DRAWING
Attention
The official zine of Urban Sketchers JUNE 2020
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 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 Social Media Designer: Suzala Writers: Meagan Burns, Anne Taylor Proofreader: Leslie Akchurin Contributors: Parka, Richard Alomar, Elizabeth Alley, Patrick Ng cover image: Rita Sabler Subscribe to Drawing Attention. Read the May edition of Drawing Attention. Circulation: 13k+ 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. © 2020 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.
Dear USk Community, May was a very active month for many Urban Sketchers. USk Talks have provided our community with insight on how other Urban Sketchers have adapted to the current situation and with challenges to stay active, engaged and inspired. Our deepest appreciation goes out to the Education and Social Committees that worked so hard and quickly to put this together! This month also saw the first meeting of Chapter Administrators to talk about how their groups were meeting the challenges of quarantine and sketching. The meetings were organized by the Membership Committee with a lot of help from the Social Media team. There will be more of these meetings in the
future, so keep an eye out for notifications. Despite the challenges faced over the past few months, our global community has found ways to cope, sketch, share and tell the story of this historic and singular time. As we move forward together and continue to share our experience, please feel free to let us know if you have comments, suggestions, ideas or proposals on how we can better achieve our mission to promote the artistic, storytelling and educational value of on-location drawing. Feel free to contact us at president@urbansketchers.org. We ask that you stay safe, engaged and sketching! Sketching together (one way or another), Richard Alomar USk President
MANAGING EDITOR’S MESSAGE Greetings, Sketchers! I hope you are all safe and healthy and continuing to sketch! This month we take a close look at our popular new Instagram Live program USk Talks, hosted live from Hong Kong by Rob Sketcherman. While the April and May episodes aired on Sundays at 4pm GDT, in June, the showtime will be shifting 12 hours earlier to 4am GDT to allow sketchers in other parts of the world to enjoy the program. Tune in as we continue to support our sketcher friends around the world! As always, a great thank you to our fantastic Drawing Attention team for continuing to make this publication from under quarantine. If you’d like to join our team, email me at drawingattention@urbansketchers.org! Enjoy our latest issue! Patricia Chow Managing Editor, Drawing Attention
CONTENTS 4
USK NEWS & EVENTS
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SIMO CAPECCHI & MAT LET
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MATTHEW BREHM & SHARI BLAUKOPF
DAIKUBARA & 38 MIKE RITA SABLER
HUGO COSTA & MÁRIO LINHARES
52 ENDNOTES | REVIEWS HOW TO READ DRAWING ATTENTION AS AN E-ZINE FOR EASIER READING ON ISSUU.COM SELECT FULL SCREEN.
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USk News & Events
USK GLOBAL ADMIN CONFERENCE BY PATRICK NG AND RICHARD ALOMAR After weeks of quarantines and lockdowns, many sketchers missed being able to go out and sketch and the fellowship that comes from drawing together. During these challenging times sketchers have found creative ways to stay engaged, artistic and sane. On May 16, 2020, we held the first-ever USk Global Admin Conference via the Zoom platform, and what a blast we had! It was an intimate time of heart-to-heart conversations – about issues and challenges faced during this worldwide COVID lockdown, as well as generous sharing of ideas and best practices from chapters that are coping better. We wanted to see how everyone was doing and share the experience of this time, so on the last two Saturdays in May, the USk administrative committee organized two Chapter Administrator meetings over Zoom. Over 100 administrators joined in to share their ideas on how to meet the challenge of practicing onlocation drawing. A majority of chapters continued to sketch, challenging each other with new ways of thinking about drawing, and following the suggestions presented by USk instructors on the USk Talks series. The meetings also allowed some of the civility lost in heated online emails and Facebook comments to be regained. Regardless of difficulties, our USk chapters are strong and continue to work together to show the world one drawing at a time. We even did an online live “throwdown,” except we called it a “holdup,” since we literally had to hold up our 4 DRAWING ATTENTION
ABOVE: SKETCH BY JEAN EDWARDS OF BACKDROPS AT A ZOOM MEETING
sketchbooks to our cameras! Now that’s one kind of holdup we don’t mind having! Throughout the 90-minute session, there was such an air of positivity and shared camaraderie. We all walked away rejuvenated and feeling blessed to be connected to this global family of passionate sketchers! We all owe a deep debt of gratitude to the organizers: Javier Ariza, Chantal Vincent, Patrick Ng, Alvin Wong, Eric Ngan and Noga Grossman. They did an excellent job, and if you have a chance, send a note and let them know!
