Drawing Attention December 2018

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DRAWING

Attention

The official zine of Urban Sketchers DECEMBER 2018


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 Dillon Wingfield Issuu layout: Anne Taylor Writers: Meagan Burns; Leslie Akchurin; Mark Anderson; Pedro Loureiro; Susan Schaffhausen; Jane Wingfield. Proofreaders: Ann Schwartzwald; Leslie Akchurin. Contributors: Parka; Amber Sausen; Maria Regina Tuazon cover image: LK Bing Subscribe to Drawing Attention. Read the November edition of Drawing Attention. Circulation: 11,001 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.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Urban Sketchers, The end of another year is here. And what an exciting year it has been for Urban Sketchers! Thank you for all you’ve done to make it so wonderful. Volunteers make Urban Sketchers possible--volunteers lead local chapters; volunteers serve on numerous USk committees to plan events around the world; volunteers submit, edit and curate the posts we all enjoy on urbansketchers.org; and volunteers charted the organization’s path in 2018 by serving on the Board of Directors. Thank you! Also, I want to remind you that 31 December is the deadline to apply for the Community Workshop Grant Program (applications and

FAQs). USk chapters worldwide are invited to partner with a local community group (not-for-profit, school, art organization, city agency) to develop and implement a workshop for that group. Urban Sketchers will fund three pilot workshops in 2019 using the funds raised from the 10k+10k Matching Fund Campaign. It’s thanks to your support that we’ll be bringing Urban Sketchers to new sketchers through the Community Workshop Grant Program. I hope you’ll take a look back at your own sketches and those shared on urbansketchers.org to celebrate the places we’ve seen and the stories we’ve shared in 2018. Happy Sketching, Amber Sausen, USk President

MANAGING EDITOR’S MESSAGE USK is a truly international organization, and this month we’re pleased to feature instructors and chapters from five continents. Charline Moreau from France, LK Bing from Indonesia, and Eduardo Bajzek from Brazil share their sketch tips with us, and we also hear from local USk chapters in Vienna, New York City and Townsville, Australia. As always, a million thanks to our wonderful writers, proofreaders, Issuu and MailChimp designers, social media and tech teams and, in particular, outgoing Managing Editor and USk Communications Director, Brenda Murray, for the countless hours spent working behind the scenes to put together another fabulous issue of DA for our 16,000+ readers! I hope you enjoy it! Patricia Chow, Drawing Attention Managing Editor drawingattention@urbansketchers.org


CONTENTS 4 USK NEWS & EVENTS 8

USK VIENNA

22

USK NYC

36

16

USK TOWNSVILLE

30

LK BING

44 CHARLINE MOREAU

EDUARDO BAJZEK

54 REVIEWS | ENDNOTES 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

A PDF VERSION IS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE.

DECEMBER 2018 3


USk News & Events

PLACE YOUR AD HERE SYMPOSIUM SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS Every year, Urban Sketchers awards 10 Symposium Workshop Passes to sketchers from the host city. In the spirit of sharing the joy and promoting urban sketching to the local community, Urban Sketchers congratulates this year’s winners!

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

4 DRAWING ATTENTION

The lucky 10 scholarship recipients for the 10th Urban Sketchers International Symposium in Amsterdam, Netherlands are: Vaishali Rajurkar, Christiaan Afman, Richard Venema, Jan Baggen, Kitty van den Heuvel, Isis van der Knaap, Bern de Klerk, Rens de Kooker, Francesca Mazza, and Floor van Hoorn. Enjoy the Symposium in Amsterdam! Click here for more Symposium information.

FOLLOW USK ON TWITTER

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USk News & Events

USK CHAPTERS GET SOME MEDIA LOVE Urban Sketchers are making headlines! Recently the USk Singapore and Cincinnati chapters were featured in local news. Mediacorp Channel 8 News aired a half-hour TV program on USkSG, telling the USkSG story from its inception in 2009 to the vibrant sketching community it is today. Watch the video. Also, famed Singapore and Johor Bahru-based food and lifestyle blogger, Johor Kaki, joined USkSG for a sketchwalk at Tiong Bahru. Read the blog. On the other side of the world, USk Cincinnati was profiled by weekly newspaper/website CityBeat. Read the article. Share your chapter news with us! Contact us at drawingattention@ urbansketchers.org. DECEMBER 2018 5


USk News & Events

10X10 WORKSHOPS 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.

