SKETCHING IN
UKRAINE ANDALUSIA • BRAZIL DELAWARE • GYEONGJU HALIFAX • NEW ZEALAND NICE • SEATTLE SEOUL
DRAWING
Attention
The official zine of Urban Sketchers JUNE 2022
Drawing Attention Mandate Drawing Attention, the official 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: Content Publication Team: Olga Surmacheva, Anne Taylor, Jane Wingfield Mailchimp layout: Jane Wingfield Issuu layout: Anne Taylor Writers: Mark Alan Anderson, Cathy Gutterman, Mark Leibowitz, Rita Sabler, Anne Taylor, Jane Wingfield Copy Editor: Leslie Akchurin Contributors: Genine Carvalheira, Renata Lehalle, Parka Cover Image: Uliana Balan Subscribe to Drawing Attention. Read the March edition of Drawing Attention Circulation: 14k+ 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. © 2022 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.
Hello Urban Sketchers, Welcome to another great edition of Drawing Attention, where our Content Publication Team along with our writers and contributors have done an amazing job highlighting our community across the globe – including articles from the Ukraine, France, the US and more. As restrictions have been lifting we are seeing sketchers and Chapters gathering in person again. In May, the five Regional Events Grants were awarded, now giving opportunities for our community to
The distinguishing characteristic of Urban Sketchers is its journalistic roots. USk was established not only to spread and appreciate the art of urban sketching, but to document life all over the world. It’s not just about lovely pictures, but also about the context – the stories of our lives. With that in mind, we begin this issue with “Diary of a War”– Ukrainian sketchers giving their first-hand view of what’s happening before them. Also, Rita Sabler interviews Iryna Vodolazhchenko as she discusses the therapeutic benefits of sketching, even in a time of crisis. From the other side of the world, in New Zealand, Murray Dewhurst shares sketches from his bicycle journey across his home country. Polish sketcher Katarzyna Kosiak relays the ups and downs of her solo trip through Andalusia. Renata Lahalle
gather in Indonesia, Poland, the US, Argentina and India in 2022. It’s been a long few years. Watching Urban Sketchers come together while apart and now in person brings me such joy and fills me with gratitude for this amazing community. It is with that joy and great excitement that we announce that Urban Sketchers will be holding our 11th Symposium in April of 2023!!! We’re not giving away all the info just yet…we’ve waited this long and want to make it fun. So, stay tuned to our social media channels in the coming months for details. Take care and happy sketching! Genine Carvalheira, USk President president@urbansketchers.org
guides us through a step-by-step process for lively watercolor sketches. We see sketches and information from the new chapter in Nice, France; an Earth Day Celebration from Bergamo Italy; and an announcement about Brazil’s Fifth Urban Sketchers Meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Lastly, for anyone who has dreamed of creating a book, we interviewed four sketchers who have done just that, either alone or with others. They tell us about their process and ideas gathered along the way. These past few months, the world has experienced some dramatic events and through it all we can count on urban sketchers continuing to help us “See the World, one sketch at a time.” We’re always keen to receive stories from your corner of the globe! Jane Wingfield (USA), with Olga Surmacheva (USA), and Anne Taylor (NZ) Content Publication Team drawingattention@urbansketchers.org
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CREATE A CITY BOOK
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COOL GEAR & REVIEW
ANDALUSIA
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FIND A USK REGIONAL EVENT NEAR YOU! ERIC NGAN Greetings to the amazing world-wide Urban Sketching community! It’s been too long since we’ve been able think about gathering in large numbers to sketch together in distant places. But, with the USk Regional Event Grants program, we are now taking the first confident steps towards this. We are very happy to announce that five chapters have been selected to receive a grant of $2,000 USD to go towards their regional projects. Look out for a regional event near you!
GROUP 1 | URBAN SKETCHERS INDONESIA 24 JULY & 13 NOV 2022
(TWO SEPARATE EVENTS, ONE DAY EACH) INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @INDONESIA_SKETCHERS HASHTAG: #USKINDONESIA_CILIWUNGRHAPSODY EVENT REGISTRATION: ciliwung.rhapsody@gmail.com A Google doc registration form will be provided at a later time Indonesia’s Sketchers and Bogor Sketchers collaborate as CIliwung Rhapsody to rejuvenate Ciliwung River. Through initiating and building sketching/storytelling communities around the area where the river flows, let’s raise general public awareness and passion for the river, and at the same time spread the joy of urban sketching as a tool for social activism. Together, we help preserve the river and its communities to grow, collaborate and flourish together for many years to come. We hope that we can inspire other USk groups across the globe with this initiative.
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GROUP 2 | USK POLAND 11-14 AUGUST 2022
INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @USKPOLAND HASHTAG: #USKPOLAND EVENT REGISTRATION: https://www.uskpoland.pl/english.html Come and sketch with us this summer! The Urban Sketching Festival (Festiwal Miejskiego Szkicowania) will be a four-daylong sketching Festival held in the city of Świdnica, Poland. Organized by Urban Sketchers Poland with Urban Sketchers Prague and Świdnica Culture Center as co-organisers, the event features attractions open to everyone, such as daily sketch walks, free workshops led by experienced artists, two exhibitions, a mini-fair with art materials… and much more! All events will be set in the beautiful Świdnica, whose history as a city reaches back to the 13th century. We are sure that everyone, regardless of their experience with art, will have fun during the four days of inspiring events. Join us, sketch with us, and take the unique opportunity to participate in our exhibition of urban sketches created during the Festival!
GROUP 3 | USK SAN DIEGO 30 SEPTEMBER 30 TO 2 OCTOBER 2022 INSTAGRAM: @USKSANDIEGO HASHTAG: #USKSANDIEGO2022SEMINAR REGISTRATION: VIA EVENTBRITE
The USk San Diego 2022 Seminar takes place in America’s ‘finest city’ – sunny San Diego. We will celebrate the core of what urban sketching means by getting together and reuniting or meeting for the first time urban sketchers of all ages and skill levels, from near and far. The weekend will be filled with activities including a drink & draw in one of our most lively and
colorful neighborhoods, Little Italy. We’ll also have workshops by experienced urban sketchers, sketchwalks, and an Urban Sketch art show at the world famous Balboa Park (built for the 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition). You cannot think of San Diego without picturing its vast waterfront, and our seminar takes in Seaport Village, with marinas and piers, grassy areas, promenade, quaint shops and the most diverse crowd. There is so much to sketch, you will easily fill your entire sketchbook and return home with memories of a lifetime, so mark your calendars and join us.
GROUP 4 | USK PUNE 2-4 DECEMBER 2022 (INAUGURATION: 1 DECEMBER, 5.30PM) INSTAGRAM: @URBANSKETCHERSPUNE HASHTAG: #USKPUNE_SKETCHFEST06 REGISTRATION: DETAILS TO COME
Urbansketchers Pune Sketchfest 06 celebrates the urban sketching movement of drawing on location, and is hosted by UrbanSketchers Pune. An exhibition by over 65 artists from all over India will give a multi-faceted view of Pune heritage. Sketchfest-06 is a first-of-its-kind event happening in India. Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, there will be a wide choice of urban sketching workshops spread over three days and for all skill levels. Free Demos by experts in the art of urban sketching and plein air painting are designed to inspire everyone. Guided sketch-walks are the best way to get introduced to the art of on-location sketching, and at the same time experience the culture of this historical city. Sketchfest 06 will feature outreach initiatives, talks and interactive sessions to share urban sketching stories. Come join us and be part of this global movement. 6 • 2022 5
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GROUP 5 | USK BUENOS AIRES 7-10 OCTOBER 2022
INSTAGRAM: @USKARGENTINA HASHTAG: #ARGENTINAURBANSKETCHERS REGISTRATION: https://sketchiton.wixsite.com/ uskexploringrecoleta Who has not dreamt of drawing Buenos Aires? This multifaceted city lends itself perfectly to urban sketching. Graphic and colorful, the main city of Argentina will offer you countless themes for drawing: classical and contemporary architecture, iconic monuments, lively cafes, gardens, charming and picturesque streets, and wide views of the Rio de La Plata. This is a unique opportunity to discover tango rhythms, with workshops, lectures and special activities led by experienced instructors. Our workshops are about exploring your line flow, sketching people around, expressing mood and conceptual scaffolding. There will be lectures about the grammar of watercolor, figure and landscape and creating vibrating sketches. And don’t forget the special activities: a sketch tour, drink & draw, and live music. Come to Buenos Aires and find some Tango in your lines!
