Drawing Attention May 2019

DRAWING

Attention

The official zine of Urban Sketchers MAY 2019

Drawing Attention Mandate Drawing Attention, the official monthly zine of the Urban Sketchers organization, communicates and promotes official USk workshops, symposiums, sketchcrawls, news and events; shares news about USk chapters; and educates readers about the practice of on-location sketching.

Thanks to this month’s Drawing Attention contributors: Managing Editor: Patricia Chow Editorial Assistant: Pedro Loureiro Mailchimp layout: Jane Wingfield Issuu layout: Anne Taylor Social Media Designer: Carrie Alyson Hirsch Writers: Leslie Akchurin, Mark Alan Anderson, Pedro Loureiro, Jane Wingfield.

Proofreaders: Leslie Akchurin.

Contributors: Parka; Amber Sausen, Maria Regina Tuazon. cover image: Mathieu Letellier Subscribe to Drawing Attention.

Read the April edition of Drawing Attention. Circulation: 11k+ Readership: 16k+ Web: urbansketchers.org Urban Sketchers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the art of on-location drawing. Click here to make your tax-deductible contribution via Paypal. © 2019 Urban Sketchers.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Urban Sketchers, Happy spring, northern hemisphere! Happy fall, southern hemisphere! Happy sketching everywhere! I hope the changing seasons are inspiring you in new and exciting ways to tell the stories of where you live.

Each month here in Drawing Attention we feature regional chapters and the unique local character they capture in their sketches. Did you know that there are over 280 regional Urban Sketchers chapters around the world?

You are truly a member of a global community! If you aren’t connected with a chapter, I hope you’ll look up a chapter near you on our website. And

if there isn’t a chapter near you, I hope you’ll send a message to the local chapter when you’re next visiting a city with an USk chapter. I have been warmly welcomed by local chapters when I’ve reached out to say, “I’ll be in your city. Would you like to sketch together?” And I love when I have the opportunity to share my city with visiting sketchers.

As always, you can reach out to me at any time with questions and comments about the activities and initiatives of Urban Sketchers at

president@urbansketchers.org.

Happy Sketching, Amber Sausen, USk President

MANAGING EDITOR’S MESSAGE Welcome to the May issue of Drawing Attention! This month we take a look back 10 years at the first USk Symposium in Portland, Oregon, and catch up with what Portland sketchers are up to these days. We also visit USk instructor Mat Let in Paris; architect and sketcher Tapas Mitra in Bhopal, India; and our USk chapters in Orlando, Florida; and Memphis, Tennessee.

Thank you to our incredible, talented team of Drawing Attention writers, proofreaders, Issuu, MailChimp and social media designers, sponsors, and social media and tech teams. Thank you for your support! Enjoy our latest issue!

Patricia Chow, Drawing Attention Managing Editor

drawingattention@urbansketchers.org

CONTENTS 4

5

USK SYMPOSIUM NEWS

USK NEWS & EVENTS

8

12

21

USK ORLANDO

USK PORTLAND

USK MEMPHIS

26

32

38

MATHIEU LETELLIER

TAPAS MITRA

REVIEW | ENDNOTES

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MAY 2019 3

USk Symposium News

SAVE THE DATE! 8-11 APRIL 2020 Yes, next year’s Symposium comes early! All you need to do now is save the date, think of planning early, and look forward to this early bird!

Adam, meanwhile, eagerly looks forward to it, and to seeing everyone at this year’s Symposium in Amsterdam! Make sure you’re subscribed to our Symposium blog for the latest news. Visit http:// www.urbansketchers.org/p/uskamsterdam-2019.html

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In addition, Stayokay Amsterdam is offering Symposium attendees a 10% discount on at their hostels at Amsterdam Oost, Vondelpark & Stadsdoelen.

