DRAWING
Attention
The official zine of Urban Sketchers AUGUST 2018
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: Brenda Murray Mailchimp layout: Brenda Murray ISSUU layout: Anne Taylor Writers: Susan Rogers; Sarah Minty; Susan Schaffhausen; Pedro Loureiro; Jane Dillon Wingfield; Brenda Murray Proofreaders: Brenda Murray; Leslie Akchurin. Contributors: Parka; Amber Sausen. cover image: Maru Godas. Subscribe to Drawing Attention. Read the July edition of Drawing Attention. Circulation: 10,149 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. © 2018 Urban Sketchers. 2 DRAWING ATTENTION
Dear Urban Sketchers, Community happens at so many scales! It’s the person we hold the door for at the shop. It’s our local Urban Sketchers chapters. And it’s the global community of Urban Sketchers. Sharing the stories and sketches of our communities and lives is the foundation of Urban Sketchers. I hope you learn about and see new places around the world each time you visit urbansketchers.org to see the stories of our community.
Did you know you can submit your sketches and the stories they tell to be featured in a guest post? What are the stories of your place in the world—festivals, daily life, travel tales? Our editorial team is excited to work with you, in English or your local language, to bring your stories to the world at urbansketchers.org! For more information on how to submit sketches for a guest post, click HERE. Happy Sketching, Amber Sausen, USk President
MANAGING EDITOR’S MESSAGE Walking the floor of the symposium this week I chatted with many Drawing Attention readers who told me how much they love our zine. They used words like “world class” and “outstanding” and they expressed a sense of ownership of it. “I’m so proud of our zine” they said. We are too! Thank you to our 10,149 subscribers! We welcome letters to the Editor at the email below. In this edition of Drawing Attention you will find gorgeous art, interviews, and sketching tips from Maru Godas, Benedetta Dossi and James Richards. As always, you will read exciting news from our chapters around the world this month in Brazil, Dublin and Stockholm. Also this month we are reintroducing our Cool Gear column. If you have cool gear ideas please send us a note. Finally, thank you to our fabulous Drawing Attention writers and graphic designer. Great job! Brenda Murray, USk Communications Director drawingattention@urbansketchers.org
CONTENTS 4
USK NEWS & EVENTS
16
30
44
USK SOUTHERN BRAZIL
GHOSTS, DINOSAURS & DISTILLERIES WITH USK DUBLIN
BECOME A SKETCHING HERO: BENEDETTA DOSSI
24
34
52
FIKA WITH USK STOCKHOLM
ADOPTING THE INNOCENT EYE: MARU GODAS
BE PROLIFIC: JIM RICHARDS
60
REVIEW | ENDNOTES
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CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ISSUU APP FOR ANDROID AUGUST 2018 3
USk News & Events
USK SPONSOR LEUCHTTURM 1917 MAKES A BIG IMPRESSION By Brenda Murray Urban Sketchers is grateful to many wonderful symposium sponsors such as Leuchtturm 1917. Makers of hard and soft-covered notebooks and sketchbooks, Leuchtturm 1917 has been sponsoring USk since 2015. Their sketchbooks are made in 3 sizes: 225 x 315mm, 145 x 210 mm and 90 x 150 mm. The paper weight of the brilliant white pages in all their sketchbooks is 180 g/m2. This paper takes pencil and pen & ink sketches very well. These sketchbooks come in a rainbow of colours and it’s even possible to arrange for embossing on the front cover. Check out this video! For more information about Leuchtturm1917 products please visit www.leuchtturm1917.com. 4 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk News & Events
DAVINCI BRUSHES SPECIALISTS FOR THE SPECIALIST Urban Sketchers is grateful to DaVinci Brushes of Nuremberg, Germany, for their generous sponsorship of the 2018 Symposium in Porto. “We make six million brushes per year,” explains Chief Executive Officer, Hermann Meyer pictured with a DaVinci travel brush. “We make synthetic and sable brushes and natural hair brushes sold in over eighty countries worldwide.” DaVinci makes approximately 10,000 different brushes for all media as well as customized brushes including ox ear hair brushes! “We are specialists for the specialist,” Hermann explains.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE USK YOUTUBE CHANNEL AUGUST 2018 5
USk News & Events
PORTO SYMPOSIUM A BIG SUCCESS THIS YEAR THE SYMPOSIUM IN PORTO, PORTUGAL WAS BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER! EIGHT HUNDRED PEOPLE PARTICIPATED IN THE EVENT FROM 46 COUNTRIES. THERE WERE 46 LOCAL VOLUNTEERS, 36 INSTRUCTORS, 6 SKETCH WALKS AND HUNDREDS OF HAPPY SKETCHERS. BRENDA MURRAY REPORTS.
