Drawing Attention - November 2015

Urban Sketchers News, Events and Workshops

Jason Das

Orling Dominguez

After four years of working on Symposium planning, Orling Dominguez and Jason Das are both stepping down from the International Symposium Team. Orling worked to ensure that the Symposium workshops maintained Urban Sketchers' high educational standards and worked directly with instructors to ensure a quality event. Jason worked on the digital aspects, creating the Symposium websites and overseeing the registration site. "They both contributed greatly to the planning and overall success of the Symposiums, and we are so grateful for their time, effort and dedication," said President Elizabeth Alley. "Thank you, Orling and Jason – we hope to see you in Manchester!"

Maria Regina Tuazon

The Urban Sketchers Board is happy to welcome Maria Regina Tuazon to the International Symposium Team! Maria was a correspondent for the Singapore Symposium, sketching the daily activities and posting each night. She will be helping with communications and social media for Manchester 2016.

If you are interested in being part of the International Symposium Team, the Board is seeking someone to work on digital tasks, primarily creating a new Symposium website that will be updated for the new location each year. Send an email with a description of your qualifications to elizabeth@urbansketchers.org.

Mark Leibowitz
(sketched by Murray Dewhurst)

The Urban Sketchers Board is pleased to announce that Mark Leibowitz has taken on the role of USk Regional Chapter Coordinator. Mark has a message for sketchers who are considering starting a new Urban Sketchers regional group or who have attempted to apply for USk regional status in the past: "As you might be aware, Urban Sketchers has been experiencing tremendous growth. Old processes that worked in the past are no longer effective. We are almost done with our reorganization. We're excited that you're interested in becoming part of Urban Sketchers. If you're new to this, we invite you to start the ball rolling by sending me a brief e-mail. If you applied in the past, we apologize for any delay you've experienced. Please write us again with basic details, and we will expedite the process to get you set up."

The Board also welcomes Kate Gorman from Washington, DC (USA), and Lauren McVittie from London, Ontario (Canada), to the Communications Team. Kate and Lauren will be helping with the USk Facebook page and other communications pieces.

Suhita Shirodkar has scheduled two more sessions of her popular Urban Sketchers workshop, "Capturing Chaos: Drawing a Crowd." The dates are Nov. 6 in Berkeley and Nov. 7 in Los Gatos.

News from Urban Sketchers Communities

Sketchers from Sao Paulo and other parts of Brazil sketched at
Sao Jose dos Campos city.

Urban sketchers from Sao Paulo and other parts of Brazil have an exhibition at the Literary, Music and Arts Festival of Sao Jose dos Campos city. In addition, "Sao Paulo Urban Sketchers celebrated Independence Day sketching at Independence Park, the site where our independence from Portugal was declared," said Ronaldo Kurita. He also reports that Brazil's First National Meeting of Urban Sketching will be held April 22-24, 2016, in Curitiba.

Sketchbooks of USk O'ahu

Urban Sketchers O‘ahu (USA) recently took inspiration from SF Bay Area Urban Sketchers' sketches at a Whole Foods store. O‘ahu sketchers went to a Safeway, where they sketched "each other, the gorgeous pendant lights on the patio and the sunset over Honolulu," said Sebastian Sievert. "It was a noticeable but very welcome departure from our previous gatherings, which were mainly held outdoors and emphasized the natural beauty that surrounds us in the islands."

USk Portugal has just launched a book of 120 sketches by 45 sketchers. Lisbon for/by Urban Sketchers was produced by USk Portugal and publisher Zestbooks.

USk Portugal has published a new book of Lisbon sketches.

The 49th quarterly World Wide SketchCrawl was Oct. 24, and regional Urban Sketchers blogs are starting to report on their participation. Check out the sketches made in Seoul, Strasbourg, Seattle and Tokyo.

Urban Sketchers Girona was featured in Diaria de Girona Oct. 4.

The Oct. 15 edition of the online culture magazine Stilbruch featured an article about USk Berlin on a sketchcrawl at Moab Market Hall.

An article in the Oct. 24 edition of O Popular newspaper featured many sketches by Urban Sketchers Brazil.

