Urban Sketchers

Windows Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Herranz) — Sat, 26 May 2012 22:21:00 +0000

Some weeks ago, it was about 3 in the afternoon. I looked through the window and suddenly had an art attack. I took my sketchbook and drew the vista I had before me: windows, windows and more windows. While I was drawing I though about Mr. Gates... and that I have never owned a PC, I've always used a Mac. Wandering thoughts that come through my head while drawing.

Villa Giulia, Rome

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Brehm) — Sat, 26 May 2012 13:54:00 +0000

We started sketching class yesterday at Piazza di Spagna (aka the "Spanish Steps"), and I spent my time helping students - it's a very challenging subject. When we broke for lunch, I scooted ahead to do a sketch of the Palazzina di Pio IV, which turns the corner with a beautiful composition of engaged columns, inscribed tablets, and a fountain at the base. My students caught up and started gathering around just as I was beginning to put down the first washes. I sort of rushed it at the end, but was still happy with the result.

Next we walked down the street to the Villa Giulia, built for Julius III in 1550-55, and designed be Vignola, Vasari, and Ammannati ... "with some help from Michelangelo," or so says my guidebook. It contains the national museum of Etruscan antiquities - though I suppose it's redundant to say "Etruscan antiquities," because, if it was made by Etruscans, then it must be ancient. The museum is very interesting, but the villa is really fascinating. The organization of the plan and the way the nymphaeum drops in section ... it's a sequence of spaces that's impossible to capture in one or two perspectives, so I opted for a plan/section/paraline combination. It was a great challenge!

Three for Ackland

noreply@blogger.com (Rene Fijten) — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:03:00 +0000

As some of you may know, USK asked us to contribute to an exposition in the Ackland museum, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
I decided to contribute, and made these three drawings specially for the occasion.

As it happened I visited three different continents within one week (which was the last week of April) and I made these three drawings on these places, hopefully showing something of the cultural differences.

First I was in Baton Rouge Louisiana (USA), for business, where I made this drawing stading on a traffic island opposite the hotel.

Then I flew back home, to the Netherlands. The drawing shows the 18th century castle, which can be found a few hundred meters from my home.

After only two days at home I travelled to Istanbul with my wife, for a nice citytrip.
This is the view from room 308 of the Citadel hotel to the blue mosque; the lines are not so straight because I had to bend over the television set to make this drawing.

I attached a real token of each place to the drawings: the label of a bottle of Louisiana Chilli sauce (wow that was hot!), a part of the package of flowerseeds that I bought at the gardencentre which forms part of the castle, and the entrance ticket to the Hagia Sofia.

My street

noreply@blogger.com (omar) — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:02:00 +0000

The sun finally arrived in Berlin and I can go out and paint bigger watercolors. I decided to start from my street. every day I go by this corner and like the view of this building. I told to myself many times that I should paint it.

The watercolors is 36 x 48 cm. I took my arround 2 hours. .

Do you Remember my last post about the Einstein Cafe? I wrote that I wanted to make a bigger watercolor based on that sketch. I finally did it and also wrote some commments in my blog about how I painted it. Check in omar-paint.blogspot.com

Last drink

noreply@blogger.com (martin) — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:13:00 +0000

A Turkish mosque: Tokyo Camii

noreply@blogger.com (kumi matsukawa) — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:57:00 +0000

I knew there is a mosque not far from a station where I often transfer whenever I go to Tokyo but until this day I had no chance to visit there. So I determined to stopover and sketch it. What a charming and solemn place!

I don't think this drawing does justice to the sacred, sublime beauty enough, I was in awe and filled with purifying chant at that moment.. I hope this doesn't offend peoples mind, there should be strict manner, meanings of each form which I hardly be able to pick correctly.

$uper $ingapore $ale art exhibition, Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Firefly Workshop) — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:10:00 +0000

Tia, Don and myself recently took part in a group exhibition, inspired by our crazy annual Great Singapore Sale. Timed to precede the start of this city wide shopping event, this exhibition delves on the rising consumerism in Singapore. This is what we do when we are not urbansketching. TIA next to your acrylic painting depicting her favourite cafe scenes and two fat ladies sharing a small burger after their shopping spree.