“Lots of people really love Urban Sketchers,” Lisbon sketcher and sketch walk leader, Pedro Cabral said. “We had more than 100 people on a sketch walk from everywhere plus non-registered people who saw us and ran to get their pen and paper to join us.” It was obvious to locals and tourists alike that something special was happening in
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PHOTO BY MARC VAN LIEFFERINGE
USk News & Events
Porto July 19-21. Sketchers could be spotted legs dangling over the pier, crouched in shady alleyways, leaning over parapets, and scratching in their sketchbooks at café tables. Greg Bryla from Orlando said “the symposium was awesome! I know now why people arrive early. This venue and the people are incredible.” Finding a community of like-minded people who love drawing on location is the bond that ties us together. A lot of people describe the event as a family reunion. “Meeting up with old friends was the highlight of the symposium,” said Vincent Desplanche from Toulouse, France. Jonatan Alcina from Cadiz, Spain described the symposium as “a very nice experience because you can meet people you didn’t expect like Paul Wang and Don Low.” Aisha Khan Alam from Ontario, Canada was excited to meet her favourites Paul Heaston and Jim Richards. It’s a big thrill for people to meet these instructors in person after following them for a long time on social media. The venue vibrated with excitement as new sketchers rubbed shoulders with their sketching heroes.
AUGUST 2018 7
USk News & Events
PLACE YOUR AD HERE
Chantal Vincent from Sydney Australia said she was unprepared for how intense the experience is. There’s a lot to learn and absorb in a very short period of time. Some sketchers describe it as a kind of happy sketching frenzy that’s hard to put into words. When asked, Fernando Ribeiro from Brasilia described it saying, “It’s going good, it’s going awesome, it’s going fast and it’s going deep.” The opening reception, the sponsor tables, the goody bags, the live music, the exciting raffle prizes, the workshops and demos, the sketch walks—it’s a packed 3 days that whizzes by quickly. And none of it would be possible without the hard work and dedication of Peggy Wong and Wiltfried Pathuis from the Executive board and their team, working collaboratively with the local team lead by Nelson Paciência Jose Moto, Pedro Alegria and their team, plus a fantastic team of local volunteers. Sincere thanks to all our volunteers! See you next year in Amsterdam! BELOW GABI CAMPANARIO’S POCKET SKETCHING WORKSHOP. PHOTO: MARC VAN LIEFFERINGE
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
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ABOVE JIM RICHARD’S DRAWING AS DISCOVERY WORKSHOP. PHOTO: MARC VAN LIEFFERINGE
ABOVE PARTICIPANTS LEARN SKETCHING WITH DRY TWIG AND INK FROM KIAH KIEAN CH’NG. PHOTO: MARC VAN LIEFFERINGE
BELOW PAUL HEASTON TEACHES UMBRELLA PERSPECTIVE. PHOTO: MARC VAN LIEFFERINGE
BELOW “I WANT TO THANK ALL THE VOLUNTEERS—THEY DID A MARVELLOUS JOB,” SAID PEDRO ALEGRIA THE LOCAL VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR. “WE HAD 46 VOLUNTEERS ALTOGETHER. HALF WERE FROM USK PORTUGAL NORTH AND HALF WERE FROM THE LOCAL ART SCHOOL. EVERYONE WAS ON TIME AND VERY HELPFUL. THEY WERE WONDERFUL TO EVERYONE.” PHOTO: BRENDA MURRAY
CLICK HERE TO WATCH LIVE STREAMING VIDEOS OF THE SYMPOSIUM
AUGUST 2018 9
USk News & Events
Exciting news--the 2019 USk Symposium will be held in Amsterdam, July 24-27, 2019! Click HERE to read more about it and to watch the video!
