USK Chicago Sketch Seminar

This past weekend I attended Chicago's annual Urban Sketch Seminar. What a fabulous experience! Way back in March, registration for this seminar sold out in 10 MINUTES, but I was lucky enough to get all 4 of my first choices.

The Saturday morning announcements included a few words from Gabi Campanario. He is such a kind and humble individual - not at all what I expected from the founder of an organization that has grown into the thousands. Gabi is a staff artist for the Seattle Sun Times. You'd think that as often as I've been to Seattle, our paths would have crossed, but it didn't happen until we both ended up in Chicago.

And then we were off to our first session - for me, Richness and Simplicity with Ink Pen & Brush-Pen taught by John Hancock (no, not the signer of the Declaration of Independence, but the artist and design professor from Charlottesville, VA).

I'm not one of those people who's afraid of drawing in ink, but I was totally gob-smacked when John started his session with, "Do you know your pens?" Such a simple (and now that I think about it, obvious) question, but one of those tips that pushes you from an OK artist to a really good artist. So our very first exercise was testing out all the pens in our bag as to how they interacted with our paper and then with a waterbrush - very enlightening.

For our next exercise, we sat under the El tracks drawing the support trusses. Every time I come to Chicago, I want to draw this steelwork, but I feel uncomfortable sitting on the sidewalk at such a busy intersection. When you're with like-minded individuals, however, it's not as intimidating. The best thing I took away from this workshop was the way the fountain pen inks interacted with the waterbrush to add depth and dimension to the sketch. I've been pretty resistant to using fountain pens up to this point, preferring my Micron pen and watercolors. But I think the Dick Blick's gift card we were given is calling my name to try out some of the brown ink John was using.

After a quick lunch break at Tokyo Lunch Boxes (yum), I went to my second session - Urban Uglies with Wes Douglas. This was my first choice workshop, because I love drawing things that are falling apart. And let's face it, where better to find a lot of urban ugliness than in a vibrant city like Chicago. Unfortunately, being in the Midwest, you also get that Russian roulette of unpredictable weather.

Wes took us to an absolutely perfect location at the corner of Harrison and Wabash. We had graffiti, rusty signs, parked cars, orange cones, construction equipment, El tracks, cracked sidewalks - just a wealth of sketch opportunities for this class. After Wes's demo, I was inspired to draw the Auto Park sign right above his head. Most of the neon arrows were broken and the bottom section of the sign was rusted out. I'd just gotten the perspective sketched in and was getting ready to render the "ugliness" when the skies unleashed a torrential downpour. But Wes, being ultra-prepared, shoo'd us just a few steps to an overhang on the other side of the El tracks. I lost the view of my sign, but I still had a nice "ugly" view of the concrete pillar under the El. So I started over, sketching the basic outline before rendering. However, just as I was getting ready to add some color, a security guard made us leave our spot, saying we were sitting on a "private" sidewalk (seriously???).

So off we went again, this time to the covered archway next to the Auditorium Theater. This historic venue was actually very beautiful, but since we were running out of time, I just drew Wes's backpack and stool next to the stone foundation (several participants commented about my implication that his backpack was "ugly" - sorry about that, Wes). So even though the weather didn't cooperate, I am determined to head back and finish my sign the next time I am in Chicago.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, but chilly. My third class was Jingo de la Rosa's Think with Your Hands. I wasn't quite sure what this class would be about, but I didn't care what Jingo taught - I was determined to get into his workshop, because the people who took him the previous year just raved about what a great teacher he was. They were right. Jingo took us to the South Garden next to the Art Institute. Thinking with your hands, means to quit thinking with your head and trying to make everything turn out perfectly - a stumbling block that messes up many people, especially me with my engineering background.

Jingo's first exercise involved contour sketching - something I dislike, because it is so uncontrolled. But, lo and behold, for our second exercise, he showed us how to "refine" our contour sketches with cross-hatching and turn them into beautiful pen and ink drawings. I was so tickled with this technique, because not only was I able to make a squirrel-y drawing look good, I was able to capture a few people in my sketches and make them look fairly realistic. Thank you, Jingo.

After another quick lunch break at Cafecito (great pressed Cuban sandwiches), I went to Nishant Jain's Be Sneaky Sketching People class. We all have to take a class that pushes us out of our comfort zone once in a while and this class was going to be mine. I am not a people-sketcher. Nishant treats drawing people like a contour drawing - one continuous line with the pen rarely leaving the paper. This helps him draw them very quickly.

For our first assignment, we partnered up and drew the person next to us... IN 30 SECONDS!!! Talk about a stress factor. But then Nishant talked about the different features that artists tend to focus on which can intimidate them and/or slow them down. After all, if I can do a contour drawing of a tree, why can't I do a contour drawing of a person? Interesting question. For our next assignment, we were supposed to draw a minimum of 25 people, but this time we got 30 minutes. We were at a very busy intersection, so there was no shortage of sketching subjects, but let me tell you - people in Chicago walk FAST! I finally went into a Starbucks and sketched the people sitting around the coffee shop (much easier). For our third exercise, we were supposed to draw a street scene (something I'm decent at) and incorporate people into it (something I'm not). Luckily I was able to capture a couple participants from the class who were standing in one place sketching the same view I was drawing.

When we went back for the closing announcements, I was pleasantly surprised to see this delicious spread of appetizers and soft drinks. The American Academy of Art on South Michgan Ave was our home base for this seminar and it was a beautiful venue. We had plenty of space to gather each day. If I lived in Chicago, I'd probably take advantage of some of their other events.

So while we munched on our snacks, Mary Jo Ernst and Alex Zonis drew names for raffle prizes (as if we hadn't already been given a huge goodie bag of art supplies when we checked in during registration). These two multi-taskers not only helped organize the entire weekend, they also taught one of the sessions on sketching with fountain pens. This was my second trip to Chicago for a USK seminar, and it was hands-down one of the best workshops I've been to in my urban sketching career. The people in Chicago are so welcoming and friendly, you can't help but have a good time. I hope other people get an opportunity to attend one of their future events. I know the next time I'm in Chicago, I'm going to see if someone wants to get together for a pop-up sketchout - maybe back on that corner of Harrison and Wabash.