¿QUIÉN NO HA SOÑADO CON DIBUJAR BUENOS AIRES? Buenos Aires es una ciudad multifacética que se presta perfectamente para el dibujo urbano. Gráfica y colorida, la principal ciudad de Argentina ofrece innumerables temas para dibujar: arquitectura clásica y contemporánea, monumentos icónicos, cafés animados, jardines, calles encantadoras y pintorescas, amplias vistas del Río de La Plata...Esta es una oportunidad única para descubrir los ritmos del tango con talleres, conferencias y actividades especiales dirigidas por instructores experimentados. En nuestros talleres podrás explorar el flujo de tu línea, dibujar personas a tu alrededor, expresar atmósferas con el paisaje urbano y comprender el andamiaje conceptual. ¡Habrá conferencias sobre la gramática de la acuarela, la relación entre figura y paisaje y la creación de bocetos vibrantes! Y no te olvides de las actividades especiales: sketch tour, drink&draw y música de tango en vivo. ¡Ven a Buenos Aires y encuentra el Tango en tus líneas!
USK hastags for the Regional Events program are: #USkRegionalEvents #uskchapters #urbansketchers
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THANK YOU TO NOGA & WELCOME CHRISTINA BY RITA SABLER
NOGA GROSMAN
CHRISTINA WALD
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have always been inspired and impressed with the way Noga Grosman has poured her heart and soul into her volunteer work for Urban Sketchers, taking on responsibilities way beyond her role as a Social Media Director. In fact, it is hard to find an area of the organization that hasn’t had Noga playing a role in it for the last several years. We can start by mentioning her smooth and efficient running of the social media team. Noga has a talent for finding and leading teams of volunteers, that under her guidance, have made so many of our campaigns a resolute success – USk Fundraising, USk Talks, Regional Events Grant, Reportage Grant, Sketch Together Virtual Event, to name a few. Noga is a warrior, and her energy is boundless. We are endlessly grateful for everything she has done for the organization. It has been my honor to serve with Noga and to be infected
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with her boundless energy and enthusiasm for everything ‘Urban Sketchers’. Read more about Noga here. I would also like to welcome Christina Wald in her role as a Social Media Coordinator. I had the pleasure of working with Christina in 2020-2021 on the series of Instagram Live and later YouTube USk Talks. USk is so lucky to have Christina managing our Social media – her technical expertise is deep and broad, and it is only logical to have her take on a larger role in the organization that she has already served for the past several years. Rita Sabler | Education Director | Urban Sketchers education@urbansketchers.org
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#USK4EARTH BY ELENA MARCHESANI
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his initiative was organized by Alterales, an artist who collaborates with Zeroco2. Zeroco2 and Banca Flowe had proposed a single Earth Day event in Italy and agreeded to plant a tree for each participant. The event was called ‘Re-evolution’ and was a series of many events, both in person and digital, which took place on 22 and 23 April to celebrate International Earth Day. The plan was to create a large shared ecosystem that can lead people to ignite their own (small) personal revolutions to be more active and sensitive towards our planet and to see the world with brand new eyes. In this, we could see a deep connection to the Urban Sketchers manifesto, which includes the idea “Let’s show the world, one drawing at a time”. We at USk Bergamo liked the idea very much and decided to share it with other sketchers by creating the hashtag #usk4earth. On 23 April in Bergamo, Italy, the weather was not favourable, but seven people participated. We are happy to have shared the initiative which has been warmly welcomed by many chapters. Zeroco2 has reported to us that thanks
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to the registrations for the event, 70 trees will be planted! We would like to organize other initiatives of this type and involve all interested sketchers.
SKETCHING THE ROCHESTER SKYLINE
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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. We will assign a Drawing Attention writer to help you with your story! Contact us at: drawingattention@urbansketchers.org
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USK BRAZIL IS EXCITED TO BE WELCOMING SKETCHERS TO STUNNING RIO DE JANEIRO, AFTER COVID CANCELLED THEIR PLANS FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS. BY THAIS MACHADO, USK BRAZIL & USK RIO COORDINATOR
FIFTH URBAN SKETCHERS BRAZIL MEETING – RIO 2022
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e would like to invite you all to Rio de Janeiro, for four days of sketching in this wonderful city. The National Meeting of Urban Sketchers Brazil is an annual event that brings together sketchers from all over Brazil and abroad to sketch the streets, architecture, landscape and people in the host city. After a two-year delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 5th edition of this meeting will finally happen in the ‘Marvellous City’ of Rio de Janeiro. We expect an attendance of 250 to 300 participants. Check out our exciting schedule of sketchwalks, sketch drinks, and more here, and register here.
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ABOVE: SKETCHERS AT THE 4TH URBAN SKETCHERS BRASIL MEETING IN OURO PRETO IN 2019.
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new chapter
Welcome Urban Sketchers NICE NETWORKING WITH SKETCHERS AND OTHER CHAPTERS IN NEIGHBOURING REGIONS HAS BEEN ONE OF THE KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR USK NICE, LOCATED ON THE BEAUTIFUL FRENCH RIVIERA. BY CATHY GUTTERMAN
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USK NICE MEMBERS OUTSIDE THE LUXURY HOTEL NEGRESCO, WHICH FEATURES ON THEIR LOGO
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The French Riviera city of Nice, located on the southeastern Mediterranean coast of France, at the foot of the French Alps, is the home city of Urban Sketchers Nice. Marianne Heredge, Charline Moreau, Nathalie Massacrier, and Patrick Bauquel are the administrators of this new USk Chapter. On her way back to Nice after a backpacking trip around Eastern Europe in June 2019, Marianne chanced upon an exhibition of Urban Sketchers Liguria, at the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) in Genoa, northwestern Italy. She had never heard of Urban Sketchers but she was very impressed by their artwork. The group told Marianne about how they operated, and invited her to join them the following weekend for workshops presented by urban sketchers Pedro Loureiro and Jonathan Alvina Segura. Marianne rushed home to unpack her travel bag and pack up her sketching kit. She returned to Genoa to attend Pedro’s workshop where she learned how to sketch people in the market and, the next day, went on her first urban sketch crawl. Soon after, she met Charline at the USk Liguria monthly meeting in Finale Ligure, Italy.
Charline Moreau designed the USk Nice logo which incorporates an iconic postcard view of La Promenade des Anglais, with the domed roof of the luxury Hotel Negresco and the famous palm-lined promenade along the Mediterranean coast.
On her return to Nice, Marianne discovered that there was an urban sketching group in Nice called Urban Sketchers Sud-Est. With encouragement from USk Liguria, Marianne took on the responsibility for revitalizing monthly events for the group and also arranged some ad hoc get-togethers to sketch in and around Nice and over the Italian border with the Liguria sketchers. The group’s name changed to Urban Sketchers Nice and membership has grown to over 400 members. Many foreigners live in and visit the city of Nice, so membership in the USk Nice group is very international, though predominantly French. When they meet, there are usually no more than a dozen or so attendees as different people come at different times. Officially, they meet on the second Sunday of each month but they also get together whenever anyone wants to sketch. When the weather is good, this can be as often as weekly. Typically, the location ranges from Nice to as far as San Remo on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy, where several Ligurian sketchers sometimes join them. Nathalie Massacrier, an urban sketcher from Paris, moved to Nice in the autumn of 2019. She attended the inaugural USk Nice meeting and soon became interRIGHT: PORT DE NICE BY CHARLINE MOREAU
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ested in taking on an active role in the group. Charline had been following USk Nice updates from Genoa, and when she moved to Nice in 2020, she was thrilled to join the group. It helped her to discover the city step by step and to fill her sketchbook pages while learning about the region. Each month, USk Nice tries to sketch in a new locale, be it a park, majestic church, museum or art school, or port. Other than forcing the cancellation of a few meetings, COVID did not significantly affect USk Nice. During the pandemic, some members followed events online, including a few hosted by the Liguria and Cambridge chapters. When they could not go outside, members continued to share their artwork on Facebook, which inspired others to continue sketching. Some members kept a ‘pandemic logbook’ during this period. As soon as it was possible to safely meet together, they gathered on location.
In early April 2022, USk Nice exhibited in the first ‘Envie d’Ailleurs’ (Desire to Get Away) Festival in the southern region of France. The purpose of this festival was to promote ecological and sustainable travel for both able-bodied and disabled people. USk Nice also organized a Sketch Crawl in the historic village of Mouans Sartoux, where the festival was held. Even though the weather was cold and rainy, a few new sketchers enthusiastically joined in. Marianne is currently in Nepal, where she spends a lot of her time. She hopes to raise interest in urban sketching in Katmandu, where there is so much to sketch. They do not have a USk Group…not yet!