THANK YOU MARK! Thanks to Mark Leibowitz who has worked tirelessly during the past three symposia filming 52 promotional videos of the instructors: 26 in 2016, 12 in 2017 and 14 again this year! We really appreciate Mark’s patience and commitment and good cheer. You can view these videos on our USk Youtube channel. Click HERE to see an example.
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USk News & Events
ART ALTERNATIVES: APPROACHABLE CREATIVITY
Urban Sketchers is grateful to Art Alternatives, for their generous sponsorship of the 2018 Symposium in Porto. Brand Manager, Ariana Faustini, outlined the list of products manufactured by Art Alternatives: “We make canvas and creative surfaces, sketchbooks, journals, paints and brushes, drafting and mechanical tools, drawing and sculpting and pottery tools, easels and pastels and other mediums.” These wonderful products can be purchased at retailers in the US and online and at Amazon.com. For more information, please visit www.artalternatives.com. “We make creativity approachable for everyone,” Ariana explains.
AUGUST 2018 11
USk News & Events
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, Mário Linhares at education@urbansketchers.org.
10X10 WORKSHOPS Do you want to start being an urban sketcher? Are you already a sketcher and want to improve your drawing skills? Don’t wait any longer. Join a 10x10 class in your city. Or take a train or a plane to a beautiful city and learn with an USk instructor. To see the list of 10x10 classes around the world click HERE. 12 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk News & Events
AUGUST 2018 13
USk News & Events
IS YOUR CHAPTER INTERESTED IN HOSTING THE SYMPOSIUM? To learn more about what is involved in hosting the USk Symposium in your city click HERE.
Urban Sketchers would not be the amazing organization it is without hundreds of amazing volunteers! As a USk volunteer you will meet new people and learn new skills. You will be part of an international team connected through technology, working remotely and cheering each other on. Volunteering with USk can be very rewarding! We are currently seeking volunteers to fill the following positions: • • • •
Volunteer Fundraising Director Volunteer Communications Director Volunteer Sponsorship Administrator Volunteer Drawing Attention Managing Editor
For more information click HERE
FOLLOW USK ON TWITTER 14 DRAWING ATTENTION
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 fun writer to cover your story like Susan Rogers! Contact us at drawingattention@ urbansketchers.org.
USk News & Events
AUGUST 2018 15
Title
TWO STATES, THREE CITIES, DOZENS OF URBAN SKETCHERS 16 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk Regional Event
AFTER APPRECIATING EACH OTHER’S SKETCHES THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA SITES, THREE USK CHAPTERS IN THE SOUTH OF BRAZIL GATHERED FOR A FULL WEEKEND OF DRAWING AND FRIENDSHIP IN MAY 2018. BY SUSAN SCHAFFHAUSEN
The three participating Chapters were Curibata, Joinville, and Florianópolis. Joinville became the site of the 1st Paraná-Santa Catarina Urban Sketchers with 60 artists in attendance. Ivan Jerônimo, an administrator for USk Florianópolis, remembers the seeds of a plan two years in the making. “Brazil Administrator Andrew Lissonger first had the idea, which was readily embraced by all.” Raro de Oliveira and Simon Taylor, Curitiba’s co-administrators, Jaqueline Silva and Claudio Santos were soon on board and the planning picked up energy until the weekend became packed with drawing sessions, sketcher exhibitions, sketch-stamping (a stamp for each city) and gifts donated by local sponsors Gustavo Gili press, Dina Shop and Le Papier. AUGUST 2018 17
USk Regional Event
The event kicked off the morning of May 5, with sketchers who travelled from Florianópolis and Curitiba meeting with local sketchers in downtown Nereu Ramos Square. Jerônimo advises, “It’s important that at least one of the organizers should live in the host city. Our host in Joinville, architect Claudio Santos, gave valuable insights about the best locations to draw and figured out the traffic and distance between places.”
