More from the Dickens Fair

After seeing Cathy's great Dickens post I thought I'd better put up my sketches from the day too. The Dickens Fair really is an amazing visual feast for sketchers. In addition to all the roaming characters, there is the Pre-Raphaelite Salon, where Dante Gabriel Rosetti reads his poems as Oscar Wilde and other characters from the period pose in tableaux from the poems.

   




In the windows of the Dark Garden corset shop, live models pretend to be wax dummies, holding poses long enough for quick sketches.




Here are some musicians and costumed spectators from the show in Mad Sal's Alehouse.

"Fanny" was one of a collection of women calling out bawdy remarks to passersby. She was settled down on the barrel long enough for me to get off a more detailed sketch.

There was a long wait for the ladies bathrooms, so I was able to sketch this woman ahead of me in the line.

A Victorian Christmas Card Come to Life!

 

I went with the SF Sketchers Meetup group to the Dickens Fair in San Francisco. What a great place to sketch! Hundreds of people dressed in beautiful costumes. As the website says: "Enter the world of Charles Dickens and revel in a Victorian London where it's always Christmas Eve. To recreate old London town, we transform over three acres of vintage exhibition halls into lamplit lanes, pubs and theatres, dance floors and music halls, tearooms and shops. Hundreds of costumed characters from genteel to boisterous bring the town to life and interact with patrons."