Symposium flickr collection

Hi sketchers!

How's everybody doing? I'm still having post symposium blues. How about you?

My therapy so far has been to look at the work posted here and on the Symposium flickr group. Thanks for sharing!

We've also started an edited "collection" of Symposium images that we need your help with. You know, we are still learning how to organize events like this one and we were not able to secure a dedicated photographer or videographer for the Symposium, so any images or videos from the event you can share will help complete a photographic record of those wonderful and intense three days sketching together.

Send your photos to urbansketchers at gmail dot com and we'll see to add them to the collection and include your credit, linking to your blog or flickr account.

Thank you!

—gabi campanario

an open sketchbook...the portland moleskine

You all may be aware of this already, but a friend led me to issuu, a great website where you can easily upload and share an entire sketchbook. Here's mine from our adventures in Portland.

Hope you enjoy!

Suzanne

view from Union Station footbridge.

Isabel Fiadeiro's presentation

dog park and warehouses 2 blocks north of Tanner Park.

Lapin and group at Ira Keller Fountain.

First day of Symposium anr color study from Jason Das' group.

I haven't had an experience quite like my 4 day jaunt about Portland and immersion in the extraodinary group of artist who make just a portion of the growing cadre called Urban Sketchers. To begin with, the symposium drew me to a pearl of a city in the verdant Pacific northwest. Having witnessed the decay, sprawl, and hollowing out of a number of American cities in my travels, I rejoiced in seeing a city whose policies of containing sprawl have actually served to keep the surrounding countryside intact and prevented atrophy in the core of the city. This in a city and state that have been under serious economic challenge and unemployment. There are far too many examples of cities suffering downtown neglect and the unrestained gobbling of surrounding farmlands by the cancerous spread of suburbs & exurbs. This is a city I hope to return to and catch a number of the sites I missed when I head back out to Oregon in the Fall.

But, in order to reunite with some of the wonderful, wonderful artists I met there I suppose I shall have to pack my arse off to Lisbon next year. Here are a number of the drawings I made during the USK Symposium. The ledger book I draw in is too big for my scanner and I'm not up to speed with my gear to post shots of the complete pages yet.

I wouldn't know who or where to start giving thanks to so I'd like to give my deep thanks to everyone, presenters and attendees that made for a truely special symposium. Maybe we'll trip over one another as we're sittin' on a street corner drawing. Cheers and keep on posting.

Has It Been A Week Already?

I finally had time to scan all of my sketches today - it took almost 2.5 hours!

It was so nice meeting all of you - I had the greatest time getting to know all of you, sketching with you and seeing your sketches. I'm glad that everyone else on here is posting the same types of things that I would say about the experience if I could find the words to describe it.

I don't know if I can make it to Lisbon next year, but I'll see you on Flickr, and look forward to continue seeing all of your sketches on this blog and on Urban Sketchers. I'll be starting a sketch group here in Memphis soon, and I'm also posting more from Portland on my blog.


Urban People with Veronica Lawlor





















Urban Color with Tia Boon Sim
















Urban Line with Lapin





















Urban Architecture with Matt Brehm














Urban Nature with Matt Brehm





















Urban Composition with Veronica Lawlor

What a fruitful trip!

What a fruitful trip! I am back in the tiny sunny island of Singapore. I am so honoured to have such a rare opportunity to meet so many talented and wonderful international participants at the Symposium in Portland. I am already looking forward to the next one in Lisbon.

My sketches of Portland are on three different types of format. One is the regular moleskine (A6 size), the other one is the special USK moleskine (A5 size). Finally the long watercolour format (400x200mm). Here are the three watercolour sketches on the long format I did on each different day plus some photos taken at the Symposium.

More sketches and photos at my flickr.


Day 3 at Portland Farmers Market I did the Simon Benson House, Urban Colour group


Day 2 at Ire Keller Fountain, Urban Nature group


Day 1 at Cargo Store near PNCA, Urban Colour group


Day 1 to 3 on USK moleskine

sketching the urban sketchers

the first urban sketching symposium in portland is over, and I'm back to barcelona (with some insomnia, I'm still awake at 4am…). it seems to be already far away, and I look at my sketchbook to remind me the amazing moments we all spent together. only one regret: it was to short.
it was also a great opportunity to meet a lot of urban sketchers, and for many of them, for the first time. but I had the strange feeling that we already known each other, from sharing our sketching for the last year and a half.

gabi, the seattle sketcher and isabel from mauritania just after my arrival in seattle.

gérard who came from liège, belgium.

liz & borromini from australia, at their first week of a very long trip.


tia and her husband albert from singapore.

pete and his "incroyable tenu de crayon"! the most british of the meeting.

simo for her birthday (I want a birthday like this one, full of sketchers from all over the world).

matt on his way back from roma, the hippie sketcher.

kumi from tokyo.

shiho from los angeles.

jason and jesse from brooklyn.

veronica from new york, on her way back from barcelona and paris (and still jet-lagged…).
and isabel again for her last evening in seattle, doing a portrait duel.

sorry laura and kurt, I did not catch you this time, we will have to meet again ;)

a real pleasure to meet all of you,
best wishes, and happy holydays, I'm leaving for bretagne.

blogged by lapin

Words can't describe..

I'm having a very hard time trying to find words for what I saw, the people I've met, what I learned and experienced during my 3 days stay in Portland.

Everything was so new to me, all I'm thinking now was I wished there was more time to talk with everyone, attend all the presenter's lecture's/ class, and to be able to stay longer in beautiful Portland.

So in the mean time, here are some outcomes from Portland:

Mark Spencer Hotel drawing:

I had lots of comments on this drawing so I decided to post it. Measuring and drawing hotel rooms has become more of an obsession than anything. It's also a great way of remembering what tends to be forgotten the most about any trip.

Water Tank:

Frank Ching's class. Learned to incorporate areas in front of me and the subject (foreground), and I was very happy with the results. Also included Gabi's technique of adding street names.

Pioneer square:

Gabi's class. Learned to capture not only the 'subject' but the overall environment. I think the hardest part about this sketch was the sitting posture (Photo by Gabi)


Farmers market:

Tia's Class. 6 girls buying large bouquets of flowers! I had to capture the moment.

Union station:

Per listening to Gabi and Lapin's lecture's, I had the courage for the first time to ask a stranger if I could sketch them. I was surprised on how easy it was and how pleasant the reaction was.

Portland Airport Restaurant:

Last sketch in Portland. Sat at the bar and sketched. Before the symposium, I would have been discreet and be sketching in the corner of the restaurant. This time I had the courage to sketch in the open and had lots of restaurant workers comment on what I was doing and was even asked if they could frame it and display it in the restaurant.

Thank you for an amazing experience!
I'm very new to the online community so I plan on participating more via flickr and blogs and to be able to connect much more with everyone.

miked