Museum of Flight’s Great Gallery

1/17/25 Museum of Flight (Most of the aircraft were sketched from the upper level. I glued in a piece of my wristband to fill the long, horizontal space at the bottom of this page -- an ideal spot for a bit of collage. )

I made this small page to catch a couple of sketchers.

As I walked into the Great Gallery, it felt like it had been ages since I last sketched at the Museum of Flight. Indeed, I missed last year’s USk outing there, so the last time for me was in 2019. I had skipped sketching in the Great Gallery altogether that time, so on Friday I spent the whole USk outing there. The largest gallery, it’s also the most intimidating – lots and lots of planes and other aircraft covering the floor and hanging from the ceiling.

Instead of making portraits of individual aircraft as I’ve always done before, I made small vignettes to tell the wider story of the museum atmosphere. Truth be told, it was also much easier to make thumbnail-size sketches rather than page spreads trying to get a whole jet’s wingspan to fit. Lazy or smart? You decide. In any case, I had a ball!

Many thanks to Kate, a long-time volunteer, for offering Urban Sketchers free guest passes to the museum.

The larger and more intimidating the space, the smaller I sketch!