A Sizzling Symposium

7/25/19 Amsterdam skyline sketched from the air-conditioned NEMO museum cafe

As soon as I arrived in Amsterdam, I could immediately see why it had been an easy win as a symposium host. Its extraordinary architecture, well-designed urban spaces, geographic compactness and humanely flat terrain all made it an extremely appealing city for sketchers. On top of that, the Netherlands is the most English-language-friendly European country I have been to. Every local person I talked to, from fellow sketchers to random citizens on the street, was completely fluent in English. So much information and signage was available in English that I sometimes forgot I was outside the U.S. In every way I can think of, it was by far the easiest European country to visit.

I heard that temps topped out at
107 degrees in some parts of the Netherlands.

Arriving a couple of days ahead of the symposium, I awaited the event with excitement and much anticipation (as I’m sure my 700-plus fellow participants were also feeling). In retrospect, I’m very happy that I had the days before and after the event to sketch, because we were all in for unexpectedly harsh conditions.

As mentioned in my first post about Amsterdam, a record-breaking heatwave broiled the region for four long days – precisely the four days of the 10^th international Urban Sketchers Symposium. When I started hearing reports from locals that the temperature was expected to hit 40 C, it didn’t mean much to me (I couldn’t make the conversion to Fahrenheit in my mind). But when I saw the triple digits in Fahrenheit predicted on my phone’s weather app, I fully comprehended its meaning: Lots of sweat and difficult sketching!

 

My strategy for hot-weather sketching was to go out at dusk (left) and dawn (right) when the temperatures were bearable.

7/27/19 Skipping a sketchwalk, I made more sketches from
NEMO's air-conditioned cafe.

Even symposium veterans who had participated in Santo Domingo and Singapore said that Amsterdam was hotter (though not as humid as either tropical location) – the hottest sketching conditions they had ever experienced. To make matters worse, Amsterdam typically does not suffer such high temperatures, so many homes, hotels and businesses are not air conditioned. Relief wasn’t easy to find. (Our small Airbnb apartment had no air conditioning, but it was in the basement, which kept it mercifully tolerable.)

Fortunately, workshops were scheduled for the mornings while temperatures were still in the 80s and lower 90s, and shade made conditions bearable. However, I forfeited most of the afternoon sketchwalks, demos and other outdoor activities and instead retreated to whatever air-conditioned venues I could find. A favorite was the NEMO Science Museum’s large upper-floor café, which offered a nearly 360-degree view of the city. (As mentioned in my previous post, I explored the sketchwalk neighborhoods on my own after the symposium was over and the heatwave subsided, so at least I was able to sketch in those areas – though it wasn’t the same without other sketchers everywhere.)

Despite the unexpected hardship of high heat, I enjoyed reuniting with old friends, seeing in person those whom I’ve otherwise known only through social media, and meeting new sketchers from around the world. While I value the inspirational opportunity of workshops, the main reason I attend symposiums is to join the camaraderie of my international tribe. For a few days each year, I am fully immersed in this worldwide community that I cherish. And I’m always grateful to the many volunteers who worked hard for well over a year to make this symposium possible.

7/24/19 USk President Amber Sausen addresses the
700+ participants at the opening reception (plus a few
bikes and the Zuiderkerk entrance facade).

Opening day reception (I'm sweating already, and the heatwave
is only getting started!)

For more views of the symposium, don’t miss Teoh Yi Chie (Parka)’s excellent six-part video coverage on YouTube. In addition, this year’s three symposium correspondents Gwen Glotin (Amsterdam), Orling Dominguez (Santo Domingo) and Mark Anderson (Liberty, Missouri) reported daily on the Urban Sketchers blog. Familiar with the level and intensity of work required to be a symposium correspondent (I was one myself in Manchester, one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever done, paid or otherwise), I can only imagine how much harder their work was in triple-digit temperatures!

7/22/19 Zuiderkerk, formerly a historic church
and now an event venue, was the symposium headquarters.

Norberto Dorantes Workshop

Norberto demos his composition principles.

With 36 workshops to choose from this year, I would normally have had a tough time making my selections, but I had a clear direction in mind. From my experience at previous symposiums, I knew that three hours is not much time to grasp an artist’s working methods, and I’ve sometimes been frustrated when too much material is presented. Now I choose workshops that seem sharply focused on one or two concepts, and my particular interest this year was composition.