THANK YOU BRENDA MURRAY USk would like to thank Brenda Murray for her exemplary leadership during her tenure as Managing Editor of Drawing Attention. Brenda oversaw the successful relaunch of the zine in Issuu as well as an increase in readership to over 16,000 readers! We wish her all the best in future endeavors!

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CORRECTION The sketch on the left side of page 18 of the November issue was incorrectly attributed to Andrej Sala. The sketch is by londongoth. Andrejsala is the location of the sketch in Riga.

MANIFESTO TRANSLATED INTO ARMENIAN The USk Manifesto has now been translated into Armenian thanks to Inna Kholodova and sketchers in Armenia. Check it out.


USk News & Events

Urban Sketchers is currently seeking volunteers to fill the following positions: • Volunteer Fundraising Director • Volunteer Sponsorship Administrator • Volunteer Communications Director For more information click HERE. FOLLOW USK ON FACEBOOK FOLLOW USK ON INSTAGRAM

SUBSCRIBE TO THE USK YOUTUBE CHANNEL DECEMBER 2018 7


Featured Chapter

Meet V

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USk Vienna

Vienna, Austria VIENNA LOCALS WERE UP AND RUNNING WITH WEEKLY MEET UPS BEFORE THEY HAD EVEN HEARD OF GLOBAL URBAN SKETCHERS! NOW THEY ARE GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH IN ONE OF EUROPE’S MOST SPECTACULAR CITIES. BY MEAGAN BURNS

DECEMBER 2018 9


Featured Chapter

U

Sk Vienna, Austria has been an official regional chapter for three years, but the community has been a weekly sketch group for over five years, unaware at the time, of our global Urban Sketchers’ community. The Viennese sketchers have been meeting each week for two hours since the dawn of their group, but when the original organizer moved away, current administrators Sandra Biskup, Gerlinde Schweiger and Ida Räther decided to sustain the group, and soon after, applied to become an official chapter. Sandra explains there’s a real benefit to meeting each week, not only for the opportunity to get to know their fellow sketchers, “but it’s an chance to support each other as we grow and evolve in our style and practice, and inspires us to come back the next week. We help and encourage each other, and then go out for drinks afterwards. We have a lot of fun!” Vienna has amazing architecture and tourist spots that are challenging to sketch, such as the First District of Vienna, but as winter approaches and the light diminishes as temperatures drop, the group looks to their “Cafe Sketching Season,” and tries to stay motivated to draw indoors. “We have amazing cakes and pastries in our cafes, and the coffee scene is quite vibrant, but it can be challenging to keep the group inspired and motivated during the winter months.” Sandra recently handed out black paper to her fellow sketchers, and encouraged everyone to try their hand at a bit of night sketching, with interesting results. Last winter the chapter partnered with Urban Sketchers’ instructor Omar Jaramillo to offer an workshop to the community. This was the first time the chapter had offered an educational opportunity, and they were unsure how it would be received. “We were quite surprised and pleased that the workshop sold out very quickly, and we had a waiting list! It inspired us to consider future urban sketching workshops, because many of us are quite interested in learning new techniques.”

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“V

IENNA IS A BEAUTIFUL EUROPEAN CITY, WITH INTRICATE AND SOMETIMES OVERWHELMING DETAILS...


