My two cents to the three days of Urban Sketchers Chicago Sketching Seminar 2018

Pencil, color pencil and watercolor on 5.5" x 3.5" Moleskine sketchbook

Well, it's been a long but fun and satisfying weekend. The Urban Sketchers met again in Chicago at the Palette and Chisel Art Academy, they allowed us to use their facilities to host this event. I volunteered as an instructor for the workshop How to Sketch Landscape City Spaces Using Big Shapes.

Days and hours before the opening of this event on Friday Jun 1st, I headed to the location I chose for this workshop to check it out. I looked for some views to make demos.

This view was the first contender and the thumbnail I did.

Pencil and Color Pencil, 3.5" x 5.5"

This view was the second one.

Pencil and Color Pencil, 3.5" x 5.5"

The following are images of demonstrations done during the workshop, about how to divide the view in big shapes, how to measure them fast and how to place the shapes in the paper. It pays off the few minutes it takes to invest in doing this, then the joy of inking and watercolor it follows.

Later, some watercolor demonstrations were done to explain how lines can be defined as boundaries between light and dark areas and how contrast can create more interest to the viewer. 

Sponsored Daniel Smith Watercolor Paint  and Canson Paper were used in this demo.  

It was a true pleasure to get to know more people this year and see familiar faces again. It's always interesting and fun to answers questions and have conversations about the subjects that we have in common in this community. Here it is the group photos of sketchers who attended this workshop and the sketches they did.

Here's a free download handout you can print. Print in both sides of the paper and then fold. 

It will look like this:

On the other hand, I had a chance to sketch here and there. I used my mini mini 3.5" x 5.5" watercolor sketchbook, a very convenient size. A couple of sketches were done during the welcoming sketchcrawl. 

Palette and Chisel Art Academy, pencil, color pencil and watercolor

 Biggs Mansion, pen&ink and watercolor

I had the chance to attend briefly a couple of workshops.  One of them was Sketch Now Think Later with Mike Daikubara. I sketch him in action and part of his spectacular high tech teaching set up.

Pen&ink and watercolor

Then I ran to catch Wes Douglas' workshop Sketching Vehicles the Urban Sketching's Way. I learned a method that it will ease my life, thanks so much Wes! I did practice it right away!

Pen&ink and watercolor.

A few photos of truly yours.

Photo by Xana Jazmin

Photo by Brian Wright

Photo by Marta Sitek

With Marc Taro Holmes

After dinner there was a raffle of many wraps with goodies from sponsors, and books of our top instructors signed by them.

And here it is the whole gang. We all had fun and are thankful to the organizers and volunteers for their hard work, to instructors and participants and also to the generous sponsors.

Photo by a photographer hired by Urban Sketcher Adm.

Happy Sketching!