Think Negative

 

Let’s Sketch!

Stop, Look, and See

Sunday, January 31

12 PM - 3 PM

Hosted by  Evelyn Brody and Urban Sketchers Chicago

Details:

To you make positive use of negative shapes in your sketches? Flipping the script can produce sometimes surprisingly powerful results as Wendy Easton’s lovely banner sketch shows. 

You might think of rendering negative space as drawing the shapes on your page around and between objects, rather than drawing the objects themselves. 

Don’t forget, though, about interior negative shapes – recall that Beatles posters where each Beatle is instantly recognizable from the shadow shapes in the eyes and under the nose and mouth. 

Wendy’s sketch uses both approaches: 

• Through the window, the trees appear as bare paper surrounded by sky shapes 

• Within her studio, the shadow shapes within objects reveal curtains, furniture, and art supplies. 

You can use negative shapes for an entire sketch, or just in selected areas.

Join us for our virtual throwdown on our group Facebook page on Sunday, January 31, between noon and 3pm, but always welcome late entries.

We follow USk Global’s guidelines of sketching live on location and not from reference photos. When outside your home, be sure to socially distance and wear a mask to help everyone stay safe. All skill levels welcome – happy sketching! 

To make your sketches easy to find and see, please include #uskchicago and #uskathome on your posts to Facebook and Instagram.

Banner Sketch by Wendy Easton

Want to keep up to date by email? Fill in your email address in the place provided in the upper right corner under the banner. We look forward to hearing from you.

On Notice

                                   

Let’s Sketch!

Stop, Look, and See

Sunday, December 6

12 PM - 3 PM

Hosted by Barbara Weeks and Urban Sketchers Chicago

One of my favorite books The Art of Noticing  by Rob Walker. It’s a study in seeing not just looking. There is a difference.

Details:

Find a place inside or out and for 5-10 minutes just observe your surroundings.

No sketching, just seeing! Time it.

The first minute or two you’ll probably see what you usually do. 

Indoors:

• Maybe in a room there’s the bookcase in the room. It’s dusty.
• Observing longer you may notice the upright and tilted books, or the colors, or photos,  etc. 
• Eventually you may discover what makes that bookcase unique, a bowed shelf or a chip on the edge.

Outdoors:

• Buildings (windows- clean, dirty? signs)
• Streets (curbs, litter, sidewalk cracks)
•  Cars (license plates, tail lights)
• You may notice the lamposts.                                                 (This was inspired by a game my grandsons play “I spy with my little eye something...”.I said, “Is it the lampost?” Hudson asked, “The black one or the silver? But the lamposts are silver, no wait the one on the corner is black! Now I notice not only the color of Chicago lamposts but the incredible variety of designs.)

Ten minutes are up!

Now sketch what you SEE.

See you at the virtual throwdown!

Please include #uskchicago and #uskathome on your posts to Facebook and Instagram. A reminder that we are back to following USk Global’s posting guidelines of sketching live on location and not from reference photos.

The Banner Sketch was done by Barbara Weeks at the very first USk Chicago sketch meet.

Want to keep up to date by email? Fill in your email address in the place provided in the upper right corner under the banner. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Thanksgiving Everyday

Let’s Sketch Chicago!

Gratitude 

Sunday, November 29

12 PM - 3 PM

Hosted by Evelyn Brody and Urban Sketchers Chicago

Details

In this exhausting and distressing year, Thanksgiving celebrations have also been upended. But this weekend you hopefully will find time to reflect on things in 2020 to be grateful for. If what has gotten you through this crazy era can be expressed visually from direct observation, we’d like to see it!

Ideas

• Perhaps you are especially thankful for one or more household companions – or a family member or friend you visit with, masked, from a safe 6-foot distance. 

• Perhaps you’re grateful for the cozy (and rearranged?) confines of your own four walls – or the ever-changing view from your window. 

• Perhaps Zoom or Netflix has kept you connected, or indeed opened up new worlds. (If you do sketch your screen, remember to include the surrounding context!) 

• Or maybe you have renewed appreciation for what you used to take for granted – the routine tasks of essential workers; package or local-restaurant deliveries; or a new or improved domestic skill.

We follow USk Global’s guidelines of sketching live on location and not from reference photos. When outside your home, be sure to socially distance and wear a mask to help everyone stay safe. All skill levels welcome – happy sketching! If you post to  Facebook and Instagram please include #uskchicago and #uskathome on your posts.

We gather for our virtual throwdown on our group Facebook page on Sunday, November 29, between noon and 3pm, but always welcome late entries. 

Bonus incentive! 

Everyone (except Admins) who posts between now and 5:00 p.m. Sunday will automatically be entered into a raffle to win one of four 2020 titles generously donated by Quarto! 

We will select four names at random to receive one of the following books:

• The Complete Urban Sketching Companion
• Drawing with a Tablet
• Techniques for Beginners
• Drawing Expressive People

Please email evelynbrody@iCloud.com if you have any questions. The banner image by Evelyn Brody

Want to keep up to date by email? Fill in your email address in the place provided in the upper right corner under the banner. We look forward to hearing from you.