USk Vienna

DECEMBER 2018 11


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SANDRA BISKUP


USk Vienna

RENE VAN DE VONDERVOORT

“Vienna is a beautiful European city, with intricate and sometimes overwhelming details, and I challenge myself to continue to see and draw my city with fresh eyes” USk Vienna meets each Wednesday at 6pm, and welcomes you to join their Facebook group if you plan on visiting and sketching their beautiful city.

f

CONNECT WITH USK VIENNA IDA RAETHER

DECEMBER 2018 13


Featured Chapter

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USk Vienna

JULIA LOHNINGER

GERLINDE SCHWEIGER DECEMBER 2018 15


Featured Chapter

USk Townsville is

Hot Hot Hot! MICHAEL AND HIS FRIEND GERALD SOWORKA CO-FOUNDED THE TOWNSVILLE CHAPTER IN APRIL 2017. MADE UP OF ENTHUSIASTS FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE – NURSES, TEACHERS AND CAREER ARTISTS – THE GROUP HAS GROWN QUICKLY TO JUST OVER 400 MEMBERS. BY SUSAN SCHAFFHAUSEN

HELEN GRACE 16 DRAWING ATTENTION


USk Townsville

DECEMBER 2018 17


Featured Chapter

The time of day is a major factor of group outings for the USk Townsville Chapter, which typically meets Mondays from 4-6 p.m. Founder Michael Pope explains, “We live in the tropics and it’s hot, so later is better, when there’s just enough remaining daylight. At any other time our sketching spots are determined by the available shade.” The launch of the USk Chapter in Townsville, Australia, was due in part to the frenetic pace of travel undertaken by co-founder Michael Pope. A teacher of both art and Japanese, Michael likes to pack in a lot when he travels. “I try to see too much, sometimes 10 things in a day. To sketch, I have to plant myself somewhere and really notice the details.” Michael was posting travel sketches on Instagram and saw a lot of #USk postings.

GERALD SOWORKA 18 DRAWING ATTENTION


USk Townsville

He researched the source and realized it was a ready-made community of sketchers. Michael and his friend Gerald Soworka co-founded the Townsville Chapter in April 2017. Made up of enthusiasts from all walks of life—nurses, teachers and career artists—the group has grown quickly to just over 400 members with a dozen regular sketchers who meet every Monday. Michael and Gerald assure various opportunities for immersion in sketching and have organized weekend trips to meet with other chapters at Paronella Park in the Cairns rainforest, as well as organizing several workshops in Bali, planned for 2019. Michael describes the Townsville atmosphere as something like “a mini Cape Town.” While it doesn’t have the grandeur of many European cities,

DECEMBER 2018 19


Featured Chapter

there are several Victorian Era buildings. Beautiful Castle Hill dominates the landscape, so it can be seen from just about anywhere in town and often shows up in the group’s sketches. Another favorite spot is Magnetic Island, a 25-minute boat ride away. The sketch opportunities include gigantic granite boulders, WWI observation towers and the remains of gun emplacements that held the cannons. There are wild koalas that seem more than willing to be sketched from the low branches of eucalyptus trees. June and July are the winter months in Townsville, and the best season for visiting. “It’s gorgeous here—a bit of a tourism secret but well-known to residents of Sydney and Melbourne who enjoy the beaches.” Michael describes the group’s talents as a nice crossover between landscapes and life drawing, so visitors and chapter members are likely to end up in sketches right along with the scenery.

f

ED KULPA

CONNECT WITH USK TOWNSVILLE

20 DRAWING ATTENTION

GAI COPEMAN

MICHAEL POPE


USk Townsville

SARAH ANDERSON

NOVEMBER 2018 21


Featured Chapter

JOY HECHT 22 DRAWING ATTENTION


A CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITY

IN THE BIG CITY “I’M AMAZED AT HOW MUCH URBAN SKETCHERS HAS BECOME PART OF MY SOCIAL LIFE,” NEW YORK CITY CHAPTER ADMINISTRATOR AND COFOUNDER, MARK LEIBOWITZ TELLS LESLIE AKCHURIN. “THE BEST CONVERSATIONS I HAVE ALL WEEK HAPPEN WHEN WE GET TOGETHER.”