USE PROMO CODE: USK Amsterdam 2019-Stayokay Discount: 10% discount on regular overnight stay excluding breakfast and tourist tax Hostels: Amsterdam Oost, Vondelpark & Stadsdoelen Booking period: 1 April to 31 May 2019 Period of residence: 17 July to 4 August 2019

Terms & Conditions: • Based on availability • Cannot be used in combination with other discounts • Valid for up to 12 people per booking • Based on a shared room/dorm • Non-refundable Check out and check in at Stayokay.com

USk News & Events

MAY 2019 5

USk News & Events

USK DELHI PRESENTS FORTS AND PALACES OF DELHI EXHIBITION

BY MARK ALAN ANDERSON Urban Sketchers Delhi presented their fourth group exhibition, Forts and Palaces of Delhi at the India Habitat Center in New Delhi, India, from March 1-31, 2019.

Featuring the work of eight USk Delhi sketchers, the show recounts fragments of the region’s history through glimpses of surviving architecture, with some examples dating as far back as the 12th century. “We have attempted to capture the beauty, strength, and spirit of many of these forts (quilas in Hindi) and palaces (mahals in Hindi) of the cities of Delhi, as seen through a sketcher’s eyes,” explains founding sketcher Niraj Gupta. “Delhi stood mute witness to the rise and fall of many empires, leaving footprints on time through various monuments and massive forts.”

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USk News & Events

10X10 WORKSHOPS

THANK YOU!

USk 10x10 Workshops are an excellent opportunity to learn new sketching skills from a top USk instructor and to meet a new community of sketchers in a location near you. To see the list of 10x10 classes around the world click here.

We would like to thank outgoing Advisory Board members James Hobbs, Marc Holmes, Omar Jaramillo, Shiho Nakaza, Simo Capecchi, and Steve Reddy for all of the time, energy and effort they have given to Urban Sketchers over the years. Their participation helped Urban Sketchers promote sketching and connect sketchers around the world!

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.

SUBSCRIBE TO DRAWING ATTENTION – IT’S FREE

FOLLOW USK ON TWITTER MAY 2019 7

Featured Chapter

USK ORLANDO GREG BRYLA’S SKETCHING ACTIVITIES STARTED AMONG THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS’ CHAPTER IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA. HE TALKS TO PEDRO LOUREIRO ABOUT GROWING THIS DIVERSE AND THRIVING ORLANDO CHAPTER.

PULSE NIGHTCLUB

BY THOMAS THORSPECKEN 8 DRAWING ATTENTION

USK Orlando

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reg and some of his colleagues started sketching together and eventually linked up with Noga Grosman, Social Media Coordinator for the global Urban Sketchers organization. “She wanted to keep going forward and start an official USk chapter,” Greg recalls.

Noga, a retired architect, together with Thomas Thorspecken (aka Thor) and Kim Minichiello, jumpstarted the chapter in May 2016, and received official recognition in July that year. With a solid team of admins – Thor, artist and veteran sketcher; Margaret Gibson, former accountant, now

full-time artist; Art Esteban, landscape architect; Robin Katz, environmental scientist; and Greg himself – coming from such diverse backgrounds and different organizational skills, the USk Orlando chapter has been thriving.

“Together we are aiming to achieve the many exciting opportunities that knock on our chapter’s door following the recognition of our urban sketching art form by Central Florida and Orlando art community leaders,” Noga says.

The planning committee has since organized dozens of sketch meetings. “We try to schedule indoors meetings from June to October, because it’s so bloody hot outside,” Greg exclaims, reminding everyone of the unforgiving climate of Central Florida. “We try to gather at least once a month, and we’re now toying with the idea of doing a meeting on Saturday, and alternating to Sunday, to give more options to people.” The mix of spots the committee chooses for the sketch meetings is aimed at pleasing place-sketchers and peoplesketchers alike.

In Orlando, there are plenty of opportunities for sketchers to mingle with the art community.

“We go to a lot of art-oriented events, as well as community-based events, where we know there’s going to be a strong cross-section of creative people,” Greg notes. “You just get this great cross-pollination between artists.”

The presence of Disney World and Universal Studios in the city offers USk Orlando an opportunity to sketch together with animation industry artists, and Disney artist, Woody Woodman even led a class in the 10x10 workshops series.

“It’s nice to have one or two new people every once in a while, who are actually going to commit and keep showing up,” Greg notes. This diversity is the fruit of the USk Orlando’s committee’s effort and ability to connect with different communities and events. “We’re making efforts to grow smart.”

