Drawing Attention May 2021 by Drawing Attention

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT:

USk Germany

DRAWING

Attention

The official zine of Urban Sketchers MAY 2021

Drawing Attention Mandate Drawing Attention, the official monthly zine of the Urban Sketchers organization, communicates and promotes official USk workshops, symposiums, sketchcrawls, news and events; shares news about USk chapters; and educates readers about the practice of on-location sketching. Thanks to this month’s Drawing Attention contributors: Managing Editor: Patricia Chow Mailchimp layout: Jane Wingfield Issuu layout: Anne Taylor Writers: Mark Anderson, Jim Chapman, Monique Chiam, Cathy Gutterman, Anne Taylor French copy editor: Sophie Navas Spanish copy editor: Rosario Muñoz Gajardo Proofreader: Leslie Akchurin Contributors: Parka, Richard Alomar, Jenny Adam, Miriam Benmoussa, Jens Huebner Cover image: Jenny Adam Subscribe to Drawing Attention. Read the April 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. © 2021 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.

Welcome, Anne, Jane and Olga! Urban Sketchers would like to welcome the new Drawing Attention Content Publication Team, comprised of Anne Taylor, Jane Wingfield, and Olga Surmacheva. The new team will be taking over the publication of Drawing Attention beginning with the June 2021 issue, after which Drawing Attention will become a quarterly publication, instead of the current monthly format. You can contact the team at drawingattention@urbansketchers.org.

Anne Taylor is from Wellington, New Zealand, and is the current Drawing Attention Issuu layout designer. Jane Wingfield is from Olympia, USA, and is the current Drawing Attention Mailchimp newsletter designer. Olga Surmacheva is from Seattle, USA, and joins Drawing Attention as the new workflow coordinator. Read about all three sketchers in next month’s issue of Drawing Attention!

MANAGING EDITOR’S MESSAGE Greetings and farewell! This month we take a trip with Urban Sketchers Germany and meet sketchers from around the country, including Jenny Adam in Hamburg, Miriam Benmoussa in Munich, Jens Huebner and Detlef Surrey in Berlin, and Clara Schuster and Johanna Krimmel of USk Rhein-Main. A new Content Publication Team will be taking charge of Drawing Attention starting next month. Please join me in welcoming Olga Surmacheva, Anne Taylor, and Jane Wingfield! You can email the team at drawingattention@urbansketchers.org.

Since this is my final month as managing editor, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Urban Sketchers community for your support of Drawing Attention over the past three years. I will miss working with our superstar team of writers, translators, designers, and dear friends who have generously given their time to make this publication a reality each month. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Enjoy our latest issue! Patricia Chow Managing Editor Drawing Attention

4 USK GERMANY

14 JENNY ADAM

20 JENS HUEBNER

CLARA SCHUSTER

CONTENTS 32

MIRIAM BENMOUSSA

JOHANNA KRIMMEL

DETLEF SURREY HOW TO READ DRAWING ATTENTION AS AN E-ZINE FOR EASIER READING ON ISSUU.COM SELECT FULL SCREEN.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ISSUU APP FOR IOS DEVICES CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ISSUU APP FOR ANDROID

ENDNOTES & REVIEWS

featured chapter

URBAN SKETCHERS GERMANY

Google map that has links to all of the Deutschsprachige (German-Speaking) USk Chapters. USk Germany is not centrally organized. Individual German chapters act independently and are organized differently. Most groups are Facebook groups that meet up to draw together. Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg have large groups. Other chapters, like the Rhein-Main Area (Frankfurt, Darmstadt, etc.) and the Ruhr Area (Cologne, Bonn, etc.), are organized as regions to attract more people.

USk Germany blog was first set up by Omar Jamarillo. Omar also set up the GermanSpeaking Urban Sketchers Facebook group, which he now administers along with Fabian Bartz and Katrin Merle. Omar, Katrin, Jutta Richter, and Smadar Ravee-Klemke manage the USk Marketplace group which they created for questions, workshops, books, and offers around the topic of urban sketching.

Omar Jaramillo was one of the first urban sketchers in Berlin and founded the group with some others, like Rolf Schroeter. Katrin Merle joined them in 2012. Now administered by Katrin, Thomas Lensky, and Eva Hoefflin, USk Berlin is very open and relaxed. Instead of waiting for admins to organize a meeting, members are encouraged to do it themselves. When they draw, everyone looks for their own subject matter rather than everyone sketching the same thing. The meetings in Berlin are organized irregularly, sometimes very spontaneously, and around 8 to 18 sketchers usually come, which makes it easier to find a suitable place (such as a café) to gather after sketching. Munich meets on a fixed day once a month. Hamburg also meets once a month, but not on a fixed day. Eutin, which started with an Urban Sketchers workshop in a local community school, has a large group, although it is a very small city.