DECEMBER 2018 23


Featured Chapter

T

he NYC chapter thrives on interpersonal connections, along with a spirit of continuous learning. Members encourage each other to advance their skills and take risks with subject matter outside their comfort zone, whether that means sketching complex architecture or drawing crowds of people. And in place of the traditional “throw down” at the end of the day, Mark says their chapter has adopted a more leisurely “Show and Tell,” where each sketcher takes a turn sharing both their work and their observations from the day. Each talks about their personal progress while avoiding negative self-criticism. When done,

24 DRAWING ATTENTION

each sketcher receives a hearty round of applause from the group. Mark explains, “We support each other and our enthusiasm has made it practical for the group to meet two times every week, year round. The New York City sketch events typically start at 10 am. We take a break for lunch, which is a picnic when it’s warm enough. Then we’re back sketching until mid-afternoon when the group goes to a pub or restaurant to focus on the social part of our day.” Having been active as a chapter since 2012, NYC sketchers have visited all the obvious and usual


USk New York City

DECEMBER 2018 25


Featured Chapter

sites to sketch and have also visited some pretty obscure parts of their city. In good weather, they sketch views of Manhattan and visit various neighborhoods that each have a different flavor. In cold or rainy weather, the group might take refuge in one of the city’s 80-plus museums, or they might sketch one of the city’s magnificent interior spaces like Grand Central Station. Anywhere that people congregate, bus stations or subways, is fertile sketching ground. The chapter also hosts special events like portrait parties in the winter, where members can practice portraiture, and an annual holiday party. The NYC chapter welcomes sketching friends from other cities and countries. According to Mark, “Urban sketchers are connected not just locally but worldwide because we understand each other and are involved with something really special. We’re creating unique, one of a kind, hand-made things in a world filled with mass-produced objects. This connection is what makes Urban Sketchers so unique and valuable.”

26 DRAWING ATTENTION

MARK’S TIP FOR CHAPTER ADMINISTRATORS: “RUNNING A CHAPTER IS A VERY DOABLE THING. YOU ONLY NEED TO DO TWO THINGS: BE CONSISTENT AND BE INVITING. BE WHERE YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO BE AT THE TIME YOU SAID YOU’D BE THERE, AND ENCOURAGE MEMBERS AND VISITORS TO ENJOY EACH OTHER’S COMPANY. THIS IS SOMETHING WONDERFUL WE’RE DOING TOGETHER.”

f

CONNECT WITH USK NYC


USk New York

LAURA ROSEN

DECEMBER 2018 27


Featured Chapter

KATIE WOODWARD 28 DRAWING ATTENTION


USk New York City

“W

E’RE CREATING UNIQUE, ONE OF A KIND, HAND-MADE THINGS IN A WORLD FILLED WITH MASS-PRODUCED OBJECTS – MARK LEIBOWITZ

LESLIE SIM DECEMBER 2018 29


USk Instructor

HEIDLEBERG, GERMANY 30 DRAWING ATTENTION


Spontaneous strokes and atmospheric cities

SKETCHING USED TO BE JUST A TOOL FOR LK BING IN HIS WORK AS AN ARCHITECT, AND INTERIOR AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNER BUT IT IS NOW A MAINSTAY AS HE DEVELOPS HIS OWN WORK AND ENCOURAGES OTHERS WHO ARE ‘NEW TO THE GAME’. BY PEDRO LOUREIRO

DECEMBER 2018 31


USk Instructor

LK Bing loves to convey the emotion of a place in his sketches, and he does so with a vast array of sketching and art tools. Comfortable with all of them, he prefers wet media as it allows objects in his frame to become diffuse, and forces the observer to focus on the tonal variation of his art and the atmosphere of the place – guessing the place’s character instead of identifying concrete elements and

details. LK enjoys fast, dynamic, spontaneous strokes instead of clear lines and planned detail. The USk community benefits from his critical eye when analyzing light and shadow: “I am currently trying to learn and create impressionistic sketches by deepening the concept of lighting,” LK says.

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KALIMATI KULON STREET SURABAYA, INDONESIA

“I work as an architect, an interior designer, and a landscape artist.”

