti Peschke and all the other contributors and collaborators who helped to make it happen. Thank you again to everyone who bought a copy - you’re the best!
On the subject of publishing, another highlight was receiving a rather exciting email from a publisher this time last year. They’d got their hands on a copy of the mag and quite liked it… 12 months later and a Sketch Appeal book is on the way!!
As well as created the logos for Sketch Appeal and Sketchy Bitches, Judy created this fab Groove Is In The ART illo for the back cover of our magazine. THANK YOU JUDY!
#SketchTheRainbow
We’ve run 3 of these colourful Instagram challenges now and they just keep growing! Our latest was a collaboration with Sue Kreitzman and her colourwalking crew, which kept our spirits bright during the first few weeks of lockdown.
By Cat Faulkner
By Nikki Shaill
By Becky Cole
As well as the challenges, we’ve had a lot of fun with our #SketchTheRainbow events…
Margate Takeover
Speaking of colourful company… we had an ACE time doing our first ever Sketchy Bitches takeover at Little Bit Margate last September! It was such a joy to collaborate with Polly and to have the opportunity to draw live portraits of lots of lovely local folk! We also co-hosted a wonderful evening workshop which - for so many reasons - will always have a special place in the heart and history of Sketch Appeal!
Social Sketching with TCT
Last year, we ran a series of social sketchups at 2 incredible ‘Find Your Sense of Tumour’ events organised by Teenage Cancer Trust. Sadly the events can’t run this year due to COVID-19, but we are continuing our collaborations… most recently with an exclusive 7 day drawing challenge! (Check it out here)
HUGE virtual hugs to the team at TCT and all the incredible young people we’ve met through our work with them, including the wonderful Holly Wellington - who guested on the first ever episode of our podcast! (She also created the music for it, FYI!)
Party on!
We’ve had plenty of arty parties these past 2 years. Perhaps the most memorable was our launch party - a Groove Is In The ART drawing disco at Drink Shop & Do!
Groove Is In The Art drawing disco!
Oh and our 2019 Sketchmas party was pretty fab too!
Inktoberfests
We had so much fun at our first Inktoberfest we did it all again a year later! (And made just as much mess, obv)
International Women’s Day 2018
Another exciting moment was running our first ‘big’ event - a full-day Sketchy Bitches special to celebrate International Women’s Day 2019!
35 people joined us at Huckletree in West London, which at that point was the biggest audience and venue we’d worked with. It was all a bit scary beforehand, but turned out pretty flippin’ fabulous in the end! A day to remember for sure…
We ran our first ever panel discussion - terrifying but exhilirating!
Sue Dray, one of our biggest creative supersheroes, led an awesome fashion sketching workshop, feat. models and guest panelists Carla and Manko of Art Model Collective
Our mate Leona of Indie Roller came from Margate to join us
Cat captured gems from the panel chat in this brilliant live scribe!
There was a ‘bit’ of cake… and a LOT of portraits!!
We also took a million versions of this shot! :)
Sketchathon with Sue Kreitzman
For International Women’s Day 2020 we upped the ante and ran our first event at Rich Mix in East London. We invited legendary Colour Queen and Artist Sue Kreitzman to join us for a Sketchy Bitches sketchathon - to share her story and be our guest muse. It was a truly magical evening and the creative energy in the room was electric! Sue dazzled one and all, and is a shining, technicolour example of how life can change when you find your inner Frida and DRAW DRAW DRAW!
This was one of the last major IRL events we ran before lockdown, and the very thought of doing something like this now feels like a distant dream. But get there we will, and with even more of an appetite to sketch and connect together as a community IRL!
Curious about Sue’s story? Watch our chat, filmed by her friend Elizabeth Joseph (above left)
Frida power!
Frida has proved a popular theme at Sketchy Bitches these past 2 years! It seems you lot love any excuse to don some floral headgear… although only a few of you have braved the monobrow! (You know who you are Michele!)
It was a no-brainer when it came to deciding on the theme of our first Sketchy Bitches session on Zoom!
The Art of Self Love
What began as a one-off special edition of Sketchy Bitches turned into many more workshops, and eventually into our first ever creative wellbeing project funded by the Mayor of London! Stay tuned - we’ve got some big news coming your way about The Art of Self Love…
Getting creative at The Cartoon Museum
We’ve had an absolute blast running events at the new Cartoon Museum since it opened last summer! As well as playing host to a brand-new series of themed Sketchy Bitches sessions, they also hosted our corporate Christmas Sketchups, Art of Self Love workshops and our Valentine’s Night Sketchup back in Feb!
It’s such a fun and colourful space to get creative in, and the team running it are bloody wonderful! Here’s hoping they can open their doors for more draws again soon…
And finally, lest we forget…
Our supermarket #sketchbombs and that incredible 3D cake Sophie made for our Great British Sketchoff challenge!
Oh and all those fab portraits the folk at Divine Chocolate drew at their Team Sketchup!