From the very beginning, USk Germany wanted to include people from other German-speaking countries such as Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg, as well as Germanspeaking people abroad. In addition to the 12 official USk Regional Chapters, there are many Urban Sketcher groups in Germany and the surrounding area. Dietmar Stiller of USk Hannover created a very impressive interactive

USk Germany has its own mini symposium called USk Deutschland Treffen where German-speaking sketchers get together. Now held annually, this meeting started out in 2015 when Jenny Adam and Birgit Ruíz-Velasco, founders of USk Rhein-Main, had the idea to organize a meeting that would recreate the feeling of the USk Symposium. Sixty urban sketchers from all over Germany

AFTER THE 2011 URBAN SKETCHERS SYMPOSIUM IN LISBON, THE GERMAN SKETCHERS IN ATTENDANCE SEIZED THE OPPORTUNITY TO MEET WITH EACH OTHER, AND AS A RESULT, DECIDED TO FORM THEIR OWN CHAPTER. BY CATHY GUTTERMAN

4 drawing attention

USk Germany

“F

ROM THE VERY BEGINNING, USK GERMANY WANTED TO INCLUDE PEOPLE FROM OTHER GERMAN-SPEAKING COUNTRIES SUCH AS SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA AND LUXEMBOURG, AS WELL AS GERMANSPEAKING PEOPLE ABROAD.”

5 • 2021 5

met for the first time in Darmstadt. Since then, other chapters have hosted the yearly meeting: USk Munich in 2016, USk Eutin in 2017, USk Hamburg in 2018, and USk Augsburg 2019. Like the international symposium, USk Deutschland Treffen has grown each year, reaching a maximum of 200 registered participants, and many friendships have developed throughout Germany as a result. The 2020 national meeting in Dortmund has been postponed until 2022 due to the pandemic. As a tip for other regional or country “consortia” groups, USk Germany’s suggestion would be to invite well known sketchers to do workshops in your city to create a buzz that will attract more people to your group. If you live in a border city, organize a meeting with sketchers from across the border, such as when sketchers from USk Germany and neighboring USk Poland joined together for binational GermanPolish meetings where they drew together in Stettin (Szczecin) in 2016 and in Berlin 2017. Going beyond the singular chapter activity is a recently released two-volume anthology called URBAN SKETCHBOOK created by Sebastian Koch. Sebastian gathered a broad range of sketchbook pages from outstanding artists including illustrators, architects and urban sketchers. Volume I features sketches made by 40 artists in northern Germany, and Volume II features sketches made by 41 artists in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

USk Germany

SHARE YOUR CHAPTER’S NEWS WITH OUR READERS

SKETCH BY JENNY ADAM

Contact us to share your chapter’s news, special events, joint meetups, and exhibitions with our readers. You don’t need to write the story yourself. We will assign a Drawing Attention writer to cover your story! Contact us at: drawingattention@urbansketchers.org.

SUBSCRIBE TO DRAWING ATTENTION – IT’S FREE 5 • 2021 7

featured chapter

COLORFUL CORES WORTH WAITING FOR Discover the cutting edge of color with Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils. Shop 150 colors and a variety of sets today.

Now in stores and online at DickBlick.com

BLICK DickBlick.com

8 drawing attention

SUBSCRIBE TO THE USK YOUTUBE CHANNEL

800.828.4548

Urban Sketchers - Apr 2021 - 75mm x 207mm - No Bleed - CMYK.indd 1

4/16/21 8:14 AM

USK BLOG

USk Germany

URBAN SKETCHERS IN DEUTSCHLAND BY JENNY ADAM

ährend in Portugal vor zehn Jahren schon das internationale Symposium ausgerichtet wurde, waren Urban Sketchers in Deutschland leider noch in der Minderheit. Erste Gruppen entstanden in noch wenigen Großstädten, und einzelne Sketcher füllten langsam und beharrlich ihre Skizzenbücher. Mitstreiter fanden sich nach und nach- schon seit fast zehn Jahren gibt es den Blog “Urban Sketchers Germany” (http:// germany.urbansketchers.org/) , auf dem ähnlich wie auf dem internationalen Blog eingeladene Korrespondenten aus ihren Städten und von ihren Reisen berichten. Nach und nach gründeten sich in Deutschland immer mehr Gruppen- oft zunächst informal über Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ groups/Deutschsprachige.USk) und andere Plattformen, aber inzwischen gibt es eine bunte Vielfalt an Chaptern in Deutschland. Auch das Urban Sketcher Chapter Rhein Main fing klein an, und blieb es lange. Das war auch in Ordnung so- Birgit Ruíz- Velasco und ich hatten uns in Barcelona beim Urban Sketching Symposium 2013 kennengelernt, im Perspektive-Workshop von Arno Hartmann und Flaf. Manchmal muss man anscheinend erst nach Spanien reisen, um jemanden kennenzulernen, der 40 km entfernt wohnt und genauso leidenschaftlich zeichnet wie 5 • 2021 9

featured chapter

man selbst. Zunächst zu zweit erkundeten wir mit dem Skizzenbuch Mainz, Frankfurt und die kleinen Orte der Bergstraße- bald kamen Jörg Asselborn, Clara Schuster und viele weitere tolle Zeichner hinzu. Die Urban Sketchers Rhein Main sind inzwischen eines der aktivsten Chapter in Deutschland: 2015 gab es das erste größere, deutschlandweite Treffen in Darmstadt, bald folgten 2017 die USk 10x10 Workshops in Frankfurt, dann das Ausstellungs- und Workshopprojekt “Vor Ort” 2018 in Mainz- und 2021 steht die Victor Hugo Urban Sketch Voyage im Mittelrheintal an. 10 drawing attention