LK shares. He also lectures frequently at the university, and was even commissioned to paint works to specifically fit the color and tonal scheme of interior designs. Painting and photography are as integral to LK’s art practice as urban sketching. The USk community first caught his interest in 2012. Before that, he recalls using sketching as a tool “only for designing purposes and to record architectural details


Spontaneous strokes and atmospheric cities

for work”. LK co-founded the USk Surabaya chapter in 2013, and is currently its admin. “I’m much happier when I get to sketch in a group with other fellow sketchers, since I can learn from them and also share my work with them,” he says, explaining his motivation and dedication to the community. For LK, the hardest challenge in urban sketching is “to sketch rapidly with the tools that we carry”.

PORTO

DECEMBER 2018 33


USk Instructor

Earlier this year, during a sketch walk event in Lasem, Indonesia, he received some good advice from his close friend, Hongky Zein: “Always be strategic in organizing and carrying your sketching tools around.” LK ensorses this tip and shares it with the wider USk community. At the Symposium in Porto, LK led a workshop called ‘Dramatic Atmosphere in Black and White’, which “was about how we can focus more on the usage of the lighting concept in our black and white sketches, such as its direction, reflection, quantity, quality, and intensity”. By eliminating color, he walked participants through the basic but hard-to-grasp visual concepts that are key to being able to leap forward in one’s art. LK is now developing a workshop for beginner sketchers, to help and encourage people who are having trouble starting to sketch. Other future endeavors include organizing “a few travel sketching events with the other USk Surabaya members” and publishing a book “on artistic composition for a sketch”. 34 DRAWING ATTENTION

TRADITIONAL FISH MARKET, SURABAYA


Spontaneous strokes and atmospheric cities

LK BING’S TIP: “BE BOLD IN CHOOSING THE TOOLS THAT ARE STRICTLY NECESSARY, SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO CARRY SO MUCH AND BECOME ENCUMBERED.”

LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO

DECEMBER 2018 35


USk Instructor

36 DRAWING ATTENTION

PALACIO INDUSTRIAS


Awesome. Tricky. Terrible.Awesome. EDUARDO BAJZEK FROM BRAZIL IS OFTEN ENCOURAGED BY THE WORDS OF FRED LYNCH WHO WROTE ABOUT THE INNER MONOLOGUE OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS: ‘THIS IS AWESOME. THIS IS TRICKY. THIS IS TERRIBLE. THIS IS AWESOME.” EDUARDO BELIEVES WE CAN ALSO TAKE ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THIS WHEN WE’RE SKETCHING. BY JANE WINGFIELD

DECEMBER 2018 37


USk Instructor

E

duardo Bajzek’s first USk Symposium workshop, called Straight to Colors, may appear at first glance to be a far cry from his more recent workshop, Graphite is the Matter. However, the two approaches are both based on the idea of laying down big shapes – masses – on paper, rather than focusing on lines. He developed his approach after seeing many beginning urban sketchers go straight to line drawing and watercolor. “Sometimes I think people get frustrated because watercolor is not an easy technique” Although he worked in watercolor before he started urban sketching, art markers were Eduardo’s first choice for urban sketching. He taught workshops in both Santo Domingo and Barcelona on using markers. It wasn’t until the Chicago Symposium in 2017 that he started focusing on graphite – he did a demo using graphite, and afterwards, a woman told him, “This looks so much easier than watercolor.” He finds working with graphite and focusing on mass to be very helpful,

38 DRAWING ATTENTION

especially for beginners. He recently traveled to Hungary to teach joint workshops with Hungarian urban sketcher, Cecilia Simonyi. They taught kids and teens, and “the results were amazing. Some of the kids, 7 and 8 years old, got the perspective right because they were looking at shapes.” They had told the kids to “try to read the angles on these shapes. We didn’t speak about vanishing points, of course, and some of them actually got the perspective in an intuitive way.”

workshop, taught at both the Santo Domingo and Barcelona Symposiums. Then he organized the 2014 Symposium in Paraty, Brazil, and took a break before returning to do a demo in Chicago in 2017 and Graphite is the Matter in Porto this past summer.