BELOW MOINHO E PÓRTICO DA RUA XV, JOINVILLE BY SANDRA KUNIWAKE
18 DRAWING ATTENTION
Nereu Ramos square is surrounded by buildings listed as heritage sites, like the facade of the Schlern Palace, decorated with Roman mythological statuary and the art-deco lines of the building of Ipreville. Other sites chosen were The Museu da Imigração, built in 1870 and formerly known as Palace of the Princes, and tree-lined Alameda Brüstlein, known as Rua das Palmeiras (Palm Street). By evening’s light, sketchers captured the Art Nouveau elements of the Minancora building. After dark, knives and forks in the local beer hall replaced pens and pencils. The second day brought rain, so sketchers quickly captured the iconic Joinville town’s entrance,
South Brazil
settling themselves on the opposite roundabout lawn and earning curious looks from passing drivers. When the rain stopped sketchers captured the 19th century features of the Joinville Museum of Art. Jerônimo described the full event as a “marathon of drawing and conversation. People left with the feeling that the two days counted as a week.” The Administrators hope to host the gathering annually. “We had a great time and the three cities are relatively close, so we feel it would be a shame not to repeat the event.” RIGHT PALACETE OSWALDO DORIA BY CAROL GRILO
AUGUST 2018 19
USk Regional Event
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MUSEUM OF ART WITH MAN AND DOGS BY FABIANO VIANNA
South Brazil
JOINVILLE MUSEUM OF ART BY SIMON TAYLOR
MINANCORA BUILDING JOINVILLE BY RARO DE OLIVEIRA AUGUST 2018 21
USk Regional Event
HELPFUL TIPS FOR ORGANIZING LARGE SKETCH EVENTS: • HAVE A PLAN B IN CASE OF RAIN (JOINVILLE IS KNOWN AS “THE BRAZILIAN MANCHESTER” DUE TO RAIN). • NOT ALL RESTAURANTS CAN ACCOMMODATE 30-60 PEOPLE UNEXPECTEDLY; MAKE RESERVATIONS IN BUSY AREAS. •CONTACT LOCAL PRESS. WRITE A BASIC PRESS RELEASE INCLUDING SKETCHES AND CONTACT INFO – IT’S THE KIND OF EVENT THAT JOURNALISTS LOVE TO PUBLISH – AND THAT MEANS GOOD EXPOSURE FOR URBAN SKETCHERS EVERYWHERE. MOINHO-RUA-XV BY CLAUDIO-SANTOS
FOLLOW USK ON INSTAGRAM 22 DRAWING ATTENTION
South Brazil
AUGUST 2018 23
Featured Chapter
HAVING FIKA with USK STOCKHOLM WINTER IN SWEDEN CAN BE HARD, BUT IDA GOLDFISH BELLARIAN TELLS US HOW URBAN SKETCHERS IN STOCKHOLM ENJOY LIFE. SHE ALSO SHEDS LIGHT ON THE CHAPTER’S PLANS FOR THE FUTURE, AND INVITES THE GLOBAL USK COMMUNITY FOR ‘FIKA’. BY PEDRO LOUREIRO
I
da Goldfish Bellarian always felt her life had to be filled with art. “I’ve always been aesthetic, doing arts and music,” despite a career in law. She painted in oil for many years, and playing classical piano is a great part of her life. When she came across Lapin’s urban sketching five years ago, she resumed sketching with a different attitude, and thought that “there should be a Swede already doing this.” Indeed there was: fellow Stockholmer Nina Johannson. “We had a loosely formed sketching group called Skissa i Stockholm [Sketching in Stockholm], led by Nina”, Ida recalls, which was the base for a formal USk chapter. Together with Nina, Ulrik Gustafsson and Irish
COFFEE BREAK DURING A SKETCHCRAWL IN STOCKHOLM BY IDA GOLDFISH BELLARIAN 24 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk Stockholm
AUGUST 2018 25
Featured Chapter
watercolorist David Meldrum, Goldfish Bellarian, as Ida likes to be known, founded and started managing USk Stockholm in 2015. Her unusual nickname stems from Pushkin’s The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, which her mother used to read to her as a child. The USk Stockholm chapter currently operates a blog and a facebook group with nearly 350 members. “We do our regular meetings on the last Sunday of each month”, Ida describes. About 20 sketchers usually meet up. “As the summer comes, we become more flexible, the hours become longer, so we can become more spontaneous”. They meet in the city center or set out to explore a suburb, Museums are a usual choice, but “we’re trying to connect more to opera and theater, to explore behind the scenes”, Ida comments. The group meets at 12am and sketches for two hours. “And then fika! We always have fika!” Ida exclaims the Swedish word for getting together for a snack and a
