National Theatre Christmas Card

I was delighted recently to find out that I'd won a competition to design a Christmas card for the National Theatre... it's very exciting to see my card on sale in the bookshop there! My design was inspired by the view of the building from the Waterloo Bridge side...I've always liked that the Lyttelton flytower is just a massive cube. It's a great example of brutalist architecture. I also wanted to work in watercolour (which gives some nice textures,) but keep the look of the design quite modern & uncomplicated. Here's a photo of the NT bookshop that I took just the other day...

I have a long history with the National so also thought I could also use this opportunity to blog about some old sketches that I did in and around the theatre about 10 years ago. I used to find it a good place to sketch, as it's full of interesting angles and I found the different levels useful for being able to sketch people without being seen! I also used to challenge myself to draw inside the auditoriums during performances.

First of all here's how my card looks... it's a nice big size!

Here's the National Bookshop's own photo of the card in their lovely wintry window display:

Here are some of the sketches I did at the National around 2001. I used to enjoy the challenge of sketching inside the auditoriums... with the problems of low light levels and constantly-changing scenery! A couple of these sketches I then finished off a little more once I'd left the play. 

Look at the ashtrays in the Green Room - well before the smoking ban was introduced!

And finally a few of the quick little sketches of people that I used to do around the building...