When traveling, Marianne appreciates how easy it is to join other USk groups, and she is always happy to welcome visitors to sketch with their group. She is a great proponent of collaboration with other USk groups near and far. On 17 October 2021, USk Nice joined the Urban Sketchers International Sketch Together Day with Liguria, Cambridge, and other USk groups around the world. They have also been reaching out to nearby groups in Marseille and the south of France. RIGHT: PARC VIGIER BY CHARLINE MOREAU (PICTURED ABOVE) 14 drawing attention
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SKETCH BY NATHALIE MASSACRIER (PICTURED RIGHT)
Nicknamed Nice la Belle, meaning Nice the Beautiful, the city of Nice and the whole region is blessed with astonishing architecture and colors that have inspired painters over the centuries. Almost anywhere you go, there are picturesque sites to sketch. Inspiration can be found in architecture, luxuriant vegetation, seaside scenes, and people.
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PORT DU NICE BY ANNIE MARTEL
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LO PEYRON MATHEWS VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER STREET 16 drawing attention
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FIRST MEETING, 13 OCTOBER 2019 CATHEDRALE ST NICOLAS BY BRIGITTE PIQUE
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PORT DE NICE BY DENISE SOLOMAN
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USK NICE MEMBERS IN THE OLD TOWN
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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: GARE DU SUD BY MARIANNE HEREDGE ANTIBES BY JEAN JACQUES GILIBERT MONASTERE DE CIMIEZ BY BRIGITTE PIQUE VILLEFRANCHE BY LO PEYRO MATHEWS MENTON BY KELLY PARKHOUSE
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DIARY of a War THE URBAN SKETCHERS TAG LINE IS “SHOW THE WORLD, ONE SKETCH AT A TIME.” IN KEEPING WITH THIS SPIRIT, WE ASKED URBAN SKETCHER, NINA KHASHCHINA, TO SHARE HER WORK, ALONG WITH THAT OF OTHER UKRAINIAN URBAN SKETCHERS.
These pages: Nina Khashchina is a Ukrainian-born nature and food illustrator, and designer, gouache enthusiast, and sketchbook artist located in California. Her parents live in Kharkiv, Ukraine and before the war they would talk about twice a week by video calls. She has been posting sketches of her phone calls with her Ukrainian parents to tell their story. Nina: Since the beginning of the war on 24 February 2022, we have been connecting multiple times a day via texts and phone calls to check on the
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status of different parts of the family and friends. And we have one long video call when I get to draw them. We are a Russian-speaking family, and most of the little bits of conversations in these sketches are in Russian. Kharkiv was a Russian-speaking city when I was growing up, and when I was in school, Ukrainian was taught only from the 4th grade – the same as a foreign language. So my Ukrainian is not as fluent as I wish it were, but both my parents are fluent and our conversations turn to Ukrainian history and language often. Day 7 (above): My parents are sitting in a very dark room as we speak. The whole city is under a curfew, with
orders to keep all lights out. This is a preventive measure to make it harder to aim for the artillery and air attacks. But it is very hard to operate in the darkness for my parents, so they are trying to finish all the daily tasks before 8 pm. Two Russian missile hit Kharkiv regional administration building and a square next to it, where Kharkiv’s oldest University is. My mom works there; her co-workers reported that windows and doors were blown out by the shock wave from the missiles. Day 17 (above right): If you look at this image you will see yellow circles – each time I heard an explosion during our call I wrote it down. Our
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conversation on that day was about events of the day: A light dusting of snow overnight helped with the air quality and also made everything prettier. The highlight was a visit from their grandkid who has a birthday tomorrow. She brought meds and food and one of the neighbors made a special cake for her! Day 23 (above right): Bombing which started in the night was so loud that they both hardly slept and then did not have much energy during the day. But the weather was gorgeous. Volunteers brought my parents some food: three apples, some potatoes, 10 carrots, a few onions, boxes with prepared sausages with some porridge, and a pack of milk. They organized a “feast” with the neighbors. The garbage truck came. We were talking about how grateful we are to the people who organized food for my parents. And to the city workers repairing power, phone and internet lines under the non-stop shelling. (Right): After many days of daily shelling of Kharkiv, we were able to relocate my parents to a nearby region. This was drawn on day 60 of the war. It is relatively quiet where they are now; they can go outside without being constantly afraid of Russian artillery. They
are still having a hard time sleeping through the night and are constantly worried for the remainder of the family in Kharkiv. And friends, of course. And neighbors. And about their grandson in the army. About all the family and friends that are now displaced. A team of volunteers supports them and we continue our daily video calls, and I continue to draw them – you can see more on my blog. 6 • 2022 21
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sketcher spotlight
Right: Uliana Balan is an Illustrator, story-board artist and batik painting artist from Kyiv, Ukraine. She was in Kyiv when the war began and was able to evacuate to Stockholm where she continues to work on a sketching project about evacuated people for upcoming exhibitions in Uppsala and Stockholm galleries.
Mistograf: Large Kharkiv became tiny for us: only a yard where we would go to get a breath of fresh air and take out the trash. Our basement had a tiny window that we kept blacked out to make sure that no light escaped. All loud sounds became scary – every banging door was perceived as a sound of artillery. Time was spent in long lines – at the bank, pharmacy, or at the food supermarket – all of which were open for just a few hours a day. Every purchase was made with the thought that we are not sure when there will be a chance to get out safely. Curfew started pretty early, especially during the first week, and lasted over 24 hours at first. We listened to an old radio, read 22 drawing attention
news online and spoke to the neighbors. Kharkiv is well known for its subway system but all the beautiful stations became bomb shelters where families slept and kids studied. We decided to stay in our basement and a hallway in our apartment where the rule of two walls was working for us. The rule is that there should be two walls between the street and you – on all sides – to survive all the glass that gets blown in when artillery or missile hit a building nearby. For six days we lived like this but, when all the neighbors left, we decided to evacuate and went to the train station where we were able to board a train to Lviv. It was filled to the brim with people and pets.
We had a short break in Lviv where we organized help for our parents and tried to cobble together some plans (thinking in Kharkiv – under shelling – was impossible). And now we are living many miles away from our home in a tiny village in the mountains. Unfortunately we don’t have all our equipment and sketching tools but we continue working on our zines and this project and our work has a new meaning for us now. The war changed our understanding of space, comfort, and the ways things work but it did not change our interest in making interesting things, being a useful part of society’s movements and learning about the similarities and differences one can find in different Ukrainian towns.
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Uliana | 28 February 2022 (far left): Train Station. People are trying to get onto evacuation trains. Their destination is unknown for most of them, as well as the duration of this exile. They leave home, work, and families and friends are separated. There are very many people in this train station, and this is a humanitarian crisis. March 5, 2022 (left): Sirens are blaring again. This drawing shows my friend and her youngest son – we are hiding at their place from the Russian missiles that hit our people, and the cities of Kharkiv, Zhitomir etc. I used to draw architecture in Kharkiv, as there are some wonderful buildings from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Used to be – now it is bombed. w
Left: “Mistograf” is a family of architects and urbanists. Tanja and Jaroslav and their three kids were living in Kharkiv (population before the war 1.5 million) in the east of Ukraine. When the war with Russia began on 24 February, 2022 they, together with their parents, spent five days hiding in a basement of one of the buildings in the center of the city.
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Below: Lviv’s historic statues are safeguarded against Russian shelling by being wrapped in protective sheets. Olena Ivchenko sketches the process on Market square in the middle of March. Since then, Lviv has been bombed several times.
Work by ‘Mistograf’
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Left: Ksenya Holovko is an artist and urban sketcher from IvanoFrankivsk. She is a moderator of Urban Sketchers IF. For these sketches, she used micron 0.8 and derwent 0.3 liners, sakura pen 0.5, coloured pencils, and a Kooh-i-noor magic pencil.
