Urban Sketchers Symposium - Day 4

December 31, 2017

Saturday morning brought another breakfast with a group of sketchers. I so enjoyed their welcoming company. Then I was off the the last workshop of the Symposium, Pat Southern Pearce, "Sketching and Lettering on a Toned Ground".

Alicia went shopping and I headed to the American Art Institute, upstairs in a quiet, cool room. Pat is from England and was delightful to take a class from. She let us use her supplies and gave us our own toned booklet with her hand lettering on the front. Her exercises walked us through each technique and we worked quietly. It was exactly what I needed. It topped me off for the amount of information I could absorb.

We had another sketch artist there to "report" on the class and I ended up in his final sketch.

Her nuggets of wisdom:

Start with the sky! It's all about the sky.
Carry plastic tray to hold pens, find a bag the holds a lot (Baggalinni brand).
On an air flight, wait till you get to altitude to take out your pens, so they don't leak.
When lettering, keep looking ahead, in order to adjust letters to fit the block.

After lunch we joined the final sketch walk (I didn't get to go to any other ones, darn.). Hundreds of sketchers on the street making their way to the location of our final photo. Alicia and I walked over to the Buckingham fountain first. While I was sketching the wind blew the fountain spray on this page. So I sketched quickly in the wet and another gust of wind added the final water droplets. I love the effect!

We made our way to the monument hill (on a bike taxi...too tired to walk) and sat down for a few more sketches...patterns and flowers. It's been great to have Alicia here with me. Sitting for the final photo was so fun...to be with 600 sketchers and joke and laugh and share sketchbooks. Loved it!

After a quick sushi dinner (yum!) we went back to the Goodman center for the final meeting, silent auction (Alicia won a piece of art!) and announcement of next year's Symposium location (spoiler...Porto, Portugal). It was packed and I continued to make friends with those around me. We didn't want it to end.

As I sat at breakfast (Eggs Benedict in a wine sauce on sour dough toast with prosciutto and arugula!) the next morning in the Chicago O'hare airport, I reflected on some important things I learned:

Do the iconic sketches too.
All styles are okay, even applauded.
Don't be afraid to sit on the street and sketch.
Arrive a few days early to sketch, and leave a few days later.
Eat with sketchers. Exchange Moo cards.
Sketch everywhere all day long.
It's okay to not finish every sketch right at the time. Add color or details later.
Leave blank pages between workshop sketches for stamps, receipts, cards, etc.
Next time take fewer workshops, sketch more on my own, join the planned sketchwalks.
Bring a light scarf...cover shoulders or face from sun, keep warm in air conditioning, cover head in wind or rain.

Urban Sketchers Symposium - Day 3

December 31, 2017

Breakfast at the Cafe Luna again and sketching, of course. OH: "You just pick a nugget of wisdom from each workshop to remember. Don't be overwhelmed." Good advice.

My first workshop of the day, Virginia Hein, "The Color of Light", watercolor techniques. We walked to the Formal Gardens in Grant Park. She demonstrated painting shadows, then we tried it; demo of warm vs. cool colors, then try it; then full watercolor demo, and try it. She made it look so easy. I added a few pen details to mine at the end. The morning was beautiful, cooler, and Alicia joined me there during the class.

The main points:

"Observe carefully, draw freely." Virginia's philosophy.
Every time you have a different tool in your hand, you think and do differently.
Leave sparks of white.
The artist's squint. Her favorite way to see the values.
Push lights to white and darks to really dark.
The eye goes to contrast, detail and saturated color.
Drawing composition...drama, diagonal, contrast, detail, people.
Warm colors come forward and cool recede backward.
Use broad warm patterns in the foreground.

After the workshop we walked a couple of blocks for lunch at Buddy Guy's Legends Chicago Blues Club, and listening to Fruteland Jackson play acoustic guitar blues. (The sign out front said "Soup of the day...Bourbon.") So much walking, I'm wearing out, yet sketching energizes me.

Fruitland, because that's what his parents named him.

The afternoon workshop was given by Swasky, "Bending the space". We walked as a group to Cloudgate, or familiarly "The Bean", and he talked about flattening a space like opening a box. I had a different take.

