DRAWING
Attention
The official zine of Urban Sketchers JULY 2019
Drawing Attention Mandate Drawing Attention, the official monthly zine of the Urban Sketchers organization, communicates and promotes official USk workshops, symposiums, sketchcrawls, news and events; shares news about USk chapters; and educates readers about the practice of on-location sketching. Thanks to this month’s Drawing Attention contributors: Managing Editor: Patricia Chow Editorial Assistant: Pedro Loureiro Mailchimp layout: Jane Wingfield Issuu layout: Anne Taylor Social Media Designer: Carrie Alyson Hirsch Writers: Leslie Akchurin, Mark Leibowitz. Proofreaders: Leslie Akchurin, Ann Schwartzwald. Contributors: Parka; Amber Sausen, Maria Regina Tuazon, Christine Deschamps, Cris Franchevich, Lapin, Vanessa Leung, Caroline Parkinson, Rob Sketcherman, Alex Zonis. cover image: Lapin’s sketch of Poblenou. Subscribe to Drawing Attention. Read the June edition of Drawing Attention. Circulation: 11k+ Readership: 16k+ Web: urbansketchers.org Urban Sketchers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the art of on-location drawing. Click here to make your tax-deductible contribution via Paypal. © 2019 Urban Sketchers. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this publication, including accompanying artwork, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Urban Sketchers organization.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Urban Sketchers, Urban Sketchers marks a big anniversary this month; the Urban Sketchers International Symposium will be held for the 10th time! This annual event builds global understanding and creates globe-spanning friendships. Each year a different Urban Sketchers Chapter welcomes our international community to gather for four days of learning, sketching, and fun. Check out the list of our fantastic past host cities on urbansketchers.org. [http:// www.urbansketchers.org/p/usk.html] This year we’ll be in beautiful Amsterdam, the Netherlands! It is going to be an incredible event, made
even more special by the fact that the sketchwalks will all be FREE this year. To make an event like this happen takes a big team. The all-volunteer Symposium Team is made up of a talented international team who are building an event that will be stellar. Thank you, team! I look forward to sketching with you in Amsterdam; please stop me to say hello! If you are not attending the Symposium, you can still join the fun via social media (#uskAmsterdam2019) and by watching for video coverage on the Urban Sketchers Youtube channel. Happy Sketching, Amber Sausen, USk President president@urbansketchers.org.
MANAGING EDITOR’S MESSAGE Greetings, Sketchers! May 31 to June 2 was a banner weekend for USk meetings worldwide. USk France held their annual meeting in Dijon, while USk Chicago held their annual Sketch Seminar, and Natal hosted the very first regional meeting for northern and northeastern Brazil. In this issue, we travel around the world to check out each of these events, and also catch up with USk instructors Caroline Parkinson, Lapin and Rob Sketcherman, who kicks off a lively debate about the benefits of sketching digitally vs. using physical material. Enjoy! Patricia Chow, Drawing Attention Managing Editor drawingattention@urbansketchers.org
CONTENTS 4 USK SYMPOSIUM NEWS
6
11
20
26
USK FRANCE
USK CHICAGO
USK NATAL
32
36
42
CAROLINE PARKINSON
LAPIN
ROB SKETCHERMAN
USK NEWS & EVENTS
48 REVIEWS | ENDNOTES HOW TO READ DRAWING ATTENTION AS AN E-ZINE FOR EASIER READING ON ISSUU.COM SELECT FULL SCREEN.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ISSUU APP FOR IOS DEVICES CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ISSUU APP FOR ANDROID
JULY 2019 3
USk Symposium News
SYMPOSIUM SKETCHWALKS: THE MORE, THE MERRIER! The 10th International Symposium sketchwalks in Amsterdam are free and pointing us to varied and specific character areas within the city to give everyone the best sketching experience! The general public is welcome and encouraged to join. There will be two sketchwalk locations in the morning and four in the afternoon. This gives plenty of time and space to spread out, meet new friends, draw together, and explore the areas at your own pace. For easy navigation, there are only two defined location points to remember - one to meet fellow sketchers and the end point to share 4 DRAWING ATTENTION
discoveries. Everyone is free to start when they want to, form their own groups, and draw as they please. Just be there at the end point for show & tell and the group photo. Don’t miss the final photo after the final sketchwalk! For those who want to explore further, there are suggested locations and themed walks. If you are not in any workshops, don’t worry there will be loads of opportunities to sketch and get the most out of the Symposium. Are you ready? For the full information regarding the sketchwalks, timings, locations, and meeting points click here.