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Ksenya | (left): I drew people in the Urban space 100 restaurant. There were Territorial Armed Defense fighters and volunteers, refugees and locals. The large panoramic window was closed with a projector screen, where current news is constantly shown. Instead of decorations for the spring – a counter of damaged enemy equipment. We have all changed, and so have the restaurants. (below left): This sketch was made after our sketch meeting in a cafe. I saw a monument of Ivan Franko, Ukrainian poet and writer, after whom our Ivano-Frankivsk is named. Territorial defense fighters started to protect it with sandbags, and I decided to make a quick sketch of this work in progress. A few days before this, in Kharkiv, Taras Shevchenko’s monument was protected with sandbags and there was a meme about Shevchenko’s metamorphosis, like a butterfly. I wanted to remember Franko’s metamorphosis in our Ivano-Frankivsk. Now the monument is covered to the very top, so we will probably only see Franko again after the victory. This was the 39th day of the war. (overleaf): Ivano-Frankivsk old city hall, Ratusha. Now it is a local history museum. In the first days, volunteers set up tents with a field kitchen for refugees and first aid courses near Ratusha. We gathered for our first sketch meeting since the war started; this was the 14th day of the war. Two weeks seemed to be one very long day.
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Right: Anna Rzhevskaia is an artist, illustrator, printmaker, and urban sketcher from Kharkiv. After the invasion she was able to relocate to Ivano-Frankivsk where she continues to sketch daily.
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(left): This sketch was made a few days ago in Lviv, when I, like many other Ukrainians, travel to my parents for the Easter weekend. I spent two and a half hours in the basement in the center of Lviv with many other people and their pets. The building is old, and we talked about the fact that people probably hid in this basement in both the First and Second World Wars. I drew to be distracted and not to think that we are in the center of Lviv. On that day, a young woman named Valeria Hlodan was killed in her apartment in Odesa with her mother and three-month-old daughter. The 59th day of the war.
The war has changed many things, but iprofessionally it has changed Anna’s relationship to sketching. She feels it’s a privilege as she can draw outside now, instead of in a bomb shelter as in the first days of war in Kharkiv, and she has materials. This new relationship prompted a more experimental approach to materials. In evacuation, she was able to take only her favorite fountain pen and a couple of graphite pencils with her. Now she is experimenting with different paper, interested in color pencils for the first time, and in general realizing that you can make interesting sketches even with random or cheap materials. Anna sees that many people draw war situations to document what is going on but she feels that, for her, sketching is more about ways to catch something peaceful in the chaos of the war. RIGHT: AT THE GAS STATION WHILE DRIVING FROM KHARKIV. THE OTHER UNCAPTIONED SKETCHES WERE DONE WITH THE USK GROUP IN IVANO- FRANKIVSK
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diary of a war
KHARKIV, BASEMENT
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Urban Sketching in a Time of War IRYNA VODOLAZHCHENKO IS AN URBAN SKETCHER FROM KHARKIV, UKRAINE. SHE GREW UP IN A QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE SECOND LARGEST UKRAINIAN CITY LOCATED ABOUT 20 MILES FROM THE RUSSIAN BORDER. HERE SHE TALKS TO RITA SABLER
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n the days before the war, Iryna’s life was full of preparations for her art exhibit, work on a new mural, her yoga practice, and sketching her city in her free time. Early the morning of February 24, 2022 Iryna’s brother woke her up with words: “It started… The war started.” The news sent Iryna into a panic attack. She recalls running around the apartment aimlessly, trying to pack her things and contact her friends and family. Our conversation took place late at night, in the dark, some 45 days later. Iryna used a flashlight to talk to me on her brother’s computer, but I could only see a small part of her pale face. Click here for the audio story about Iryna. The original conversation is translated from Russian and edited for clarity.
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What were some of your memories from the first days of the war? One of the strong memories was sheltering from the bombings in an underground metro station. We were there the first day when an air raid started. It was supposed to be one of the safest places during bombings. There were a lot of people who came into the metro during the air raids. They brought their dogs, their kids. They laid down their blankets. Some even smoked. Some spoke very loudly. And it was a very strange feeling, like we were at a giant train station. There were some crazy characters there. I thought possibly these could be the last minutes of my life. At least that’s what it seemed like to me at the moment.
Tell me about the sketch you did in the metro. I took out my sketchbook and started drawing. It was difficult. My hands were shaking. I remember I was not happy with how it was coming out. I remember that when I finished, one woman who noticed me drawing smiled at me. That was nice. How does it feel to be drawing during the time of war? Sometimes I feel guilty…. because drawing right now is not the most useful activity in this situation. If I was working in a different field, it would be more useful for my country, for the situation, for my people.
a time of war
What is your background? Do you have any training in art? I got my masters degree in art therapy and my thesis had to do with sketching as a method of nonverbal communication. I studied the influence of drawing on the emotional state of a person. What is the significance of urban sketching in the moments of extreme trauma, like war? Urban sketching is therapeutic, especially, when it happens in a community because what happens is the exchange, and a feeling of belonging to a group. It is important to feel that you are a part of something bigger. This act of drawing and sharing could be motivating for others. It is important to start this chain of inspiration–what you do can motivate others. Many people would write me thanking me; saying that seeing me draw in these hard conditions inspires them…
Click here to listen to the Audio Story about Iryna Vodolazhchenko.
After 10 days of shelling and bombing Iryna Vodolazhchenko and her family decided that it was time to leave Kharkiv. Her dad advised her to pack her bag the night before because the next morning there would be an opportunity to leave town in a car with her relatives. I wanted to know what a fellow sketcher would pack, not knowing whether they would be coming back. How would they choose what to leave behind to the soundtrack of sirens and bombings. Here is what Iryna told me: I went to search for my sketchbooks, my artwork. I thought of these things first and started to pack them into my bag. Since it was impossible to take everything I picked three of my favorite sketchbooks. I think they represent some of my strongest work. I took a few empty sketchbooks as well along with my favorite tools. I took about 40 markers in a black case with me.
I also brought my yoga mat in order to exercise and possibly have something to sleep on in case there was no bed. I took things that I could fit into a backpack and a bag with important documents, my art tools, and my sketchbooks. I wanted to bring other tools, like my watercolors, but there was not much space. I knew I would be traveling in a car with my relatives and their kids. Now in Oleksandriya, a small town in central Ukraine, Iryna and her family feel safe. But this safety is only relative. Life is very different. At night, residents of Ukrainian towns turn off lights to avoid being targeted. Part of her family, including her grandparents, are still in Kharkiv, and she’s worried about them as the military operations in eastern Ukraine are intensifying.
“I CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT WHEN A PERSON DRAWS THE CURRENT MOMENT AND RECORDS THEIR STATE IT IS A FORM OF THERAPY, AND IT IS VERY EFFECTIVE. IT WAS ONE OF THE METHODS TO RECORD REALITY AS IT WAS HAPPENING AND FEEL USEFUL THAT I WAS DOCUMENTING THE EVENTS HONESTLY AND THROUGH MY OWN EMOTIONS. IT WAS BOTH THERAPY AND A FORM OF FIELD JOURNALISM…” – IRYNA VODOLAZHCHENKO 6 • 2022 29
sketcher spotlight
SHELTERING IN THE METRO, KHARKIV
ABOVE: STREET VIEW FROM A TEMPORARY HOME, OLEKSANDRIYA
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a time of war
TEMPORARY HOME IN A DORM ROOM IN OLEKSANDRIYA 6 MARCH 2022 6 • 2022 31
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Sketching at school in Delaware THE LOCATION WAS ARCHMERE ACADEMY IN CLAYMONT, DELAWARE – THE ALMA MATER OF PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN! – AND THE AIM WAS TO INTRODUCE 12 ILLUSTRATION STUDENTS TO THE JOYS OF URBAN SKETCHING ON THEIR CAMPUS OVER FOUR DAYS. BY ART TEACHER RACHEL VAN WYLEN WHERE: Students drew the main academic building (St. Norbert’s Hall), the historic home where our administrative offices are located (The Patio), the art building (The Manor), the counseling office in the Student Life Center, and the fishpond. They were working during the academic day while students and faculty were walking around, so it became a very communal experience with lots of folks stopping to see how the work was going. The students that participated were Jane Chen, Michael Citrino, Karol Diaz, Megan Foster, Bella Maceda, Maggie Shelton, Reid Shields, Ava Soscia, Sydney Vakili, Sam Wahl, Carrie Wiig, and Kaia Yalamanchili. HOW: Students were allowed to go anywhere on campus, and they were challenged to create four black and white pen drawings on location from direct observation. They had four class periods in which to do this, so the idea was to make one drawing per day. Later on, they chose their best piece and added watercolor washes to that drawing. WHY: These students are all in my illustration class, and they are learning about leaning into the process of making art instead of becoming unduly focused on one particular outcome. Part of the reason I had them make four pen
drawings and only add watercolor to one of them was that I wanted them to avoid becoming too precious about any one sketch. By focusing on making multiple iterations, we were able to stay in the moment, without the anxiety of thinking any one particular drawing had to turn out just perfect. WHAT WORKED: We had really nice weather every day, which was especially important because one of our participants is in a wheelchair, and it is hard to push the wheelchair around the campus when the cobbled streets are wet from the rain. Using Faber Castell PITT artist pens also worked well, because they are waterproof so you can do the watercolor over the pen, without the pen bleeding. This allowed us to do the drawings from direct observation and then add the watercolor washes later. Another thing that worked well was that we spent a whole day just practicing making watercolor washes, so by the time students were adding the watercolor washes to their paintings, they were feeling pretty confident in their skills. CHALLENGES: It would have been fun to drive up to Philadelphia and have a truly urban experience, but our class periods are not quite long enough to make that a real possibility.
