My Follow-on Trip to Amsterdam

On July 24, sketchers from around the world met in Amsterdam for the International USK Symposium. As luck would have it, I got to spend 3 glorious days in August following along in my fellow sketchers footsteps on my summer vacation (fortunately without the record-breaking heat).

My first stop was Van Beek’s Art Supply. You might think this an odd first choice, but I’d heard so many good things about this store, that I just had to stop by and it didn’t disappoint. They had everything a sketcher could wish for from pens to paint to paper. I can see why it was such a popular sponsor.

Next on my agenda was a tour of the area scoping out good sketch spots. Amsterdam is a very walkable city as long as you watch out for cyclists. There are over 800,000 bikes and 250 miles of bike paths – great for cyclists; hazardous for sightseeing. Probably one of the most popular areas was the museum square – home of the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, and van Gogh Museum (FYI: Dutch people love to thrown j’s into their language, but they never pronounce them). The square is surrounded by gardens, sculptures, and grassy areas with a plethora of benches and low walls – just perfect for sketching.

Since I only brought a carry-on for this trip, I had to limit my sketch supplies. I brought my foldable waterproof foam pad for sitting. I carry this with me everywhere when I go out sketching, especially when I’m in rainy cities like Amsterdam. Rather than bring a full sketchbook, I made several small accordion journals by cutting up a 22” x 30” sheet of 140 lb hot-press watercolor paper. They fit into my 7” x 9” pen case from Jet Pens. I brought a watercolor palette with my own mix of 15 half pans filled primarily with Daniel Smith watercolors. To complete my set of supplies, I added a Pentel waterbrush, a .005 Micron pen, a mechanical pencil, a kneaded eraser, and a spritzer.

Amsterdam is an urban sketchers dream with sidewalk cafes, canals, bridges, boats, and renaissance architecture. I could easily spend a year and never run out of things to draw. If you haven’t been there, I hope you get to visit Amsterdam some day and experience the beauty of the area. Just remember to watch out for bikes!