USk Symposium News
SYMPOSIUM 2020 CALL FOR PROGRAMMING The 11th Urban Sketchers Symposium is happening earlier than usual. Although the venue is yet to be announced at the closing of this year’s Symposium in Amsterdam, the Call for Programming is being released earlier to give those who are interested to teach, more time to prepare for their creative pitches. We are seeking proposals for Workshops, Demonstrations, Lectures and Skit Sketch If you are passionate about sketching and want to be part of the Symposium Faculty next year, all information, tips, deadlines, and forms to fill out are available here: http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/usk-
symposium-2020.html
We wish everyone the best and we look forward to your brilliant proposals!
SUBSCRIBE TO DRAWING ATTENTION – IT’S FREE JULY 2019 5
USk News & Events
10X10 WORKSHOPS USk 10x10 Workshops are an excellent opportunity to learn new sketching skills from a top USk instructor and to meet a new community of sketchers in a location near you. To see the list of 10x10 classes around the world click here. To add your chapter to the list, contact education@urbansketchers.org.
Proud Sponsor of the 10th Urban Sketchers Symposium
NEW! ®
FREE CADMIUM- S’ ARTIST S OR WATERCOL
BLICK
®
DickBlick.com
800.828.4548
®
Brooklyn, New York Manufacturing Since 1949
6 DRAWING ATTENTION Urban Sketchers Symposium.indd 1
5/16/19 11:08 AM
USk News & Events
SHARE YOUR CHAPTER’S NEWS WITH OUR READERS Contact us to share your chapter’s news, special events, joint meetups, and exhibitions with our readers. You don’t need to write the story yourself. We will assign a Drawing Attention writer to cover your story! Contact us at: drawingattention@ urbansketchers.org.
JULY 2019 7
USk News & Events
SKETCH BY VANESSA LEUNG
8 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk Hong Kong
MEMBERS OF USK HONG KONG SKETCH ANTI-EXTRADITION LAW PROTEST BY VANESSA LEUNG
T
he protest was against an extradition bill that would allow the transfer of suspects to places with less robust legal systems, including mainland China. The law would remove the firewall between Hong Kong’s rule of law and the idea of law which prevails in communist China. Hongkongers fear they would lose their right to speak up following the passage of the bill. They are exercising their freedom and taking to the streets to send a message, treasuring their right.
