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: Tia Boon Sim (SINGAPORE)

Tia Boon Sim
SINGAPORE

TIA, as she is affectionately called, grew up in Singapore. In her youth, she was tutored by the local art pioneer, the late Mr Liu Kang. TIA graduated from School of Architecture, University of Singapore and is a local registered architect. TIA received a scholarship to study the Master of Science programme in Art and Design Education at Pratt Institute in New York and in Feb 2003, she returned to Singapore and continued to teach at the School of Design after bagging the prestigious Pratt Circle Award for the Outstanding Academic Achievement. In 2011, her paintings were made into stamps and first day covers to commemorate the Singapore National Day. In that same year, TIA became the independent publisher for the book “Urban Sketchers Singapore” with a grant from Urban Redevelopment Authority. Currently, TIA oversees two Diplomas at the School of Design, Temasek Polytechnic where her artwork of the campus was presented by the institution as a gift to the Prime Minister of Singapore in Nov 2012. TIA joined Urban Sketchers in 2008 and is the Founder of Urban Sketchers Singapore in 2009.

Blog : http://tiastudio.blogspot.com/
Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tia_studio

Workshop P: Drawing from the Heart and over Color Splashes

Meet the Instructor: Paul Wang (SINGAPORE)

Paul Wang
SINGAPORE

Paul has loved art since he was a child and he is now actively sharing this passion as an art and design educator both in Singapore and abroad. After finishing his Interior Architecture Design studies at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, he clinched an arts bursary to pursue a Technical Theatre design course in Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. His multi-disciplinary and multi-sensory training can be seen in all his colourful and dramatic sketches and paintings. In addition to a regular lecturing schedule, he actively provides architectural & theatrical lighting design services, serves as an Urbansketchers Board member and still finds time to teach numerous yoga classes a week.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyworkshop
Blog: http://www.fireflyworkshop.blogspot.sg/

Workshop P: Drawing from the Heart and over Color Splashes

Drawing from the Heart and over Color Splashes (Workshop P)

Instructors: Paul Wang and Tia Boon Sim
Location: Palau de la Música Catalana

We often see students and fellow sketchers scratching their head and wondering how they became lost in the sketching jungle. After asking a probing question, “What is the story you are trying to tell?”, these sketching warriors quickly reveal that they have no road maps, no plot and no strong cohesive story to tell.

A strong, cohesive story needs a clear focal point (eg. An interesting door way or window), something that grabs your attention. Then from the heart of the sketch we can creatively develop our story.

Objectives

• To explore ways of creating a strong focal point in our sketches.
• To experiment with alternative drawing tools and mediums during the sketching process.
• To create a bold & fluid exchange between sketching, mark-making and painting.

FOCAL POINT & PATHWAYS OF SKETCHING

Participants to try this 3 simple exercise before sketching on newspaper. These are roadmaps to help stay on course.

1. SPIRAL – Concentric drawing approach, creating connection to the focal point.
2. STAR BURST – Radiating lines/shapes from focal point, Magic triangle, asymmetry.
3. CROSSWORD PUZZLE – Intersections, Horizontals & Verticals, cruciform, fulcrum, tension.

Participants to focus on observing the environment and identifying a strong focal point (Crux of the story).

Participants can use any of the 3 suggested pathways of sketching to develop their sketch, always referencing to the focal point. Some may even combine 2 methods to create new permutations.

EXPERIMENTATION WITH SKETCHING AND PAINTING MATERIALS

• Participants will try to develop the sketch from the focal point using alternative tools and water-soluble mediums. Splashing, mixing colours on paper, scratching/scraping, wax-resist are some ways to create interesting marks.
• Participants will be encouraged to sketch and experiment with twigs, bamboo pens, different inks and any other water-soluble mediums, sandpaper, crayons during the sketching process.
• Participants will also be encouraged to work back and forth between sketching and painting in a very bold and fluid manner.

Learning goals

• Participants will learn to see things from complexity to simplicity, see objects as shapes, playing with colour splashes freely.
• Participants will learn simple line and shape sketching, explore colour splashes to paper, and experiment with texture manipulation through the use of salt, coffee, candles and crayons.
• The workshop will also help participants appreciate the unexpected outcomes in art and learn to have fun with the process of exploring various expressions through sketching and colouring techniques.

Supply list

Watercolour, water-soluble pencils/coloured pencils, drawing ink, bamboo pen, pens, salt, crayons, loose sheets of paper.

Other sample sketches