From the heart

Thanks a lot to Swasky and his team for the organisation, bravo! It's been just wonderful. 

Actually a symposium like a Christmas eve, when you're a child and you can't wait to see your cousins again and you feel so so happy ! Urban sketchers is not only drawing, it's about friendship...

Meeting people, and testing techniques. 

Helping as a translator for Veronica Lawlor's workshop, I got 3 opportunities to be able to go out of the confort zone. Instructors and sketchers give you so much confidence, you close your eyes and jump in the testing spirit, wow wow wow ! 

Workshops are also a great moment to meet sketchers and speak about styles. For example Celia Burgos plays with black ink and bleach. Awesome !

There are workshops during three days. In the morning I stroll about Barcelona's labyrinths to join the sketchers. Every morning the same scene : and the best part is "Good night darling, you'd like a beer ?" when it's 8 am. "Well, no thanks, not tonight !"

Vamos, let's go ! 2 more workshops to do, astonishing (and also splashing !)

First one with Shari Blaukopf from Canada (and Vincent Desplanche, 2 great aquarellists). Big constraint : only 3 primary colours, from tubes, making first thumbnail value drawings. You've got 3 hours. Well, I'll change for tubes soon, colours are full of pigments, miam miam !

Second one with Paul and Tia from Singapour : pour coffee in your sketchbook, spread it out with your credit card, do your sketch's hair done (let's grab the hotel's comb). A bit of salt, some chinese ink lines with the chinese stick, splash watercolour with a teethbrush (let's grab it too !)... It's like a trip to childhood, without thinking (too much)... 

During the symposium you meet so many people, it's easy to be eating with a Londonian, a Texan, a Thai, an Australian... So many countries, so many drawing styles... Usk is all around the world, so guess what ! You can draw everywhere with sketchers, makes me dizzy dizzy !

Wow awesome ! Tia gives to Swasky an asiatic stamp, it's written Barcelona in chinese on it, magical ! You read it from top to bottom. What I prefer is Swasky's syllabic etymology :

BAR bar, 

CEL sky, 

ONA wave.

Ok guys, let's go : it's time to experiment... A bit of markers, only 6 colours available so stop thinking, just draw... 

Inspiration 

(and expiration, don't forget to breathe!)

Tazab, Julie, Judith (the grown-up)

 

Tazab's come with family, and Judith, his daughter, she draws so well ! Her brother Thomas is also a great sketcher, and together they inspire such a good idea to Marc and Chris from Belgium : "We should do something for mini sketchers, say here !" ("say here" is part of verbal punctuation in Belgium, I just love it !) As they're coming to the sketchers fair next november in Clermont, they'll bring their machine to make badges "I'm a mini sketcher" and "I love my Usk". Awesome !

Marc also asks "Why not a mini sketchers sketchbook? A mini sketchers blog ?" Something's going on here, to be continued !

Let's catch Suhita drawing Lapin, and Lapin drawing Suhita, the 2 correspondants of the blog !

Before the curtain goes down, a souvenir portrait of Ursula, maybe the youngest one of the Urban Sketchers.

Well that's it : it's over. That's what I thought while sketching at the airport. But guess who's flying on the same flight ? Emdé ! Sketchers recognize each other quickly, material and sketchbooks, and the head going up and down just like the plastic dogs on a car parcel shelf !

It's time to close the symposium's chapter, just a last express portraits gallery. Ultimate supper together, and also july the 14th : national day in France. French stand up and sing the Marseillaise ! Belge will sure laugh at us, yes they will, quoi ! (pronounce with the Liégeois accent) 

It's a bit sad to go away. Veronica Lawlor cheers us up "à la prochaine" (see you next one) with her nice New Yorker accent, and this is the perfect cuote to end this. Back to France, each time I hear "à la prochaine", it brings me back to Barcelona... We'll surf on this great energy !

