USk Chicago Partners with Premier Sponsors for July Sketch Seminar

Product donations © Andrew Banks

The 2015 Chicago Sketch Seminar would not have been the successful weekend it was without the support and generosity of our amazing sponsors.  From a venue for the seminar's home base, to a wide variety of premier quality art supplies and raffle prizes, to delicious local food and drinks, our sponsors helped take our event to the next level.

Opening its doors to us for the second year in a row, PALETTE AND CHISEL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS provided the perfect, central, artist-friendly setting and home base for the weekend. 

While workshops took place within walking distance from the gallery in the picturesque Gold Coast neighborhood, our planning team and participants took over the first floor gallery spaces for check in/registration, mingling, meeting and networking with other sketchers, and to get some much needed shade and rest from the sketching and instruction filled weekend.  The seminar capped off with a reception and display of everyone’s work in the main gallery space.  Palette and Chisel was even gracious enough to provide coupons for free studio sessions.  If you are looking to connect and learn with some of Chicago’s best, make sure to check out all of the classes and opportunities the Palette and Chisel Academy has to offer here. (Photo: © Andrew Banks)

Let’s be honest, half the fun of Urban Sketching is getting to try different types of art materials.  Our sponsors made this easy to do with all of their incredible product donations.  From top-of-the-line sketchbooks, markers, pencils, inks, and even some newer products like watercolor markers and sticks, to notebook cases, everyone walked away from the weekend with a great new stash of sketching tools.  Here is a rundown of what was in this year’s seminar SWAG (stuff we all get) bags:

STILLMAN & BIRN – If you have ever had the chance to sketch in a Stillman & Birn Sketchbook, you know what I mean when I say that it is hard not to feel inspired to sketch in these incredible sketchbooks.  Every participant was thrilled to receive one of these.  From their unique packaging featuring different artist’s work, to the high quality and variety of paper types for all different media, these sketchbooks were a huge hit for a second year in a row and got put to use right away by many over the weekend.  (Photo: © Adam Cleaveland)

WINSOR & NEWTON – USk Chicago was honored to have Winsor & Newton along as the sole watercolor sponsor for this year’s event.  Winsor & Newton is a staple paint supplier for many in the Urban Sketching community and this year they were excited to share some of their newest products for us to test including their Watercolor Markers and Watercolor Sticks.  The Watercolor markers were a great addition to Wes Douglas’s “Urban Sketching with Markers” workshop. (Photo: © Adam Cleaveland)

FABER-CASTELL – Another returning sponsor was Faber-Castell.  Faber Castell showcased their range of sketching and art supplies with their popular PITT pens, and variety of pencils, including the Jumbo 9000 2B.  Participants were inspired in Donald Colley’s workshop “Creating a Rich Drawing” where Don’s work exemplifies the versatility and usefulness of Faber-Castell’s products in Urban Sketching. (Photo: © Wes Douglas)
       

HAHNEMUHLE – We were excited to introduce this German-based paper company to our Chicago community this year.  Hahnemuhle is renowned for its assortment of high quality art papers and provided each participant with a two pack of their Sketch & Note pocket sizes sketchbooks.  These conveniently sized sketchbooks are perfect for the urban sketching hobby and lifestyle as you can easily keep one with you throughout the day in your back pocket, purse or backpack.  Perfect for quick note taking, sketchers recorded all of their newly learned skills in these great notebooks at the Seminar.
(Photo: © Alex Zonis)

BLICK ART MATERIALS – We were incredibly thankful for the opportunity to partner with Blick Art Materials and especially grateful to their Chicago based for their contributions to the Seminar and USk Chicago group as a whole.  At the Seminar each participant received a SWAG bag with a mechanical pencil, colored pencils and a coupon to Blick stores.  Additionally, Blick Art provided monetary donations to help provide materials for workshops and activities including Jodie McGovern’s "Make yYour Own Watercolor Sketchbook: activity.  We are also looking forward to this August’s monthly sketch event, which will be hosted by Blick at their Evanston location.  We value the support from such well established businesses, and especially look forward to continue collaborating with their local Chicago branches in the coming years. (Photos left and below: © Alex Zonis)