We had 45 minutes to flatten the Bean and the square. Instead of standing in the middle and lining the edges with the warped buildings, I did a picture of the Bean from each side and end, with the buildings behind fanned out and the reflections in the bean of what was behind me. It was very meta. It wasn't quite the assignment, but I love this sketch so much.

Four beans, from each side with the reflection behind me in the bean...so meta.

Then we walked to Wabash and sat under the El to try the "corner" method. It was hot, I couldn't hear well, I was tired and the noise of the El took its toll. I didn't understand the technique, yet came up with some good sketches. I'll have to practice at home, later.

Alicia and I skipped the evening lectures and had a good surf-and-turf dinner at a swanky restaurant. It was delicious...and quiet...and cool. Tomorrow is the last day and I am so tired, but so happy. Here are a few more impressions from this day.

Face mural, colored bricks, a drippy mural (fuzzy!) and a stenciled peacock mural

Urban stickers, a restaurant sign, and a cool fence shadow

Urban Sketchers Symposium - Day 2

December 28, 2017

Day 2 began early with breakfast at the LaSalle Cafe Luna, across the street from the Roosevelt hotel, where I was staying. Naturally sketchers were there sketching each other. I did this quick sketch and later found out they were Mark Liebowitz (sketchers are innovative...what's in your pocket?) of the NYC Urban Sketchers, Benedicte Caniell (did you get my scarf in...you did!), Kate Barber (iPad sketching is my latest thing) and Pat Gaignat (no need to put faces on people if you get the posture just right)...all long time sketchers. So nice, so inclusive and encouraging.

I was off to the Goodman for instructions, then to meet up with our instructor in the plaza across the street, and walk to Crown Plaza as a group. Simo Capecchi's workshop was "Face to Face, Capturing live action with images and words." She focused on reportage sketching, capturing snapshots of people in action and including quotes. She encouraged us to interview people.

We did 20 minutes of "bad" warm-up sketches, connected a sequence of drawings into a theme or layout, and finally drew an all-in-one page, annotated. I used an accordion sketchbook and worked on panel scenes, then added the "overheard" quotes for a complete picture of the fountain and the people. My daughter Alicia joined me again to take pictures and listen in on conversations. It was a fun way to capture a moment in time.

The people at Crown Plaza on a hot day in July.

The drawings were made with a Tratto pen from Italy, water soluable and a gift from Simo. I made the accordion booklet from a large sheet of Arches watercolor paper.

Next a delicious lunch in an air-conditioned(yay!) restaurant nearby, then walked several blocks to the next demonstration.

The afternoon demonstration was Jose' Louro from Portugal, "Draw Less, Show More". The key points:

Show people doing or feeling, and something just out of view.
Tell a story, but leave out meaningless details.
Use white space as the guest star.
Do warm-ups with blind contour drawing.
Always start with the human, they "live between the buildings".

How he uses his tools:

Holds his pen (cheap black felt tip) further back and loose in hand.
Use the side of pen.
Pushing and pulling the pen or pencil.
Place pen, look, look down, draw.
Only needs a few colored pencils...blue, orange, pink, tan, yellow and green.

"It's a lousy drawing, but never mind, okay?"

A good demo, while Alicia went to the Harold Washington Library Center across the street. It was so loud under the elevated train at The Loop and so hot. I was feeling agitated and verrrry tired, so after the demonstration I went into the library to have some quiet and cool air and chat with Alicia. The architecture was interesting and the art and materials inside the library too, but a weird floor plan with a lot of wasted space. (Maybe I didn't "get it".)

Slideshow images: Owl on top, deep window casements, the number of dog tags of all lost in Vietnam, marble floor, inspirational quote, the main hall.

Alicia left to go home for the evening and I sketched using Jose's method while I could remember it. I tried to capture the El as it passed over the Harmony mural, and the man walking beneath it, oblivious of the noise and the train.

I was fairly exhausted but mustered energy for the evening lectures: Mark Liebowitz "What's in your pocket?", Tapas Mitra "Ground rules in art", and others. Being anxious to sketch more I headed out to Michigan avenue and camped out on the steps of the Chicago Art Institute to do a night drawing of one of the lions in front. These two lion statues turned out to be my favorite sculptures of Chicago, of all the grand statues, fountains, sculptures, and public artwork...yes, even the Bean. And it's my favorite sketch of the trip.

A few more impressions from Day 2:

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