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“W

E GO TO A LOT OF ARTORIENTED EVENTS, AS WELL AS COMMUNITYBASED EVENTS, WHERE WE KNOW THERE’S GOING TO BE A STRONG CROSS-SECTION OF CREATIVE PEOPLE. YOU JUST GET THIS GREAT CROSS-POLLINATION BETWEEN ARTISTS.” VICKI LITTEL MARGARET BAKER

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USK Orlando

ESTEBAN

GREG BRYLA MAY 2019 11

DN POLICE ON BEALE BY MARTHA KELLY

Featured Chapter

USK MEMPHIS First Saturdays – Every day in May IT’S TIME FOR MEMPHIS IN MAY, THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL THAT RUNS FOR A FULL MONTH WITH MUSIC, BBQ, ART, ATHLETICS, CRAFTS, AND EVEN A COMPETITION FOR THE WORLD’S LONGEST PICNIC TABLE. USK MEMPHIS IS FULLY INVOLVED, AS JANE WINGFIELD FOUND OUT.

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USk Memphis

SUN STUDIOS BY JANIS MCCARTY

SYMPHONY IN THE GARDENS BY NANCY MARDIS MAY 2019 13

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his year is special: Memphis turns 200, so instead of celebrating a specific country as in the past–such as Japan, Egypt or Venezuela, to name a few— this year it’s Memphis celebrating themselves… and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens invited USk Memphis to mount an exhibition of framed urban sketches in the gallery.

The show, called First Saturdays: Memphis Urban Sketchers, in honor of their monthly meeting schedule, opened on April 14 and runs through July 7, with a reception on May 16. Elizabeth Alley, founder of USk Memphis and curator of the show, says 20 Memphis sketchers are participating. A slideshow includes works by many more sketchers, and there is also a display of sketchbooks hanging on a line and in display boxes where viewers can turn the pages. Urban sketchers give guided tours of the show, explaining to visitors about the Urban Sketchers organization and local chapters, and also invite the public to join sketching events taking place during the duration of the show. Memphis sketchers will also participate in a panel discussion on “Why you

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should be an urban sketcher.”

workers during the February 1968 strike – from the Clayborn Temple Elizabeth tells us about some of to City Hall. “Along the way we her favorite aspects of sketching stopped for lunch and people in Memphis: “There’s the Peabody shared their stories about what they Hotel. We always sketch at the remembered from that time.” Read Peabody in August because it’s too more about the event in this USk hot and humid to be outside. They’re Memphis blog post. famous for the Duck March.”

Starting back in the 1930’s, the LINDA BOSWELL ducks, who have a “Duck Palace” on the roof of the hotel, are brought down to march through the lobby and into the fountain where they swim until 5pm, when the march is reversed.

Every September, the group sketches at the Memphis Farmers Market, “because that is where we had our first meeting in September of 2010.

It’s also a wonderful variety of people, food, and architecture as it is situated in downtown Memphis.”

In March 2018, the group commemorated the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike. They held a sketchwalk that started at the site of Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Lorraine Hotel (now the National Civil Rights Museum), then followed the route of the sanitation

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WATERFRONT BY KALINA WILSON 16 DRAWING ATTENTION

USK PORTLAND A place of varied interests WE ALL NATURALLY CONGREGATE WITH OTHERS WHO SHARE OUR PASSIONS, BUT USK PORTLAND TAKES IT ONE STEP FURTHER – TAILORING EVENTS TO THE DIVERSE TASTES OF ITS SKETCHERS, AS MARK ALAN ANDERSON FOUND OUT.

M

y new Portland friends are laughing, and while the conversation playfully leap frogs from one topic to another, it’s immediately clear to me that these people not only share a passion for sketching, but are themselves as wonderfully diverse as the city they choose to record. Portland is indeed a multifaceted place with a busy and easily accessible downtown of boutiques and bistros and food trucks; the city boasts distinct neighborhoods with sundry personalities, lots of public art, live music, parks, coffee shops – of course! – and a walkable waterfront. Oh, and bridges – lots and lots of bridges!

