AN event aimed at getting the people of Ipswich drawing has been hailed a success today by its organisers.Dozens of artists spent two days at events in Christchurch Park and at St Mary-at-the-Quay Church as part of The Big Draw.

AN event aimed at getting the people of Ipswich involved with art literally proved a big draw, organisers said today.

Dozens of artists spent two days at events in Christchurch Park and at St Mary-at-the-Quay Church as part of The Big Draw.

The Big Draw is part of The Campaign for Drawing and is aimed at getting more people drawing through public events.

In Ipswich both amateur and professional artists could sketch throughout the day and night with a 48-hour drawing marathon at the Key Street church.

Doug Selway, one of the organisers of the event, said: “We had an amazing time. We started at 8pm on Friday and finished at 8pm on Sunday.

“It was amazing. We had 30 different artists come at different times and we had lots of visitors with people dropping in at 11.30pm and at 1am and working with me.”

The group of artists attempted to draw the longest single line in a continuous sketch of the church and also drew their own perspectives of the church by day and night.

Mr Selway added: “The original idea was to make a panoramic drawing of the whole church but trying to organise artists is like trying to herd cats and it proved not to be but we came up with a better idea of doing a 60ft long drawing of the church.

“This is a very good way for artists to share their ideas with each other and for ordinary people to do something artistic.”

Artists also spent the weekend in Christchurch Park, using Victorian photographs of the park to inspire them to draw.

Visitors were encouraged to find the views today and sketch them on to a postcard.

Both events were free of charge and open to all ages.