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hot beverage. “It’s a big part of the meeting!” she concludes. What is unique about Stockholm, Ida explains, is that “it’s based on several islands, so you always have water nearby. It makes for a nice background. And there’s the chance to draw a winter magic land,” she giggles. Craving for the outdoors hits Swedes hard near the end of winter. “We get more daring! We
want to be outside!” During one meeting in the old city center, Ida recalls, “it was cold and pouring rain, as five or six of us crammed up a covered building entrance,” struggling for a sketch. But they felt they had to be outside, despite the weather. Ida helps diversify the content of the chapter’s blog by producing FOKUS!, a monthly interview of a local sketcher. “it’s a great way to
USk Stockholm
know a sketcher and promote them, but also the whole Urban Sketchers community” Now, USk Stockholm is eager to take the next step: hosting international workshops and activities. Ida’s experience participating in Pushing Your Sketching Boundaries workshops in Málaga and Barcelona, and participating in Sketch Tour Portugal with Luís Frasco helped her see the importance of meeting international sketchers. She’s now focused on bringing that spirit to Stockholm. Local sketchers are always keen to respond and meet visiting sketchers from abroad, and Ida advises her chapter’s members to do the same when they go travelling.
COMMUTERS IN STOCKHOLM BY IDA GOLDFISH BELLARIAN
IDA’S TIP: BLIND DRAWING USUALLY HELPS YOU RELAX AND CONNECT THE HAND TO THE EYES.
CONNECT WITH USK STOCKHOLM AUGUST 2018 27
Featured Chapter
TANTOLUNDEN BY REBECCA CARY ANDERSON
TORKELKNUTSSON BY LINA ASP 28 DRAWING ATTENTION
USk Stockholm
LILLA WIEN BY NINA JOHANSSON AUGUST 2018 29
Featured Chapter
30 DRAWING ATTENTION
Capturing GHOSTS, DINOSAURS and DISTILLERIES in Dublin... BY JANE DILLON WINGFIELD
T
he Natural History Museum is one of the most popular places for one of urban sketchers newest chapters in Dublin, Ireland. “The Dead Zoo”, as it’s known by locals, is a great choice in the wintertime and a great place to recruit the next generation of urban sketchers. “This is Ireland. It rains a lot,” says Marie-Helene Brohan Delhaye, an Admin for the group. Despite the weather, the Dublin sketchers have met consistently for ten years before recently becoming “official.” The originator of the group, Sarah O’Reilly first thought to invite others to sketch on a Sunday afternoon. She, James Moore and Jessica Peel-Yates and three others gathered for the first sketch outing. Together they started a blog and a casual email list and before they knew it they were a sketch group, meeting every Sunday in and around Dublin. “There’s about 20 of us who turn up on any Sunday, out of a pool of 50 fairly regular sketchers.” One of their favourite spots is Drimnagh Castle, a medieval castle close to Dublin Centre. Along with the usual castle amenities there’s “… the resident ghost, Eleanora, and not a straight wall in sight.”
SKETCH BY ALICE CAMPBELL AUGUST 2018 31
Dublin’s varied architecture makes it an interesting city to sketch. “Georgian houses and doors … cathedrals, medieval towers, Trinity College, old industrial buildings (think whiskey distilleries, Guinness), etc. We are also lucky to be right by the sea so when the weather is good we’ll go to the seaside suburbs and capture the atmosphere.” Last year, about a dozen sketchers went to Inis Oirr, one of the Aran Islands in February for three days. “Facing the Atlantic Ocean, waiting for the showers to pass, sketching the stone walls and castles, the boats in the harbour, and the houses … was an invigorating experience.”