SAKURA OF AMERICA – Some of the most popular pens in the Urban Sketching community are the Pigma Micron pens.  Coming in a range of sizes these pens allow for precise and consistent drawing techniques that were taught in Andrew Bank’s workshop “Perspective, Proportion and Value for the Urban Sketcher.”  Each participant in Andrew’s workshop received three black Pigma Micron pens, which they used to add value to their drawings through mark making and cross hatching techniques. (Photo: © Wes Douglas)
GENERAL PENCIL, a New Jersey based art and craft pencil company which proudly manufactures it's products here in the USA, provided ample sketching pencils in a variety of softness's as well as their really fun Sketch and Wash pencils.  Thank-you for your generosity!

Sketch made with General Pencil Sketch and Wash pencils © Jane Ostergaard

As if the SWAG bags were not enough, many participants were lucky enough to win some of this year’s wonderful raffle prizes.  

NOCK CO. a Georgia based company that makes pen storage cases sent us some of their streamlined, highly functional and durable Maryapple notebook cases, along with their enjoyable Dotdash notebooks.  Make sure to check out their line of pen and pencil cases here. (Photo:  © Andrew Banks)

DEATRAMENTIS, a German-based fountain pen ink manufacturer provided an entire set of beautiful inks.  Susan Hanley created this sketch with the Violet ink she won.

© Susan Hanley

JET PENS provided enough supplies for two sets of prizes each including a variety of pens, pencils and different types of pocket sized sketchbooks.  

© Alex Zonis

MONKEY PENCIL SCREEN PRINTING came through for a second year in a row printing our T-shirts.  Thank-you to William McGhie for his great work on these.  They turned out great!

© Alex Zonis

© Wes Douglas

© Alex Zonis

Last but not least, after a packed weekend of sketching, everyone was ready for some good food and the generous people at LETTUCE ENTERTAIN YOU and local favorite, the CAFE-BA-BA-REEBA restaurant, teamed up to provide us with a delicious snack of Spanish style tapas.  Each person also walked away with a $25 gift card toward their next meal.

On behalf of the entire USk Chicago community, we would like to extend a huge thank-you to our amazing sponsors who made the 2015 Sketch Seminar a huge success.  We are honored to share your products with our community and look forward to collaborating with you again in the future!

We All Have A Sketch To Tell

A Recap of The Chicago Sketch Seminar 2015

The recent Urban Sketchers Chicago Sketch Seminar, held July 11th and 12th at the Palette & Chisel and surrounding neighborhoods was a fascinating collection of art instruction, collaboration, conversations and the sharing of art supplies. But most importantly, the act of so many people coming together to the north side of Chicago is to create memories and stories.

Each time that an urban sketcher puts pencil, pen or brush to paper, they are creating memories about a scene. A scene which they have spent a few minutes choosing carefully as the one they are going to invest as much as a half hour or more sketching and painting. This takes time, a lot more than a quick snap of a camera to record, and with each stroke there is plenty of brain activity taking place into the selection and mixing of color, brush type, pen selection and considerations for composition. After a personal investment of time and talent upwards of an hour, very few of these sketchers will ever say, "Well, that was a colossal waste of time." It would be akin to delivering your first baby and say "That was interesting, now where were we?"

There were other stories that were more about the human spirit than in paper and paint brush. Deb Donnelly was leading her Sunday morning workshop on "Mingling Watercolor with Words" when a young woman from Korea happened upon her group. As Deb tells the story, this young woman was in her final hours of her visit to America and she was trying to capture as many of the artifacts that she could get her hands on to take back home to Korea with her before she had to leave. 

She was attracted to all of the wonderful art supplies laid out by the workshop participants, even wanted to purchase a few of them until she spotted the Chicago Sketch Seminar t-shirt (printed by Monkey Pencil Screenprinting) worn by one of the participants. That participant, Miguel Retana, was so moved by this Korean woman's need to buy this shirt from him that it led Miguel to taking the shirt off his back and gifting the shirt to her. It would be a memory that would not soon be forgotten by this young woman, Miguel, or any of the urban sketchers who were there to experience this wonderfully warm gesture.

