My 5 Seconds of Fame in Barcelona

The Barcelona Urban Sketchers team -- the hardworking people who made the 2013 international symposium possible -- has produced a video of the event! For me, it's a great souvenir that captures the people, activities and energy of an exhilarating three days. Watch without blinking, and you'll see five separate seconds of me (three at the beginning and two near the middle)! How did I get so lucky? :-)

Thank you, Barcelona team!

Sketchbook Binding Finally Done

Barcelona/Spain travel sketchbook.

We’ve been back from our European travels for three weeks now, and I finally finished binding the loose signatures of my sketchbook. I don’t like leaving projects unfinished, so it’s nice to have a sense of closure on a memorable, meaningful trip.

You may recall my hemming and hawing about whether to bind all the signatures into a single volume, or separate the symposium workshop exercises into a separate book. On the one hand, the Urban Sketching symposium was the impetus for the trip, so sketches done in the workshops seemed like they should be integrated with the rest of the sketches. On the other hand, most of the work done in workshops were incomplete or mechanical exercises, and the subject matter were often gesture sketches of people or value studies of café umbrellas – content that doesn’t indicate the location. They don’t seem to fit in with the rest of my travel sketches.



Symposium workshop exercise sketchbook.

In the end, I decided to bind the workshop exercises separately, partly because of the reasons stated above, and also because the book would have been quite thick if I put all the signatures into a single volume, and I was concerned that the binding would be compromised.

The front cover of the workshop sketchbook is a collage of a small poster we received and the symposium logo. The back cover is a map of Barcelona. The thicker travel sketchbook’s covers are also made of maps and a collage of postcards and other ephemera. I used a few blank pages in both sketchbooks to hold more postcards, cards I traded with symposium participants and other keepsakes.

One excellent feature of the Coptic binding stitch I used is that the signatures do not have to be exactly the same size to be bound together. I removed the staples from the symposium program (which is slightly smaller than the signatures), punched holes to match the sketchbook signatures, and bound the program right into the back of the sketchbook as a keepsake (a much better place for it than a file folder or bookshelf, where I’d never find or look at it again).

Symposium program bound into the sketchbook.

Now that I’ve completed the entire process of my first handbound sketchbooks (which began with my “Stefano” sketchbook cover and temporarily binding the signatures that I took with me on my travels), what do I think about it? And will I continue to use it for my day-to-day, non-travel sketches?

I love the Stefano cover, especially the flexibility it enables of using any kind of paper (as well as the potential to use a variety of papers while still maintaining chronological continuity). I enjoy temporarily pamphlet-stitching the signatures before the trip as well as the Coptic stitching afterwards, which is such an elegant binding mechanism. Making the collages for the book covers was also fun. And overall, it was highly satisfying to make my first travel sketchbooks entirely by hand. (The latter feeling is residual from when I first began sketching. At that time, I idealistically considered making all of my own sketchbooks for the rest of my sketching life because it seemed like such a perfect integration of media and message – hand-drawn images kept in handbound books. But idealism gave way to convenience, and other than a few greeting card sketchbooks, I’ve purchased all of my sketchbooks ever since.)

The parts about bookbinding that I didn’t care for were cutting the cover boards (not to mention measuring them accurately, which unfortunately didn’t happen), punching the pages, drilling the cover holes, and the relatively time-consuming process of applying and waiting for acrylic medium on the covers to dry, and then applying and waiting for the final acrylic varnish coat to dry (though I now really like the result of the strong, thoroughly protected covers). 

There’s also the matter of discovering – after I had completely finished binding the larger, more time-consuming volume – that I had inadvertently bound two signatures out of sequence, so I had to cut it all apart and start over! Oh, well – it was a recoverable error, and the thread tension of my second attempt is more consistent, so the spine looks better anyway.

Coptic-bound spine, which I unfortunately had to stitch twice.

I currently fill Stillman & Birn sketchbooks at a rate of about one every couple months. That means I’ll be going through the binding process about that often. If I streamline the cover-making process to be less time-consuming, I think the Stefano system would be ideal for regular, daily use. And I’m excited about the potential for using a variety of paper types. When I finish off the Stillman & Birn volumes I’m currently working in (one Alpha and one Beta), I’ll give it a try.

I suppose I could store away completed, unbound signatures during the good sketching months, and do all the binding during the winter doldrums, which would be more productive than complaining about the weather.

(Edited 10/20/13: See my post "The Hand Bookbinding Groove" to read about how I streamlined the cover-making process and how I'm now hooked on bookbinding.)

Last Thoughts: Prepping for a Symposium

Gail, Tina and Jackie

OK, I’m sure these aren’t the last thoughts I’ll ever have about a three-day international urban sketching symposium in Barcelona, Spain, that I had been fantasizing about for a year. ☺ But they’re thoughts I had after writing my last blog post about what I learned, and I thought I’d offer some practical suggestions if you are planning to attend a future symposium:

1. Your No. 1 priority – way ahead of art materials – is having shoes you can comfortably walk several miles in. I never travel without such shoes, so I didn’t think much about them, but I didn’t realize how important they would become. Each workshop required walking some distance, usually no more than 15 or 20 minutes, but in one case, we walked for 40 minutes before we reached our destination. (One symposium participant in a different workshop decided, after her class had been walking for more than an hour without yet reaching their destination, that she didn’t want to walk anymore and took the subway back to her hotel, bagging the workshop altogether.) I heard several participants complaining about blisters or bad knees because they hadn’t realized how much walking would be required.