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MARIE-HELENE’S TIPS: AS A SKETCHER, BRING BULLDOG CLIPS TO STOP YOUR PAGES FLAPPING IN THE WIND. AS A CHAPTER: OUR GROUP WORKS BECAUSE WE DON’T LET THE THREE ADMINS DO ALL THE WORK - EVERY MONTH, OUTINGS ARE ORGANISED BY SOMEONE DIFFERENT FROM THE CORE GROUP.
Ghosts, Dinosaurs & Distilleries
LEFT SKETCH BY JAMES MOORE
SKETCH BY MAURO MORONI
AUGUST 2018 33
USk Instructor
Adopting the
Innocent Eye
“WHEN I WAS THE AGE OF THESE CHILDREN I COULD DRAW LIKE RAPHAEL. IT TOOK ME MANY YEARS TO LEARN HOW TO DRAW LIKE THESE CHILDREN” – PABLO PICASSO. MARU GODAS HAS TAKEN THIS QUOTE TO HEART BOTH IN HER GOUACHE SKETCHES AND THE WORKSHOPS SHE TEACHES, WRITES SUSAN ROGERS.
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TRANVIA BAIXA
AUGUST 2018 35
USk Instructor
A LOS PIES DE LA CIUDAD DE LA CULTURA GALLINAS 36 DRAWING ATTENTION
Adopting the Innocent Eye
L
ater this year, this Barcelona native will travel abroad to teach several workshops, Gouache like a Child and Gouache with Mixed Media, Emotions in Grayscale. Artists are always trying to see their subjects with fresh eyes. Maru is passionate about teaching participants to adopt the concept of the ‘innocent eye”. She asks participants to ignore perceived ideas about the subject and see as if they were looking at it for the first time. She adds, “the grass can be yellow or the sky pink, expressing yourself with the eyes of a child, you can be innocent and free.” Maru is a freelance artist who focusses on drawing and illustration as well as teaching. She counts herself lucky to live in Barcelona, a city known for its ideal weather, art, architecture, culture and good food. Living in the city, in a small modernist house with a studio and a patio filled with plants is ideal for her creativity.
“Barcelona is not an excessively large city but always has thousands of things to discover and draw. It has a great cultural tradition and at the same time it is modern and cosmopolitan.” Maru’s sketches demonstrate her expressive approach. She likes to spend time contemplating the scene before she begins. “I am interested in the story of what I see. I try to sketch how I feel about it, how I see that reality.” She deals with the problem of too much information by simplifying and compressing or distorting the space. AUGUST 2018 37
USk Instructor
“One trick, that I frequently use is to move my gaze. I start from an endpoint and move my head to ‘deform’ the space and draw everything that fits inside the paper. It’s an amazing exercise.” Maru recommends expressing perspective and depth in different ways, using thickness of line, colour spots, negative spaces and deformation. In her workshops she often encourages participants to work with larger formats and thicker brushes so that the brushstroke is more evident and stroke intention is much more expressive. Her love of gouache came from her experience as an illustrator and graphic designer, but it wasn’t until she forgot her watercolours one day that she started to use the medium for urban sketching. “Gouache is a material that has a very fast drying and a characteristic matt appearance. Many people don’t know that gouache is a very versatile material, it can be used with dense texture but it is also very liquid, almost like watercolour. It allows you to paint light colours on dark colours.” Maru usually carries a very small palette of five colours, sometimes adding a tube of blue or green depending on the place where she plans to draw.