Heute sind Urban Sketchers in Deutschland eine stetig wachsende Gemeinschaft, auch wenn durch die Coronapandemie das gemeinschaftliche Zeichnen vor Ort weiterhin schwierig ist. Es sind jedoch kreative, digitale Lösungen aus einer ungewöhnlichen Situation entstanden: Viele Chapter, so auch Rhein Main, treffen sich online auf Zoom. Es gibt Portraitsessions oder digitale Exkursionen in die ganze Welt. Stets inspirierend sind die USk Talks auf YouTube, die wöchentlich neue Challenges anstoßen. Auch USk Hamburg gibt solche Zeichenimpulse als “Wochenaufgabe”: mal werden dieselben Motive der

USk Germany

Hansestadt gezeichnet, dann wieder neue Techniken ausprobiert. Über den Hashtag #sketchchallenge_hh finden die Skizzen dann zusammen. Das gemeinsame Sketchen schafft Verbindungen-die gerade digitaler sind, als uns allen lieb ist. Vielleicht können wir uns bald wieder vor Ort, IRL, sehen, und gemeinsam zeichnen.

SUBSCRIBE TO DRAWING ATTENTION – IT’S FREE 5 • 2021 11

advertorial

DERWENT LINE AND WASH SET • REVIEW BY SIMONE RIDYARD

was delighted to be asked to demo Derwent’s new Line and Wash Paint Pan Set. Many of you know me from my work with Urban Sketchers and probably know I am an architect by profession and that’s why I’m drawn to complex and challenging urban architectural views. However, I am far less confident about watercolor. I have developed a style influenced by some of my Southeast Asian sketching heroes – Ch’ng Kiah Kiean (KK), Tia Boon Sim, and LK Bing. I draw in accordance with the USk Manifesto – my drawings are truthful to the view but the watercolor is more instinctive and less ‘true’. The great thing about the new Derwent Line and Wash Paint Pan Set is that it is a complete set. It comes with two Derwent Line Maker pens, in 0.3 and 0.8mm, and also a water brush and sponge for cleaning the brush. The

12 drawing attention

Line Makers are 100% lightfast and permanent. There are 12 half pans with colors that are all tonally compatible, yet versatile. While all the colors mix well, they don’t need to be mixed as it’s such a comprehensive range. The palette is perfect for sketching buildings and urban scenes. The colors are subtly muted and include an intriguing combination of yellows through to browns and a series of grays and greens, that really do look well combined. The set contains six shades from Derwent’s excellent Inktense range. Inktense colors are strikingly vivid and permanent, like ink but pigment based. When dry the paint acts differently to watercolor in that they are permanent and you can actually paint over a color, even in a lighter color. Which means you can layer and layer, which is a rare quality. This changes the way the paint is handled and it felt like I was on a new creative adventure, as I started experimenting with this different approach.

advertorial Illustration created by Jedidiah Dore

The new palette also contains four Graphitint colors which granulate and are more subtle, in complementary muted shades. The graphite content in these colors can effectively be erased when the paint is dry. These Graphitint colors also have a delicate sheen to them. Completing the set are two soft pastel shades which can be used as soft, refreshing shades or can be layered up for a more vibrant finish. The consistency of these shades is exquisitely creamy and opaque, similar in texture to gouache. All colors except for Autumn Brown (Graphitint) are 100 percent lightfast.

D IS COV E R T H E B R A N D N E W L IN E A N D WA S H PAIN T PA N S E T Vibrant Inktense and muted colour paints to wash over permanent linework, perfect for on location and urban art.

The palette has been so carefully assembled, which means it’s great for a beginner as well as more experienced sketchers and artists! I have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with this palette - great for impromptu sketching!

Available at DerwentArt.com and art stores worldwide.

