Fueled by Clouds & Coffee: Chicago USk Symposium

Showing posts with label Chicago USk Symposium. Show all posts

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Two Sketchbooks Bound

My Chicago sketchbook

My sketchbook from my week in Chicago is thin – only two signatures of 16 pages each – but it’s thick with memories. As I did last year with my UK and Manchester symposium sketchbook, I bound the symposium program right into the sketchbook between the two signatures. On the covers are two of my favorite street scenes – the El tracks at Wabash and Congress, and Michican Street looking out toward the pointy blue Two Prudential Tower.

The symposium program is bound right into the book between the two signatures.

While I had my bookbinding supplies out, I also stitched together my signatures from May through the beginning of August, including our short trip to the Twin Cities. On the covers are the walrus on the Arctic Building sketched at the beginning of summer and the construction going on outside our Minneapolis hotel. Looking back through the sketches as I bound the book, I have to say it’s been a great season!

If you detect a bit of wistfulness, it’s because I’ve been seeing traces of yellow and orange in some trees just lately. At the first signs of fall, some years I either panic or go into denial; other times I’m ready to let summer go. This year I feel mostly the latter: We had one of the best summers on record, weather-wise, and I sketched the heck out of it. (And now we could certainly use the rain.) Still, the outdoor-sketching season is always shorter than I want it to be, so the waning days of summer are also bittersweet.

My sketchbook from May through early August

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Chicago Symposium, Part 4: Sketch Kit Review and Swag

Symposium swag!

I can’t complete my blog series about the symposium without talking about sketch materials – everything I brought and everything I received there!

The first part is boring: The materials I brought with me worked well, predictably, because they are the same things I use every day. No surprises, no drama – this is the one kind of boring I like!

My faithful sketch materials: Ho-hum, no drama here.

At the last minute I made one change to the bag dump I showed: I brought a new water sprayer (originally holding hand sanitizer) that puts out a finer mist. It’s larger than the old one, so it takes up a bit more space in my bag, but in a pinch I was able to use some of its water to fill a waterbrush, so that was a bonus. Except the rainbow pencil, I used every single item that I carried at least once, and most things I used daily.

The only thing I missed was a verdigris colored pencil, which was essential in Europe, but I didn’t think to bring it to Chicago. Although I was able to mix a passable color with the blues and greens I had, verdigris would have come in handy when I colored the lion I sketched outside the Art Institute.

Overall, I have a finely tuned sketch kit, if I say so myself!

7/29/17 The Bowman at Michigan & Congress

Now that the boring part is done, let’s get to the fun stuff: the symposium swag bag! The symposium sponsorship staff out-did themselves this year by giving us a tote stuffed with lots of great samples, discount coupons, brochures and some full-size sketchbooks. It was an especially useful selection of goodies for a mostly dry-media sketcher like me – quite a few pencils, markers and appropriate sketchbooks.

7//29/17 Grant's Park

7/29/17 Dearborn Station

One of the most useful swag gifts turned out to be a set of sample papers from Stillman & Birn, including their brand-new gray, beige and black toned papers. On one of the sketchwalks, I was a bit disappointed when I learned that the walk leader was going to take us on a tour of the Printer’s Row neighborhood with multiple stops, giving us only about 20 minutes to sketch at each stop. (The other sketchwalks had focused on central locations where we were able to wander on our own and spend as much time as we wanted on a sketch – a more conventional sketchwalk format that I preferred.) At first I felt constrained by the time limit, but I decided to take advantage of the format by putting the toned paper samples to work. I used one 4-by-6-inch sample at each stop, sketching a small vignette on each using General’s pastel chalk pencils that were also in the swag bag (and the white Derwent colored pencil I always carry for use on red Field Notes pages). I ended up enjoying the short sketch periods much more than I thought I would, and I like the triptych of small toned sketches I completed.

For the record, I’m not a fan of sketching on location with pastel chalk pencils (if you’re interested in learning more about them, I reviewed them for Ana at the Well-Appointed Desk when a couple of General’s pastel chalk pencils were included in the June ArtSnacks box). They smudge easily and transfer to the facing page. But I know artists who use traditional colored pencils to great effect on toned paper, so I can’t wait for the S&B Nova books to come out (due imminently at my local Daniel Smith as well as Blick.com).