More drawings here and here

Meet the Instructor: Veronica Lawlor (New York City, USA)

Veronica Lawlor
New York City, USA

Veronica Lawlor’s reportage drawings have led her around the world, completing assignments for a diverse group of clients, including Brooks Brothers, 3M, and the Hyatt hotel chain. Her NYC drawings of September 11th are featured in the Newseum in Washington DC. In 2011 Veronica was nominated by Canson USA for the Canson Prix, and her work was presented at the Louvre. Veronica is a professor on the faculty of Pratt Institute and Parsons the New School for Design, and is the co-founder of the Dalvero Academy of reportage illustration. She is the author of One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media. (Quarry Books)

Blog: http://www.veronicalawlor.com
Website: http://www.studio1482.com/veronica

Workshop C: Designing Barcelona

Designing Barcelona (Workshop C)

Instructor: Veronica Lawlor (New York City)
Location: L'Illa de la Discórdia

Barcelona’s discord is our design playground! Join reportage illustrator Veronica Lawlor in a playful approach to reportage and picture making on one of the most celebrated streets in Barcelona, the Illa de la Discórdia.

The “Illa de la Discórdia” (in English: the Block of Discord), is one of the most celebrated blocks in Barcelona’s Eixample district: so named because it showcases four buildings by four of Barcelona’s most important Modernist architects, in four very different, sometimes clashing, styles. These diverse architectural styles give the participants of this workshop an opportunity to play with and explore four different graphic approaches, drawing each building’s personality and bringing its unique identity to life. This approach also brings the artist’s unique experience of location to life!

The drawing fun here is to improvise, play, and do things you would normally not do - go beyond ‘realism’ to explore the design intentions of each architect. And of course we’ll apply those same approaches to drawing the people who weave this collection of mixed graphics together. The focus is on your personal interpretation – your Design of Barcelona!

Workshop Schedule

The workshop will begin with a short demonstration by Veronica of core elements of picture design: linear calligraphy, marks (texture) and patterns, and color shape and line. Picture dimension will also be discussed. The participants will spend the first hour in experiment and play - making small thumbnail sketches of the four buildings through four different approaches – black and white marks and pattern, black line, brush and calligraphy, color shapes, and colored line. This includes interpreting people this way. The decision each participant makes is a choice of graphics – which building lends itself best to calligraphy, which to marks and pattern, which to color, etc. – to reflect the personality of the artist as well as the architect.

We’ll then have a short critique of the drawings, and a demonstration by the instructor of picture proportions and graphic choices. The participants will spend the last hour and a half working on one large drawing of the all four buildings on the street together, using the calligraphy, marks, patterns, and colored shape and line that they just played with, in various picture percentages. We’ll talk about how much to put into a drawing – and how much to leave out – the graphic feeling you want, and the design decisions you make.

The famous buildings of the Illa de la Discordia are: Casa Lleó-Morera, designed by Lluis Doménech Montaner, Casa Mulleras by Enric Sagnier, Casa Amantller by Josep Puig I Cadafalch, and the Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudi. In addition to learning about your own sense of design, you will have the chance to study and appreciate the architecture of these important figures of the Modernist movement in Barcelona, through an exploration in drawing.

Learning goals

• By example, demonstration, and experience, participants will explore various methods of picture making and personal graphic expression of calligraphy, marks, shape and color: the elements of picture design.
• They should walk away with a better understanding of picture proportion and graphics – how much to put in or leave out of a picture.
• Through experimenting and allowing themselves to try unusual combinations they will take away with some new drawing language to continue playing with on location when they return home.

Supplies

Please bring a medium sized sketchbook as well as a fountain pen (or cartridge pen), a disposable brush pen or calligraphy marker, 2 or 3 medium to soft graphite pencils, and a small assortment of colored pencils along with either colored markers, caran d’ache crayons, pastels, or a small watercolor kit. (To have the option of both line and shape with your color.) Additional supplies you may prefer would include a dip pen or bamboo pen with a small bottle of ink. This is a mixed media drawing workshop so please feel free to experiment.

Bring a portable stool if you like, to sit on while working.

Sample sketches