Portland sketches

I finally managed to post some of my sketches from Portland! It was such an amazing experience to spend time with other sketchers, meet some of the fellow correspondents in real life, and explore the city. This was also an opportunity to try new materials thanks to our sponsors - I tried my hand at accordion-fold Moleskine: to be honest, I favor the watercolor papers a lot more, and I was struggling with this paper until I discovered that Faber-Castell Pitt pen glides well on its smooth surface. I did a line drawing of panoramic views I've seen from the riverfront, and did small portraits of fellow sketchers at dinner in the space underneath it: I was able to capture glimpses of Gerard, Ronnie, Kumi, Tia, Jason, Gabi, Frank, Matt, Lapin, and Isabel. More of my sketches are collected in my blog here.

Sketching Nirvana

Words and, I'm afraid, even pictures can't really describe what an amazing event the Urban Sketching Symposium was, for me.

The first amazing thing was to finally meet some of the people I've admired for so long in the virtual world. First and foremost Gabi. I think Gabi has 2 twin brothers who where there as well because everywhere I turned, he was there documenting or facilitating or leading a sketch group and always sketching. Gabi, thank you so much for everything you've done to create this amazing Urban Sketching thing.

Quick sketch of Veronica and Frank Ching on the morning of day 3. I love the color of Frank's shirt.

The next thing was seeing all those sketchbooks in the room. I'd seen a lot of the work in them online but to see them laid out there and, in some cases to hold them and page through them was, (and I'm revealing myself as the true sketch nerd that I am), almost a religious experience. Jason's small Brooklyn cityscapes are incredibly intimate in person and Isabel's beautiful scenes of Mauritanian life ... I'll stop myself there but I was really moved by seeing everyone's work in person.

This was done as part of Tia's Urban Color group using her Urban Splasher's technique of pre-staining the page with random color and working the composition around it.

The most wonderful thing, though was being around so much enthusiasm for drawing. It was truly contagious and I think the entire city felt it, I know the Mayor did!

I regret that I wasn't able to join all of the instructors for their presentations or join them all for sketching sessions but that's why there's going to be another one next year, right?

symposium participant : suzanne cabrera

Sadly, I didn't introduce myself prior to the symposium, but I guess late is better than never! You may remember me---I was that girl sitting in the back of the room drawing----oh right, that was everyone! So fun to be part of a group!

My name is Suzanne and fortunately I had the opportunity to talk to many of you, and learn by glancing over shoulders at the sketchbooks of many more. I had the best time in Portland and hope you did too.

Here's the first spread in my Moleskine [which were actually the last pages I completed---I'm superstitious and always skip the first couple of pages in a new sketchbook]. I tried to approach the accordion format as one composition, linking each spread to the next. As such, I would love to be able to post the whole book as one big file. Does anyone have any suggestions on how this might be done? I could probably create a video, but would love if it was a matter of using a scroll bar to look at from beginning to end.

Cheers to sketching with friends, both new and old. I look forward to seeing more inside your sketchbooks in upcoming days!

Find more of my drawings over at my blog : An Open Sketchbook.

Symposium Participant: Todd Serrano

Hello everyone, my name is Todd and I am an Artist and Product Design Consultant from Chicago. For the last 5 years I was in sales management in the Contract Furniture Industry until about a year ago, with the support of my wife, I went back into art full-time. The company I was working for was also very supportive and asked if they could hire me as an independent Product Design Consultant with flexible hours. I happily agreed and this has allowed me to use my art degree to its fullest, consulting on the design of products as well as just having designed two products for the company this year.

Prior to this, I had been drawing my entire life and studied Fine Art and Communication Design in College. After graduating in 1997 I began doing some post graduate semesters in Europe and studied plein air painting. Upon returning to Chicago, I continued to work on location but found winters frustrating as well as not being able to set up painting equipment in the areas I really wanted to work. When I couldn't work on location in pastel or oil I kept a sketchbook in pencil and made notes about color.

Surfing the web about 4 months ago I came across the Urban Sketchers Site from another artist who had the link on their page. It was exciting to see a forum and very talented community available for something I was already doing, so I joined Urban Sketchers right away. The site also led me to investigate using ink pens and watercolors, two mediums I had very little exposure to in college. I am really just re-learning how to use the ink pen these last few months as well as watercolors. My goal this summer is to fill up my sketchbooks to make larger pieces in the studio during intolerable winter days. Having a great community to share and receive feedback on this has been invaluable.

I am looking forward to meeting everyone in Portland and learning as much as possible. As fellow Urban Sketcher Linda from Portland mentioned we already met while she was in Chicago in May and we both happened to be downtown drawing, it really is a small world! Below are some of my sketches as well as are some of the items I sketch with, not including a small folding stool or my pochade box and tripod. I just throw everything into a small backpack.