USk News & Events
PLACE YOUR AD HERE
and reach
16,000+
artists & art lovers For more information about ad placement, sizes and costs for corporate sponsors, email Raylie at raylie@verizon.net ABOVE: TIA BOON SIMSO’S 28 SKETCHES IN 3 CONCERTINA SKETCHBOOKS DURING THE ‘CIRCUIT BREAKER’ PERIOD (LOCKDOWN) JUNE 2020 5
SKETCHES BY SIMO CAPECCHI
USK TALKS USK TALKS IS HOSTED ON INSTAGRAM LIVE BY ROB SKETCHERMAN. EVERY SUNDAY, WE BRING TWO GUESTS TO TALK ABOUT WHAT INSPIRES THEM IN THIS MOMENT AND TO SHARE THEIR SKETCHES, FAVORITE TOOLS AND A SPECIAL SKETCH CHALLENGE! IF YOU HAVE A SUGGESTION OF A TOPIC TO DISCUSS ON USK TALKS, A QUESTION, OR WOULD LIKE TO SHARE AN INSPIRING STORY WITH THE REST OF THE COMMUNITY, PLEASE EMAIL US AT EDUCATION@URBANSKETCHERS.ORG. 6 DRAWING ATTENTION
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USk Talkse
Episode Five:
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he time we are all living now is for history books to tell, yet our individual experience is limited by the confines of our dwellings and framed by narrow window panes. While storytelling is at the heart of Urban Sketching it typically requires being close to your subjects, taking in the place with all of your senses. The current rules of the game push our creativity to new limits as our view is narrow and our visual information is limited. In this episode we talked to two artists about the ways they found to tell their stories of this time. Simo Capecchi joined us from Naples, Italy, from her rooftop with a view of Mt. Vesuvius. Simo does illustration and reportage for clients such as the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, and Bonvini 1909, a historical typography and stationery company in Milan, capturing their work and character in sketches. During the lockdown, Simo and Amanda Roelle have been chronicling what the quarantine is like in the city (Simo) and the country (Amanda). They sketch and write to each other about their day, Simo in Italian and Amanda in English. Their project shows the differences and similarities in different areas, and can be seen here. Follow Simo on Instagram.
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
CONNECT WITH SIMO
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USk Talks
Mat Let (Mathieu Letellier) talked to us from his apartment in Paris, France. Mat, an illustrator and graphic reporter, would ordinarily sketch in the metro, his “lab” for testing materials, or go to a bar to sketch people, his favorite subject. He was supposed to spend a month sketching in Morocco, but since lockdown has had to channel the energy for that trip into sketching his surroundings. Following the advice of his girlfriend - “Sketch this moment, it’s history” - he has been sketching inside his home and outside his window. His sketches tell stories with elements of humor, even those chronicling his mild COVID-19 symptoms - he sketched the spices he would smell every day to test if he was better, which took about eight days. Follow Mat on Instagram. 14 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
CONNECT WITH MAT
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USk Talks
Episode Six:
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he episode “Urban Sketchers from Other Eras,” aired on May 10, 2020. “Why Read the Classics”– the famous title of the acclaimed Italian writer Italo Calvino says it all. We need to understand the past to make next steps. It is impossible to cover all of the historic references to drawing on location, so Mário Linhares talked about the dangerous (and beautiful) trip done by Eugène Delacroix to Morocco in the 19th century. Hugo Costa shared his personal journey following in the footsteps of Louis Kahn quite literally, as he traveled to sketch from exact locations as the 20th century American architect. Mário Linhares, former USk Education Director, joined us from Lisbon, Portugal, to talk about the sketches of French painter Eugène Delacroix. In particular, Mário told us about Delacroix’s trip to Morocco in 1832 as a last-minute addition to a diplomatic trip. Because he wasn’t following his own schedule, Delacroix had to sketch quickly, making notes about color and about the things he was sketching. He would later use his notes about color to paint his sketch with watercolor. When he returned to Paris he made oil paintings from his sketches, but the sketches themselves are rushed and raw, showing us the spirit of the moment. Through his sketches we are able to see how he spent his time, what caught his eye, and what he wanted to learn more about.
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Mário recommends the book Delacroix in Morocco by Delphine Le Cesne to learn more about Delacroix and his sketches. Mário said that when he looks at Delacroix’s sketches, or sketches of other “masters” (he mentioned Joseph Mallord William Turner and Pablo Picasso), he can link them to sketches and sketchers he knows; without knowing it we’re all doing the same thing. Follow Mário on Instagram.
USk Talks
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Hugo Costa, originally from Porto, Portugal, but joining us from his home in Valencia, Spain, told us about his connection to the American architect Louis Kahn. In the 1920s, Kahn took a year-long trip to study European architecture and in Italy started, as Hugo put it, “drawing like crazy.” Kahn started using a carpenter pencil, which he called his “magical pencil,” and his sketches became more energetic, looser, and more about forms and shadows. He later said that in a little village in Italy, he found the essence of his architecture. 20 DRAWING ATTENTION
Hugo spent four months in Salerno, retracing Kahn’s steps and drawing the same locations and buildings. He was inspired by Kahn’s use of simple forms showing light and shadow and how he expressed information minimally, and worked hard to learn from him. Hugo said as sketchers we need to look at the masters, too, not just Instagram. Follow Hugo on Instagram.