Eduardo, a trained architect, did design work and architectural illustration before he started urban sketching. An Australian architect and illustrator, John Haycraft, urged him to draw on location, as “it’s the only way to improve your work.” So Eduardo took to the streets. “I went to Italy,” he said. Soon enough he heard about urban sketchers and emailed Gabi asking to join the group as a Brazilian correspondent. Lisbon was his first symposium in 2011. When he returned home to Brazil, he organized the USk Brazil chapter. Straight to Colors was his first

SZECHENYI, BUDAPEST


Awesome. Tricky. Terrible. Awesome.

EDUARDO’S TIPS: TAKE YOUR TIME – WHY RUSH? AND AVOID OVERWORKING. ONCE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR WHAT TO DO NEXT, IT’S TIME TO STOP. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO LIGHT. YOU CAN’T HAVE LIGHT AND COLOR IN THE SAME SPACE.

NOVEMBER 2018 39


USk Instructor

SANTA CROCE, ITALY

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Awesome. Tricky. Terrible. Awesome.

DECEMBER 2018 41


USk Instructor

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Title

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 friendly writer like Anne Taylor to cover your story! Contact us at drawingattention@ urbansketchers.org.

DECEMBER 2018 43


USk Instructor

The Memory “WHEN I LOOK AT MY SKETCHBOOKS, THERE ARE ALWAYS TREES IN MY DRAWINGS.” URBAN SKETCHER CHARLINE MOREAU IS A FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR CURRENTLY LIVING IN NANTES, FRANCE WHO – NOT SURPRISINGLY – LOVES TO DRAW. BY MARK ALAN ANDERSON

ESPLANADE DU PEYROU, MONTPELLIER 44 DRAWING ATTENTION


USk Maestrat

of Trees and Other Things

DECEMBER 2018 45


USk Instructor

advises me that sketchers must plan to paint fast because there is little reprieve in the form of shade!

“E

ven when I’m drawing in the city, I always need vegetation; I think they are all part of the story. Every tree is a single character, some are old and twisted with their own shape and others are different.” The comparison of trees to stage actors is interesting, and Moreau is clearly intrigued by the variations a four season “stage” such as Nantes delivers. She perceptively points out how the colors of winter – “very cold, like blue and violet” transform into the yellow-greens of spring, with lots of flowers and buildings emerging from a background of fog. Summer hues are bright yellow, and she laughs about the heat and

46 DRAWING ATTENTION

The shadows of Nantes are short and intense, but she speaks ardently of the coming autumn season, cold and rainy and characterized by long shadows, excitedly revealing that “the trees are so different with big shadows on the ground.” As a freelance illustrator working with architects and landscape designers, Moreau is frequently pressed to create images that aid clientele in imagining what future buildings or grounds will look like. This type of illustration must be done by hand to capture an organic nature: it’s difficult to draw plants and trees on a computer without looking clinical and sterile. Moreau shares with me that she’s been drawing “like” an urban sketcher for a few years, having initially discovered USk in a book by Gabriel Campanario. While traveling in Italy her ideas about urban sketching began to crystalize. “I wanted to keep memories without making photos, like a memory sketchbook. Now, when

I look at these drawings I can remember all the things happening in each moment, when I look at the drawings I can hear people talking in Italian.”

PREVIOUS PAGE – PROMENADE DU PEYROU, MONTPELLIER, FRANCE:

Another reason I love drawing trees is because they give life to a subject, they are alive and unique. This fall sketch was made in Montpellier, in November 2017. It was really cold in the Promenade du Peyrou but I absolutely wanted to catch those wonderful colors in my sketchbook. I stopped when I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore and after being sure to have captured these shades of gold and the spirit of the place. RIGHT – LA TERRASSE DES VENTS, ÎLE DE NANTES, FRANCE: My favou-

rite subjects to draw are trees, and one of the reasons is because it gives a natural frame to a stage, with its trunk, leaves and shadow! Put a tree on the foreground of your drawing and you’ll give it depth immediately.


