Preparing for the Symposium: Lets get social!

Being part of the symposium is not also to learn new sketching techniques  but also to interact and get to know other sketchers around the world.

There will be some language barriers but for my experience drawings could be a better way of communication.  You would like to see the sketches of the others but the others will also want to see yours. We always learn from each other. So don`t be shy and bring some drawings to show off.

Here some tips how to show your work:

1.- Print a new batch of Business Cards: 
Business cards with your work on it and your contact address is the most popular show your work.
The Moo Cards offers the possibility to print 50 different sketches on your cards and you can select the images direct from your Flickr Account. http://uk.moo.com/

2.- Postcards and Bookmarks (with your contact information)
Are a popular giveaway to your new friends.

3.- Make your own Zines!
Zines are self made publications. You can make a small compilation just as easy as using a copy machine.  There are also print on demand services. Use Zines as portfolio to show to others , you can sell them or give them as presents to your new friends. Choose a subject, a voyage or just a selection of your best work. It is better to keep small. An A5 format is quite popular and practical!

4.- Be creative:
Other giveaways I have seen around in the last Symposiums are buttons. Use your logo for example.
Sometimes something quite simple as a interesting stamp could be quite appreciated.
The good things about urban sketchers is that we always learn from each other. Show and talk about your tools with others. If you made your own sketchbooks people would be interested in seeing them.

Do you have other ideas?

Meet the Instructor: Omar Jaramillo (Berlin, GERMANY)

Omar Jaramillo

Berlin, GERMANY

Omar’s passion for traveling and story-telling is reflected by his drawings. The Ecuador born artist moved to Germany to complete his Master Degree in Architecture. His work at a landscape architecture firm later led him to spend some years in Italy, Oman and the UAE. Omar has started expressing his experiences, using mostly watercolors, as a way to explore his constant changing environments. In 2011 he was invited for 2 months to Hanover Opera House as an artist in residency to document through his sketches the Ballet rehearsals. He joined Urban Sketchers in 2008. He is a correspondent to the International USk Blog, Berlin USk Blog, and recently co-founded the Urban Sketchers Germany Blog. Since 2011 Omar has been based in Berlin where he works full time as an artist, illustrator and graphic recorder for advertising agencies. 


Blog: http://omar-paint.blogspot.com
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/omarpaint 


Workshop S: Negative Forms as First Structures and Minimal Storytelling

Negative Forms as First Structures and Minimal Storytelling (Workshop S)

Instructors: João Catarino (Lisbon) and Omar Jaramillo (Berlin)
Location: Sant Felip Neri

FIRST PART: NEGATIVE SPACE AND SHAPES

In the first part of the workshop we start explaining what is negative space and how one can recognize it as shapes. We explain the advantage of drawing shapes instead of single lines and why one should treat shadows and reflections as shapes.

Recognizing the negative space

Exercise 1: negative space.
We draw profiles of overlapping objects catching the whole mass and not the single object. We start with an object and then we apply the same principle to people and buildings.

Using shapes

Exercise 2: change the way you look and what you are looking first.
The first step is to approach the drawing through the horizontal shadows
projecting on the ground.
The next step is to approach what is in shadow on objects and buildings in an area.
Modeling surfaces alternating organic and geometric forms.
We can repeat the exercise considering reflections in glass, mirrors or chrome car
as a new starting point.
Do not use previous draft, going straight through the shadows and negative spaces. Try to imagine that your brush touches the surface to which you are looking.

SECOND PART: DYNAMIC SHAPES

Buildings are usually vertical. In theory that is a strong restriction for the composition of the drawing.
However there are some tricks to improve the composition and at the same time stay true to the landscape we are drawing. Use diagonals. Diagonal lines are dynamic.

Exercise 3: Creating dynamic compositions through diagonal lines.

a. Tilting the view: stop treating the page as a window. If you tilt the image you will notice that there is a change in your perception of the drawing. Tip: do it boldly, a few degrees can bring the observer to ask if you made a mistake or you did it with intention.

b. The sky as a large negative space.
Pay attention to the visual limits of the area covered by the sky and look to the forms that intercepts, as electric wires, buildings or tree branches. Choose a color to represent these negative spaces that relate to the sky with stain, and then changes color to represent only the shadows that you think most representative.
Stop making lines you dont see, the figures are expressed in contrast with the background. Use 3 different colors for different subjects such as: architecture,
sky, and people.

c. Using foreground and background: add an interesting element in the foreground to your drawing.
A pedestrian, a traffic sign, a hydrant or text. Fill it with detail and/or color.
The elements you choose should be more saturated with information. Find an element of the background in diagonal with the foreground and treat it the same way:
a window, some detail of the wall, or an advertising sign.

d. Using color dots: you can also add some dynamic in your drawing using color.
If you use an isolated dot of color in your drawing, the attention will go immediately there. However if you place dots of color and position them diagonally (it doesn’t have to be a straight line), your eyes will follow that path. For different diagonal use different colors. Red works best, however you should use it in minimal doses.

Learning goals

• With the experience of this workshop we intend that participants have the ability to focus and stay concentrated closely with shapes that draw from what they're actually seeing.
• Learn how to use negative space, to recognize shapes and dynamic compositions through diagonal lines.

Supply list
Pencils or water resistant pens (i.e. Faber Castell pitt pen sepia), water-brush, watercolors,
Sketchbook suitable for washes (Moleskine, Stillman & Birn etc.)

Other sample sketches