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USk Talks
CONNECT WITH MÁRIO
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
Episode Seven:
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his episode, “Learn Something New Every Day,� aired on May 17, 2020. With classes and workshops being canceled for the foreseeable future, how can we continue sharpening our sketching skills and not fall into the trap of repeating the same old mistakes? In this episode two veteran Urban Sketching instructors give us tips and exercises that you can do at your pace, and convince us that whether you are busier than ever because of added family responsibilities or you all of a sudden find yourself with tons of extra time, NOW is the perfect time to continue learning. Shari Blaukopf joined us from Montreal to share the exercises that she does every day to keep flexing her sketching muscles. If you follow Shari on Instagram (and you should - @sharisketcher), you know that she often sketches the wheelbarrow in her backyard. She sketches this familiar scene at different times of day and different times of the year and with different materials. So she may focus one sketch on trying out a new ink, or she may sketch in monochrome to learn more about values. From these self-prescribed lessons, she learns things that she takes with her when she paints in watercolors around Montreal, or around the world. Follow Shari on Instagram.
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
SKETCHES OF SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE BY SHARI BLAUKOPF
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
CONNECT WITH SHARI
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USk Talks
Matthew Brehm joined us from the US, where he teaches architecture at the University of Idaho. Matt approaches teaching as a learning process, and thinks of it as learning together with students. He noted that while students can be distracted by focusing on “originality,” we all need to learn fundamentals first. If you learn fundamental skills from a variety of sources, your own “visual voice” will emerge. Matt suggests looking to the work of others to learn from; he mentioned Arthur Guptill as a big influence but said “each of us decides who the masters are.” Matt suggests finding drawings that you find compelling with elements that you want to emulate, then fill sketchbooks with practice. Spend five to 10 minutes a sketch on a technique such as hatching or a subject such as trees. The repetition and focus on simple techniques will give you a different point of view. Matt recommends the following books: Sketching and Rendering in Pencil and Drawing with Pen and Ink by Arthur Guptill. They are out-of-print but often available through used and antique booksellers. Follow Matt on Instagram.
CONNECT WITH MATTHEW
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
Episode Eight:
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he episode “Urban Sketching for Good,” aired on May 24, 2020. Urban sketching brings so much joy to our personal lives, and in this episode we explored how sketching can also serve as a source of positive change in our communities and the world. USk Education Director Rita Sabler joined us from Portland, OR (USA) to talk about visual storytelling. Rita says that what we do as urban sketchers is already visible because we are out in the world sketching, and we are witnesses to the world around us. She takes this further, using her urban sketcher voice as a megaphone.
Some of her sketching projects include documenting the Kalaupapa Settlement on Moloka’i Island, Hawaii (USA), which houses a 100-year-long Hansen’s disease (leprosy) quarantine settlement. Rita sketched the settlement, former patients’ personal effects, and the current efforts to restore native plants to the area. Read more about this project in the February 2020 issue of Drawing Attention. She has also conducted sketching projects about the border wall between the United States and Mexico and its effect on the communities on either side, and spent time with Portland’s aging LGBTQ community to learn about and celebrate them. Follow Rita on Instagram.
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
CONNECT WITH RITA
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USk Talks
CONNECT WITH MIKE
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USk Talks
Mike Daikubara, author of the popular urban sketching book Sketch Now, Think Later, joined us from Charlotte, NC (USA), where he and his wife recently relocated due to his job as an industrial designer. Mike says that sketching and getting involved with the local USk Chapter was a good way to get to know his new home and community. He combined working with USk local chapter administrator Jenny Sperry and a USk Community Workshop Grant to teach sketching to a community of folks with developmental disabilities. Through the USk Community Workshop Grant, Mike was able to provide art supplies for workshop participants, and first taught them how to use the supplies, followed by steps for drawing and painting trees from observation. Mike experienced teaching challenges such as different needs and abilities due to difference in dexterity, and responded on the spot with the visual communication of sketches. He says communication and passion are the most important elements to get a project like this going. Mike and his students were able to share the joy of urban sketching together. Read more about the project in the November 2019 issue of Drawing Attention. Follow Mike on Instagram.
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USk Talks
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USk Talks
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WELCOME NEW CHAPTERS!
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USK CHICO, CALIFORNIA
USK SEGAMAT, MALAYSIA
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USK CASTELLÓ, SPAIN
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USK NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA
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Endnotes & Reviews
USK CUENCA, ECUADOR
USK ORILLA, CANADA
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USK PUEBLO, COLORADO
USK SPRINGFIELD MISSOURI
USK TERRES DE L´EBRE, SPAIN
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Endnotes & Reviews
SHARE YOUR CHAPTER’S NEWS WITH OUR READERS Contact us to share your chapter’s news, special events, joint meetups, and exhibitions with our readers. You don’t need to write the story yourself. We will assign a Drawing Attention writer to cover your story! Contact us at: drawingattention@urbansketchers.org.
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Endnotes & Reviews
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 Schmincke Aqua Drop liquid watercolour.. Check it out!
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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.
© 2020 Urban Sketchers www.urbansketchers.org