Called “Line Flow: Discover How a Simple Line Can Be a Launch Point and Join Spaces,” Norberto Dorantes’ workshop focused on the artist’s unique take on composition. Beginning with a strong foreground element that may or may not be the focal point, Norberto allows the sketch to grow intuitively from that element. A strong proponent of thumbnails, Norberto led us through several exercises in which we explored a variety of compositional possibilities based on this foreground principle.

 

Thumbnails made at the pedestrian bridge near
the NEMO Science Museum.

Workshop exercises. The lower one is my favorite
of the workshop: a strong foreground element
that leads the eye upward to the rest of the sketch.

Through demos, he showed us how a few deftly and confidently placed lines might be all one needs to express an entire finished composition. In other words, he made sketches that were like thumbnails in concision but were still fully resolved as finished works – not preliminary. It was remarkable how much he could convey with only a few strong marks that took very little time to make but clearly expressed both analysis and intuition behind the deft strokes.

 

7/25/19 Workshop exercise (I needed a stronger
foreground element)

7/25/19 final workshop sketch (a strong
foreground element, though I'm not
sure the rest is very strong)

Norberto’s intuitive approach is intriguing, and I especially appreciated his emphasis on the thumbnail. In fact, my exploration of thumbnails in his workshop that first hot morning put me on a thumbnail course for the rest of my stay in the Netherlands and gave me a useful insight for travel sketching (more on that later).

Nina Johansson Workshop

Nina gave us a well-prepared and
well-designed workshop.

“Framing the City – A Few Guidelines on Image Composition” was Nina Johansson’s workshop, and it was exactly that: a structured and logical sequence of steps for learning and using compositional tools. From my prior experience taking a workshop from Nina in Paraty, I knew that she would deliver a well-organized, well-prepared presentation, and I was not disappointed. Her handout was a wonderful little booklet containing all the principles we would practice with visual examples. She also gave us a cardboard viewfinder to help us see compositions.

While most of the compositional guidelines – for example, the classic “rule of thirds” and dynamic triangles and diagonals – were not new to me, the way we were led through the exercises opened my eyes to new ways of using the basic guidelines. Nina’s teaching method includes having participants break out into small groups of three or four people so that we can discuss assignments, share ideas and give each other feedback. I enjoyed the added benefit of the opportunity to talk with other sketchers whom I might not have met otherwise.

 

Exploring the "rule of thirds" with thumbnails

7/26/19 workshop exercise (I was trying for a triangle
of elements -- the sign, the dark shadows under the
vehicles, the building -- but then I couldn't resist putting
in the crane, which weakened my composition.

7/29/19 This "farewell" sketch I made shortly before I left Amsterdam
incorporates composition ideas I learned from both Norberto
and Nina. It's one of my favorites from the trip.

The compositional guidelines we used stayed with me the rest of my time in the Netherlands, and I found myself hearing Nina’s recommendations in my mind as I began considering a sketch. My “farewell” sketch in Amsterdam (at left), which you saw at the top of the last post, is one of my favorite sketches of the trip. I incorporated ideas and methods that I learned from both Nina and Norberto as I planned this sketch.

7/27/19 A few small sketches I made during a sketchwalk.

7/26/19 After leaving a demo early because I couldn't
handle the heat, I retreated to an air-conditioned
hotel, where I was able to sketch Rembrandt's statue
from the bar.

7/26/19 Ben and Gary at a drink & draw. Both
from Hong Kong, they are excited that their local
USk group will be hosting the 2020 symposium!

Herding cats: Organizers try to gather us for the final group photo.

Inside the enormous Muziekgebouw, where the closing
reception was held.

I won Jane Blundell's beautiful painting of
Zuiderkerk at the silent auction!

Seattle USk at the closing reception! Front and center is Gabi, our modest founder, who started all of this! Unfortunately, only about half the Seattle participants made it into this photo. . . 

. . . but we're all in THIS photo! Although only about 700 people were officially registered, an estimated total of double that number attended the sketchwalks, which were all open to the public this year in celebration of the symposium's 10th anniversary. (Photo by Antonius Widjaya)

Amsterdam Symposium Swag!

Amsterdam symposium swag!

I’m back from two (mostly) wonderful weeks in the Netherlands, including attendance at the 10^th international Urban Sketchers Symposium in Amsterdam. My intention was to begin blogging about my travels first, but jetlag is a formidable foe, and writing coherent reflections would be better left to another day.