KAY WONG JUNE 2019 9
USk News & Events
VICTOR LAW
GARY YEUN
G
KATHY LIU
10 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk France
USK FRANCE NATIONAL MEETING IN DIJON USK FRANCE’S 7TH NATIONAL MEETING TOOK PLACE IN DIJON (BURGUNDY) FROM THE 31ST OF MAY TO THE 2ND OF JUNE. MORE THAN 350 SKETCHERS CAME TO THE EVENT EAGER TO SKETCH THE REGIONAL CAPITAL, WHICH IS A BEAUTIFUL CITY THAT, UNTIL NOW, HAS NOT BEEN SO WELL KNOWN.... BY CHRISTINE DESCHAMPS SKETCH BY ETIENNE LEGRAND
Featured Chapter
Not many sketchers from the rest of the country knew just how wonderful Dijon is to sketch: it has loads of architecture, churches, palaces, houses...and very few trees to keep us from the sun! We (the 22 volunteers) were very worried about the weather, because you can never bet on a sunny weekend in Burgundy, even in June! But there is a God for us sketchers, I guess, and we got the most sunny days in this rainy spring precisely on this occasion. Hundreds and maybe thousands of sketches were made in only 3 days, and we had the opportunity to meet people we see only once a year, who came not only from every corner of France, but also from Belgium, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and even Australia! Everybody was quite happy, as you can tell from the faces on the pictures!� 12 DRAWING ATTENTION
USK France
CHRISTINE DESCHAMPS
JULY 2019 13
Featured Chapter
ARNAUD HEIDET 14 DRAWING ATTENTION
USK France
SOPHIE NA VAS
JULY 2019 15
Featured Chapter
ABOVE: GÉRARD MICHEL BELOW: ARNAUD DE MEYER
16 DRAWING ATTENTION
USK France
USK FRANCE
JULY 2019 17
Featured Chapter
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE DEFLINE
18 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk France
JEAN-PAUL SCHIFFRINE
JULY 2019 19
Featured Chapter
DIGITAL SKETCH BY LESLIE AKCHURIN
PASSION AND PLANNING MAKE THE CHICAGO SKETCH SEMINAR 20 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk Chicago
PHOTO: AMY LARSEN
LESLIE AKCHURIN TRAVELS TO HER FIRST BIG USK MEET-UP
USk Chicago held its fifth annual Sketch Seminar May 31 through June 2, 2019. As it was winding down, one of its main organizers, Alex Zonis, sounded disappointed that nothing had gone wrong. “Every year since we started, we’ve had mishaps, so this year we planned for them really well. Like, we used Google Location Sharing so we’d know where in the city the instructors were at all times. But everything went fine! I mean there were a few problems, like all the Saturday afternoon workshops were rained out, but everybody handled it beautifully!” Alex’s humor, all-encompassing enthusiasm, and expertise at planning reveal the guiding sensibilities of the Seminar, sensibilities that were evident from the first moment I arrived at its home base at the American Academy of Art on Friday afternoon. After handing
me a name tag, eager volunteers offered a bag stuffed with goodies from the event’s generous sponsors and welcomed me to sit and chat with the other new arrivals. I was a novice to this sort of multi-day event, and just delighted to find myself in Chicago and among so many passionate and like-minded people. After a Welcome Sketch Crawl that Friday afternoon, followed by the first of two Drink & Draw evenings, we 179 participants and 45 volunteers commenced our weekend of four workshops, selected from 18 different topics being taught by 20 instructors from both near and far, including internationally known watercolorist Shari Blaukopf and the original urban sketcher himself, Gabi Campanario. JULY 2019 21
Featured Chapter LEFT: GABI CAMPANARIO RUNNING HIS WORKSHOP ON USING POCKET-SIZED SKETCHBOOKS. LESLIE IS BEHIND HIM IN THE GREEN T-SHIRT. PHOTO: XANA JUAREZ BELOW: A SKETCH OF GABI (LEFT) BY WES DOUGLAS.
22 DRAWING ATTENTION
Featured Chapter
By Sunday evening, participants and instructors alike were exhausted but exhilarated as they gathered for a buffet dinner and a spirited – and again, very generous – raffle of more art supplies. For me personally, the three highlights of the Seminar were the opening Sketch Crawl, Gabi’s workshop, and the many lovely people I met. Chicago brought out its best weather for the Crawl, which was our first opportunity to experience beautiful and varied Lake Shore Park with its many splendid views of the surrounding skyline. As we wandered, sketched, and chatted into the evening in this idyllic setting, I felt truly privileged to be there. On Saturday morning, Gabi’s workshop about using pocket-sized sketchbooks was as engaging and educational as I had hoped (see images opposite). Jingo de la Rosa, himself an instructor from whom I took a workshop the following day, was there. He pointed out that a sign of a really successful workshop is that it takes you out of your comfort zone, stretching your skills and giving you new ideas and approaches to consider. The first exercise we attempted, composing a page that juxtaposed three images of different sizes, gave him a lot to think about in terms of overall composition and how the relative sizes of the images affect their inter-relationship. But it was the second exercise that proved most instructive to me. Participant Namrita Malik agreed: “The exercise of drawing large scenes in a really small space by scaling things down correctly was quite a challenge for me, too. Like you, I’m also used to simply ‘eyeballing’ things – I’m going to have to work really hard to master the pencil measuring technique!”
