Friday, April 25, 2014

Journal for trip to the UK

A friend helped me bind a journal for my upcoming trip to England.
I filled it with Fabriano #140 lb.soft press watercolor paper. I think 
This is great paper for journals as it is smooth enough for pen work and
textured just enough for Watercolors.

Monday, June 27, 2011



Another view of the Montlake Bridge from one of the walkways that border the Montlake Cut as well as a view looking toward the University Bridge and I-5 from Montlake Park. As Gail has already mentioned, it was nice to see some new faces and some great work as well.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Three months have past

The crisp autumn air these days reminds me of the fresh chilly morning in Portland, USA.
These are some sketches from the rest of sessions that I attended.

Urban Nature

construction site (urban nature)

In the session by Jason, we went to the union station and sketched some nature thing in the urban environment.
This is a construction site viewed from the footbridge. In the morning, the sky was covered with thick clouds but all were cleared in an hour from mountain side.

at the union station (urban nature)

These are garden trees near the station.

Urban Composition

at pioneer square -1
In the session by Gabi, we went to Pioneer Square and we sketched about what was going on at the site. This is a reportage: Urban Sketchers were everywhere in the square. In the foreground, middle ground and background there they were!

Urban People

at farmers market -4

at farmers market -5

In the session by Isabel, we went to Farmers Market and kept drawing people there. We even drew people in the streetcar on our way to get there.
People come and go, stay and move. What ever the situation was, I just focused on capturing their posture as much as I could. As to some figure, I just managed to draw head and some are upper half of their bodies. I didn't intend to finish or complete the figure. These are done on the large-size Japanese notebook includes an Urban Sketchers logo embossed on the cover: one of the generous souvenir from the symposium.

Urban Architecture

Urban Architecture (PNCA)

In the session by TIA, many of us drew the building of PNCA. TIA's instruction was concise. These lines go like this and the other side of lines go like this. ( She said something like that with gesture. Sorry, I don't remember exact phrase)
And here is the result.

Here again I would love to thank to all the people who made this happened. To your effort, friendship and blog on USK.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

From Symposium to Group Show

© Sue Van Etten
Three members of the Whidbey Island Sketchers participated in the Portland symposium this summer.  We're just sure that our new-found and better-honed sketching skills gained at the symposium helped lead to an invitation for the first ever Whidbey Island Sketchers Group Show that opened on Monday and runs through the month of October.

© Lisbeth Cort
Ranging from novice to professional artist, symposium participants Faye Castle, Lisbeth Cort and Sue Van Etten are 3 of 14 island artists whose sketches appear in the group show.  We're not "urban" but we sure loved capturing the character - and characters - of this place for the show.  It's what Urban Sketchers is all about and was highlighted so well in a recent newspaper article entitled, "Whidbey Island Art Group Embraces Camaraderie Through Craft".

We thank symposium instructors and fellow symposium participants for your advice, constructive (and gentle) criticism, and encouragement.  We invite you to visit the show if your travels take you to a big island in the middle of Puget Sound just north of Seattle, WA USA this month! 
 
© Faye Castle
And thanks for our great memories of the 1st International Urban Sketching Symposium!  Hope to see you next year.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Symposium Aftermath

The symposium was the apex of a very busy summer. It's taken until now to scan sketches done during and since the sketchers feast. And I'm definitely still digesting. It was a wonderfully enriching event and I thank all the instructors, correspondents and participants.
We went to the food carts for our urban colors session.