Calgary Urban Sketchers

Imagine being in the company of hundreds of urban sketchers from around the world!  Just being here was fun enough with the sketchwalks in this beautiful city but I also took part in 3 workshops, a drink and draw, some demos and got a grab bag of product samples.

Each of the workshops challenged my sketching habits and my preconceptions about what a sketch is trying say.

For example, Rita Sabler, in her workshop, emphasized the story aspect of your sketch including the acivity of your main characters such as the vendor at a market stall by drawing him or her in various poses in a kind of timelapse recording.

Stephanie Bower in her workshop, suggested sketching in pencil only and use a straight edge because it saves time. I typically rough out my sketches in pencil and then go over the pencil in ink, effectively drawing them twice.  She also gave great hints on the geometry of difficult shapes such as towers.

Karen Jiyun Sung, in her workshop, led us in starting with a core element and then adding additional sheets of paper as necessary to complete the composition, literally drawing outside the box!

Amsterdam is uniquely in combining historic buildings with  beautiful canals, an urban sketcher’s treat.

Next year’s Symposium will be held in April, in Hong Kong!

Attending this year’s Symposium left me in awe of the comraderie, focus and talent of Urban Sketchers from so many places on our planet,

Rod

 

 

Calgary Urban Sketchers has prints of the work of eight artists on display at Calgary’s Central Library for the month of August 2019. Thirty two works of various sizes are hanging on the “Calgary’s Story” wall on the 4th floor of the library. If you’re at the library, why not go up to the 4th floor and take a look?

A photo wouldn’t do them justice, seeing them in person is much better.

The works will be hanging until the morning of Friday August 30.

 

Saturday was a perfect day for outdoor sketching. We went to Heritage Park in Calgary and I sketched an old railway station that has been relocated to the park and is now a café. Pencil sketching and ink on site, watercolour added yesterday.

Jim

What if aliens are friendly?
This is “Ascension”. at 9 Ave and 4 Street SW.

Yesterday was a beautiful and hot day for urban sketching. Five of us were out for the session, although I only met up with Pam at the end. The others had had enough of the heat by then. Below are the three sketches I was able to do before having to stop for lunch and a cool beverage.

Bird of Spring – Connaught Park: I used watercolour pencils to save time. The colour of the bird is a little too bright, but it was the best I had in my WC pencil set.

World War I Memorial – in front of Central Memorial Library: I did the pencil sketch and then the ink on site, and coloured it at home. The actual background trees are a frightfully dull gray-green, so I added some lighter greens to help the statue stand out.

Ascension – Just south of the Louise Bridge: I drew the foreground sculpture on site and added the background one (barely visible) this morning to complete the picture. Don’t worry, we aren’t being invaded by spiders from Mars. These guys only have three legs each.

Hope you like,

Jim