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news & events “I thought it was nice to get out of the classroom and take time to look at something. Even though we didn’t have to capture every detail, it was just nice to try to focus on having the audience see something the way I saw it.” Bella Maceda
BELLA MACEDA
REID SHIELDS
CARRIE WIIG
“It was a very fun and relaxed experience because there wasn’t a lot of pressure to make it detailed and accurate”
MEGAN FOSTER
Sam Wahl
REID SHIELDS
MAGGIE SHELTON MICHAEL CITRINO
KAROL DIAZ 34 drawing attention
news & events
SAM WAHLI KAIA YALAMANCHILI SYDNEY VAKILI JANE CHEN
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SKETCHER DEMO
Working loosely with the ‘water-stain’ method SPAIN-BASED TEACHER AND ARTIST RENATA LAHALLE SHARES HER GO-TO TECHNIQUE FOR KEEPING SKETCHES LOOSE AND FREE. IT’S GUARANTEED TO HELP TAKE THE FEAR OUT OF FACING THAT BLANK PIECE OF PAPER, TOO!
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y aim is always to help my students and blog readers become confident and happy in what they are doing. I want them to enjoy the marvellous process of drawing – “le plaisir du dessin”, in French – and this is one technique that I use. I recommend that you don’t draw in pencil first, as this means you spend too much time drawing, erasing, drawing, erasing. Remember, ‘perfect’ does not exist; a beautiful sketch is only a point of view, a matter of taste. So here are my steps for working with the water-stain method.
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Renata Lahalle
a b c d e f
I used 13 shades made from eight colours: Transparent Red Oxide, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Sap Green, Bladder Green, Phthalo Green, Cerulean Blue, and India Yellow.
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g
h i
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a: Transparent Red Oxide | b & c: Ultramarine Blue & Burnt Sienna | d: Sap Green & Ultramarine Blue | e: Phthalo Green | f: Burnt Sienna g: Cerulean Blue h: Sap Green
2 ABOVE: My subject is a small bridge surrounded by greenery
and a few houses. One by one, I mix my watercolours from the predominant colours and put them on the paper using quick strokes and a round brush. I start with one of the roofs in my scene – the reddish one that was nearest – done in
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i: Burnt Sienna, slightly diluted j: Ultramarine Blue & Burnt Sienna k: A mixture of a number of different colours l: Bladder green m: India Yellow
3 one stroke! I then do the others – paf, paf, paf – in quick strokes. Then the bridge, the plants in the foreground and background, and a bit of sky. I change the colors depending what I have in front of me. I choose them ‘more or less’; I do not spend a lot of time in this. 6 • 2022 37
sketcher demo
RENATA’S MATERIALS:
• SKETCHBOOK OF MIXED
MEDIA PAPER • BLACK PILOT V BALL 0.5 PEN • WINSOR & NEWTON AND VAN GOGH WATERCOLOURS • POSCA WHITE 0.7MM PEN FOR THE FEW LINES OF HIGHLIGHTS
RENATA’S TIPS:
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• SKETCHING & DRAWING After finishing all the line work, I add some shadows in watercolour.
SHOULD BE ABOUT TAKING TIME FOR YOURSELF, DOING SOMETHING YOU LIKE, ENJOYING THE PROCESS – NOT SEEKING AFTER A ‘PERFECT’ FINAL RESULT • ‘PERFECT’ DOES NOT EXIST – A BEAUTIFUL SKETCH IS ONLY A POINT OF VIEW, A MATTER OF TASTE.
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This demo is based on one featured in Renata’s second book, Dessiner La France, published by Hachette in 2021.
PUBLISHING A BOOK OF YOUR CITY THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE HAVING A BOOK OF SKETCHES IN YOUR HANDS – WHETHER YOUR OWN OR OTHER PEOPLE’S. BUT HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT IT? WE SPOKE TO URBAN SKETCHERS WHO HAVE TAKEN THE PLUNGE AND PUBLISHED IN PRINT OR ONLINE. 6 • 2022 39
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CREATIVE SYNERGY: APART, YET TOGETHER DESPITE COVID RESTRICTIONS USK SEOUL CREATED AN EXHIBITION AND BOOK THAT WAS ALL ABOUT COMING TOGETHER. CHARLIE LEE SHARES THE PROCESS. How did the this project get started, Charlie? USk Seoul could not gather regularly during the pandemic, so we devised an exhibition that showed 270+ great urban sketches by 50 artists during the pandemic period. As a separate activity, 80+ paintings were drawn all together at our ‘Big Sketch’ event. These were displayed on the same day at the Namsan Gallery in central Seoul. It brought us great pleasure to be able to share these sketches with Seoul citizens who in turn invigorated us with their warm reception. Having the exhibition made us feel that we were ONE team again. It was a valuable time for everyone who participated, helping us to better understand the Urban Sketch spirit and communicate through paintings. 40 drawing attention
The book came together itself, almost by itself “one sketch at a time,” through events like the Big Sketch. Did you have to get outside help to get the book designed and printed? Some of our chapter administrators were designers and had experience in publishing books, so we proceeded without difficulty. All USk sketches in the exhibition were planned for layout, scanned, designed, and printed by USk Seoul Administrators. We included photos of the exhibition, and people’s feedback on my post after the exhibition – another interesting aspect of the book.
publishing a book of your city sketches
THE EXHIBITION & BIG SKETCH EVENT
At the top of each page of the book, you will see the Korean name of the urban sketcher who drew the sketches and the artist’s Instagram ID, for easy reference. After the final version was inspected, we sent it to the publisher, who printed and bound the books. Printing is expensive and it can be difficult deciding how many books to print, so we asked people to pre order and pay for books in advance to cover our printing costs. We then ordered another 50 more books which we can take to future global symposiums and USk events. I would like to give many thanks to all who’ve participated during this challenging time of the pandemic.
CHARLIE’S TIPS URBAN SKETCHING IS STORYTELLING. KEEP A GOOD RECORD OF THE STORY OF YOUR SKETCH WHEN YOU DO IT – EITHER BY WRITING DIRECTLY IN YOUR SKETCHBOOK OR USING THE POST IT APP OR SOEMTHING SIMILAR. THEN YOU WILL BE ABLE TO EASILY AND QUICKLY ORGANIZE THESE RECORDS TO PUBLISH BOOKS IN THE FUTURE. #MOMENTMATTERS.
CHARLIE HAS GENEROUSLY SHARED A PDF COPY OF APART, YET TOGETHER FOR DA READERS, AND IT IS ALSO NOW AVAILABLE AT HIS ETSY SHOP.