CBT33433_Derwent_USk ad_May.indd 2

515/04/2021 • 202116:47 13

Creativity and Exploration in a Challenging Year

14 drawing attention

featured chapter

MEET JENNY ADAM AND USK RHEIN-MAIN BY MONIQUE CHIAM

enny Adam is a freelance illustrator and art teacher currently living in Hamburg. She was in her second semester of university, studying product design, when she discovered the Urban Sketchers community on Flickr. She admired and was inspired by all the beautiful sketches that she saw, and when she later spent a semester abroad in Barcelona, Jenny was able to meet some of the people behind those sketches, and experience the friendly welcoming spirit of an Urban Sketchers chapter. After attending the Barcelona USk Symposium in 2013, she returned home to Frankfurt and together with her friend, Birgit Ruíz-Velasco, started an Urban Sketchers group in their region of Rhein-Main. Eventually, a blog was set up to log all their outings and show off sketches by members. Today, USk Rhein-Main has now grown into one of the most active chapters in Germany. They were also the first chapter to host the Urban Sketchers Germany National Meeting in 2015, where over 60 participants gathered for workshops, sketch walks, and drink & draws. Different German chapters have hosted every year since (except for last year due to the pandemic). One special aspect of Rhein-Main meetups is that the organizers will sometimes create a theme or project that lends a purpose to a particular series 5 • 2021 15

featured chapter

of outings - whether it be to learn about the history of a particular location, or to tie in a connection to social problems - it just adds another layer and dimension to each event. For example, this past year they have been working on a project about the famous French writer Victor Hugo, who was a prolific sketcher. He kept small sketchbooks, completing some drawings while travelling along the Rhine River in the 1840s. The goal was to follow Hugo’s sketchbook and visit the same places he sketched, discovering which elements have remained unchanged and which have transformed over time. You can read more about the project here.

HAMBURG FUNFAIR HEILIGENGEISTFELD 16 drawing attention

During the pandemic, USk Rhein-Main has also gotten pretty creative with some of their online meetings. In February, they hosted a drink & draw Carnival party on Zoom. Members dressed up in fun costumes and decorated their surroundings according to two themes: “circus” and “underwater.” Many got

Jenny Adam | USk Rhein-Main

HAMBURG FUNFAIR HEILIGENGEISTFELD

creative with their costumes and decorations - there was a jellyfish made from a sieve and LED tubes, a cardboard anglerfish, and a bearded lady (Jenny Adam) with a beard made entirely out of paper. Members from surrounding chapters were also invited to the event and that day brought in around 50 participants. Everyone was free to move in and out of four breakout rooms, where each room was assigned a prompt that sketchers would follow to complete their sketches. You can read more about this awesome event here. One unique aspect of Jenny’s own art style is her bold use of acrylic markers. Her work also includes washes of dilute acrylic paint, crayons and coloured pencils. Recently Jenny has taken her experimentation further, especially with materials that were not meant to be used

for art. Her latest ventures include alcohol spray and bleach - we are, after all, in a pandemic, so why not use some relevant items as a sign of the times? One piece of wisdom that Jenny has to offer is this: “It’s your brain, eyes, and hands that make the artwork, not the tool.” So don’t focus too much on getting the best materials you can find. Be brave and experiment. Pick up a tool that’s hanging around your home - perhaps it’s something you have stored away and forgotten about, or something you have never used before - take it out and discover what interesting marks you can make with it.

w 5 • 2021 17

featured chapter

HAMBURG PHILHARMONIC

Jenny Adam | USk Rhein-Main

ZUOZ SWITZERLAND 5 • 2021 19

sketcher spotlight

20 drawing attention

SKETCHER SPOTLIGHT

SKETCHER ON THE GO CHATTING WITH JENS HUEBNER BY MARK ALAN ANDERSON

erman sketcher Jens Huebner wanted to be an artist from an early age, but initially found himself in an industrial design office. For ten years he pursued this career, but in 2006, he gave up the office, jumped on a bicycle, and spent the next two years cycling around the world.

“In Cairo I got a small watercolor instruction book and I started to keep my impressions in watercolors.”

“This was the starting point of my sketching and artist life. During that journey I started to keep my impressions in drawing.”

Every stop on his journey brought new experiences, new impressions, and a growing appreciation for the imagery he was making. Huebner came to understand the power of visual story, and it was noticed by others as well. A visit to India brought about an exhibition, followed soon after in East Timor by the first of many workshops to come.

Unaware of the Urban Sketchers movement, Huebner began drawing the places he encountered in the most simplistic visual language: stark black and white silhouettes.

In 2008, Huebner returned to Germany with over 200 watercolor paintings and 20 filled sketchbooks. These formed the basis of several exhibitions, also catching the attention of an outdoor outfitter. 5 • 2021 21

sketcher spotlight

Huebner was asked to share his travel sketching approach with expedition participants. His workshops and advice to participants proved to be very popular. “Actually, when I started the first workshops the participants asked me if we could meet in my studio to make art once a week. I don’t have a studio! But we can meet at a train station, or a park. And I started to give workshops (in those places).” It was after these requests began that Huebner learned about Urban Sketchers. In fact, he was startled to realize he’d been delivering urban sketching-style workshops all along, without knowing that the approach he’d embraced was urban sketching! His sketches, by necessity of packing light, are a relatively small A4 size. In fact, Huebner draws a parallel between the bicycle travel that he loves and the act of travel sketching. “With a bicycle you discover regions very slowly, just like in drawing. It’s not fast like a photo. The other thing is if you travel, human-powered transportation is very accepted in many places. It’s like drawing – everyone can afford pen and paper. You don’t need fancy or complicated technology to make that picture. Both things go together: cycling and drawing, very slow.”

