Some new urban sketching books on the market

A couple of ¨how-to¨ urban sketching books have come onto the market this year. These books have lots of examples of people's sketching work, but also practical tips for sketching/painting on location.

Urban Sketching: The Complete Guide to Techniques, by Thomas Thorspecken. I have pre-ordered this one (it is released in 17 days) and will bring it along to a meetup as soon as it arrives in the mail, if you want to take a look at it.

Sketch Your World: Essential Techniques for Drawing on Location, by James Hobbs. Incidentally, this book seems to change cover design alot (???), so you may see it with a different cover (same name though). I already have this one and have found it an interesting read. I'll bring this one along to the next meetup, if you want to have a flick through it.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl #41

The Worldwide Sketchcrawl #41 is on this Saturday 19 October. This is an international event, held three times a year, where individual sketchers and sketching groups all over the world sketch their cities on the same day. The event is set up by Enrico Casarosa on the website www.Sketchcrawl.com. Our group, Wellington Sketchers, will take part, but you don't need to sketch with us to post your sketches on our Wellington page of the Sketchcrawl. 

If you want to meet up with us on Saturday, here are the details:
When: Sat 19 October 2013
Where: Days Bay (Beach and Jetty). Days Bay is on the other side of the harbour from Wellington city.
Meet at: 10.30am around the jetty / beach area.
How to get there: Drive (parking is easy), Days Bay Ferry (timetable here), or the 083 bus (timetable here).
Rsvp: you are welcome to just turn up, but if you want to be kept apprised of (a) weather cancellations, (b) me being late because my car won't start etc, then you will need to email me your mobile phone number by the night before: Wellington dot Sketchers @ gmail dot com. I will give you my number in return, so you can txt me if you can't find the group on the day etc.

Days Bay Beach and Wharf

We will sketch around the Days Bay area, wherever takes our fancy, and will finish up for a coffee/bite to eat at the Chocolate Dazy cafe, or the cafe at the Days Bay Pavillion, which is a 2 min walk north up the road. You can stay for as long as you want, but I will probably have to leave soon after lunch.  

Newcomers and new sketchers are welcome.

Wet/bad weather arrangements: Other than cafes, there are not a lot of places to sketch in wet/bad weather. If we have to cancel for bad weather, then I will txt everyone who has rsvped. As this location is not so very far from my home in the Hutt, I may still go ahead and just sketch in the cafe if the weather is too bad to sketch outside. I think, if you click here you can check the current weather for Lower Hutt.

If you want to see what we got up to last sketchcrawl, click here.

SKETCHING WORKSHOPS

In other news, Erin Hill from Erin Hill Sketching in Australia is visiting NZ later this year and will be running two amazing sketching workshops: one in Taupo and one in Auckland. Click here for dates, costs and booking info for the courses. Erin runs sketching and art classes, weekends, and holidays in Australia, so this is a rare chance to take part in a NZ one!

The Art of Innovation

The Learning Connexion (TLC) are running a series of Art of Innovation workshops in Wellington, Porirua, and Lower Hutt. They run amazing art courses, so these promise to be great days.

Time lapse sketching videos

Sometimes when you look at amazing sketches it can be hard to imagine how they were created. A time lapse video of an artist sketching can be quite an eye opener and kind of encouraging: we all start from a blank page! One of my favourite urban sketchers, Nina Johansson of Sweden, has done a time lapse video of her sketching a view of Stockholm out her kitchen window: urban sketching at its most comfortable! Her work appears in many of the latest sketching books, such as Gabriel Campanario's Urban Sketching and Danny Gregory's An Illustrated Journey. Nina has very kindly given us permission to show the video on this website. Thanks Nina! Check out the rest of her amazing blog, where you can see more of her work, reviews of pens and other sketching equipment, and even slideshows of some of her sketchbooks.

Another of my favourite urban sketchers is Rob Carey, who has done a series of time lapse videos of his sketches in various cities, such as Basel in Switzerland and Saint-Louis in France. Click here to see more of his videos.