I’m sitting down with Kalina Wilson, Vicky Porter, Kay French, Ali Corbin, and Deb Rossi, and they’re excitedly telling me about the current scavenger hunt theme USk Portland is pursuing. This USk chapter is good-natured, with a lighthearted approach to

ABOVE: PORTLAND STREETCAR BY VICKI PORTER

programming. I’m told one of their goals is variety: hence they schedule sketch crawls that meet the interests of different groups – for instance, gardeners, or a meet up in a bar. In Portland they enjoy the challenge of sketching different activities. And at the moment they are working on a sketch list with fifteen different items. Although it’s not yet clear what the prize will be, everyone is jostling in a good-humored way to grab just one more sketch of something from their very specific list.

It rains a lot in this place, which means that coffee shops can be a place of sketching refuge during the wet seasons. But when spring arrives, everyone gets excited. In fact, they are so happy to see color again that they meet most weekends to coincide with the cherry blossoms. Urban Sketchers Portland originally organized over a decade ago, emerging out of a sketch MAY 2019 17

Featured Chapter

crawl group. From only a couple of early sketchers, the chapter has grown substantially with an active and regular group of participants.

Many are architects and retirees, but Portland is diverse, as are those who sketch here.

As the group recollects various memorable outings, their heads nod collectively recounting reminiscences. I learn that after every symposium, they have a themed dinner (such as Portuguese wine after the Porto event). Those who attended the symposium share sketchbooks and handouts at the afterparty so that everyone in the chapter gets a chance to experience the excitement themselves. Another memory is of the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, where sketchers drew steam trains, then boarded to travel by rail to a vintage amusement park, along the way waving at hikers and cyclists. Once arrived at their destination, they then sketched vintage roller coasters.

For those traveling to Portland, fall and spring can be particularly rewarding times of year. Urban sketching often opens our eyes to parts of a city that we might otherwise overlook; USk Portland suggests visits to the various neighborhoods, the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, or the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Portland also boasts some great old timey theaters that are thematically designed and lots of fun to sketch. Like any growing city, the historic architecture of Portland sometimes feels the burden of development. USk Portland likes to sketch beautiful old structures that are slated for demolition, recording them in their sketchbooks before they are permanently lost.

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FOOD CARTS

BY DEB ROSSI

ESTEBAN MT TABOR

BY KAY FRENCH

LOUIS-DREYFULS GRAIN ELEVATOR BY ELEAN

USK Portland

WATERTOWER & CRANE BY ALI CORBIN

NOR SEGAL

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Title

THUMBNAILS BY GREGG STUART

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INTERSTATE FIREHOUSE CULTURAL CENTER BY ANDREA MATTHEWS

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USk Portland

FROM PORTLAND TO AMSTERDAM: LOOKING FORWARD BY LOOKING BACK IN 2009, URBAN SKETCHERS KICKED OFF AN EVENT THAT HAS, AMONG MANY OTHER THINGS, CONSISTENTLY MOVED US FORWARD. AS THE 2019 AMSTERDAM SYMPOSIUM APPROACHES, DRAWING ATTENTION IS TAKING THIS OPPORTUNITY TO LOOK BACK ON OUR OWN HISTORY TO SEE HOW FAR WE’VE COME SINCE THAT FIRST EVENT IN PORTLAND A DECADE AGO. BY MARK ALAN ANDERSON

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ur brief time together has yielded a surprisingly rich history, each moment a brick in the foundation of today’s organization, foreshadowed by many involved in that first symposium.

Here are some of their recollections.

I was really excited about attending the symposium.

I had been working to establish the Portland sketch group, I was fairly new to Portland and I loved the connections I was making with people through sketching. I remember feeling the buzz of excitement.

I felt a bit star struck by Lapin. Gabi talked about the three different kind of sketchers: architects, artists and journalists. (I felt that I fall more in the journalist category.) Veronica Lawlor’s presentation was very emotional. She presented her sketches from 9/11 and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Simonetta Capecchi’s collaborative project was inspiring and Matthew Brehm’s talk really resonated with me. Alanna Randall Beckwith What I remember the most is camaraderie, joy and terror—it was intense! Although attendees came from all over the world and for the most part were meeting for the first time, we felt we already knew one another through blogs and our common love of urban sketching. The eager excitement was palpable as we

chatted and looked at one another’s sketches. I have continued to sketch regularly since the symposium and love to meet with my local Urban Sketchers group in Portland. Janene Walkky What stands out to me was the spontaneity, generosity, friendliness and the community of this group who came together. Although the event was well organized