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Adopting the Innocent Eye
AUGUST 2018 39
USk Instructor
Before she got involved with USK, she had a habit of sketching her travels, but when she met other urban sketchers she experienced a boost from sharing sketching with others. 40 DRAWING ATTENTION
Adopting the Innocent Eye
“U
SANTS
RBAN SKETCHING IS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME IN RECENT YEARS. I HAVE MET COLLEAGUES, WONDERFUL FRIENDS AND ABOVE ALL, LOTS OF INSPIRATION” – MARU GODAS AUGUST 2018 41
USk Instructor
RIO MERAVELHA
42 DRAWING ATTENTION
Adopting the Innocent Eye
LAFARGE
AUGUST 2018 43
USk Instructor
TWIN TOWERS 44 DRAWING ATTENTION
HOW TO BECOME A
SKETCHING HERO WITH BENEDETTA DOSSI
“I BENEDETTA DOSSI HAS A DISTINCTIVE SKETCHING STYLE BENDING BUILDINGS AND CREATING DISTORTION IN HER WORK, BUT WHEN IT CAME TO HER WORKSHOP LAST YEAR IN LISBON, ‘COMPOSITION IN ACTION’, IT WAS THIS KEY SKETCHING TOOL THAT TOOK CENTRE STAGE. BY SARAH MINTY
didn’t want to teach how I draw. I want to teach to create a base for you so you can become a master for yourself,” she explains, “this is more important than my performance and creating copies of me.” Benedetta’s passion for teaching shines through as I speak to her: “Teaching is like helping a plant to grow. When I see a person whose work grows a lot and they become a master of themselves, it’s the best goal you can reach as a teacher.” Benedetta is aware though, that as urban sketchers we’re constantly put in front of challenges, as she says, “you have to be brave if you want to sketch”, and you need to be equipped to overcome your limits. Which is why Benedetta also taught
her workshop participants five ‘hero skills’ to conquer the blank page. These skills included never using an eraser, trying to sketch every day and not being afraid of the ability of other sketchers. “Learn from others and don’t be shy or embarrassed about copying. In Italy there is this thing that if you copy you are a loser, but that isn’t true, if you copy you will learn and grow. Everyone can teach you something.” Benedetta is still learning too and is currently interested in using colour in a more emotional way after meeting Alexandra Baptista in Portugal. “Alexandra taught me to draw more deeply within myself and reconnect with something I lost because I was too attracted to the AUGUST 2018 45
Title
46 DRAWING ATTENTION
How to become a Sketching Hero
“B
ENEDETTA’S ‘HERO SKILLS’ INCLUDE NEVER USING AN ERASER, TRYING TO SKETCH EVERY DAY AND NOT BEING AFRAID OF THE ABILITY OF OTHER SKETCHERS...
exterior and creating nice drawings. Instead, I now try to create a connection to myself and be freer with colour, listening to the flow.” She goes on to explain how important it is to never replicate yourself – “you have to create challenges” – and not be afraid of experimenting and seeing your mistakes, as these can motivate you. “I want to do ugly sketches as I want to improve!” The key to overcoming any doubts and becoming a true sketching hero is to “create a safe place in your mind where you can go if you have doubts or problems, go to that place full of good thoughts and positivity,” says Benedetta, and most importantly “don’t give up!”
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USk Instructor
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How to become a Sketching Hero
AUGUST 2018 49
USk Instructor
ABOVE PORTOGALLO, LISBON BELOW PORTO GUIMARAES, CASTLEINDOOR
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FINCAEXOTICA RESTAURANT
How to become a Sketching Hero
AUGUST 2018 51
USk Instructor
BE PROLIFIC! JIM RICHARDS, PROFESSOR OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, AUTHOR, AND URBAN SKETCHER ALWAYS TELLS HIS STUDENTS: “DON’T ASPIRE TO BE MASTERFUL. INSTEAD, ASPIRE TO BE PROLIFIC. THE MASTERY WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF.” JUDGING BY RICHARD’S WORK AND CURRENT SCHEDULE, THAT MANTRA IS PLAYING WELL. BY JANE WINGFIELD
COSTA RICA 52 DRAWING ATTENTION
Be Prolific!