Sketching on the go, it’s not possible to see everything. Travel, like drawing, requires time: time to absorb the surroundings, time for impressions to gestate. Huebner feels this is an opportunity for immersion, to experience people and culture by drawing them. “I believe it’s very satisfying not to draw from photos, to go out, to be outside and experience it. To talk a little bit with each other, to sketch, and then continue.” Before he and I part I ask him if there is one idea that best sums up his ideas about sketching. He pauses for a moment, nods his head, and says “quality of life.”

w 22 drawing attention

Jens Huebner

SUDAN KARTE

Atelier in der Hosentasche BY JENS HUEBNER

ls gelernter Designer war die Optimierung von Produkteigenschaften früher mein tägliches Brot. Auch als Reisezeichner werde ich ab und an als Berater bei Produktentwicklungen von Unternehmen hinzugezogen. Eines Tages bekam ich eine Mail von Faber-Castell in der ich gefragt wurde, ob ich Lust hätte, verschiedene Wassertankpinsel zu testen. Auf meinen Reisen sind diese Pinsel mein tägliches Arbeitsmittel und so nahm ich den Auftrag gern an. Das Ergebnis meiner Analyse war, dass die mir zugesandten Pinsel entweder

zu groß, für die Hosentasche waren, sie hatten einen zu kleinen Wassertank oder rollten unterwegs beim Ablegen von jedem Stein, Baumstamm oder Sitzpolster. Für das schnelle Skizzieren in der Natur oder beim Urban Sketching in der U-Bahn waren sie somit recht ungeeignet. Nach Einreichen des Pinseltests fragte die Marketingabteilung, ob ich einen Wassertankpinsel speziell für Faber-Castell gestalten könne. Das Ergebnis dieser Produktentwicklung ist der kompakteste Wassertankpinsel auf dem Markt!

5 • 2021 23

sketcher spotlight

24 drawing attention

Jens Huebner

5 • 2021 25

sketcher spotlight

NEW VISTAS THROUGH

BLURRED BORDERS BY JIM CHAPMAN

SKETCHES OF PHRIX CONSTRUCTION SITE 26 drawing attention

SKETCHER SPOTLIGHT

lara Schuster isn’t one to fret over sketch materials; she switches between pen, watercolor, crayon stick, acrylics, and ink at will. If none of these are to her liking, she brews experimental inks. Recently she boiled banana skins – steeped in the juices of rusty nails – to make ink. She also has used acorn caps to make ink. “During the lockdown last year, I started making ink from nature,” Clara explained. “It’s not black, but it’s a dark gray,” she said.

this paper in several layers with more water than with other paper, as it is very absorbent.” She also works large nowadays (up to 100x70 cm), and sketching larger in public attracts a bit more attention, where comments can range from praise to an undertone of concern. “They ask: Is this your profession? And do you earn money from this?” she laughed.

In sketching, Clara hones in on whatever catches her eye and then riffs on that. “I pick up something from reality and start. It doesn’t have to follow the typical order,” she explained. “It’s not so important to show reality; it always goes to the abstract at some point.”

Clara works part-time as a school support person for a child with an educational disability, and is otherwise a self-employed artist and art educator. She studied architecture and now offers painting and drawing courses for children and adults. Since the pandemic, however, she has worked independently and via videoconferencing for USk meetings and artist chats.

Of late, Clara has been trying copper point paper. “In watercolor, you can work with

Clara got involved in USk nearly a decade ago, and has since come to love it. “I got to 5 • 2021 27

sketcher spotlight

know Urban Sketchers in Naples, Italy, in 2013, where I participated in a workshop organized by Simo Capecchi,” she said. Today, she is an admin of USk Rhein-Main, a region including 5 large cities like Frankfurt and Mainz. “The open exchange between the sketchers is the most important thing for me. I have learned a lot from the other people at the meetings, but also about myself. People who meet for the first time quickly find very inspiring conversations through the drawings. Together we are stronger, crazier, and have more opportunities and possibilities to get things going.” “At the moment Anne Nilges, Katja Rosenberg, Emil Hädler and I are planning a bigger project on Victor Hugo and his journey along the Rhine.” This project 28 drawing attention

will allow sketchers to wander and sketch in places that Hugo visited. “The French writer and poet travelled the Rhine and used his sketchbook of romantic landscapes and places as inspiration. The border between poetry and reality becomes blurred in his texts and drawings,” she said. “Hugo wrote as one who wants to live without borders and demands a Rhine for all. This is one of the most important points of the Victor Hugo project for me.” Read more about the Victor Hugo Urban Sketch Voyage 2.0 here: https://urbansketchers-rheinmain.de/2019/07/ victor-hugo-urban-sketch-voyage-2020/