ABOVE: ALEX ZONIS AND M J ERNST’S FOUNTAIN PEN WORKSHOP. PHOTO: NATALIA GUBERNOV. BELOW: JINGO DE LA ROSA TEACHING. PHOTO: MICHELE PERRIN
JULY 2019 23
Featured Chapter
ABOVE: NISHANT JAIN AND SHARI BLAUKOPF SKETCHING AT THE ‘BE SNEAKY WORKSHOP’. PHOTO: MARTA SITEK LEFT: NISHANT’S SNEAKYART OF PARTICIPANTS. RIGHT: SHARI ’S SKETCH.
24 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk Chicago
From what I overheard during the weekend, other Seminar participants were similarly motivated from what they’d learned in their chosen workshops. As for my fellow sketchers, I can only say that I hope to run into all of them again soon! Early on, I identified with returning participant Eileen Ferguson when she explained, “I just love coming here every year. And since I’ve been hanging out with this [USk Chicago] group, I love sketching in public!” And Miriam Maleuius reported, “I love the positive feedback that I got from a fellow student at the workshop—it feels so good. Other friends are supportive, but they don’t necessarily understand what this is all about.” At the closing get-together, I was pleased to exchange a few words with Bay Area artist Cathy McAuliffe, whose Flickr feed I’m familiar with, as well as with Shari, whose work I so admire and whose new book I just finished reading. For those of us who have been connected to worldwide urban sketching primarily through social media, it is a thrill to be able to meet some of the artists who have inspired us for so long. As we said our goodbyes and drifted apart Sunday evening, I felt such warmth for the weekend of camaraderie and learning with others who share my abiding desire to capture on paper something meaningful about the dynamic world around us. W
Check out the USk Chicago Sketch Seminar website here and read the USk Chicago blog:
b f
JULY 2019 25
Featured Chapter
NATAL HOSTS BRAZIL’S FIRST N/NE 26 DRAWING ATTENTION
E USK MEETING
ANDRÉ DUARTE BAPTISTA
USk Natal
NATAL, A HISTORICAL CITY LOCATED IN THE NORTHEAST OF BRAZIL, HOSTED BRAZIL’S FIRST NORTH/NORTHEAST URBAN SKETCHERS MEETING FROM MAY 31ST TO JUNE 2ND, 2019. BY CRIS FRANCHEVICH JULY 2019 27
Featured Chapter
ANDRÉ DUARTE BAPTISTA
Natal, a historical city located in the Northeast of Brazil, hosted Brazil’s 1st North/Northeast Urban Sketchers Meeting from May 31st to June 2nd, 2019. More than 100 sketchers from all over the country and even abroad got together to draw its streets, people, monuments and beaches, and had the opportunity to participate in workshops, see first-hand the exhibition Ribeira e Encosta - Desenho de Rua (“Riverside and Hillside - Street Drawing”) and have fun at the end of each day at different spots for Drink & Draw. The group sketched historical places to call attention to the importance of the preservation and sustainability 28 DRAWING ATTENTION
of these sites. One of the sites, the Ribeira, is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, but is unfortunately showing serious levels of degradation. That’s why initiatives like the Urban Sketchers Meeting are important as a way of connecting with the local community and creating awareness about these issues. The “Encosta da Ribeira” in Torres Vedras, Portugal, actually faced the same kind of problems, but is now under development and recovering. In addition, veteran USk instructor Cris Franchevich, from Minneapolis, USA, conducted a workshop for low-income students at both local universities on ‘How
SKETCH BY CRIS FRANCHEVICH
SKETCH BY JUAN CARLOS FRANCHEVICH
USk Natal
to Use Watercolor to Urban Sketch’ (right). Supplies were donated by Minneapolis independent art store Wet Paint and Hahnemühle FineArt papers, and brought to Brazil by Cris. The 1st N/NE USk Meeting was a succes-sful partnership between the Department of Architecture of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal, and the Municipality of Torres Vedras. JULY 2019 29
Featured Chapter
SKETCH BY ANTÓNIO PROCÓPIO
30 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk News
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SKETCHING TOOL? The Urban Sketchers YouTube Channel would like to feature individual urban sketchers or chapters sharing their answer to What is your favorite sketching tool? We are requesting answers submitted in video format for our YouTube Channel. These do not have to be professional videos and can be videos taken with your phone! Guidelines: Please submit anytime during the month of July 2019. We prefer very short videos (2-3 minutes for a group). By submitting your
SUBSCRIBE TO THE USK YOUTUBE CHANNEL
video you give permission to have it edited and/or combined with other submissions if necessary. MPEG4 OR .mp4 file extension, steady camera, clear, intelligible voice, little to no background noise, no advertisements. To submit your video for consideration, please send via WeTransfer to Lydia Velarde at video@urbansketchers.org. I am looking forward to viewing and sharing answers on the Urban Sketchers YouTube Channel!
