Home Again - Friday Afternoon Workshop - Marc Taro Holmes

I feel like I've been away an eternity. I didn't expect this trip to be quite so intense and exhausting. I know I push myself a bit and during the symposium I didn't want to miss anything...workshops, social events, meeting new people, or just hanging around with other artists. My day usually started about 6 am to shower and dress, breakfast with friends around 7:30, meeting at 9 to find the day's schedule, a workshop, lunch, a workshop, dinner and then socializing. I don't think I got back to the room any earlier than midnight any day. lol I'm not as young as I once was. lol

I must say it is a pleasure to be blogging from my laptop again. Doing such long posts on the iPad were just too hard. 

Back at the post of my first day in Chicago I showed the sketch of The Bean. While I was sitting there sketching I heard a voice behind me and it was my internet friend, Tina Koyama from Seattle. She and I have been internet friends for years and planned to finally meet at the symposium...and here we are...

My afternoon workshop on Friday was wit Marc Taro Holmes and was titled "Watercolor Silhouettes, Combining Drawing With the Brush and Wet-Into-Wet Silhouettes for Fantastic Watercolor Effects." Wow...quite a title and quite a class.

Marc did a demo by Congress Square of the statue of the indian on horseback. Then we were given 15 minutes to do our version. In that time I spilled my water twice while I tried to get my palette out and set to paint. That left both my chair and paper wet. lol It took me a while to get started so I definitely didn't finish the first sketch.  The idea was to do positive and negative painting to do a silhouette edge and some blending inside. We used fresh paint which gave the rich colors.

I already showed you the head of the statue of Lincoln, but I'll post it here again. This was done in a similar style from the previous sketch.

Our final assignment was to do the entire statue using the same concept. This is unfinished at this point but I would like to work on it this week while the workshop is semi-fresh in my mind.

My thanks to Marc for a great worksop!

Day 5

Part of today included a sketchwalk down Monroe Avenue. This was done in one of the gardens.

Day 4

It is too hard posting from my iPad because the post keep disappearing. So I will only post one image from each workshop and do a full wrap up when I am home.

Yesterday I had Marc Taro Holmes in the morning and used fresh paint to do this.

Day 3

This morning I had my worksho with Kiah Kien or KK as everyone calls him. He is from Malaysia and his class is on sketching with a twig and Chinese ink. We started off indoors where he explained his process and showed us how to sharpen our twigs and get the ink ready. Then he did a demo outside.

Then it was our turn. How you hold and turn the sharpened twig is key. We were allowed to add watercolor washes when the drawing was done. This is my sketch of the gardens along Michigan Ave.

After lunch I went to sketchBuckingham Fountain on the other side of the bridge.

In the afternoon I went to a demo by L K Bing. It was impressive to see what he did in a half hour. Then I met a few NY friends and a new friend from Paris and we sketched at North Congress Square. I practiced the twig drawing from the morning.

Day 2

My sketching day started at The Bean. Lots of Sketchers were there to meet.

Next we sketched by the elevated line.

After registration there was a sketchwalk through the gardens. I sketched the lawn with the Calder sculpture.

The official opening of the symposium had some entertainment and some speeches. I sketched the Urban Sketcher's president.

Chicago

My flight left out of LaGuardia Airport. I had plenty of time to capture an airport view.

On board I couldn't resist this.

My first Chicago sketch was of the gargoyle-type creature on the Howard Washington Library.

Peach and Cherries

Yes, the packing is finished, and I'm ready for the trip tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to post each day and keep up my blog while I'm gone. I will also try to post on Facebook for those of you who follow me there.

After I finished packing and we had dinner, I just HAD to paint something. I never got to do that yesterday and if two days go by I get too antsy. lol I grabbed something that was handy.

Anniversary Bouquet

Jerry and I recently celebrated our 20th anniversary. These were the flowers he bought me...nice and colorful to paint. I'm not sure where the time went.

I have made some progress with my packing. Most of my art supplies are together...but not in my backpack yet. Laundry is being done while I'm on the computer...but clothes for the Urban Sketching Symposium in Chicago are not a priority. LOL I did get new cards from moo.com to hand out to the other sketchers I meet. Moo lets you do more than one design, so of course I couldn't decide from my sketches so there are about 20 different designs.

Riverhead Farm & 100 People Completed

My plein air group went out to a farm in Riverhead on Tuesday. It was hot and I had to hide under my painting umbrella for some shade to do this view.

Today at the beach I completed my sketches for #oneweek100peoplesymposium. In fact I did more than 103 because I lost count.

I started organizing my supplies for the Urban Sketching Symposium in Chicago. I leave on Tuesday but am really procrastinating. I did get some supplies ready...now I have to decide how many and which sketchbooks to take.

Fellow Sketchers and More People

After the Rubin Block Party those of us that remained (about 20) headed over to a bar to have a drink, food if we liked, and to share our sketches and stories of the day. As soon as we sat down people start  to sketch each other. I did 8 of the sketchers that I could see from my chair at the very long table. This sketch is what made me think about doing the challenge of the 100 people. It got me in the mood. lol

#oneweek100peoplesymposium

My people sketching continued today with a few sketches outside CVS and then inside the waiting area of Nissan Service while my car had routine maintenance. #66-80 There was a guy painting the wall but he didn't stay put long enough to sketch him actually working.

Then I left and went to Smith Point Beach. It was hot but I was perfectly content sitting under my umbrella sketching the people around me. #81-86

Rubin Block Party - Part 2 & People Sketches

Up and down 18th St by the Rubin Museum there were activities and performances...especially for kids. There was a station set up with all kinds of metalware (pots, pans, cups, strainers) and the kids were given wooden spoons to make sound with the objects.

There were performances by Himalayan and Indian dancers. Their costumes were so colorful and lovely. I tried sketching them as they performed on the stage...not an easy task.

Here are more of my sketches for #oneweek100peoplesymposium. This first group was done by the pool yesterday. #35-41 I forgot my sketchbook and had to sketch on a piece of loose paper that had writing on the other side.

These were done today at Alive After Five where we were sketching. Some of the people were watching us sketch and some were other sketchers. #42-53

Finally these are of Zoe and Fantasia. The Sideshow Sketch Night group arranged for them to pose again this year. Zoe has had Fantasia as a pet for 3 years and the snake is 13 years old. She is very tame and feels quite different than you would expect. #54-61

Rubin Block Party - Part 1

On Sunday we went to the Rubin Block Party. The Rubin Museum is a museum of Himalayan art and artifacts. They hosted a block party with music, dance, information, craft events, food and lots of people. We got there early and there were NYC Urban Sketchers up and down the street. My first sketch was of one of the entrances to Xavier High School, a prep school for boys. Yes, this is the girls entrance so I am assuming that at one time the building was a coed school. Sitting on the steps was my friend Patricia Giagnat who was sketching from the steps on the other side.

Unbeknown to me, Pat was sketching me at the same time. lol Here is her sketch. She works in mixed media and does a lot of sketching on her iPad...or iPat as we call it.

Sketch by Pat Giagnat.

I did a few sketches for the challenge, but haven't taken photos of them and I can't upload them yet.

Church Window & People Sketches

On Sunday I went into the city to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers with another friend. We stopped at an art store that was having a sale. It was across the street from this church with all these windows and turrets. We had about 30 minutes before the store was opening, so I focused on one window with a little flowered balcony.

Here are my Day 2 sketches for the 100 people challenge. A few were done at the beach yesterday but for some reason I didn't post them (?), a few from the pool today, and a few of my fellow plein air artist friends from our painting location this morning.

#oneweek100peoplesymposium