Clara Schuster

5 • 2021 29

sketcher spotlight

30 drawing attention

Clara Schuster

SUBSCRIBE TO DRAWING ATTENTION – IT’S FREE

USK PARIS & RHEIN-MAIN MEETING

5 • 2021 31

SKETCHER SPOTLIGHT

A Life in full color MIRIAM BENMOUSSA BRINGS THE COLOUR AND VIBRANCY OF HER CHILDHOOD HOME OF MOROCCO INTO HER SKETCHING

32 drawing attention

OUDAYAS

5 • 2021 33

have been living in the center of Munich since 2006. I grew up in Rabat, Morocco, and came to Germany for my studies. I am married with a three-year-old daughter, Lina. I work in the financial sector, with a focus on international business, which enabled me to travel a lot (and sketch) before COVID. The apparently contradictory fields of finance and art are, for me, a perfect counterbalance to each other; one feeds the other. My sketching passion is literally connected with life and death. I have had a deep fascination for art, craft, colours, materials and papers since my early childhood. I grew up in Morocco and there I had an art teacher, Christine, to whom I felt very close. I left Morocco when I was 18 to study in Germany and Christine committed suicide a couple of months later. This triggered a block from 1999 to 2007; I could not hold a pen, sketch, paint or do anything related to arts in that period. In January 2007, my beloved Grandpa passed away and the way that came to me naturally, to live my grief, was sketching – no outside influence, it came from inside: I simply felt the necessity of holding a sketchbook with me all the time and sketching what I was seeing, where I was going. I sketched so much from 2007 to 2009, and tried to convince my friends to sketch with me. I then discovered the online forum ‘Sketchcrawl’ and connected to the Munich Group. In 2011, I noticed that many groups were going to the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Lisbon, and that’s when I discovered the world of Urban Sketchers. At that time I was travelling a lot for my work so I was able to connect with sketchers in Paris, New York, Chicago... Alex Zonis, founder of USk Chicago, encouraged me to found Urban Sketchers 34 drawing attention

MIRIAM’S SKETCHBOOKS

MIRIAM BENMOUSSA

5 • 2021 35

sketcher spotlight

Munich, which I did in 2013, after I went to the USk Symposium in Barcelona. Since then I have made so many friends throughout the world and participated in four symposiums (Barcelona, Paraty, Manchester and Porto). I feel endless admiration and gratitude for Gabi Campanario, for having founded this ‘world’ and for having been the source of so many connections. I feel Urban Sketchers is a big family – a bunch of people that share the same passion and are connected no matter their age, origin, way of life. In September 2016, I organized the second annual USk Germany National Meeting here in Munich and it was fabulous. There were 120 people registered, coming from

many places in Germany and abroad including France and The Netherlands. What I most like about Munich is its flair and the mix between architecture and nature. When I do sketchbook sketching in general I use fountain pen, watercolors and colored pencils. This is how I filled almost 50 sketchbooks since 2007. However, last year I suddenly felt a need for more intense colors and I rediscovered Neocolor II water-soluble wax oil pastels while on a solo sketching weekend at Schliersee, a little village in the mountains close to Munich. For sketchbooks though, I still think watercolor is the most suitable and practical medium as it is light and easy to carry around and you have an endless variety of colors you can create with a small palette.

b MIRIAM’S TIPS EVERYTHING IS SKETCHABLE, EVERYTHING AROUND YOU IS WORTH SKETCHING, SKETCH AS MUCH AND AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN. DON’T WAIT FOR THE PERFECT SUBJECT, JUST GO AHEAD AND SKETCH. CONNECT WITH OTHER SKETCHERS TO GET INSPIRATION AND TRY DIFFERENT MATERIALS TO GO BEYOND YOUR COMFORT ZONE.

LINA’S ‘BILK’ 36 drawing attention

“I love to document Lina’s life. During the lockdowns she chose soft toys for me to sketch.

Title

5 • 2021 37

sketcher spotlight

“Munich has many beautiful local markets which I find really interesting to sketch; Viktualienmarkt in the city center is the most famous one.”