FOLLOW USK ON TWITTER JULY 2019 31
Sketcher Spotlight
HUNSTANTON
SKETCHER SPOTLIGHT: CAROLINE PARKINSON
I
am a member of Urban Sketchers Birmingham chapter. A few years ago I travelled round the world and sketched everything I saw. I drew the Northern Lights in the dark in minus 7 degrees centigrade, sketched stalactites down caves, pagodas in rainstorms and sand dunes from the back of a moving camel. My drawings weren’t always masterpieces, but I had a lot of fun. When I returned to England, I met some urban sketchers in Coventry. Although I’d participated in sketchcrawls before, for the first time I realized that urban sketching was a worldwide movement. My favourite part of the Urban Sketchers community is meeting other international artists at the annual Symposium. Sketchbooks are truly the universal language! Now I’ve drawn in over 30 countries and every continent apart from the Arctic and Antarctic. Maybe one day...
32 DRAWING ATTENTION
Caroline Parkinson
PEOPLE
I participated in the One Week 100 People 2018 drawing challenge and enjoyed this so much I challenged myself to draw a thousand people in one year. The exercise made me think about how I use my animation training in urban sketching, and became the basis for my workshop “How to Improve Drawing People,” which ran in Coventry on 18 May 2019. I’ve been a creator and reader of small press graphic novels since my mid-teens and this interest led to my workshop in “Using Graphic Novel Techniques in Urban Sketching,” which ran on 22 June! Both workshops sold out and I plan to run them again later this year.
BUDDHAS JULY 2019 33
Sketcher Spotlight
CAROLINE’S TIPS FOR FIRST TIME URBAN SKETCHERS: DON’T WORRY ABOUT DRAWING IN PUBLIC. MOST PEOPLE WON’T NOTICE, AND MY EXPERIENCE IS THAT CRITICISM IS VERY RARE.