This is one of my four pieces of artwork which was specially created for the exhibition. This photograph shows you the process of how I combined my love for on-location urbansketching, watercolour & paper architecture to create something new. It was fun cutting up my sketches and painting and reconstituting back together to tell my story. This piece is entitled 'My Appetite, My Wants'. I was inspired by how some of us confuse our needs & wants and would rather sacrifice food to buy an expensive pair of shoe or bag.

Oahu

noreply@blogger.com (Matt J) — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:49:00 +0000

On my first trip to Hawaii earlier this month I was excited to draw the tropical surroundings as a nice break from drawing around San Francisco.

I definitely wanted to try sketching with colour on this trip - but my water-colour skills are pretty lousy and I just couldn't capture the vivid Hawaiian hues.

I resorted to black & white sketches when lack of time necessitated that approach

Urban sketching in Naples

noreply@blogger.com (Schizzinosa) — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Today I was at Riot in Palazzo Marigliano to get things ready fot the first Urban Sketchers Workshop that starts tomorrw with me, Caroline Peyron e Laura Scarpa. I couldn't resist to draw in the garden and I noticed this incredible color of palm fruits - impossible to reproduce. On Sunday we'll have an open Portrait Party in this garden, at the end of workshop. Hopefully the seed of sketching will have its fruits in Naples too.

Among participants we'll have professionists and beginners, architects, illustrators, photographers, students, medicians, coming from Liverpool, London, Jena, Singapore, Taiwan, Barcelona, Milan, Rimini and Naples... it seems that we are going to have fun!
Local newspaper translated officially Urban Sketchers in "Disegnatori Urbani": il Mattino di Napoli.

searching unpost sketches ....

noreply@blogger.com (rudi hartanto) — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:47:00 +0000

original paper size 48x18 cm, drawing pen & water color

It has been too long not to post on the blog. Until the board remind me .. this drawing were done a few months back that I always wanted to post but I have problem with the scanner... Two sketches were done in the morning at the port with different technique. Another one is showing my tools on the table. The paper I use is a recycle paper ... I hope it brings back my spirit of sketching.

Fair

noreply@blogger.com (kane) — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:03:00 +0000

Every year we have a street fair on our block. Brooklyn and new York have these kind of things all the time. The one on our block is an exception. Our block has a few of the best restaurants in New York. Prime Meats, Buttermilk Channel and Frankies. The restaurants do their own outdoor cooking. Not the usual street fair food. They are roasting who;e pigs and there are rib smokers going all day long. All the bars put tables on the street. You can buy food and take it to any bar and eat it with some good brews. I always look forward to our unusually good street fair.

Recycling houses

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy Gatland) — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:44:00 +0000

On Saturday our sketching group went to a salvage yard out North of the city. We were a bit dismayed at first at the unattractive scenery, but started drawing the piles of wood, tiles and bathroom fittings and were soon absorbed in the shapes and shadows, and comings and goings of people loading stuff onto trucks. By the time I was on the last typically Johannesburg landscape of dusty road, dry wintry sun and long grass turned to gold (top), I was really enjoying myself - just as the foreman came to say they were locking up, time to go home...

鹹魚仔巷 Fish Lane

noreply@blogger.com (Ch'ng Kiah Kiean) — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:32:00 +0000

Size: 28 x 76 cm
Media: Chinese ink on paper

Vanishing Point

noreply@blogger.com (Fred Lynch) — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Summer Sundays are the quietest days in an Italian town. The ordinary hush of midday becomes perfect stillness, complete emptiness. Sitting and drawing the shuttered newsstand in Piazza Giuseppe at noon, I notice that I've happened upon a vanishing point for the last few people in Viterbo.

Under the canopy of a solitary tree, a series of senior citizens arrive one by one at ten minute intervals. Each stands briefly under the tree until a car pulls up. Most often, a child opens a back door, allowing the grandparent to join the family in the back seat. As the cars swing around the piazza and out through the walls of Viterbo, I see beach toys poking out of the back of the car.