by Gabi and Kurt Holloman, and PNCA, everything was new. Portlanders were asked on the spot, where a good place to sketch might be. This resulted in lots of trips down near the waterfront to sketch bridges, the rail station, or nearby parks. In my first group, with Gabi, I was still penciling in the underside of a bridge when he announced that we were moving on to our next location! I learned on the spot to go right to pen from then on. Vicky Porter One of the life-altering aspects of it for me was it was the first time I saw that kind of intensity around sketching; we sketched all morning, sketched through lunch, sketched through the afternoon, and when everyone was exhausted and went to dinner, the sketchbooks came out again. Every time it felt we would surely need a break, someone kept going, so I kept going. It was infectious. I also remember Pete Scully sitting in front of Skidmore Fountain which MAY 2019 21

Featured Chapter

was swarming with people, many of them dressed as pirates... but when he finished his sketch, there were no people in it! He’d focused on the fountain. We’ve also sketched pirates together... while dressed as pirates!

Kalina Wilson I was exhausted after each day.

For three days we had two workshops a day ...morning and afternoon and then lectures at lunch. It was buzz, buzz, buzz all the way. Nobody wanted to miss any event. We all recognized the special quality of this endeavor.

I believe that in part because of its small size we met and got to know so many of the sketchers that we were recognizing through the blog. Some were our instructors and others, blog notables. Rubbing shoulders, getting feedback, and watching them work were all part of our learning experience. Deb Rossi It was Patrick Forster, the head of the Continuing Education program who came up with the word “Symposium.” I loved it right away, because Symposium means “drinking together” 22 DRAWING ATTENTION

in Greek, and you know that drawing and drinking really mix well together! Gabi Campanario http://pdx2010.urbansketchers. org/2010/11/three-months-havepast.html I had told a non-sketching friend about the symposium and how someone I follow online, was coming from Australia. Later, this friend met a sketcher on the street and asked if she was with the symposium. Liz Steele was apparently surprised that her name had proceeded her here, but she could tell you more about that, as well as how she sketched and met the mayor. At PNCA, Lapin offered to let me look at his sketchbook! I immediately moved my latte about ten feet away before taking hold of his amazing sketchbook. I had seen his work online, but it was such a gift to look at the pages in my hands. Like others around me who attended Veronica Lawlor’s presentation of her 911 sketches, I wept in the darkness of the room, feeling the many emotions that her sketches evoked.

Vicky Porter

In the session by Isabel, we went to the Farmers Market and kept drawing people there. We even drew people in the streetcar on our way to get there. People come and go, stay and move. Whatever the situation was, I just focused on capturing their posture as much as I could. As to some figures, I just managed to draw heads and some upper halves of their bodies. I didn’t intend to finish or complete the figures.

These were done on the largesize Japanese notebook with an Urban Sketchers logo embossed on the cover: one of the generous souvenirs from the symposium.

Kumi Matsukawa

USk Portland

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Featured Chapter

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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

MAY 2019 25

USk Instructor

DRAW UNTIL YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT IT ANYMORE

BY MARK ALAN ANDERSON

M

athieu Letellier and Indonesian sketcher Sheila Putri met on Instagram, and bonded over a common love of drawing people. “Her linework is incredibly powerful. I saw she was visiting Belgium every once in a while, and invited her to Paris to sketch together.”

Out of this meeting, emerged an idea to organize a workshop around the concept of sketching people – relentlessly drawing people, in fact. Their concept was to draw at a very high pace in a variety of situations: sitting people, up close, moving people, crowded places–and

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structured so that sketchers wouldn’t A chance discovery of an Urban have time to think or question Sketchers book on the subject led themselves. him to the Parisian group, which he describes as “life changing”– A little more than two years ago, like-minded sketching friends Letellier took a leap of faith and understood his passion and shared a started to draw for a living. In desire to document the surrounding addition to various sketching world. projects, he is an illustrator and a graphic recorder. His interest in Letellier’s drawings have an urban sketching developed out of appealingly casual looseness to a desire to create travel journals. them. Despite his relaxed style, “What I really wanted to do was his sketches could be editorial carnets de voyages, but I was very illustrations in any magazine. cautious with my drawings. I was Parisians populate his drawings, doing pencil sketches that I inked seemingly unconcerned with the and painted at home afterwards… artist. The places provide just each drawing was taking ages!” enough detail that we recognize the

SAINT GEORGES MAY 2019 27

USk Instructor

settings with ease; the mise-en-scène brings credibility to each composition.