CASTLE
RIGHT: SAGRADA FAMILIA MOROCCO
PORTSIDE PORTHOLE 34 DRAWING ATTENTION
Caroline Parkinson
JULY 2019 35
Sketcher Spotlight
LAPIN ON LIFE AS A MOBILE SKETCHER & THE FIRST SKETCH POSTED TO THE USK BLOG IN 2008 ‘TO ME, A GOOD SKETCHBOOK MUST CONTAIN TWO THINGS: SOME DOODLES OF DINOSAURS AND VINTAGE CARS. A SPACESHIP OR A PLANE WOULD BE A GREAT ADDITION…’
I am a French artist living in Barcelona. I define myself as a mobile illustrator and I register my life in drawings: I have filled 192 sketchbooks during the past 17 years. I was lucky that Gabi Campanario contacted me at the very beginning, surely because I was the only sketcher having a blog at that time in his hometown, Barcelona. So I posted the very first sketch on the Urban Sketchers 36 DRAWING ATTENTION
blog on November 1, 2008: the Casa Batlló, one of Gaudí’s masterpieces. Since then, I am amazed by how many sketches followed Gabi’s brilliant idea: sharing the world one drawing at a time! I sketch on vintage accounting books that I find in flea markets. This yellow paper with red and blue lines reminds me of the first paintings and observations that were brought back by the scientific expeditions of the
Lapin on Life as a Mobile Sketcher
XVIIIth century, like Cook or Laperouse, from unknown civilisations and lands. I secretly want to become one of those explorers. Sketching from direct observation and reporting have become my main activity. I have published 28 books on Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Cuba, Ouessant Island and themes like “art nouveau” or “vintage cars.” My most recent project was about the loss of identity of my neighborhood, Poblenou, in Barcelona. During 3 years, I documented the gentrification, as old factories were replaced by hotels and office buildings. The pages of my sketchbook have become a record of change, as the old is bulldozed in the name of progress. The book Poblenou. Atlas ilustrado de un barrio industrial (“Poblenou: Illustrated atlas of an industrial neighborhood”) is my testimony to keep in mind what made Poblenou special to me. The economy of the medium is also what I appreciate. I’m traveling light and don’t need much more than a sketchbook, ink pens, watercolor and my folding stool. The street is my studio. Nowadays that most people are focused on digital, being unplugged with a simple sketchbook made of secondhand paper and inviting the spectator to look through it, flipping the pages, looks like magic. What I prefer the most about the Urban Sketchers community is the deep friends I discovered through the organisation. I get to sketch with so many gifted artists all around the world, I learn and share a lot with them during Urban Sketching symposiums or workshops. This is my gang! CONNECT WITH LAPIN: W
RIGHT: A SKETCH OF CASA BATLLO, WHICH FEATURED IN LAPIN’S FIRST USK BLOG IN 2008. JULY 2019 37
Sketcher Spotlight
ABOVE: SAINT MALO. BELOW: LAPIN’S SKETCHBOOKS.
38 DRAWING ATTENTION
Lapin on Life as a Mobile Sketcher
LAPIN IN HONG KONG BY ROB SKETCHERMAN
JULY 2019 39
ROB SKETCHERMAN BY LAPIN
Sketcher Spotlight
LAPIN: “AFTER A VERY INTENSE DAY SKETCHING TOGETHER, ROB RAN OUT OF BATTERY WHILE I KEPT SKETCHING. PAPER 1 : IPAD 0.”
THIS PAGE: SKETCHES BY LAPIN USING TRADITIONAL MATERIALS 40 DRAWING ATTENTION
LAPIN BY ROB
Lapin on Life as a Mobile Sketcher
ROB: “THAT NEVER HAPPENED.”
THIS PAGE: SKETCHES BY ROB SKETCHERMAN USING IPAD
JULY 2019 41
Sketcher Spotlight
DIGITAL VS. ANALOG PART 1: DIGITAL ROB SKETCHERMAN SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON THE BENEFITS OF SKETCHING ON AN IPAD. BY MARK LEIBOWITZ
It’s said that oil painting was developed by Jan van Eyck around 1410. The benefits of this new medium were so overwhelming that within a generation most artists had abandoned using egg tempera. When I see people sketching with an iPad I sometimes wonder if we’re not seeing something similar. So, to sort through all the claims and facts, Drawing Attention asked Rob Sketcherman, “Missionary of Digital,” and Matthew Brehm, “Evangelist of Analog,” to weigh in with their thoughts. This month, Rob Sketcherman describes his love for digital tools and techniques, specifically using an iPad, an Apple Pencil and Procreate software. Next month, we’ll hear from Matt Brehm, who describes his passion for physical tools and methods - pencils, pens, brushes and watercolor. ML: What’s your favorite thing about the way you work? RS: You know how every pencil has a sweet spot, when it’s not