SOLO IN ANDALUSIA

A dream come true: sketching solo in Andalusia

POLISH SKETCHER KATARZYNA KOSIAK SHARES THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF HER JOYFUL TRIP TO SPAIN.

My 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 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

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!

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…

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 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.

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.

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.

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. 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).

katarzyna’s notes on traveling solo:

The 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 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.

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COOL GEAR BY MARK LEIBOWITZ

The 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 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!

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!

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.