Kay, Tina and Nina

2. Have realistic expectations about the workshops. I attended the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium with the same expectations that I have when I attend any art class: A workshop is an opportunity to get an overview of an instructor’s particular approach and techniques, and it’s up to me to apply them to my own work so that I can eventually find my own style. Taking a three-hour workshop might change one’s attitude (as Inma’s did mine!) or approach, which may eventually lead to significant changes in one’s sketching style. But the only improvements that come from workshops are the result of continual sketching practice long after the symposium is over.


Sketchers at Arc de Triomf

3. Manage your art materials. Unless there’s a specific medium or tool that a workshop instructor is requiring, and it’s clear from the description that that medium or tool will be the main focus of the work, don’t bother buying something new unless you want to try it anyway. As you saw in my photo of the swag we were given, you can get away without bringing any of your own materials if you’re not picky about paper or your favorite pens. If, like me, you are picky, then feel free to bring your own favorites. But often an instructor will suggest a specific paint color or a pen by brand name because it’s his or her personal favorite, and anything you use instead will work just as well.

Joao and Omar's workshop

4. Get to know other sketchers. My most memorable moments in Barcelona are about meeting sketchers I’ve long admired online; chatting with fellow participants about our local sketching communities, exchanging cards and promising to stay in touch; and sharing a common passion even when we barely shared a common spoken language. After the paint has dried and the last sketchbook page has been scanned, the Urban Sketching Symposium is ultimately about people.


5. Carry protein bars and water at all times. You never know when a compelling sketch (or getting lost) will keep you from your next meal.


Liz and Tina



Inma's workshop

Most Memorable Sketches of Barcelona



7/8/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Zig marker, water-soluble colored pencil

Barcelona!

 

When I first heard confirmation that the rumors of an urban sketching symposium in Barcelona were true, I was thrilled. Although I didn’t know much about this city except what I’d seen on Rick Steves’ show, I had an image of an exciting, vibrant city filled with old and new. My image was correct, except a hundredfold. I expected a large, bustling city, but its intensity nearly overwhelmed me. From the sheer extreme immensity and bodaciousness of the Sagrada Familia (probably the single most impressive manmade thing I’ve ever experienced) to the sea of humanity cruising down La Rambla at any given moment, everything about Barcelona felt intense, over-caffeinated and fully saturated. I loved it, and at the same time, it exhausted me.

Sketching Mirador de Colom.

Maybe that’s why, despite all the hours I spent sketching during the symposium, I made relatively few sketches of Barcelona on my own time. I became so full with the sights, sounds, tastes, sensations and smells of the city that I didn’t leave much room for sketching.

Most memorable is the very first sketch I made on our first day in Barcelona at the immense Mirador de Colom. As I sketched one of the many lions surrounding the monument at ground level, it suddenly struck me: “Hey, I’m sketching in Barcelona!”

7/10/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor

Another significant sketch in my memory is the one and only sketch I did at the Sagrada Familia. The type of place you could sketch every day of your life for a year and still find new things to capture, the Sagrada Familia took my breath away every time I turned. We spent all day there, yet I felt we had barely brushed the surface. By mid-afternoon, I realized I still hadn’t sketched it, so I braved the blazing sun, found an empty bench (empty only because it wasn’t shady) and took half an hour to sketch it (all the time I could stand that heat). It was the manmade equivalent of the Grand Canyon, and I sketched the equivalent of one rock.

Sketching Sagrada Familia.

My third most memorable sketch is one of the Arc de Triomf, for a couple of reasons. The Arc was the designated location of the group photo for all symposium participants preceded by a general sketchcrawl on the last symposium day. When I got there, the Arc itself was stunning to behold, but what caught my eye was all the sketchers. I think it was the only sketch opportunity that all symposium participants as well as ad hoc sketchers were available for, so literally hundreds of sketchers were scattered all over the grass, benches, everywhere I looked. As excited as I was to be part of the symposium, I hadn’t expected to feel so moved to see so many sketchers in one place – and to know that I was fortunate enough to be one of them. The collective energy of all those people engaged in their most passionate pastime must have been palpable even to casual passers-by.



7/13/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Zig markers

The second reason my sketch of the Arc is special to me is that it was my first after Inma Serrano’s workshop, “Rhythm in the City.” Before her workshop, I would have stood at the foot of the Arc in such awe and dismay that I probably would have chosen a small detail to sketch – not the Arc itself. But her approach toward sketching and her way of seeing architecture as living creatures gave me both the permission and the attitude to take on the whole Arc – or the part that engaged me most, and nothing more.

To view more sketches and photos from my travels, please see this Flickr set.  

Barcelona and Germany, Here I Come!

My bags are packed, and I’m ready to go!

I have lofty aspirations to post sketches to this blog, my Flickr photostream,  the Urban Sketching Symposium blog, my Facebook page and the symposium Facebook page. But the reality might be different, based on my available time, level of energy and wi-fi reliability.

In case I don’t get around to all of those lofty aspirations, I’ll post sketches and photos first to my Flickr photostream set called “Barcelona & Germany 2013,” which you can get to by clicking the previous link, or simply view here. If I get around to the rest, good for me. On the other hand, I’m leaving home to see and sketch exciting new places; maybe the rest can wait until after July 22!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.