too thin and sharp, but just blunt enough for a touch of softness? That sweet spot, once reached, will inevitably disappear again as the pencil gets blunt. If I were to pick one little thing that I love about going digital, it’s how my brushes, when calibrated the way I want them, are always in the sweet spot. No refilling needed, no cleaning required. Perfect, dependable, delicious juiciness on tap. Bonus points: ink stains no longer insidiously decorate my face or favorite shirt. Working digitally makes me almost feel like I have superhero powers. I love that I can set up and pack up in seconds, blend into a crowd and work off a device that doesn’t draw much attention to itself in today’s urban 42 DRAWING ATTENTION
LEFT: THE MADERA HOLLYWOOD MURAL
Digital Vs. Analog
‘THE BEAN’
environments, yet allows me to paint the scene in front of me on a canvas that could fill a giant wall, all while packing a slew of incredible tools without needing an inch of extra space. I switched to digital because the reality of living in a small flat in Hong Kong meant I was running out of space to store all my art equipment. Now thousands of high-resolution pieces of my work are stored on my iPads, the Cloud and a couple of hard drives. I am now no longer tempted by an art store, saving me a fair bit of change. Of course, now and then, like traditional artists, I might want new toys, er...tools to play with. When a set of amazing digital brushes costs less than a meal at the Golden Arches, as opposed to, for instance, just one angled sable brush, there’s virtually no guilt when I feel like the occasional indulgence. Tune in next month for Matt Brehm’s thoughts on the subject. But in the meantime, what are your thoughts on this subject? JULY 2019 43
Sketcher Spotlight
PORTO’S PRACA DA RIBEIRA
44 DRAWING ATTENTION
Digital Vs. Analog
JULY 2019 45
Sketcher Spotlight
PRIDE PARADE
46 DRAWING ATTENTION
Digital Vs. Analog
CHICAGO INSTRUCTORS’ DINNER
CONNECT WITH ROB SKETCHERMAN: W
f JULY 2019 47
Reviews | Endnotes
PARKA REVIEWS BY TEOH YI CHIE
Teoh Yi Chie is an infographics journalist who joined Urban Sketchers Singapore in 2009. He’s probably better known as Parka from Parkablogs.com, a website that reviews art books and art products. This month Parka video reviews the Artgraf Color Set - Watersoluble Graphite. Check it out!
BRING A WORKSHOP TO YOUR CHAPTER Urban Sketchers organizes workshops taught by our top instructors in collaboration with USk chapters around the world. If you would like to bring an official USk workshop to your chapter, start the conversation with our Education Director, Mário Linhares at education@urbansketchers. org.
FOLLOW USK ON FACEBOOK 48 DRAWING ATTENTION
Reviews | Endnotes
COOL GEAR BY MARK LEIBOWITZ
SEEMS OBVIOUS – NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT... It rained all day yesterday, but today looks promising. You get to your sketch location and the grass is soaking wet. Sitting on the ground is out. However, since you’re an Urban Sketcher, you are prepared. You reach into your backpack and take out your handy folding stool. But where do you put your stuff? Your jacket and backpack will be wet in a minute if you leave them on the grass.
Sonia Idelson from Urban Sketchers NYC has the solution. She unfurls her trusty umbrella and inverts it on the grass to keep everything dry – a unique use for her rain gear. If you have a great idea worth sharing with a world filled with Urban Sketchers, send it to Mark Leibowitz: markleibowitz810@gmail.com.
JULY 2019 49
Reviews | Endnotes
PLACE YOUR AD HERE
and reach
16,000+
artists & art lovers For more information about ad placement, sizes and costs for corporate sponsors, email Raylie at raylie@verizon.net
50 DRAWING ATTENTION
Reviews | Endnotes
USK ULSAN, KOREA
NEW REGIONAL CHAPTER GROUPS
USk is pleased to announce eight new Regional Chapters, reflecting a truly global community! The newest groups to join are: USk Ulsan, Korea USk Oslo, Norway
Welcome to the Urban Sketchers family!
USK OSLO, NORWAY
JULY 2019 51
Our Manifesto • We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation • Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel • Our drawings are a record of time and place • We are truthful to the scenes we witness • We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles • We support each other and draw together • We share our drawings online • We show the world, one drawing at a time.
© 2019 Urban Sketchers www.urbansketchers.org