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

Top 10 Favorite Urban Sketching Locations

Tuesday Tips & Tricks

I am often asked how I choose my locations for urban sketching. My answer is probably very similar to yours so I will share my criteria (which I adhere to very loosely).

First there are the physical elements for the perfect scene:

Textures, contrast, color, composition, pattern, movement, rhythm, etc. found in organic or man-made settings such as landscapes, architecture, nature and ensemble of people or animals. These components help construct the site selection and ultimately the sketch composition.

Then I look for a collection of those components which create an emotional attraction that provides a great story to tell when people look at my sketchbook. I like to say “we all have a sketch to tell,” which means that our purpose as artists is to use our visual language to interpret a scene and retell it through our sketches. I once read a great quote from Urban Sketcher Deby Caspari who wrote “To draw something is to own it. You take an image filtered through you and you have an intense experience of the subject that can’t be taken away.”

With millions of images coming into our brains every second, this must be why one scene stands out more than the others and prompts us to sit for 10, 20, or even 60 minutes to capture what our cameras could do in a couple of snaps, right?

Here then, based on repeat visits from Urban Sketchers Chicago, are some Top Sketch Locations in Chicago.

Architectural Artifacts

http://www.architecturalartifacts.com/about/location/

Three stories of saved and collected details, furniture, lighting, mantles, and other you-name-it oddities reclaimed from old buildings and residences in and around Chicago. We have consistently had our best turnouts for our Sketch Crawl whenever we have hosted one here at Architectural Artifacts and there is plenty of space to get lost in.

The Field Museum in Chicago

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/?gclid=CM_tg-ju-8YCFRCEaQodemoJZg

The Field Museum is another one of those sketcher's dream locations. Starting with architecture that dates back to Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893, this museum is packed with exhibits and collections of creatures past and present. Lots of fascinating dioramas, textures, and architectural details so that you never run short of things to sketch. And on designated days, Illinois residents get in free with a valid Illinois identification. On our first trip to The Field Museum, we were treated to a back labs tour by Urban Sketcher Rebe Banasiak and the drawers of specimens being prepared for future exhibits.

Lincoln Park http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/photos/            

Lincoln Park Zoo  http://www.lpzoo.org   

Lincoln Square http://www.lincolnsquare.org/pages/AboutLincolnSquare/         

The USk Chicago groups has settled into this area on several locations because of the expansive area it covers and the variety of subject matter. There is lots of nature, flowers at the Conservatory, animals at the free public zoo, the rivers of people who pass through this area on bikes, or running and pedestrian traffic, and some of the most interesting neighborhood buildings. Within walking distance to the lake shore and beaches, this Lincoln Park area is a big favorite of USk Chicago. On our last Chicago Architectural Open House in October, three of the buildings on display were located within the Lincoln Park area.

Other areas USk Chicago is fond of visiting for sketching:

Chinatown/Ping Tom Park
http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Ping-Tom-Memorial-Park/                       

Chicago Water Taxi https://www.chicagowatertaxi.com
Riding and sketching on the Water Taxi, all day, on the weekend for just $10.        

Palette & Chisel http://www.paletteandchisel.org/org/PaletteChisel/cms.aspx

The glorious home base for our Chicago Sketch Seminar in 2014 and 2015  

Washington Square Park:
http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Washington-Square-Park/         

Newberry Library: https://www.newberry.org     

Mariano Park: http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Mariano-Park/  

Connor Park: http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Connors-Park/  

Chicago Cultural Center

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenter.html    

Millenium Park/Pritzker Pavilion:

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park.html    

Maggie Daly Park: http://maggiedaleypark.com      

Buckingham Fountain:
http://www.chicagotraveler.com/attractions/buckingham-fountain.html       

Navy Pier: https://navypier.com/about-us/   

And finally, if you are not a big fan of coming into the big city for your urban sketching inspiration, look around your own neighborhood. Old buildings, places where people gather (coffee shops, taverns, public transportation), beautiful parks and statues, and even the ugly things such as back alleys, junk piles, gas meters, water towers, and rusted out cars. The uglier the scene, the better the sketch. When you start looking, the whole world of urban sketching comes to life for you.  

What are some of your favorite sketch locations? When you finish your sketches, please share them with us.

Wes Douglas

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