Exciting swag and art materials, however, require less coherence, so I’ll start there instead. Each year the symposium sponsorship team outdoes itself in procuring sponsors for the goodie bags, and this year’s haul was the best I’ve seen. Our bright red bag contained many full-size tubes of paints, several sketchbooks, a complete set of Faber Castell pens, and many other pens, pencils, markers, waterbrushes and ink from Derwent, Caran d’Ache, Daniel Smith, Royal Talens and other well-known international brands and smaller local companies. I’m looking forward to trying all the products that are new to me. Many thanks to all the sponsors for spoiling us yet again! (I apologize for the dimly lit photo taken on my apartment bed. To fit all the swag into my suitcase, I knew I would have to leave the packaging materials behind, so I had to take the photo in Amsterdam before I disassembled everything.)

Although I appreciate all the gifts, the one item in the bag that thrilled me most is, of course, the Cretacolor pencil tin emblazoned with the Amsterdam symposium logo! It’s the sixth such box I’m adding to my collection, which I cherish.

 

My beloved symposium logo pencil tin collection.

Speaking of the symposium logo, the only purchase I made from the vendor show this year is a tiny, wood watercolor palette handmade by Charlie’s Urban Sketch Factory. I had seen and admired Charlie’s beautiful products last year but resisted because I haven’t been using watercolors much lately. This year, however, he added a new product line that was irresistible: Various configurations of his palette designs sporting the Amsterdam logo! The one I chose has space for six paints and two mixing areas in the hinged lid. A tiny magnet keeps the box closed. I love the slender design that enables me to slide it into a bag slot vertically like a pen or pencil. I’m still not using watercolors much, but I might again someday. In the meantime, the box is a beautiful keepsake of the symposium. (I’m glad I grabbed it on the vendor show’s first day – he sold out of this design quickly.)

 

Tiny watercolor palette handmade by Charlie's Urban Sketch Factory

Space for six paint colors and two mixing trays (I put in
one dot of Ultramarine to get started; I'll eventually
fill the others)

Sturdy hinges

And speaking of the vendor show, it was a great opportunity to chat with reps of some of my favorite products and play with samples they provided. We were told by the symposium team that the sponsors and other vendors were eager to hear our feedback and opinions (many of which I have and am willing to share) about their products.

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I’ve tried many, many sharpeners and extenders to find ones that can accommodate my favorite Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils, which have a slightly larger barrel than standard pencils. After much trial, error and expense, I’m currently using a Mobius + Ruppert sharpener and a Derwent pencil extender. Why, I’ve often wondered, doesn’t Caran d’Ache make a sharpener and an extender to fit their irregularly sized Museum Aquarelle and Luminance pencils?

 

Caran d'Ache pencil in competitor
Derwent's extender

I marched up to the Caran d’Ache reps to ask this very question. Opening my bag to show them all the Museum Aquarelles I use regularly, I explained how many sharpeners and extenders I have had to try and showed my current favorites. I was perfectly nice about it – really, I was! – but one of the reps visibly winced with chagrin when I pulled out the extender displaying a prominent Derwent (a prime competitor) logo. They admitted that Caran d’Ache doesn’t currently offer products specifically made to fit their larger pencils. (If Caran d’Ache comes out with a sharpener and extender for Museum pencils, remember – you heard it here first. 😉)

Amsterdam!

7/8/19 map and flag of the Netherlands

By the time you see this, I’ll be in Haarlem, which is our first stop in the Netherlands before heading for Amsterdam and the Urban Sketchers Symposium. After the symposium, we’ll spend a few days in Delft before returning home.

I won’t be blogging while I’m gone, but I’ve scheduled a couple of vintage colored pencil reviews next and the following Friday, so I hope you’ll drop by. In the meantime, please follow me on Instagram to see what I’m sketching! Tot ziens!

Amsterdam Sketch Kit: Same as Every Day

Bag dump: My sketch kit contents for Amsterdam (and every day)

As participants gear up for the 10^th annual international Urban Sketchers Symposium in Amsterdam, much of the social media discussion is about what sketch materials and tools to bring, accessories to keep them organized, and the bag to haul everything in (And let’s face it: Everyone likes to talk about art materials!). I understand the anxiety; no one wants to be caught short thousands of miles from home, where replacing or finding an essential product might be challenging. This uncertainty would be present for any kind of travel, but the symposium adds another level of challenge because of the workshops. Instructors may have a long list of required or suggested supplies that must be added to the usual at-home arsenal.

Amsterdam will be my sixth symposium since 2013, and with each I’ve attended, I’ve learned more about my sketch material needs. In between those travels, I’ve made numerous other domestic and international trips, and all those travel experiences have helped me refine my sketch kit.