Making Of - Part 04 and 05.

noreply@blogger.com (Stéphane Kardos) — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:09:00 +0000

More photos and sketches from the filming of the short film about my work.

European maritime day

noreply@blogger.com (Luis Ruiz) — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:32:00 +0000

Last weekend, port cities in Europe celebrated the european maritime day. It was the perfect excuse to spend some time enjoying the sea and the ships. So there we went a group of local sketchers, to the harbour, challenging the dark grey clouds over our heads that threatened to pour heavy rain on our sketchbooks...

As it often happens here, especially this time of the year, at noon the sky cleared up completely, making a fool under a shining sun of us that had preventively attended the meeting with an umbrella in hand, just in case... By then, the basin was packed with small boats, and the dock crowded with people enjoying a nearly summer afternoon. When I got home I was sunburnt!

on the balcony

noreply@blogger.com (rob carey) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:40:00 +0000

Sketching off our balcony at the end of the day.

Tel Aviv beach on Japanese Moleskine

noreply@blogger.com (Marina Grechanik) — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:14:00 +0000

I have to say that Japanese Moleskine is just perfect for beach sketching! I could enter endless Tel Aviv beach with its never stopping crowd into the sketchbook without cutting the flow and even to leave more space for the next beach sketching day!

Rome Sketchcrawl

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Brehm) — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:58:00 +0000

I only managed to make it for about 30 minutes at the Rome Sketchcrawl this past Saturday ... I was busy welcoming the new group of students. It would have been nice to have more time and meet more of the local sketchers, but hopefully next time. I did get a chance to do a quick watercolor of the Lateran Obelisk - the largest in the world. It was originally carved in the 15th century BC, then brought to Rome in 367 AD to be placed in the Circus Maximus. It was rediscovered in 1587, and re-erected by Domenico Fontana in 1588 (that's a brief summary of the text at the bottom of the sketch). If I'd had more time, I would have added the buildings that were in the near-distance behind the obelisk, but I actually like the way this turned out ... it gives much stronger emphasis to the obelisk itself. It's good to be back in Rome, lots to draw!

old and new buildings at Seochon village, Jongno-gu, Seoul

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Yong Hwan) — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:39:00 +0000

Sajikmun (gate) at Sajik Park, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

a Hanok ( Korean traditional house) Guest House, Tongui-dong, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

a traditional house, Tongui-dong, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

The House of Lee Sang (a famous poet), in Tongin-dong, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

Paiwha Girls' High School Main building, Nooha-dong, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

Paiwha Girls' High School Dormitory, pencil and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

Paiwha Girls' High School Main Auditorium, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

Paiwha Girls' High School Gymnasium, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

Woori Bank Hyoja-dong branch building, Tongin-dong, pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

an old fashioned complex building, Pilun-dong. pen and watercolor, 21 x 29.5cm

Seochon, an elegant village stretching from the west wing of Gyeongbok Palace to the base of Mt. Inwang, is a place with a background of the 600-year historic city of Seoul. Besides Seochon is well known as a famous historic village where traditional houses and modern architecture coexist. This village is full of subject for sketching, such as, traditional houses, government office building, convenient faciIities etc. Especilally there are some cultural properties, for instance,Sajik Park built around a stone altar called “Sajikdan (Historic Site No.121)”, Paiwha Girls' High School and College with a history of 100 years.

Last Saturday, I enjoyed strolling around Seochon village and sketching the variegated sceneries with Seoul urban sketchers all day long. It was a valuable experience at the familiar atmosphere!

Sekeping Victoria, Victoria Street

noreply@blogger.com (Ch'ng Kiah Kiean) — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:40:00 +0000

Size: 28 x 76 cm
Media: graphite on paper

Urban butterfly

noreply@blogger.com (José Louro) — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:02:00 +0000

Drawing a butterfly during the lunch. If you see with atencion you can see her... :)

Look at my eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Herranz) — Sun, 20 May 2012 18:42:00 +0000

I made these drawings while waiting my turn at the ophthalmologist's office. The 2 ladies had quite appropriate attitudes for the environment.

