SketcherFest Highlights

7/16/23 Ferry heading to Edmonds

After Saturday’s inspiring but relatively quiet workshop with Virginia Hein, Sunday felt like a blur of excitement and activity. I began by taking in the Sketchbook Fest and Art Market and all the artists exhibiting there. It was also a wonderful treat to reunite with guest artists and attendees that I usually only get to see at international Urban Sketchers symposiums. (More photos of Art Market artists are in my post on the USkSeattle blog.)

Singapore urban sketcher Paul Wang, whom I'd met at various symposiums, was at Daniel Smith's 
booth as the paint manufacturer's brand ambassador.  My goodie bag included a paint dot card of 
Paul's palette.

Alvin Wong of Hong Kong, another sketcher I've met at symposiums, surprised friends
with his impromptu visit by way of L.A.

I spent the rest of the day sketching and socializing. By then I was really feeling the symposium tribe vibe. It warmed my heart to look around the Edmonds waterfront and see so many sketchers (apparently as many as 400!), doing together what we all love most. For anyone who has not yet attended an international symposium, SketcherFest was an excellent taste of the energy and excitement that the annual event generates. In some ways, SketcherFest was even better than a symposium – less intense and less pressure to do and sketch “everything.”

The full symposium vibe!

Sharing a bench with a couple other sketchers, I decided to fill a page with small thumbnail-like sketches of the type I like to make when I travel. They were true thumbnail studies in that I was still thinking about compositional concepts I had learned from Virginia the day before. They were also simply quick captures that together tell a more complete story than a single larger sketch might.

7/16/23 Travel-style thumbnails of the Edmonds waterfront.

Formerly of USk Japan, Momoko now lives in Vancouver, B.C.

As much fun as I had at SketcherFest, the highlight for me had less to do with sketching and more to do with a personal connection I made. Momoko Takada, a former admin for USk Japan in Tokyo, now lives in Vancouver, B.C. All through the early part of the pandemic, I had been impressed by her enthusiasm and creative ideas to keep sketchers engaged when they couldn’t have meetups. I sometimes followed the monthly prompts that she and the other admins shared on social media. Because many of Momoko’s ideas were process-focused instead of subject-related, anyone could participate from anywhere. When Momoko let me know she was coming to Edmonds for SketcherFest, I was thrilled at the opportunity to finally meet her after years of following each other on Instagram.

As you know, I’m not a big food sketcher (donuts and croissants notwithstanding). But because I’ve seen Momoko’s sketches of her meals and especially pastries, we decided to sketch at the Top Pot Doughnuts near the Edmonds Waterfront Center. Now that she lives only a few hours away and on the same continent, I hope we’ll be able to sketch together again sometime.

7/16/23 Sketching at Top Pot with Momoko

SketcherFest promotional poster at Top Pot Doughnuts
(poster art by Gabi)

Many thanks to Gabi Campanario and all the other hard-working volunteers who made SketcherFest possible. Everyone who attended is keeping their fingers crossed that this will become a regular thing!

Edited 7/19/23 See Alvin Wong's video coverage of the event on YouTube.