Urban Sketching Symposium, Part 2: Workshops and Activities

I came back very inspired by Urban Sketching Symposium, which was hosted in Paraty, Brazil this year. The main thing I learned from workshops and activities this year is to capture a sense of space by freely switching between lines, shapes and colors.

The first day of the symposium happened to coincide with the high tide, when the streets are flooded with sea water that cleans the streets as it recedes. This sketch was done during the welcoming sketchcrawl near Praça da Bendeira - colorful doorways makes for pretty colors when they are reflected in the water.

One of the Symposium sponsor gift was a fountain pen from Super5 - this is the first time I drew with a fountain pen, and I like it a lot. I'd like to find a replacement sepia ink and draw with it again soon. This is a view from Rua da Praia, when the water was receding back to the sea.

I took an architectural sketching workshop with Frank Ching to learn how to construct the scene on location. It rained pouring down during the workshop (us Urban Sketchers brave the elements!), so we ducked into the nearby café near Rua da Matriz.

The afternoon continued with lessons in more architectural drawing with Stephanie Bower. I got so frustrated with drawing criss-crossing construction lines that I decided to give up on the last drawing and just draw the way I usually do. This is a view of the street with Matriz de Nossa Senhora dos Remedios to the right - and surprisingly I liked the result, even with all the mind-twisting. Apparently building all the criss-crossing construction lines helped me loosen up.

I had another workshop on drawing buildings with Liz Steel, this time sketching Igreja Santa Rita. I did some preliminary drawings before going wild with watercolors. I am learning to appreciate the beauty in buildings, thanks to her love of architecture.

I took a completely opposite approach in watercolor workshop taught by Behzad Bagheri, where I started with abstract shapes and figure out how it fits with what I observe. It was fun to experiment with colors and shapes.

I also had an opportunity at Ch’ng Kiah Kiean's workshop to try out hand-made pen made of a twig and Chinese ink that becomes waterproof when dry. I love that I was able to try so many new approaches to sketching.

All too soon, the symposium came to an end with a big party. By this time, I am exhausted but happy! Off to Rio next....