The memory of trees & other things

DECEMBER 2018 47


USk Instructor

I mention to Charline that her sketchbooks sound a little like a sort of travel journal or carnet de voyage. She smiles and nods vigorously. “Yes, like carnet voyage, an experience to remember!” Moreau reveals that she loves to draw with pens, but will typically start with watercolor first, followed

by inked lines. To her, reversing those tools feels too much like a coloring book. “But I love to draw! Even with watercolor I still love the drawing part, I love the lines and drawing shadows with lines, I like to look at all the details.” Charline Moreau plans to relocate to Italy at year’s end. Her personal

PASSAGE POMMERAYE, NANTES, FRANCE: I love watercolor, but when a

subject is full of amazing details like windows, sculptures, capitals, typography or volutes, I can’t resist drawing all the straight lines and bends with pens. I came three times for two hours to finish this drawing, sketching with ink directly. 48 DRAWING ATTENTION

work is currently focused on Nantes, where she is choosing a different memory to draw every day.


The memory of trees & other things

CAMOGLI, LIGURIA, ITALY: Boats. That’s what I learned the most to draw

while I was studying abroad in Italy. And at this moment, I couldn’t choose between graphism and color, both were important for the soul of this place, so I mixed the ink sketch with watercolor on the background. DECEMBER 2018 49


USk Instructor

PONTE LUIS, PORTO, PORTUGAL:

One of my biggest challenges: sophisticated architecture with a complicated point of view. But I couldn’t leave the USk Symposium in Porto without having done this. It took me three hours, and a lot of deleted and retraced lines, but adding colors on this was a great pleasure! If you think that you can’t sketch something because it’s too complicated, just try it, and you’ll be so happy to have overcome your limits that you’ll want to do it again!

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The memory of trees & other things

“I

‘ ’VE ALWAYS DRAWN ON LOCATION, AS IT’S A BIG PART OF THE WORK I DO AS AN ARTIST – GATHERING INFORMATION AND EXPERIENCING THE LOCATION…

PONTE LUIS DECEMBER 2018 51


USk Instructor

RIGHT – CASTLE OF THE DUKES OF BRITTANY FROM RUE DES ETATS, NANTES, FRANCE: Nantes is becoming a really touristic city during

summer, because of ‘Le Voyage à Nantes’ and its artistic installations on the streets, along the Green Line. If you want to sketch architecture, wait until the evening and you’ll be free to draw the monuments, while the crowd is having dinner on restaurant terraces.

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OPPOSITE PAGE – L’ILE DE NANTES AND RAILWAY BRIDGE FROM BOULEVARD DE SARREBRUCK, NANTES, FRANCE: Living in one place makes

us forget to watch it with attention. We cross the same roads, see the same buildings, the same trees, and our neighbourhood become harmless. When I did this sketch with one of my students, I would never have thought that it would be a great sketch, I come here everyday and I had just forgotten how beautiful it was.


The memory of trees & other things

DECEMBER 2018 53


REVIEW | ENDNOTES

NEW BOOKS ON URBAN SKETCHING LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT GIFT FOR AN URBAN SKETCHER? THE FOLLOWING BOOKS WERE PUBLISHED THIS YEAR – TREAT YOURSELF OR PICK ONE UP FOR YOUR FAVORITE SKETCHER!

A SMALL CITY BY THE SEA: AN ARTIST’S VIEW OF PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE

by Sue Anne Bottomley

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EVERYDAY SKETCHING AND DRAWING: FIVE STEPS TO A UNIQUE AND PERSONAL SKETCHBOOK HABIT

by Steven Reddy

EINE STUNDE AUFENTHALT / ONE HOUR WAIT

by Rolf Schroeter


REVIEW | ENDNOTES

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.

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 Fabriano Studio Watercolor Paper. Check it out!

DECEMBER 2018 55


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


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