While many urban sketchers are uncomfortable working with the human figure, his drawing philosophy has served the largely self-taught sketcher well. “To me, “I love to draw people. I was quite reluctant to do drawing is a way to connect with people. Parisians have architecture, but sometimes I had to draw buildings and a reputation for being grumpy and rude, but when they realized there was a gap. So, for a year I forced myself to see me drawing, they suddenly become super nice and draw a lot of architecture. My level improved! I would chatty. So, I keep drawing anywhere, observing people say: Draw what you don’t like to draw. Just draw until and offering to send them the drawing by email.” you don’t care about it!”

MILANO 28 DRAWING ATTENTION

Draw until you don’t care about it anymore

METRO

SELFIE

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USk Instructor

MATHIEU’S TIP: DRAW WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE TO DRAW. JUST DRAW UNTIL YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT IT!

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PHILIPPE

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USk Instructor

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Stories of the

EVER-PRESENT NOW TAPAS MITRA, STORYTELLER OF THE UNFINISHED AND EPHEMERAL

BY LESLIE AKCHURIN

T

apas Mitra is an architect and academic who heads the Department of Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal, India. Despite his professional commitments, he is able to find time for his “first love,” on-location sketching, for which he has “a kind of permanent compulsion.” He also has deep appreciation of world literature and considers storytelling to be a common thread in his sketching, where images rather than words serve as the medium. Instead of highly developed narratives, his sketches tell brief stories of the constantly passing moment, about the atmospheric and emotional aspects of public spaces and the people in them. Each of these unique tales--of passing beauty, social disparities, or the psychic JAIPUR VENDOR

states of individuals—remains incipient, but Tapas holds that this unfinished state is actually “the seminal quality of such sketching” and something to be valued: “We capture things that are genuine, important, and necessarily fleeting.

We should strive to stay alive every moment and sketch every moment.

Unlike studio art, it’s a part of being alive. I try to do it every day.”

Tapas developed the practice of spending his free time sketching anywhere and everywhere long before he learned about Urban Sketchers, but the organization has changed his life tremendously by connecting him with an international community of likeminded others to share with, learn from, and teach. Tapas celebrates the respect USk demonstrates for all

skill levels, saying “Imperfection is the soul of urban sketching!”

Accordingly, he sees his own practice as constantly evolving.

While he tends to prefer sketching with pencil or fountain pen first and then adding watercolor, he thinks it’s important to select the right materials for each context and enjoys challenging himself with new techniques. Recently, he’s been comparing the effects of permanent ink and ink that bleeds. He’s also committed to challenging himself in terms of subject matter, directly taking on, for instance, the “energy and chaos” of sketching in India’s most densely populated public spaces.

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USk Instructor

In May, Tapas will be bringing his experience with busy streets to New York City for his “In Search of Urban Characters” workshop.

He and workshop participants will brave Times Square, where he will help them “subtract from the chaos, selecting details that speak to them.” He refers to these details as “characters” — which can be living beings or inanimate components like buildings or statues — and wants to help participants connect them into a personally meaningful narrative: “They will define an initial space, select and sketch a few characters, and then consider depth and scale as they add more elements to gradually build a denser scene.”

As an instructor, he sees it as his role to support his students’ individual visions and to tailor his instruction to fit their intentions and skill levels. Ultimately, he wants to help participants achieve a sense of personal meaning and purpose as they create stories amidst all the wild energy of this famous urban location.