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THE VALUE OF COLLABORATION USK GYEONGJU WANTED A LASTING SOUVENIR OF THEIR URBAN SKETCH FESTIVALS. MICHELLE JOUNG EXPLAINS. Published on November 2021, 2021 Gyeongju Urban Festival is 80 pages long and printed in a conventional format. The book was not intended for commercial purposes so we only produced 500 limited-edition copies. As such, the book is also free from commercial advertisements. The book was generally given as part of a “goodie bag” to the lecturers or urban sketchers who attended the Urban Sketch Festival, as well as volunteers, sponsors, media / press members, and government/ city officials who helped support the event. Unfortunately, shipping costs are currently too high for us to deliver internationally so the book’s distribution is limited to customers in South Korea only. However, if anyone is interested, please email me and we can see what is feasible. Michelle, how did you develop your book? We first gathered the central administrators of the event – Jeong Dong-sik, Jasmin Lee and Michelle Jeong – 42 drawing attention
to figure out the general framework of the book. Afterwards, we asked the Gyeongju Urban Sketch members if anyone would like to volunteer. Depending on their own interests and skills, they would write texts for the book, edit, or draw. In this manner, we were able to have all members participate in a way that best suited them. It was a valuable opportunity for us to bond as a group too. What challenges did you face along the way? A big difference with the 2021 Festival, compared to earlier ones, was receiving and displaying video messages from the Executive Board members, and then translating these messages into
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Korean to include in the book. By doing this, we hoped to show the connection between the urban sketchers in Korea and the rest of the world. How did you fund your project? In terms of funding the production and publication of this book, we received tremendous support from the city of Gyeongju. Because the Urban Sketch Festival also served as a tourist event for Gyeongju, we found ways to collaborate with the city council and make the event beneficial for both. We had agreed beforehand that, if the city’s political or broader social interests did not align with the Urban Sketch manifesto, we would not receive any donations in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Fortunately, no
such problems or conflicts occured and we were able to successfully collaborate together, but in general, relationships with sponsors or supporters can feel like the most sensitive and tricky part of organizing such events. And of course, for non-professional writers or publishers like ourselves, we made many mistakes during the publishing process. However, because we first started making this book in 2019, we found that the process in 2021 went much more smoothly. We hope this means that for 2022, the book will be even better. What did you hope to achieve with your book? We started to make this book in order to document and commemorate the Urban Sketch Festivals at Gyeongju.
For us, it is a document that records the participating artists’ and members’ joyful times spent drawing and sketching. For the 2022 Festival book, we plan to include stories and sketches from more members and participants. Do you have any advice for others? This experience has taught me the importance of collaboration. This book would not have been possible without the help and support of our members, and all their talent. By aiming to exhibit the variety and talent of our members, we also learned how to also work well together.
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sketcher spotlight
Gabi’s growing ‘ZINE’ store
What appeals to you about this small ‘zine’ format? Sketches printed in zine format feel extra special. If you’d like to create a stronger bond with people who follow your work, they’d appreciate getting a zine from you. It doesn’t have to be a big production. A simple Google image search for “how to make a zine” –here is one – will land you many visual instructions on how to make a small zine just by folding a single sheet of paper. If you enjoy the process, the result of seeing your sketches printed as a mini publication is very gratifying. What was your goal with this project? I love seeing the work of other urban sketchers on social media, but the digital experience of sketches is too fleeting. I’d rather sit down to browse through a real sketchbook or, in its absence, through a publication like a book or a zine. Seeing works of art on paper, especially if they have been reproduced in actual size, is as close as you get to holding the real work in your hands. My goal with the zines has been making people feel as if they were browsing through my own pocket sketchbook. How did you get started? My first zine was simply titled 2021 Travel Sketches. It included sketches from trips I was lucky to take in 2021 after pandemic travel restrictions were lifted. It was 16 pages, with actual-size color reproductions of eight spreads from my pocket sketchbook. I only printed 100 copies, customizing each by adding a splash of watercolor to the cover. When I offered it for free to subscribers of my mailing list (about 600 people back in January), all the copies were claimed fast, which was really exciting.
SIMPLE ‘DO-IT-YOURSELF’ ZINES ARE A GREAT WAY OF GETTING YOUR SKETCHES OUT TO A WIDER AUDIENCE, AS USK FOUNDER GABI CAMPANARIO DISCOVERED
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My most recent zine focuses on sketches drawn with ballpoint pen. It is 24 pages, including a brief writeup about the history of ballpoint pens and why I enjoy using them. This zine required more effort and investment on my part so I have offered it for $10 on my website to be able to recover the cost. My mailing list subscribers got a discount. Both zines are the size of my pocket sketchbook, 3.5” by 5.5” inches, with round corners to make them look like the original notebooks. How did you make your zines? These are not the kind of do-it-yourself, handwritten and xeroxed publications that proper zines are supposed to be, because I used software to design them and had them printed and stapled at a local commercial printer. As a former newspaper designer and art director, I couldn’t resist the
publishing a book of your city sketches
temptation of producing something a bit more polished, with captions set in typography and carefully proofed. I used my Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner to digitize the sketches, Adobe Photoshop for image correction and Adobe InDesign for the layout. I have not researched print-on-demand online platforms yet. I just went with a local printer I already knew — you can never go wrong supporting the local economy! What were the challenges along the way? It’s easy to underestimate how much time and effort goes into producing a little zine. It’s not just the design and the printing —that’s the fun part— it’s also the promotion, the packaging, the shipping and so forth. Even when you think you are done, an email from a subscriber who has not received their copy may pop up in your inbox, and you have to deal with that. Was the address wrong? Is the mail too slow?
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6 • 2022 454/16/21
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HAND DRAW WITH EMMA FITZGERALD PROFESSIONAL AUTHOR / ILLUSTRATOR EMMA FITZGERALD HAS SOME GREAT IDEAS THAT COULD BE JUST AS USEFUL FOR AMATEUR BOOK CREATIVES. BY JANE WINGFIELD
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mma FitzGerald started city sketching early in life. When she was a teenager, her family moved from Vancouver BC to the Irish countryside, and she would head into Dublin on the weekends to “walk around and sketch the city as a way to get to know it.” She continued sketching as she traveled and studied, but rarely drew where she was living until she moved to Halifax in 2004. She began with house portraiture, then started sketching every day in her neighborhood. People stopped and talked, telling her stories about what she was drawing. She pitched the idea of making “an adult picture book” at a Word on the Streets, a national book and magazine festival in Canada. An interested publisher worked with her to produce Hand Drawn Halifax, published in 2015. The success of that book led to Hand Drawn Vancouver in 2020, a children’s book, City Streets for City People in 2022, and Hand Drawn Victoria ,scheduled for release in 2024. 46 drawing attention
Emma starts by sketching and taking notes, maybe plotting out neighborhoods, but not attaching herself to preconceived places or a particular plan. As she sketches, ideas evolve. Often people talk to her, telling her stories about what she’s drawing or about their lives. Those stories can be integrated into the text or can lead to another location to sketch. “It’s like an invitation to be open when you go out there and sketch. Your preconceived idea is only half of the process.” It all evolves depending on what happens on the street, she says. Once the sketches are done, “I gather all the images and text together, like collecting little recipe cards,” then she starts determining the progression and design of the book. She advises sketchers to be very sensitive to what they are sketching. Sometimes you need to ask permission of someone or have someone introduce or guide you, especially in a culturally unfamiliar situation.
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publishing a book of your city sketches
JANE WINGFIELD SHARES SOME MORE OF HER FAVOURITE CITY SKETCH BOOKS...
SPAIN’S ONLINE ‘FANZINE’ This book is what first got me interested in urban sketching ‘city books’. USk Spain published five online zines from 2013 to 2016, each featuring a city in Spain – Malaga, Barcelona, Zapagoza, Galacia and Madrid. The city articles include sketches by several Spanish urban sketchers and give a rich overview of each city.
ONLINE PLATFORMS USk Spain shows you don’t have to prnt copies of your book to reach an appeciative audience. If you don’t have
access to design software, you could use a platform such as mixbook.com. If you can get to the designed PDF stage and want to bypass printing, check out issuu.com, which is the online libtary used by USk Spain – and Drawing Attention!
SEVILLE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM BY INMA SERRANO I love this book. Inma’s energetic style and the loose-yet-controlled, expressive images seem to embody the vibrancy of her chosen city. The book turns upside down in the middle, as she says in the introduction, “There are two sides to Seville, one for tourists and one where people live.” She brings them both together in this feast of color, line and story.
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SKETCHING OFF THE BEATEN TRACK TAKING THE ‘ROAD LESS TRAVELLED’ HAS BECOME SECOND NATURE FOR MURRAY DEWHURST. THE FORMER USK SYMPOSIUM, BLOG CORRESPONDENT AND EDITOR TELLS MARK ALAN ANDERSON HOW HE COMBINES SKETCHING WITH EPIC CYCLE TOURS ACROSS NEW ZEALAND.
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ike many Urban Sketchers, carrying a sketchbook is part of daily life for Murray. But he has found a way to push sketching beyond the simple everyday by combining two things he loves: sketching and bicycling. “Sketching has become a recording of my life, my neighborhood, the things I like to do. Travel and bicycle sketching is kind of a classic example of that. I’ll take a sketchbook and record the trip.” 48 drawing attention
A graphic designer by profession, Murray has been interested in sketching for many years, especially after the field became more and more reliant on computers. “I got the urge to draw in the late 80’s, while living a few years in London. It was actually urban sketching, though I felt quite exposed standing on the street sketching and the sketches were terrible.”
