Thanks to all those who make it happen each year and safe travels to all those visiting the capital in August, see you again 🙂
PS Don’t forget the Fireworks concert in Princes Street Gardens on Sunday evening. If you can’t get tickets there are plenty of places around the city to watch the fireworks and I’m pretty sure you can listen to the orchestra on the radio.
To celebrate the launch of the 70th Edinburgh International Festival St Andrews Square will bloom into glorious life with a light and sound show.The EIF runs from the 4th to 28th August and tonight the city will be lit up as part of ‘Standard Life Opening Event: Bloom’, an epic outdoor spectacle of light and sound, transforming the buildings of St Andrews Square into a 360 degree canvas.
I was lucky enough to see a preview of tonight’s show and this is my sketch from within St Andrews Square.
The show runs from 10pm until midnight and although early access tickets are now sold out for the two day event (tonight and tomorrow night) you can still queue to gain access via George Street from 10.30pm until midnight.
It looks set to be a magical experience, I just hope the rain stops before the performance, although I’m sure puddle reflections will make it even more beautiful!
Dragon, the wonderful and moving story of a boy meeting a dragon, told without words and with amazing puppetry and stage magic that will leave you believing the unbelievable.
Created by Vox Motus, the National Theatre of Scotland and Tianjin Children’s Art Theatre, Dragon tells the story of Tommy whose life, since the death of his mother, has gone from bad to worse. One restless night Tommy goes to the window and throws back the curtain to find himself face to face with a dragon.
Here  have captured a couple of scenes from the play which runs today and tomorrow only at the Royal Lyceum Theatre as part of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. Above shows he Dragon first appearing to tommy as he sits beneath a swing, and below the dragon appears to become a motorbike as it and Tommy play together.
See it if you can, it is a wonderful spectacle.
Director Fergus Linehan presented his first Edinburgh International Festival launch at the Usher Hall last nightI was there sketching and captured the doodles to the left.
The line up looks as exciting and diverse as ever and kicking the festival off on the 7th of August will be a free outdoors event I am very much looking forward to. Using the stunning architecture of the Usher Hall as a canvas The Harmony Project will combine John Adams’s choral work Harmonium with a series of spectacular animations, projected on to the exterior of the famous building.
With dance, orchestra, theatre and opera the EIF programme for 2015 is packed full of delights, too many to list here. Head along to their website below to flick through the full list of amazing talent that is about to descend on the capital once again. I can’t wait for the summer!
Edinburgh International Festival website
Tonight and tomorrow night the Edinburgh Playhouse plays host to some fabulous flamenco guitar playing with a story to tell, thanks to the Edinburgh International Festival.My sketch is in black ink with a water colour wash, the following are the words I wrote around the drawing…
‘Gunfire sounds loud booming bangs, rattatat of bullets as sounds move all around and then silence and darkness… a light on a solo guitarist… and then he plays…. Light on a backdrop of seated guitarists and singers, the music tempo and volume rise as do two figures from the back. Suddenly the most beautiful singing fills the theatre… and the guitarist continues to play.’
Edinburgh International Festival
Tonight at the King’s Theatre catch this Canadian Stage production of Helen Lawrence, a tale of corruption and murder set in 1940’s Vancouver.
The production combines numerous visual techniques to bring the post war tale to life. With a combination of theatre acting, on stage filming which is then projected (with computer generated back drops) onto a huge thin screen which hangs like a veil between the audience and stage.
The techniques captured my attention I liked the spectacle of it but after a few moments of trying to follow both the screen and on stage acting  I forgot the actors were there and began watching the screen more, with the cinema like graphics and huge close ups. For me the screen was over shadowing the stage and could of been used more sporadically to make more impact.
The sketch is in black ink, with a water colour wash, drawn from the stalls. The black fade was added digitally.
For more information and to book tickets for tonight.