A triptych of sketches made with General's pastel chalk pencils on S&B Nova paper samples.

Derwent's new Procolour pencil

A swag gift I am really excited about is the Derwent Procolour colored pencil. A month or two ago I heard that Derwent’s newest line of colored pencils had just come out in the UK, and it had yet to be released in the US. It is being marketed as the pencil line somewhere between its very soft ColourSoft (which I reviewed earlier this year) and the much harder Studio (which is intended for outlining and crisp details). Since my colored pencil review series taught me that I prefer a slightly harder pencil than super-soft ones (but not as hard as those intended for detailing), I was curious about the Procolour. After trying the sample I received, I am definitely interested in exploring them further. When I got home, I poked around online, and I found that they are starting to be available in the US now. Blick.com offers them open stock, which is the ideal way to buy colored pencils, so I’ve ordered a good selection of colors I tend to use. Stay tuned for a full review.

My growing collection of symposium pencil tins!

My favorite swag gift of all is sentimental more than functional: The Cretacolor pencil tin with the USk Chicago logo! Beginning with the Paraty symposium, Cretacolor has been a staunch USk supporter every year, and one of their gifts has been the custom tin filled with a variety of art pencils. Honestly, I don’t care much about their contents, but I love collecting the tins commemorating the symposiums. Since I didn’t go to Singapore, I was sad to be missing that one, but my friend Shiho gave me one, so my collection is complete. I can’t wait to get another one in Porto!

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Chicago Symposium, Part 3: People

7/26/17 Our founder, Gabi Campanario, giving the keynote at the opening ceremony.

The subject of this post is probably not what you think it is. As much as I enjoy sketching people in general, they didn’t end up in my sketchbook much in Chicago. The city was so rich in architecture and art that I didn’t focus much on its citizens (except for one busker . . . I was disappointed that I didn’t see more).

Instead, this post is really about the primary reason I attend symposiums in the first place: the people. Of course I go for the sketching, but that sketching wouldn’t be nearly as fun and meaningful if it hadn’t been with 570 other sketchers from 34 countries. I’ve probably said this after every symposium I’ve attended, but there’s something very special about being with one’s “tribe” – that worldwide community with whom you instantly bond because of a common passion. Whenever I go to the opening and closing sketchwalks of every symposium (the only sketching opportunities in which all symposium participants are likely to be present at the same time) and suddenly see hundreds of my tribespeople all in one place, doing what they enjoy most, I feel a catch in my throat.

7/27/17 Left: Mark Leibowitz gives a presentation on sketch kits;
USk President Amber Sausen opens the symposium.

Since I missed the very first symposium in Portland (in 2010, the year before I started sketching), Chicago was the first one I attended in the U.S., and I was surprised by how different it made me feel. At past symposiums, I was always a guest in another country; in Chicago, I felt I was a “host.” I felt a keen sense of responsibility toward all the non-American sketchers, especially those who had never visited the U.S. before (including both of our international correspondents), and tried to make an effort to welcome them. From my own international travel experiences, I know that whatever happens in another country, good or bad, tends to shape my feelings and impressions about that place, so it seemed important to show visiting sketchers an America to be proud of. I found myself feeling relieved when sketchers told me how much they enjoyed being in Chicago and the U.S. – that people were kind, friendly and helpful.

7/25/17 The only drink & draw I managed to attend was the night before
the symposium began. . . I couldn't stay up late enough for the rest of them!

So this post is not so much about what I sketched but who I sketched with – new people I met and friends I was reunited with. It’s also about all the many, many volunteers who worked all year long to make the symposium possible.

Most notable among these tireless volunteers is our founder himself, Gabi Campanario. His modest, selfless leadership continues to inspire me daily. In his keynote address at the opening reception, Gabi told the story of how a simple idea – sketchers worldwide sharing their work online – turned into the Urban Sketchers community we know today. See the YouTube recording of his recount of the snowy November day 10 years ago when Urban Sketchers was born and how the organization has grown and flourished.

As I am every time I participate, I am sincerely grateful that I had the opportunity to share in such an inspiring event. The positive energy I gain at the symposium stays with me all year until the next one.

And speaking of the next one, the 2018 symposium will be in Porto, Portugal! I’m already looking forward to it!