Look What I Can Do!

These are what I consider to be my best sketches from each of the workshops at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Santo Domingo.

First (above) we have my marker masterpiece ;) from Eduardo "Chartpak" Bajzek's workshop Straight to Colors. That workshop was SO AWESOME. I enjoyed learning how to use the Letraset ProMarkers and Chartpak markers, and also changing my focus to mass and shape instead of line. And Eduardo is a fantastic instructor!

Next (above) is from Veronica Lawlor and Jonathan Schmidt's workshop, The Decisive Moment. Most of my moments were indecisive, but not this one. I was drawn (no pun intended) to this spot because it is like something I would paint, so it was fun to find a typical subject in a foreign place and to use a different approach with it. This workshop is definitely one that has stuck with me and now I can't stop thinking about adding dimension to my sketches.

This (above) might be my favorite sketch from the whole symposium. This is from Lynne Chapman's Quick-on-the-Draw. I already draw quickly but Lynne showed me how to do that in a more thoughtful way. I'm particularly proud of the way I combined learning about shapes from Eduardo and dimensionality from Veronica & Jonathan, and added Lynne's sexy line to it. I might frame this one.

This sketch (above) is from Frank Ching and Liz Steel's Architecture - Personal Views. I think my personal view was: This is hard! I'm so lazy about sketching architecture that it was really nice to have guidance from two greats like Frank and Liz. This was the only one for which my "a-ha!" moment came a full 24 hours after the workshop. But I still had it so that's good!

These first four sketches were all made in an awesome Canson sketchbook that I fell in love with.

This is just a tiny little sketch, about 4.5 x 3.5 inches, but it was my "a-ha!" moment for Miguel Herranz and Swasky's What's Behind an Onion? Workshop. The answer? Layers! This is another one that really stuck with me (well, they all did) and you can see the influence of this workshop in later sketches.

Super big thanks to all of the instructors. Everyone was great and helped me to see in a different way. My sketching already shows the influence of all of the instructors, and I'm really excited to see how my painting will be influenced.

More to come about the Symposium...