Do Your Seminar Notes Look Like These?

A Recap of The Chicago Sketch Seminar 2015

Let's think about the typical seminar experience. Fancy hotel room, business attire, sign-ins with nametags, free coffee, Continental breakfast, and conversations with strangers. Let us not forget the tiny notepad, cheap ballpoint pen and a stack of copies from the day’s worth of presentations.

Now let's contrast this with an Urban Sketchers Chicago Sketch Seminar experience. You arrive at the Palette & Chisel, one of the oldest art schools in Chicago in a period architecture building on north Dearborn Avenue. Instead of stocking up on supplies from OfficeMax, your backpack or shoulder bag is filled with supplies easily found at Blick Art Supplies. Nowhere are the skimpy hotel notepads and cheap ballpoint pens. Rather there is a goodie bag filled with exciting samples from Faber-Castell, Winsor & Newton, JetPens.com, Sakura Art Supplies, Nock Co. and Hahnemuhle--samples that are not only useful but premium quality samples...and coupons so that you can add to your collections.

Workshops at this seminar are filled with instruction from experts in their field, discussions, shared stories, and hands-on participation. Sometimes there is experimentation with new supplies and other times the few supplies that you have amassed on your own are plenty useful with the techniques that are covered.

Judging from the comments and reviews of participants, the top comments received as feedback were the personal attention of the instructors, the ability to practice the techniques that were demonstrated and the lively conversations with other like-minded artists in an otherwise solitary activity. Many people expressed how inspired they were by seeing everyone's sketchbooks and to be able to talk about discoveries and accidents that resulted in interesting, cool effects. One of the more talked about products was the Winsor & Newton's newest product, the watercolor markers. The idea that markers could be colored onto a page and then blended with water brushes grabbed the attention and chatter amongst the Chicago Sketch Seminar participants.

If you are interested in learning more about the kind of seminars that Urban Sketchers Chicago produces, the art supplies we use and our monthly Sketch Crawls, send us a quick note to Urban Sketchers Chicago at urbansketcherschicago@gmail.com or check out Urban Sketchers Chicago Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UrbanSketchersChicago/

You're Invited To Join Our Book Club

For years I was always jealous of how my wife enjoyed a festive get-together with her book club. The thing is, I am not that fast of a reader and one sure-fire way to get me to fall asleep is to put a book in my hand that does not have any pictures in it. Does that happen to you too? Therefore, I have always kept at arm's distance from book clubs, but count me in on the drinks and snacks.

When I joined Urban Sketchers Chicago, I had already been carrying various spiral-bound sketchbooks of varying sizes and quality with the sole intention of keeping various doodles, notes, ticket stubs, receipts and vacation photos. I guess you call my sketchbooks journals or scrapbooks, not sketchbooks. After a few months of being part of urban sketchers, I soon began to adopt a new mentality of making sketches that told the stories of my surroundings and recorded the events of my life. Now whenever people look at my sketchbooks and point to a sketch and ask "what was happening in this sketch?" I launch into the story behind it.

In Urban Sketchers, there are hundreds and hundreds of stories behind each sketch. Sometimes you can deduct the story by just looking at the sketch and other times the story behind the sketch really needs to be delivered by the artist who captured that moment. And these are stories that come from the unique perspective of one particular artist and the sketchbook (or as we like to call them, our storybooks) have a very short print run of "one."

If you have always wanted to be part of a book club and have a strength in "communicating through your visual literacy" (as professional artist Don Colley would say), you should check out our book club to learn more about the Urban Sketchers Chicago Sketch Seminars, the art supplies we use, and our monthly Sketch Crawls. Send us a quick note to Urban Sketchers Chicago at urbansketcherschicago@gmail.com or check out Urban Sketchers Chicago's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UrbanSketchersChicago/.

If you want the best sketchbooks for your sketch novel, check out Blick Art Supplies, Stillman and Birn and Hahnemuhle USA. Thanks for checking us out. 

