What I learned from the Workshops

I had a wonderful time taking five workshops at Urban Sketching Symposium, and visiting Barcelona for the first time as a group and putting what I saw to paper really cemented the memories of this trip. These are not necessarily my best sketches or typical way I draw, but I'm posting them here in a spirit of learning.

Most of the sketches were done on wirebound Stillman & Birn Beta Series sketchbook that I chose as one sole sketchbook to bring from home. The perspective panorama is on Sennelier Multimedia 340 accordion-fold sketchbook that was given to workshop participants. Thank you to both Symposium sponsors - both sketchbooks performed exceptionally well.

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Life Between Buildings: Capturing the Energy with James Richards
Location: Plaça Catalunya, a large plaza where people gather, like an "outdoor living room".

Jim gave use three great exercises in composing crowds and buildings.

Drawing the crowd: I usually draw people, so this was fun to do. I used my usual Uniball Signo sepia pen and colored the balloons later. Putting peoples' heads align at eye line helps pull the scene together.

Thumbnails: I'm usually not great at drawing buildings, so sketching tiny scenes really helped me compose the drawing. I actually like these a lot more than the final sketch.

The final sketch, the one I don't like as much as the thumbnails: sketched onsite, colored on the plane ride home (which messed up the colors due to bad lighting), attempted to correct the color at home. I started sketching according to the rule of sketching non-moving things first (i.e. buildings) and people second. Imagine putting the crowd scene above inside this sketch, and you get the idea of how many people were really there. But I had to stop drawing the rest of the crowds and draw the man with lavender shirt and teal shorts before he walked off the page, because American men on the street back home will never, ever wear those colors together.

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Lighting the City with Sagar Fornies
Location: Universitat de Barcelona, where our group was fortunate enough to sit under gracefully arched hallway when we were hit with an unexpected downpour (with thunder!)

I discovered that multiple ink colors and watercolors interact in unexpected and interesting results. I would like to try out more of this technique.

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Barcelona Perspectives: Perceiving and Drawing Architecture with Arno Hartmann and Floria Afflerbach
Location: Barcelona Pavilion, a Modernist masterpiece by Mies Van der Rohe built in 1929

This is a beautiful building. And so hard to sketch.

For this workshop, I have measured the proportions to draw in perspective. I usually don't have the patience to draw buildings this precisely, so it was an exercise in really observing the subject - the building looks simpler to draw compared to the ornate buildings that is all over Barcelona, but this structure is much longer than I think, so I had to keep checking my drawing.

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Setup, Value and Beyond with Matthew Brehm
Location: In and around Plaça Reial in Barri Gòtic

This time, I tried a media I haven't sketched with in years: pencil! I am very heavy-handed, so I smeared graphite all over the page, but Matt rightfully pointed out that this media allows you to get both the dark masses and lines quickly. He also has an excellent advise of never erasing, even in graphite - if there is a mistake, draw next to it so you have a reference to what you're correcting. Always move forward, never erase!

Walking around the narrow passageways of Barri Gòtic is like being in a medieval canyon, looking up and ahead for light openings and the sky. I could've sketched there for hours.

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Triad Symphony: Evocative Watercolor Sketches Using Three Primary Colors
Location: Església de Santa Anna

This church had a small courtyard that our group can gather, and the light strikes this building very clearly, so it was an ideal place for this workshop. This is my first try at painting using only three colors, which made me think more in terms of value than just the local colors. I also like the idea of carrying fewer colors around, since I always end up carrying too much stuff when going out to sketch, so I tried the idea of limited palette at home... (there will be another post!)

Meet the Instructor: Matthew Brehm (Idaho, USA)

Matthew Brehm
Idaho, USA

Matthew Brehm first studied architecture at the University of Notre Dame, and holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon. He is currently an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Idaho, where his teaching responsibilities include design studios, graphics courses, and an annual two-month study abroad program in Rome, Italy, that he initiated in 2007. Matt received the University’s 2010 Hoffman Award for Excellence in Teaching, and his sketches have been recognized with awards on three occasions in the Design Communication Association’s Biannual Juried Drawing Exhibit. He was involved as a Board Member in the founding of the Urban Sketchers non-profit organization in 2009, and presented workshops and lectures at the group’s first two symposia in Portland, OR, and Lisbon, Portugal. Matt recently published his first book, “Sketching on Location,” a comprehensive guide to drawing from direct observation.