I
caught up with Richards while he was on a whirlwind tour in Italy sketching a myriad of locations in his signature energetic style. His go-to book for urban designers, Freehand Drawing and Discovery: Urban Sketching and Concept Drawing for Designers and his expertise has brought him welldeserved recognition and put him in high demand all over the world these days. Back in 2007 Richards wrote an article for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Magazine, The Value of Sketching in the Digital Age which identified him as someone who was promoting the lost art of sketching. “We’re starting to realize what we lost [with digital]…that freshness, spontaneity, and creativity that’s inherent in thinking in a freehand way.” Universities started inviting Richards to teach sketch workshops. Sometimes those invitations have been coupled with an Urban Sketchers event. Such was the case when Costa Rican architect and urban sketcher William Cordero invited
Richards to work with his architecture students and then organized a four-day workshop for USk Costa Rica. One participant in that workshop was a former architect in his 70s who had a severe brain injury and his desire to draw had disappeared. “Part of his therapy was to get out and draw.” After the workshop, he wrote to tell Jim, “I can’t stop. This is just the greatest thing!” “You don’t think about it when you’re teaching a workshop, you’re developing all these things that can turn into long-term relationships; but it happens as often as not.” As a case in point, while in Vietnam with a study group in 2016 Richards met Chien Bau one of founders of USk Vietnam. Bau took Richards on a motorcycle tour of Saigon. In fall of 2017 Bau visited Richards in Florida. They sketched in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota. He couldn’t leave without seeing Miami, so they piled into Jim’s car and did a road trip complete with a Rolling Stones sound track. AUGUST 2018 53
USk Instructor
Jim has also lead Discovery Tours for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). They’ve been to several cities— Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. In the fall of 2016 ASLA brought Jim and urban sketcher, Richard Alomar to Los Angeles. They led an all-day bus/ sketch tour, called “Tinseltown Movieola” visiting famous movie locations including the Tam O’Shanter restaurant, “Where Disney and his animators would sit and drinnk vodka and scratch pictures into the table.”
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More recently tour companies have contacted Jim to lead sketch workshops. One tour includes lodging at an Italian villa in Tuscany, day-long sketch trips to Florence, Cinque Terra and Sienna, food, cooking classes, and wine tasting. He has another sketch tour planned for Vietnam in 2019. His workshop/ tour participants are often architects who
OLD HAVANA, CUBA
Be Prolific!
want to reconnect with sketching. But generally people just “want to learn to do what Jim does.” Jim chooses material from his repertoire to tailor a workshop to participants’ needs. He has compiled a flip book with examples of urban sketchers’ work (borrowed with permission) to show people different approaches to different subject matter. “Urban Sketching isn’t about art,” he says, “it’s about authenticity; that means going out and being in the moment and seeing what you see and recording it in your own way.... if you don’t record it, that story will never be told and that’s kind of tragic. So just get out and do it and enjoy it!
CIVITA DI BAGNAREGIO
“I
F YOU DON’T RECORD IT, THAT STORY WILL NEVER BE TOLD AND THAT’S KIND OF TRAGIC. SO JUST GET OUT AND DO IT AND ENJOY IT!” – JIM RICHARDS
RAJESH
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Be Prolific!
DUBROVNIK FROM HILLTOP AUGUST 2018 57
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SIESTA, KEY BEACH 58 DRAWING ATTENTION
JULY 2018 59
Review
PARKA REVIEWS | BY TEOH YI CHIE
Teoh Yi Chie is an infographics journalist who joined Urban Sket-chers Singapore in 2009 – better known as Parka from Parkablogs.com a website that reviews art books and art products. This month Parka video reviews Uniball Vision Needle pens. Check it out!
60 DRAWING ATTENTION
Endnotes
COOL GEAR Noga Grosman of USk Orlando shared her Cool Gear secret. This is her Mini-Max stool. It is 9 inches in diameter and 2.5� wide and opens up to 16� high. It comes with a handy shoulder strap and weighs 2.4 pounds. This sturdy stool can support 260 pounds. Noga purchased it online from Safrut in Yavne, Israel. For more information please visit www.safrut.co.il. Do you have a Cool Gear secret to share with our readers? Email drawingattention@urbansketchers.org.
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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.
© 2018 Urban Sketchers www.urbansketchers.org