VIKTUALIENMARKT 38 drawing attention

MIRIAM BENMOUSSA

rban Sketching hat mein Leben verändert. Je nach Lebenssituation zeichne ich mal mehr mal weniger, aber was sicher ist, ist dass ich durch das Zeichnen ein glücklicherer Mensch bin. Ich kann mein Leben dadurch noch intensiver erleben und genießen und gleichzeitig auch zur Ruhe kommen, mich auf das Motiv konzentrieren und alles andere rückt in den Hintergrund. Urban Sketchers ist eine weltweite Community an Gleichgesinnten, es gibt uns überall und das schöne daran ist, egal wo man ist, gibt es in der Nähe Menschen die die gleiche Leidenschaft teilen. Wir in München haben uns seit 2013 eigentlich regelmäßig am ersten Sonntag im Monat um 14:00 an verschiedensten Orten getroffen, natürlich vor Corona. Seitdem wir in der Pandemie sind treffen wir uns leider nicht mehr oder wenn in sehr kleinen Gruppen im Sommer, draußen. Aber Corona hat es uns auch ermöglicht über Video Konferenzen an Treffen anderer Gruppen teilzunehmen (die Rhein Main Gruppe ist hier besonders aktiv) und in dieser seltsamen Zeit trotzdem über die sozialen Netzwerke in Kontakt zu bleiben. Es sind so wunderbaren Ideen und Gruppen entstanden (wie die regelmäßigen und aufheiternde Veranstaltungen die mit dem Sketching zu tun haben von Gris (@gris030.de) auf Instagram zum Beispiel unter anderen). Kurz vor der Corona Zeit war ich mit meiner Familie in Urlaub auf Lanzarote – das war mit Sicherheit ein ganz besonderer Urlaub, einfach weil es der letzte vor Corona war. Was ihn aber besonders erinnerungswürdig für mich gemacht hat, war auch die Tatsache, dass ich mich mit der lokalen Urban Sketchers Gruppe dort getroffen habe und dadurch einheimische Tipps und Gastfreundschaft erlebt habe. Sei es auf Reisen, in der Heimat, ich ermutige jeden der Spaß am Zeichnen vor Ort hat, sich mit Urban Sketchers zusammen zu tun und diese wunderbare Erfahrung zu teilen.

5 • 2021 39

sketcher spotlight

LINA SLEEPING

“ With Lina, I created a sketchbook for each holiday we made together, combining sketching and writing. I would love to do this regularly but it’s only feasible when we are on vacation.”

MIRIAM BENMOUSSA

“MY strong colour palet te is my way of carrying Morocco’s beautiful light and memories I have of the this country with me all the time.”

SUBSCRIBE TO DRAWING ATTENTION – IT’S FREE 5 • 2021 41

Title

42 drawing attention

CHECKPOINT CHARLIE

SKETCHER SPOTLIGHT

A conversation with

Detlef Surrey from USk Berlin BY MONIQUE CHIAM

erlin is the city that professional illustrator and comic artist, Detlef Surrey, calls home. He has been urban sketching for more than a decade, and his drawings depict scenes that are full of life, highlighting people (his main interest) in the small everyday moments. “As an avid observer and a cartoonist, I enjoy capturing the little stories in my environment and putting them down in pictures. My humorous and affectionate view of my fellow human beings certainly also flows into my drawings.” Though Detlef has been drawing all his life, there was a period in his freelance career where he worked exclusively in digital format and lost the connection with traditional media. He didn’t realize he was missing it until he stumbled upon an old sketchbook. 5 • 2021 43

sketcher spotlight

“I had the realization that, in addition to my work as an illustrator, I had not been drawing just for me – for fun – for a very long time.” He immediately went out and bought a new sketchbook and some supplies, went to a local cafe, and started sketching. It was here where he regained the pure joy of drawing! He didn’t have to worry about customer requests, revisions, and the pressures of deadlines that were present in his daily professional work. One day in 2012, at one of the monthly meetings of Berlin’s professional illustrators, there was a notice about an Urban Sketchers meetup. Curious, Detlef went to check it out, and in his own words, “at the first meeting I immediately felt at home”. Detlef describes USk Berliners as a very independent group. They don’t need much organizing (though there are admins - Katrin Merle, Omar Jaramillo, and Thomas Lensky) and every member is given the freedom to plan gatherings anytime, on any day of the week. This makes for a very dynamic structure that can suit anyone’s interests and schedule. Given the pandemic, this philosophy has persisted, with members meeting on their own as rules allowed. They also love international visitors and would jump at the opportunity to organize a meetup and show them around their city. Just prior to the pandemic, Detlef had been working on a personal project about the Berlin Wall. He was living in West Berlin when the Wall fell in 1989, so the division of the city was very much a part of his life experience. He set

out with his sketchbook to follow the traces of the Wall and what can be found today along its historic path. Whenever Detlef approaches a sketch, he is looking for the little stories that are happening around him. He first allows himself to take in the atmosphere and get a feel for the place, so that he can transfer that feeling onto the page. He always carries his sketching supplies with him so that anytime something catches his eye, he is ready to capture it. Besides using pencils and colored pencils, Detlef also uses an intriguing combination of an empty water brush with two water containers to paint in washes of watercolour.

England.

DETLEF’S TIPS “YOU DON’T NEED TO BE PERFECT. PERFECTIONISM WILL PUT THE BRAKES ON YOUR PROGRESS - IT WILL LIMIT YOU. YOU DON’T HAVE TO SHOW PEOPLE EVERYTHING YOU SKETCH. KEEP A SKETCHBOOK ONLY FOR YOURSELF - THAT WAY YOU WON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES AND YOU WILL FEEL MORE FREE.”