USk Hong Kong just sketched at Sheung Yiu Folk Museum, once a fortified Hakka village that dates back to the late 19th century, reports Alvin Wong. Check out their sketches from inside one of the most scenic country parks in Hong Kong, Sai Kung Country Park.

Sketch by Sandy Hau of USk Hong Kong

Sketchers in Action

Swansea (Wales) urban sketcher Bill Bytheway and writer Ken Blakemore have co-authored a book of Bill's sketches of the "ugly, lovely town" (quoting Welsh poet Dylan Thomas) of Swansea. To purchase copies of Ugly Lovely - Sketches of a Small City, write to uglylovely15@hotmail.com.

One of Richard Câmara's sketchbooks on exhibit in Lisbon.

Portugal urban sketcher Richard Câmara has a solo exhibition at Lisbon's Camões Library through Nov. 6. Including all of his sketchbooks from the past 10 years, the exhibit features a different page of each sketchbook displayed each day. At the Nov. 6 closing, Richard will open all the showcases so that visitors can handle the sketchbooks themselves. In addition, an original sketchbook of his drawings from Madrid will be raffled to one lucky winner. Send e-mail to Richard for raffle information.

Montreal (Canada) urban sketcher Marc Holmes has just released four sketching and watercolor demo videos on the Artists Network TV, a subscription service of art how-to programs. The 60- to 90-minute programs are also available on DVD or by download.

Ch'ng Kiah Kiean has a solo exhibition in Taiwan.

Penang (Malaysia) sketcher Ch'ng Kiah Kiean has a solo exhibition at National Taipei University, Taiwan, through Feb. 21, 2016. A total of 40 reproductions of his Penang sketches will be exhibited at Asia-Pacific Art Corridor at the Department of Chinese Literature.

Minneapolis (USA) sketcher and blogger extraordinaire Roz Stendahl was recently featured in Outdoor Painter, the online edition of Plein Air Magazine. The organizer for many years of USk Twin Cities' annual outing to the Minnesota State Fair, Roz talks about her penchant for sketching animals.

London (UK) sketcher and author James Hobbs was featured on the Jackson's art blog Oct. 1. James, author of Sketch Your World, has this to say about how the Internet benefits artists: "It’s what the internet was invented for. It’s so easy to share a drawing. It seems crazy to draw or paint and then not share at least some of it. And it is great to get an insight into what other people are doing and what they are using."

Seattle (USA) architect and urban sketcher Stephanie Bower has a brand-new Craftsy class called "Perspective for Sketchers." In the three-hour online course, "we start with perspective basics, then I show a simple three-step process for sketching accurate and quick perspective on location," Stephanie said. "There is even a lesson on watercolor! In the final lessons, we sketch and watercolor out and about in Denver, including the interior of a lovely Carnegie library." Urban sketchers who register through Stephanie's website will receive a 25 percent discount.

A new book in the Urban Sketching Handbook series will be released this month: Reportage and Documentary Drawing: Tips and Techniques for Drawing on Location, by Veronica Lawlor.

Sketch by Henry Anderson as part of a sociology presentation
with Mariposa Marangia.

Mariposa Marangia, sociology professor at the Metropolitan State University in Denver (USA), teaches Urban Sociology. She initiated a project to demonstrate how urban sketching can be used to explore perceptions and perspectives that can be communicated by a sketch, as opposed to a photograph or a media promotion. In a presentation that includes sketches and poetry, Mariposa and her team of sketchers tell a story "about Denver as an urban area with variety right off the light rail stops," Mariposa said. She just presented the project at the University of California Berkeley at a conference on The Image in Society. While other presentations focused on digital images, she demonstrated "the role of the hand, aided by tools such as the pencil, pen, and brush."

San Francisco (USA) urban sketcher Richard Sheppard has just published a new book, Impressions of Wine Country. It is both a story of how wine is grown and crafted from the vine to the glass and a sketchbook containing more than 170 watercolors (made mostly on location).

Shout it Out in Drawing Attention! 

Not seeing anything about you or your Urban Sketchers group in Drawing Attention? Then we want to hear from you! Please send your urban sketching news items with links and images to: drawingattention@urbansketchers.org. Or tag me, Tina Koyama, on news you post on the Urban Sketchers Facebook page. Subscribe by e-mail. Happy sketching!