Wes Douglas

Top photo: © 2015 Wes Douglas
Middle photo: © 2015 Alex Zonis
Bottom photo: ©2015 Andrew Banks

Dressed for Sketch-cess

TUESDAY TIPS & TRICKS

With only a few weeks left before the Chicago Sketch Seminar, no doubt you are starting to think about what to bring, how to pack and what to wear. Fear not because, thankfully, urban sketching is nothing like going on vacation or climbing Mount Everest. All you really need is something to draw on and something to draw with...a pencil and a sketchbook. Done. Beyond that it is a personal preference for your style of sketching and whatever your workshop instructor has suggested for you bring.

If you scan through the past Tuesday Tips & Tricks, you will see a vast collection of techniques and how-tos that mention recommended brands of art supplies. And as long as you trust the Chicago Sketch Seminar Sponsors*, you just can't go wrong. But unless you want to drag a rolling suitcase around with you all day, decide how you plan to sketch that day and simplify your supplies to fit in your shoulder bag or backpack.

So how about that third question: "what to wear?" Perhaps you have heard the phrase “travel light?” This is very good advice when you will be walking the streets of Chicago with a few too many art supplies. And yet with Chicago weather you never really know what to expect so you have to plan for contingencies. Here then is my survivor’s guide to urban sketching in Chicago.

> wear something to protect your head

> wear something to protect your eyes from the sun

> wear something to protect your skin from the sun and possibly insects

> wear something because we are a casual group, just not THAT casual

The diagram below shows the anatomy of the properly outfitted Urban Sketcher:

A collection of Urban Sketchers’ Popular Seats, Stools and Chairs:

*Chicago Sketch Seminar Sponsors:

USk Chicago is grateful for the generosity and support of its Seminar Sponsors. Our sponsors are supporting the Seminar through financial and product donations. Donations will go towards supplies and materials for workshops, product samples for goody bags for each registrant, materials to be tested in the Supply Speed Dating Activity, as well as some incredible raffle prizes to be raffled at our Gallery Reception on Sunday evening.  Make sure to visit their websites and connect with them on social media to see how other sketchers are using their products:

Blick Art Materials  #blickartmaterials

·       Twitter            @Blick_Art

·       Instagram      @blickartmaterials

·       Facebook     “Blick Art Materials”

DeArtramentis

·       Twitter            #DeAtramentis

·       Instagram      #DeAtramentis

#Documentinks

·       Facebook     “Atramentis”

Faber-Castell

·       Twitter            @FaberCastell @Faber-Castell USA

·       YouTube      FaberCastellUSA

·       Facebook     “FaberCastellUSA”

·       Pinterest       “Faber Castell USA”

·       #fabercastellusa

General Pencil

·       Twitter            @GeneralPencil

·       Instagram      @General Pencil

·       Facebook     “General Pencil Company”

·       #GeneralPencil

#GeneralsPencils #GeneralsCharcoal
#Hahnemuehle
#sakuraofamerica

Hahnemühle

·       Twitter            @Hahnemuehle_USA

@Hahnemuehle_DE

·       Instagram      @Hahnemuehle

·       Facebook     “Hahnemuhle USA”, “Hahnemuhle”

·       Pinterest       “Hahnemuehle”

·       #Hahnemühle

Jet Pens

·       Twitter            @JetPens

·       Instagram      @JetPens

·       Facebook     “JetPens.com”                   

·       #JetPens

Nock Co.

·       Twitter            @NockCo

·       Instagram      @NockCo

·       Facebook     “Nock Co.”

·       #Nockshots                  #Nockc

Sakura of America

·       Instagram      @SakuraofAmerica

·       Facebook     “Sakura Color Products of America”

·       #Sakura

#pigmamicron

#sakurakoi

#gellyroll 

Stillman and Birn

·       Twitter            @StillmanandBirn

·       Instagram      @StillmanandBirn

·       Facebook     “Stillman & Birn”

·       Pinterest       “Stillman & Birn”

·       #Stillmanandbirn 

Winsor & Newton

·       Twitter            @winsorandnewton

·       Instagram      @winsornewton @winsornewton_usa

·       Facebook     “Winsor & Newton” #winsornewton

·       #winsornewton

·       #winsorandnewton