Blog: http://www.brehmsketch.blogspot.com
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtbrehm/

Workshop R: Sketching Barcelona: Setup, Value, and Beyond

Sketching Barcelona: Setup, Value, and Beyond (Workshop R)

Instructor: Matthew Brehm (Idaho, USA)
Location: Various locations in the Barri Gòtic

In well over a decade of teaching observational sketching, I have learned that there are three general areas of practice that tend to present the greatest challenges for those trying to learn the skill. The first has to do with accuracy in the “Setup” of a sketch – translating what is seen to what is drawn on the page. The second has to do with the contrasting “Value” of tones – conveying a clear sense of light as it defines a subject’s three-dimensional form. The third area is about going “Beyond” and learning in the absence of a teacher – how to continually develop one’s skills in a self-directed manner. This workshop is centered on simple, practical techniques that are applicable to any subject and all media, and will include a combination of exercises, group discussion and individualized instruction. Concepts will be presented in short demonstrations, put into practice through brief exercises, and reinforced with one-on-one and group feedback. The workshop will take place in the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter), and more specifically the streets and plazas listed below. This district of Barcelona provides a perfect blend of small and medium-sized urban spaces, and the more intimate scale of the medieval streets – many of which date to the time of the original Roman settlement on this site. When and where appropriate during the workshop, historic information regarding the city and its monuments will be blended with our primary focus on sketching.

Meet at Plaça Reial
(East corner, at the archway leading to Carrer Vidre)

Opening Introductions and Discussion
(+/-15 minutes)
At this time, participants will introduce themselves to the group and perhaps bring up a particular sketching-related issue they would like to deal with in the workshop. Participants will also be provided with an illustrated handout that covers the topics and format of the workshop.

Setup
(1 hour)
Plaça Reial and Plaça de George Orwell
The fundamentals of observing a subject and constructing a drawing, including the most effective tools and strategies for achieving compositional accuracy. Simple measuring devices and techniques will be presented, followed by a very brief discussion regarding only the most essential – and most useful! – aspects of perspective. After a short demonstration by the instructor, participants will complete a series of small, three- to five-minute sketches that are limited to the basic structure of a subject, which, in this case, will be the Plaça Reial. The relatively simple, rectilinear form of this great urban space will serve as the basis for working with composition and basic perspective techniques, and the brevity of the exercises will keep the focus on the sketch setup rather than value, color, or detail. If there is time, and the group would like to try a more challenging subject, we will move to the Plaça de George Orwell, a fascinating triangular urban space just a two-minute walk from the Plaça Reial. This session will conclude with a brief sketchbook display and discussion.

Value
(1 hour)
Carrer Milans, Carrer Regomir, Carrer Palma de Sant Just
This session will build on the techniques learned in the first hour, but will be focused on the character of light as it works its way into the narrow, human-scaled streets of the Barri Gòtic. We will focus on basic and advanced techniques for strong, clear light in a variety of media, including skills related to the “logic” and “forcing” of shadows. Participants will work on a series of two-stage sketches, starting with a brief setup sketch and followed by the very quick and expressive addition of simplified, abstracted shadows. This session will conclude with a brief sketchbook display and discussion. (Note: In the unlikely event of overcast skies, the tall palm trees and darkened arches surrounding the Plaça Reial can be used as the subject for this part of the workshop.)

Beyond

(+/-30 minutes)
Plaça de Sant Just or Plaça del Pí
The workshop will conclude with a lively discussion of strategies intended to help each participant continue their own learning process. We will cover general concepts regarding how we acquire skills such as sketching, and specific techniques intended to help us break through plateaus or stagnation.

Learning goals

Participants will complete the workshop with the ability to:

• use essential strategies for observing subjects and accurately transferring these observations to the page, regardless of media. Such strategies will include pencil-sighting for measuring lengths and angles and sight-sizing for composition.
• use the most fundamental aspects of perspective as a way to increase accuracy and sketch complex spatial subjects with greater ease – without getting bogged down in complex rules and terminology.
• use abstraction as an aid to discovering the essence of a sketching subject, both formally and with respect to light.
• use increased speed and efficiency as a way to work through multiple readings of a scene, and to improve focus and drama in a sketch.
• continue their own process of learning after the Symposium concludes, by establishing goals for improvement and working toward these goals with a greater sense of focus and perseverance.

Supply list

This workshop will be open to all media preferences, but it will begin with exercises in soft graphite pencil (2B-4B). The instructor will come prepared to provide these pencils to all participants, so the only absolutely essential equipment is a sketchbook!

Other sample sketches