ABOVE: ‘PAULA UP THE PURANGI’. RIGHT: OUTSIDE THE COROMANDEL BUDDHIST CENTRE. PHOTO: ANTOINE PETHERS
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“It’s a really nice stealth set up: a sketchbook in one pocket and a pen in the other. And you just need to stop and draw” – Murray Dewhurst
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ABOVE: START OF DAY 1 – CAPE EGMONT
“I did a cycle tour around Europe in ‘91 with my girlfriend at the time and I was trying to sketch then but I was a little bit unsuccessful, and I’d never seen anyone else do it.” These days, sketching has become a way of life for him. He records his neighborhood and home city of Auckland prolifically. Perhaps that early bicycle tour was a proof of concept, because Murray now combines sketching with bike packing. “Bike packing,” for the uninitiated, often involves touring offroad, predominantly in the form of gravel and single-track mountain biking. It is a self-sufficient form of travel which requires one to think in a minimalist fashion. A sketcher can’t take an entire studio along on a bicycle. Dewhurst carries a Moleskin A6 concertina sketchbook, a black pen, a small plastic watercolor kit, and a water brush: “I quite like that,” says Murray. 50 drawing attention
Murray participated in one such event on the Kōpiko Aotearoa cycle trail, where groups of cyclists begin on the east coast of New Zealand and others start on the west coast, passing each other on the route across. He’d often stop to draw some of the other cyclists he’d encounter. He had no preconceived notion of what to draw, accepting whatever opportunity presented: other cyclists, a bit of scenery, a bit of writing, old buildings, food for lunch, road signage and so on. “And before you know it you’ve captured quite a trip,” he exclaims. Bike sketching seems to be defined by moments: meeting others along the way, stopping and asking if they’d mind if he drew them, he says. “I’ll have a conversation with them and go on a bit, then say to myself oh wow, I better get this down! It’s a really quick sketch, but people are waiting for you as well. So I have to sketch quicker. It busts me out of trying to do a perfect job, so it’s really loose. It captures a moment and it’s stuck in your memory, I think. I’d sketch while I was still straddling the bike, just pull the sketchbook out of my
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ABOVE: HAAMI, WAHAROA, EAST COAST
pocket and quickly draw. I might stick a bit of color on later, after setting the tent up at camp.” I’m curious to know whether Murray considers his sketches to be more narrative, journalistic, or commentary. “All of the above,” he laughs. “I do like creating a narrative. Sketching on a bike is an example of that. The trip I did last year was a ride across the country, about 1200 km, and you just start with a sketch, and as you go a story unfolds in a linear fashion. I find that really fascinating. There’s no big picture, there’s no clever idea. It’s just a recording of the things you’re doing and the things you’re seeing. And you finish with a story.”
kōpiko: (verb, Māori) to go alternatively in opposite directions, go back and forth, meander, wander, ramble. The Kōpiko Aotearoa cycle trail is one of New Zealand’s 22 ‘Great rides’. It traverses the widest point of the North Island, and riders have the option of traveling over 1000 kilometres through rural Aotearoa New Zealand, climbing over 17,000 metres along the way – almost the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest, twice!
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sketcher spotlight
“
I DO LIKE CREATING A NARRATIVE. SKETCHING ON A BIKE IS AN EXAMPLE OF THAT...” – MURRAY DEWHURST
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ABOVE: MATAWAI SKETCHES, ON THE KŌPIKO
ABOVE: THE PAKIHI TRAIL,ON THE KŌPIKO
ABOVE: ON THE PAKIHI TRAIL
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MURRAY’S TIP A6 IS A CONVENIENT SIZE FOR BIKE SKETCHING THAT FITS PERFECTLY INTO A SIDE POCKET ON CYCLING SHORTS. THE MOLESKINE BOOK (BELOW) IS SMOOTH AND SLIDES IN AND OUT EASILY.
LEFT: MURRAY’S CYCLE TRAIL KIT. BELOW: LOOKING BACK TO KENNEDY BAY, COROMANDEL
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Quick sketches and slow pedalling across Te Ika a Maui
Murray Dewhurst
ABOVE: NEAR PORT JACKSON. PHOTO: ANTOINE PETHERS BELOW: MARAEHAKO BEACH, ON THE KŌPIKO
Murray Dewhurst is the author of Kōpiko Aotearoa Sketchbook – Quick sketches and slow pedalling across Te Ika a Māui. Message him on Instagram for your copy (NZ$25 plus postage).
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A dream come true: sketching solo in Andalusia
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POLISH SKETCHER KATARZYNA KOSIAK SHARES THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF HER JOYFUL TRIP TO SPAIN.
y trip started quite dramatically with me being late for a plane... The original plan for my long awaited, one-month autumn trip was to start in Switzerland, spend around a week there and then fly to Andalusia. But I didn’t get through security in time for my flight to Switzerland, so I changed plans – I would fly to Andalusia a few days earlier, directly from Poland, and add Cádiz to my trip. The first official three days of my solo sketch trip found me in Cádiz, a gem that surprised me with the architecture, the weather changing every five minutes, and mostly the people. Wherever I was sketching, people were coming to me commenting pleasantly with “¡qué guay!”, giving me hints about interesting places for sketching in the city, and sharing their experiences with art. One woman invited me for a coffee and sketch if I visit Santander again. Over the next couple of days I sketched on the streets in the old part of the city, sometimes in scorching sun, sometimes under a light rain. I fell in love with those streets and towers everywhere. I also learned to never leave sketching a carousel for later, because it may be gone soon! I was commissioned by two restaurants to sketch their fronts, and the owners and their staff jokingly posed for me to include them, which I did – to their amusement. It always amazes me how a simple
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sketch can connect people and start a conversation. It turned out that one of the owners was an amateur artist in the past, but his workload hadn’t allowed him to draw recently. I left Cádiz with a bit of sadness but also excitement; I was to spend the next five days in Seville, the sunny capital of Andalusia, and meet the local USk chapter. I got in contact with them earlier (bless Instagram) and knew their schedule. I spent mornings walking around the city centre and stopping at every corner. What beauty! There were just too many things to sketch. Sketching the alleged tomb of Columbus filled me with wonder. Finding a perfect spot on the patio to paint the cathedral’s Giralda tower between the orange trees was a satisfying challenge. I visited Setas de Sevilla and sketched the panorama from there while talking to other tourists about watercolour. I loved their enthusiasm about art, It really surprised me how many people came to me and started conversations about art and their cities during my trip, making me feel welcome there. As for the urban sketchers meeting, it was held in Triana district on Wednesday afternoon, where I joined a group of five or six people. We talked about art materials, and looked through our sketchbooks. I got educated on the superiority of vino tinto over sangria, struggled a bit with understanding
ABOVE: SUNNY CORDOBA
Katarzyna Kosiak
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sketcher spotlight
the quick Spanish of locals, and then came a revelation – one of the sketchers (Weronika) was half-Polish, which I found quite funny after spending last two hours conversing in Spanish!
sketching I listened to a guide that stopped nearby to share some of his experiences with hiking the mountains nearby. I love listening to guides that are locals and imagining how it would be to live in their city.
At nine o’clock the group told me that we needed to go to the other plaza for a picture, which I admit, I found a bit strange. But when we came to the plaza, there was a giant group of at least 30 sketchers! The next morning I went for a little coffee&sketch with Weronika, talking about her experience of living in Spain, which I found very interesting. Leaving Sevilla was hard, I haven’t seen much of the city because I was sketching so much and I would love to join USk Sevilla again…
My last stop before leaving Andalusia was a city that I already visited twice before – Málaga. I have a bit of a joke about visiting so I can make my dream of walking Caminito del Rey come true, but every time I arrive, there’s a risk of storm and heavy rain so the trail gets closed. This time it was no different and I was stuck in the city yet again, my plans of going hiking canceled. But I used the day well, swimming, and sketching my favourite spots. I talked a bit about sketching as a hobby with another tourist and then hid from the rain in an apartment I rented. I chose it with the purpose of sketching an amazing view from it (Alcazaba over the city) twice: by night and by day. Urban sketching in the middle of the night and from a comfortable flat was something very different from my usual sketching experience.