Detlef Surrey

BRANDENBURG GATE 5 • 2021 45

sketcher spotlight

46 drawing attention

SUBSCRIBE TO DRAWING ATTENTION – IT’S FREE

Detlef Surrey

5 • 2021 47

sketcher spotlight

VIEW FROM THE WINDOW AS DAD LIES ILL IN BED 48 drawing attention

James Hobbs

5 • 2021 49

SKETCHER SPOTLIGHT

Getting to Know Johanna Krimmel BY CATHY GUTTERMAN

\ ohanna Krimmel is a visual artist who lives and works in Darmstadt, Germany. She studied communication design and currently works as a scenographer. In this line of work, Johanna designs stages and experiential spaces for international companies in the automotive, sports, fashion and game industries. Five years ago, she decided to go freelance to be able to focus more on her artistic work. Johanna’s father was a very prolific artist and curator. His sketchbook was always around, so she thought that was the norm. Her parents curated international art exhibitions, so from an early age, she got to know lots of 50 drawing attention

professional artists and their sketching practices. Based on these observations she always had the impression that sketching was something that one does alone. It was only in 2016 that she learned about Urban Sketchers and regrets that she completely missed the first Germany Meeting (Deutschland Treffen) which was held in 2015 in her hometown. The first time Johanna attempted to meet with USk Rhein-Main was at a large technology museum that was having a special vintage car event. It was so packed with “regular” visitors that it was impossible to find the Urban Sketchers group. The second time was at a small

JOHANNA KRIMMEL

AQUARIUM – AT HOME SKETCHING

5 • 2021 51

sketcher spotlight

AQUARIUM MERCEDES

52 drawing attention

Johanna Krimmel

sketch crawl where she met Birgit Ruiz-Velasco, a longtime urban sketcher and one of the founders of USk Rhein-Main. Right away, she was totally hooked. A few days later Johanna was fortunate to secure one of the last tickets to the USk International Symposium in Manchester and to the Deutschland Treffen in Munich. The experience and inspiration she received from the urban sketching community was overwhelming. 2016 really marked a special turning point for Johanna, and her artistic work has made tremendous progress ever since. More importantly, she met so many people from all around the world who have become her best sketching buddies and good friends. With all these connections, lots of new projects and ideas started to grow. After attending two USk Symposiums as a sketcher, Johanna applied to become an instructor, which was a whole new experience. Johanna now leads workshops and demos on a wide range of topics. Two workshops in particular, about Painting confidently with Chinese ink, were presented at the USk Symposiums in Porto in 2018 and in Amsterdam in 2019. These workshops helped participants to discover that black ink is not only about strong line-work, but also about delicate greys and everything in-between, which can add amazing depth to sketches. Being able to share her expertise and excitement is important and satisfying to Johanna and she hopes to pass on the same spark of inspiration for new discoveries to other’s sketching practice that she has felt. Because Johanna likes to change her style and materials depending on her mood and the situation, she doesn’t have a preferred medium or favorite subject (although she is most often known for her ink works). Her favorite thing

to do is to search for the unexpected, the overlooked, the disruptive, for emotion, for anything that sparks her fire. Johanna’s advises her fellow sketchers to always stay open and curious, to look for subjects and media that give you satisfaction and to once in a while try something new and unexpected – it might open new paths. Now more than ever, urban sketching is helping us to deal with difficult situations by observing, processing and telling the stories of our lives. Like so many of us over the past year, Johanna’s sketching focus switched from her usual subjects of industrial machinery, cars, and groups of people to interiors and what she could sketch from her window. An unexpected opportunity arose by chance for a very personal reportage project - to draw her father, who at 93 was in failing health, which she spoke about on a recent USk Talks episode. Although drawing her father was difficult for Johanna, it provided a special way for her to connect with him, and a way to say goodbye. When Germany was under strict lockdown, and everyone was in stay-at-home mode due to the pandemic, watching the news with her parents became a daily drawing ritual for recording the inside and outside worlds at the same time. While Johanna sketched her father in his armchair, she also documented the international news events he was watching on TV. Johanna is now working on a multimedia room installation of her reportage project. The main element is a large abstract “sketchbook” frame consisting of several gauze layers onto which her drawings are projected. The visitor can sit down in an armchair and become part of the experience while viewing the images. 5 • 2021 53

sketcher spotlight

LIFE OF BRIAN

Now one of the administrators of USk RheinMain, Johanna is really happy and proud to be part of a cool group that initiates lots of amazing projects. They are always ready to go on new sketching adventures together whether spontaneous or precisely planned, big or small.

She is very much looking forward to the Victor Hugo Sketch Voyage 2.0. organized by Emil Hädler and co-admins Anne Nilges, Katja Rosenberg and Clara Schuster, scheduled for July 2021.

w 54 drawing attention

Johanna Krimmel

5 • 2021 55

usk challenges from our featured sketchers

56 drawing attention

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 the PSt Louis Art Supply watercolour sketchbooks. Check them out!

5 • 2021 57

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.