The first one caught my eye because of the garish color of her pullover, not so usual for older people. Some full bright colored appearance would have been much less thrilling than that pullover screaming in the midst of a sober and discreet clothing, combed gray hair, dark stockings, black skirt ... The lady insisted on looking at some indeterminate point in front of her and did it without glasses, as if that should help her to fix her look on that point. Several times the man on her right side said something, the she the put on the glasses, turned the head, answered telegraphically, put the glasses off and turned back to stare her favorite point.

Only a very short-sighted person shoul have missed that the woman of the second drawing was long-sighted. She didn't hide behind the magazine, she couldn't read otherwise. I bet that was what she had to tell the doctor.

SketchCrawl in Chilly Buxton

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne the Pencil) — Sun, 20 May 2012 11:17:00 +0000

It's a busy period on the SketchCrawl North front: this weekend we went out on the first of 3 SketchCrawls, taking place on 3 consecutive Saturdays. We normally do once a month but sometimes opportunities are too good to miss. This one was in celebration of fellow-sketcher Di being in the UK for a visit from Australia.

Anyone reading this from the UK will know that Saturday was not the best advertisment for a British summer. It was certainly freezing in Buxton! But were we downhearted? Well, a bit shivery round the edges perhaps, but not for a moment deterred.

We prised ourselves from the warmth of the meeting-place cafe and braved the Pavilion promenade first, where I did the sketch at the top. It was cold though. Even in a big coat and fingerless gloves.

We warmed up in the Pavilion Gardens - a glass house with a big fish pond - where we discovered an unexpected treat: the busking French horn player above, who was really good and let us all draw him. Actually, he probably did rather well out if us, as we thought it only right to pop money in his hat afterwards.

We had lunch back at the cafe, then, as it was still pretty nippy outside, set off for the art gallery and museum, where I did the sketch above. It proved rather more complicated than I'd expected!

I decided to brave the outside again before we finished, so drew from a bench on the street just outside the gallery, looking across the road at the park opposite.

We scuttled off to our cosy corner of the cafe again for the sharing session. Once again, everyone did lovely sketches and it was fun to see all the different interpretations of the French Horn player. As always, you can see some of the other sketches from the day at SketchCrawl North.

A big thanks to Andrea Joseph for organising the day and for Di for travelling all the way up to Buxton to meet us. Hope the rest of your trip goes well Di (and things warm up a bit!)

Five hours in Canada, enjoying every drawing

noreply@blogger.com (gabi campanario) — Sun, 20 May 2012 01:34:00 +0000

Who goes to another country just for a few hours of urban sketching? My wife even joked: "Where do you think you are, in Europe?"

Last week, I took a 4-hour train from Seattle to Vancouver just to do that. I met Asnee Tasna, who was visiting from Bangkok, local sketcher Don McNulty, the best host we could possibly have, and Gail Wong, who also came up from Seattle with her husband.

Despite a little train delay, we hit the ground running early in the afternoon. This being a city surrounded by water, it was just fitting to hop on a little boat and go to a place called Granville Island, a former industrial area south of downtown that has been transformed into a vibrant neighborhood and shopping district.

During the boat ride, I did a quick line sketch of Don and Asnee that I colored on my the train back home.

At Granville Island we grabbed some take out food at a lively market and promptly started sketching the art-deco style Burrard Bridge, which dates from the 1930s. I can't remember if it was Asnee or Don who said it was "compulsory" that we sketch the bridge. I appreciated the direction, because there was so much going on around us that I didn't quite know where to start.

Gail, who teaches at the University of Washington, taped a video of Asnee drawing to show her architecture students. Asnee, unfortunately, had no way to come down to Seattle because it's very difficult for Thai residents to get visas to enter the U.S. With more preparation time, maybe we can bring him back to teach a workshop in Seattle!

At the end, we laid out our sketches on a wooden bench and took some "trophy photos" before jumping back on the ferry so I could get to the train station on time.

In all, I was in Vancouver for just a little over five hours, but the trip was well worth it. The opportunity for a Thai, a Canadian, an American and a Spaniard to sketch together doesn't present itself everyday, so this was a very special occasion. I know the memory from this experience is going to last forever.

(Don't miss the accounts and sketches posted by Asnee, Don and Gail!)