Córdoba was the next stop during my trip, and it was quite uneventful. I took the train to Granada, another place that I longed to visit! A few years ago I saw a Korean TV series Memories of the Alhambra and since then, Granada has been on my travel bucket list. I tried to sketch a sunset panorama with Alhambra. Tried, because the site is a giant monster looming over the city. At that moment I longed for a harmonica sketchbook so I could fit it all… Next day, I walked through the enormous area. I didn’t get to sketch in some places I’d love to because the buildings were packed with people, but it wasn’t a big loss because there was a seemingly infinite number of inspiring views outside. When I finally finished my visit, I felt like I was waking up from a dream (or leaving a cinema during the day). While in Granada, I also walked along the Camino de Sacromonte up to a hill from where I enjoyed sketching Granada from the distance. While I was 58 drawing attention
The last day on the Spanish mainland was the best end of a trip I could imagine: I sketched and talked with my friend Lynne and her family, who I’d met two years prior in Toledo, where she noticed me sketching in a park and started talking about her family’s hobby (sketching, of course!). Since then, we’ve been talking regularly over the phone, because she lived in Italy and I in Poland. But stars aligned and coincidentally we were in the same part of the world at the same time. Maybe it was destiny. This is the power of urban sketching: you get to meet and befriend amazing people. RIGHT: A SKETCH DONE DURING A USK SEVILLE MEET UP
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sketcher spotlgiht
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RONDA LANDSCAPE
Katarzyna Kosiak
MY MATERIALS I filled two sketchbooks during my trip: Hahnemuehle Watercolour Book and Koval Sketchbook with Fabriano Artistico CP paper (both portrait orientation and roughly A5 size). I carried with me a case of 18 watercolour colours (assorted Daniel Smith, Sennelier and Winsor & Newton Professional), a Derwent Inktense Paint Pan (I’m obsessed with blues and it contains the most perfect sky blue there is, in my opinion), two Escoda Reserva travel brushes and my beloved Rotring Tikky Graphic 0.7 and 0.5 pens (which are more intense and last longer than popular Microns).
BEAUTIFUL RONDO Before coming to Córdoba, I spent an afternoon in a little city that I dreamed a lot about – Ronda. Situated on hills and surrounded by even more hills and mountains in the distance, it is as breathtaking as it gets (left). The park there is on the verge of a cliff and the beauty around me left moved me to tears. It’s a strange feeling, making a dream come true. I tried to sketch the area in a way that would show my impressions. The world there that day looked surreal to me: the bluest sky you could imagine, layers of mountains, hills with little regular dots of olive trees and white buildings in the foreground. Another highlight was sketching Puente Nuevo, a giant bridge that connects the city over a 120 meters deep gorge (above). Even the strong sun couldn’t stop me from sketching this view.
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sketcher spotlight
katarzyna’s notes on traveling solo:
T
he greatest thing and the worst thing about traveling solo are the same - you are fully responsible for organizing the trip. With that in mind, last autumn I went on a three week-long solo sketching trip through Andalusia. I traveled on public transport from Cadiz to Malaga through Seville, Ronda, Granada and Cordoba, and filled two sketchbooks during that time. If you’d like to go for a sketching trip but the thought of traveling solo sounds scary to you, let me tell you that it doesn’t have to be! What I love about it is that I’m able to slow down and sketch to my heart’s content without worrying about being a burden to travel companions. Traveling solo doesn’t mean being alone and lonely - in fact, it allows you to connect with people on your way. I recommend reaching out to Urban Sketchers chapters in the places on your itinerary. For example, I reached out to sketchers in Seville and was able to join the locals for a fantastic evening of sketching. I also frequently go for free tours through the cities and stay in hostels in the city center so I can talk with other solo travelers; you’d be surprised how many of us there are! If eating your meals alone makes you uncomfortable, I recommend choosing a place where you can also sketch – have lunch in a park or choose a café with a nice view. As for the sketching itself, I always research and visit the viewpoints in the area and often walk around instead of using public transport – you can find some hidden gems this way! Going solo means that you can stop and sketch everywhere, so take a little blanket with you for sitting on the ground. I try 62 drawing attention
to never lose sight of my belongings when I’m sketching, so I keep the backpack close and in front of me. Speaking of backpacks, travel as light as possible; you’re the only person that will have to carry your stuff everywhere. The amazing thing about sketching alone is that people feel encouraged to talk to you – it’s a perfect opportunity to practice a language or get some tips from locals. I remember being shy about people noticing me sketching in the past, but those days are long gone. Of course there are also rare unpleasant situations (like being cat-called). I always check my surroundings and ask myself if I feel safe staying in a place before I start sketching. If I have any doubts, I move to another spot. I always download the dictionary and map of the area for offline use. Before the trip I also make a plan for the scenario of being robbed, just in case. Traveling solo gives the freedom of sketching everywhere, but also demands more preparation and precaution. But I have no doubts that it’s worth it! Meeting fantastic people is one of the greatest things about urban sketching, but another one is that looking at a sketch instantly brings back the memory of a place, much more vividly than when I take photos. Urban sketching helps me remember the tiny details that make my experiences unique.
CADIZ RESTAURANT COMMISSION
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THIS TRIP WAS SOMETHING THAT I WANTED TO DO FOR YEARS, A COLLECTION OF DREAMS COMING TRUE, ALL CONNECTED BY MY SKETCHES.
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chapter news
UPDATE FROM JAVIER MAS PINTURAS USK MEMBERSHIP
W
e warmly welcome the following new chapters. We are very grateful to see that our family is continually growing! Thank you all for being part of the USk Community!!
USk Porta Westfalica, Germany USk Toulouse, France USk Monrovia, Liberia USk Ibagué, Colombia USk Sunshine Coast, Australia
USK MONROVIA
USK PORTA WESTFALICA 64
USK IBAGUÉ
USK SUNSHINE COAST
USK TOULOUSE
USK INSTAGRAM
USK BLOG
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SUBSCRIBE TO THE USK YOUTUBE CHANNEL 3 • 2022 65
cool gear
COOL GEAR BY MARK LEIBOWITZ
T
he DALL-E is not something anyone is going to buy in an art store. And yet it might be the most significant thing that has happened in art during our lifetimes. In the past we’ve had really important breakthroughs in art that changed things in fundamental ways. Oil paint replaced making daily mixes of tempera paint. It enabled glazing and all sorts of subtleties we now take for granted. Before the discovery of perspective, around 1415, almost every painting had a flat look. Paintings done after the rules of perspective look different. Both of these advances were adopted by artists very rapidly. Within a generation almost all Western artists were aware of these developments. And, that was before the invention of printing. Photography changed the entire purpose of art again; its effects are still being felt and we all deal with its implications to this day. What is DALL-E? DALL-E is a small subset of artificial intelligence (AI). Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has compared AI to the arrival of electricity or fire, calling it one of humankind’s most important endeavours. DALL-E is an AI program that makes images from text. Describe an image and DALL-E will create a picture based on your description. The name DALL-E is a double reference, first to the 2008 animated movie Wall-E, about an autonomous robot, and secondly Salvador Dalí, the surrealist artist. DALL-E debuted a little over a year ago and is currently only being used by researchers. Are the images any good? Yes, the images are remarkably good. The possibilities are endless. When asked to create a chair based on the look of an avocado this is what DALL-E produced. It can work in a variety of
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styles. If you want a portrait of Beyonce done in the style of a Rembrandt self-portrait, no problem. If you supplied enough examples of your own work it could probably produce new ‘original’ work–done in your style. Does DALL-E make drawing and painting obsolete? Maybe, but I doubt it. Photography didn’t make painting irrelevant. Everyone has a camera in their pocket thanks to cell phone technology. It’s estimated that we take nearly 2 trillion photos every year – and yet we still marvel at the skill of a professional photographer. Also, we consider handmade items to have an added value; they’re unique and personal. It’s likely some people will have a gift for coming up with interesting ideas to harness the power of the DALL-E. The quality of their ideas will make their results stand out. I can see using DALL-E to explore value and color choices. It’s a cool thing to think about – and it’s coming soon! If you have a piece of Cool Gear you’d like to share with readers, please send a couple of photos or sketches with a description and how you use it o markleibowitz810@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you! TOP: DALL-E WAS ASKED TO CREATE IMAGES OF TEAPOTS BASED ON THE APPEARANCE OF AN AVOCADO.
review
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 Baohoing watercolour paper. Check it out!
ABOVE: DALL-E WAS ASKED TO CREATE IMAGES OF CHAIRS BASED ON THE APPEARANCE OF AN AVOCADO.
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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.
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