I think I can boil down everything I’ve learned to this one principle: The best travel sketch kit is one that is no different from the one I use and carry every day. There’s nothing to get used to or learn, like bag pockets in unfamiliar places, or new materials and tools. If I don’t reach for a tool during a walk around my neighborhood, then I’m unlikely to use it in Amsterdam. Conversely, if I don’t need it 5,000 miles from home, maybe I don’t need it at home, either.

Before writing this post, I reviewed the posts I wrote before all the previous symposiums I attended and looked at the photos of the art materials to see how they (and I) have changed. I did a lot of hemming and hawing to prep for Barcelona, my very first symposium, and that’s to be expected. At that point, I had been sketching for less than two years, and the trip was also my first international travel since I had begun sketching. Everything would be a new experience, and I didn’t know what to expect. I still recall (fondly now) the high excitement as well as high anxiety about that trip. My uncertainty shows in the amount of stuff I brought! After that trip, I learned so much about travel sketching that I wrote a lengthy post summarizing my new knowledge.

For Brazil and the Paraty symposium the following year, I heeded my own advice from Barcelona and refined my kit. But something happened in 2016 as I prepped for the UK and the Manchester symposium. Maybe my responsibilities as a correspondent that year made me feel like I had to be prepared for any possible sketch material need (once again, my level of anxiety was directly proportional to the amount of stuff I brought). Or maybe it was just that I was making a transition from ink and watercolors to colored pencils and markers, so I had to have everything. When I look now at the photo of my bag dump, my shoulder twitches from the memory! According to the post, my travel haul was very similar to my daily-carry. At least it shows that I was following the same principle I follow today: The best travel kit is one that is the same as usual.

By the Chicago symposium in 2017, I had made the full transition to colored pencils, which slimmed down my sketch kit substantially. It doesn’t look much different from what I carry today. Prepping for Portugal and the Porto symposium last year, my travel kit was so much the same as my daily-carry that I didn’t even bother to show the contents – I just updated my color palette.

Now, as I prep and pack for Amsterdam, I’ve followed my basic principle almost literally: The sketch kit that I’m bringing (top of post) is exactly the same as what I carry every day (except for two items that I took out; see below). Typically I prepare for travel by researching Internet images of the cities I will be visiting to see if I’ll encounter any hard-to-mix or unique hues, and I refresh my colored pencil palette accordingly. Amsterdam, as colorful as it is, doesn’t seem to have any unique colors, so that step was easy: I’m using my usual spring/summer palette:

 

My current colored pencil palette: Mostly Caran d'Ache Museum, a few Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer and one Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayon for sky washes.

(Incidentally, for any European trip, I make sure to bring verdigris (Caran d’Ache 182), which is so useful for statuary and building details. I would normally take it out of my bag upon returning home, but more recently I’ve discovered that a pale, minty green is difficult to mix, so I’ve left it in my bag, and it has come in handy many times.)

Out: Gelly Roll and fountain pen

The two things I took out of my bag? A white Gelly Roll gel pen (which I use only with toned or red paper) and a fountain pen. The latter is a big deal to me – its removal represents a full transition away from the ink linework I had been using since almost Day 1. I’ve been moving in this direction for a while, but I’ve been carrying a fountain pen all along, “just in case.” I still love drawing with fountain pens, but I’m trying to avoid the fiddly details that fountain pen nibs seem to invite. When I occasionally use linework now, I tend to use a brush pen in that role. As I was examining my bag contents last week, I realized I rarely use a fountain pen anymore, and this trip would be a good opportunity to take it out entirely. (Maybe I’ll take care of my fountain pen needs by devoting next InkTober to one.)

Here’s a closeup of the tools and other materials:

1. Tortillon

2. White Derwent Drawing Pencil. Like the Gelly Roll, I use this only with toned or red paper, which I won’t be bringing on the trip. I almost took it out, but what if I receive some new toned paper in my goody bag as I did in Chicago? There’s no substitute for a white colored pencil.

3. Bic ballpoint pen

4. 8B graphite pencil

5. Blackwing graphite pencil with soft core (about 4B)

6. Mitsubishi vermilion/Prussian blue bicolor pencil

7. Two waterbrushes – a general-use Kuretake and a special-purpose Derwent

8. Kneadable eraser (kept in a slender, hinged Daniel Smith watercolor crayon box)

9. Two black brush pens – one waterproof, one water-soluble. I use many different brands with no specific favorites as long as one is waterproof and one is water-soluble. Shown here are a waterproof Tombow Fudenosuke and a water-soluble Kuretake Fudegokochi.

10. Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with dark gray waterproof ink

11. Water spritzer that I find essential for a couple of techniques with watercolor pencils.

12. Moebius + Ruppert pencil sharpener

If you’re wondering which materials are specifically for workshops, the answer is none! Both workshops I signed up for are related to composition, not materials, so the supplies suggested by the instructors were only the students’ usual favorites.

The sketchbooks I’m bringing represent the largest deviation from my at-home daily-carry:

1. Instead of the softcover Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook that I’ve been using the past several months (and for the most part have been enjoying), I bought a 12-by-9-inch spiralbound Zeta sketchbook and removed the spiral binding. After trimming off the binding holes, I folded and stitched the paper into six signatures (four sheets/eight pages each). These will enable me to carry a thin, lightweight signature instead of a bound book while traveling. When I get home, I’ll bind them together with Coptic stitch.

2. As I always do when I travel, I’m also taking a softcover landscape-format Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook for panoramas. Those two books will cover most of my sketches.

3. The pocket-size Rhodia notebook will serve as both my travel journal and my receptacle for quick sketches on the run. I used Rhodia notebooks for several trips before switching to a Field Notes Signature last year for Portugal. While I enjoyed the slightly larger format of the Signature, it contains only 72 pages, and I filled it before the trip was over. I’m going back to the Rhodia, which has 96 pages (and the hardbound covers are more durable).

The Rickshaw Musette tote bag

4. The Strathmore watercolor postcard pad is one I carry routinely in my suitcase when I travel with every good intention of using (but you know what they say about where good intentions lead). The problem is that it stays in my suitcase instead of coming with me in my bag – so it rarely gets used (though I did use a few in Porto). I would like to get into the habit of making and mailing at least a few sketch postcards whenever I travel. This time I’ll keep it in the Rickshaw Musette tote bag that will supplement my daily-carry bag.

Speaking of bags, there’s no change at all – I’m again taking my small-size Rickshaw Zero Messenger Bag that I’ve sketched with on four continents since 2012.

 

My trusty everyday-carry since 2012.

Here’s a top view showing how all the materials fit. The colored pencils stand upright in the Tran Portfolio Pencil Case. All other materials are housed in a custom-made accessory organizer.

 

Everything in its place.

Finally, two other items will be carried in the tote bag when I’m not using them: my new Costco sunhat (festooned with symposium buttons) and my tiny Daiso folding stool. Although most of the time I prefer to stand while sketching, it’s nice to have a seat during workshops and when I’m doing a leisurely graphite sketch that could take a while.

OK – I’m ready to go (well, except for nonessentials like clothes)!

Hoping for sunshine!

Yes, I fit on it -- barely. I'll have to be wary of
my consumption of stroopwafel.

The Business Card Test

My Moo cards are printed and ready for Amsterdam!

A tradition at the annual international Urban Sketchers Symposium is to exchange small cards with other sketchers. Like business cards, they usually include contact information on one side and a sketch on the other – a fun and easy way to remember people we meet and to stay in touch with them. When I get home from the symposium, I tape all the cards I’ve collected into my sketchbook, and they are among my most cherished souvenirs as I think about the many sketchers I met. I’m looking forward to doing it again later this month in Amsterdam.

I used to print my own at home, but I got tired of all the cutting, so I’ve been ordering cards and stickers from Moo the past few years. Since the materials are digitally printed, a batch of cards costs the same, whether you choose to print the same image on all cards or a different image on each. The online tool for setting them up is easy to use; the hard part, for me, is selecting the images.

This sketch tells a story about the
place where I live, but at this size,
I can't even see what it shows.

Considering that I sketch every day, you’d think I’d have plenty to choose from, but that’s not the case. What I’ve learned from printing these tiny cards is that a sketch that looks OK in its original 6-by-9-inch size doesn’t always look as good when it’s reduced to 2-by-3 inches. All the details I was so pleased with in the full-size sketch are barely visible. High contrast and strong values are even more important in a small format. If I had a mediocre composition in my sketchbook, you can bet it doesn’t improve when the image has been shrunken down to a card.

At the same time that I’m choosing images that might reproduce well in a small format, I’m also thinking about subject matter. Since I know I will be giving the cards to international friends who may not be familiar with my home, I try to select images that might give them a sense of “the place where I live” (to paraphrase the manifesto). You see? It’s a tall order.

Choosing images for my Moo cards is a humbling experience. I flip through the digital scans on my hard drive by viewing thumbnails at about 2-by-3 inches, and I’m lucky if I can find even a dozen that pass the Business Card Test. It has become an effective way to set an ongoing goal for myself: Make a 6-by-9-inch sketch that will still look good when it’s 2 by 3.