JAIPUR FORT 34 DRAWING ATTENTION

ZURICH Stories of the ever-present now

NAPLES MAY 2019 35

USk Instructor

INTERIOR

LUCKNOW

TAPAS’ TIP: AN INHERENT CHALLENGE IN ON-LOCATION SKETCHING, ESPECIALLY IN A CROWDED PLACE, IS NAVIGATING INTERACTIONS WITH THE PUBLIC. IT CAN BE HELPFUL TO CONSIDER THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU TO BE PART OF THE VIBRANCY AND SPIRIT OF THE SCENE THAT YOU’RE TRYING TO EXPERIENCE. AS YOU INTERACT WITH THEM, TRY TO LET THEIR ENERGY INFLUENCE YOUR ARTISTIC RESPONSE. 36 DRAWING ATTENTION

Stories of the ever-present now

MAY 2019 37

Reviews | Endnotes

6,461 subscribers

USK HONG KONG IS ON TV! Urban Sketchers Hong Kong was featured in the final episode of a TV program about Hong Kong illustrators and artists! Watch the segment (in Cantonese with English subtitles) on YouTube here.

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WHY DO YOU SKETCH? The Urban Sketchers YouTube Channel would like to feature individual urban sketchers or chapters sharing their answer to Why do you like to sketch? We are requesting answers submitted in video format for our YouTube Channel. These do not have to be professional videos and can be videos taken with your phone!

Guidelines: Please submit anytime during the month of May 2019. We prefer very short videos (2-3 minutes for a group). By submitting your video you give permission to have it edited and/or combined with other submissions if necessary. MPEG4 OR .mp4 file extension, steady camera, clear, intelligible voice, little to no background noise, no advertisements.

To submit your video for consideration please send it via wetransfer.com to Lydia Velarde, USk YouTube Manager, at video@ urbansketchers.org. I am looking forward to viewing and sharing answers on the Urban Sketchers YouTube Channel!

Reviews | Endnotes

PARKA REVIEWS

BY TEOH YI CHIE

Teoh Yi Chie is an infographics journalist who joined Urban Sketchers Singapore in 2009. He is better known as Parka from Parkablogs.com a website that reviews art books and art products.

This month Parka video reviews the Sennelier USKBook (green cover) with 100% WC paper. Check it out!

SUBSCRIBE TO THE USK YOUTUBE CHANNEL

BRING A WORKSHOP TO YOUR CHAPTER

Urban Sketchers organizes workshops taught by our top instructors in collaboration with USk chapters around the world. If you would like to bring an official USk workshop to your chapter, start the conversation with our Education Director, Mรกrio Linhares at education@ urbansketchers.org.

FOLLOW USK ON FACEBOOK MAY 2019 39

Reviews | Endnotes

COOL GEAR

A WATER CUP WITH BENEFITS

BY MARK LEIBOWITZ If you work in watercolor you think about water. Jane Northcote, of USk London, has a cool solution.

Jane has repurposed a body lotion container to use as her water container, cutting small notches in the top so the brushes won’t roll off. It’s exactly the right size to fit her small round palette. There are at least three additional benefits to this simple solution: 40 DRAWING ATTENTION

1) At the end of the day Jane packs her damp rags into the container and screws the container top tight so they don’t get her sketchbook wet.

2) In some locations it is just not okay to dump dirty water out. If there’s no way to dispose of the dirty water, she puts the lid on and packs it out.

3) There’s room in the container to fit an additional small water pot, so Jane has the benefit of a second

water container for clean water to use for mixing colors instead of cleaning brushes.

Lots of nice benefits all wrapped up in one simple solution! You probably have a Cool Gear idea, too. Let’s share – Urban Sketchers love new ideas. Send your Cool Gear solution to markleibowitz810@gmail.com.

Reviews | Endnotes

USK BRATTELBORO

USK JEJU ISLAND USk is pleased to announce eight new Regional Chapters. The newest groups to join the family are: USk Jeju Island (South Korea) USk Lorient (Brest, France) USk Brattelboro (Brattelboro, VT) USk Nantes (Nantes, France) USk Bournemouth and Poole (Bournemouth, UK) Welcome to the Urban Sketchers family!

USK BOURNEMOUTH & POOLE

USK NANTES

USK LORIENT

MAY 2019 41

Our Manifesto • We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation • Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel • Our drawings are a record of time and place • We are truthful to the scenes we witness • We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles • We support each other and draw together • We share our drawings online • We show the world, one drawing at a time.

© 2019 Urban Sketchers www.urbansketchers.org