The Sketchbook Project

Photo credit: Blue Window Creative

The Sketchbook Project is a global art project where people from all over the world are invited to fill the pages of a blank sketchbook and send it back for inclusion in the Brooklyn Art Library. Your sketchbook can go on tour around the United States as part of a travelling exhibition of handmade books (don't you wish you could join it?) and later become a part of the Brooklyn Art Library in America. 

Anyone can be a part of this project. The permanent collection at Brooklyn Art Library already holds over 27,255 sketchbooks from 135 countries around the globe. Who wants to join in?

The 2014 Sketchbook Project has the following themes, from which you pick one: Strange Neighbors / Borders and lines / A simple place / Accidents / Found! / Dudes and latitudes / To the last page! / First aid kit / Say words out loud / Paper airplanes / This list... / Atlas of... / Greetings from… / 32 Days / This is not about you / This is not about me / Undecided

The sketchbook which you use must be one which is supplied by the Sketchbook Project and you can order a sketchbook through their website. There are discounts for groups. The deadline for returning the finished book is 15th Jan 2014. Plenty of time! Wouldn't it be great to see a little (or a lot) of Kiwi creativity becoming a part of this international art work?

Artwork in this post is from the Sketchbook Project media kit, or used with permission obtained with thanks from the very helpful Project organisers

Sketching News

There are quite a few free resources on the internet now about sketching and painting on location, which I'll post about in the next few Sketching News posts. One of the best websites is the Making a Mark website by Katherine Tyrrell. The website is a little difficult to navigate through, sometimes directing you between her different blogs and to Squidoo. However, it has a huge amount of information in it under the Artists' Resources link and lots of free tutorials. 

Katherine has written a free three part course on sketching on location called Sketching for Real. If you are new to sketching on location, this is worth downloading and working through. When you get to the bits about going out in public to sketch, come along to our sketching meetups (which are also free)! There are pages on how to sketch, 10 tips for sketching people, and sketching on location with coloured pencils. The site does cover watercolours and painting, but mainly in the blog posts themselves rather than as separate links. 

She also reviews the best art books on lots of topics, including drawing, sketching, and painting. You can look at the best books by year, or the ones she considers the best ever. Wellington Library now has several of the most popular urban sketching books which she has reviewed:

Sketching news

Did you know that The Learning Connexion runs free Creativity Workshops at their campus and around the country? They are running one next week on Tuesday 26^th March 2013 at the Taita Campus, 182 Eastern Hutt Road, Lower Hutt, at 7pm. Click here for a map. 

The free workshops gently guide you through some valuable creativity techniques. All materials are supplied along with tea, coffee and nibbles. If you are interested, but can't make that time, you can request a DVD or a link to their online Creativity Workshop.

Phone 0800 278 769 or contact admissions to RSVP for the workshop, or to request a DVD copy or online link for the workshop. 

Postscript: I went to this evening, and I have to say it was absolutely marvellous. Whether you are new to art or not, you will get something out of it, and come away enthused. If you are thinking of doing the next one, don't hesitate! Check this page for future workshops. (Kerrie)

Sketching News

Since most sketchers are painters too, I thought I would let you know about this great upcoming event run by the Pumpkin Cottage Revival Artists. The goal is simply to get people out to enjoy being creative, and learn a bit about New Zealand's local art history too. Bring whatever medium and supplies you want to work with, even if it isn't paint. I hope to be there (children permitting) and will probably work in pen & ink or watercolour. For a bit of background about the Pumpkin Cottage Impressionists, click here and here. 

Sketching news

Sketching and Drawing Workshops
There are some terrific one-day sketching and drawing workshops on offer at Wellington Community Education College this year. Go to the webpages for a full description, but these workshops look perfect for anyone wanting to learn more about sketching and particularly sketching on location.
Sat 9 March, Drawing and Sketching with Kay Paget
Sat 11 May, Visual Diary for Travellers with Margaret Elliott
Sat 19 October, Visual Diary for Travellers with Margaret Elliott
Sat 30 November, Wellington: Energy, Enthusiam and Empathy with Kay Paget

Drawing magazines
International magazines have usually been pretty expensive to buy here in New Zealand. However, now you can download current and backissue copies of most magazines from Zinio, including the magazines Artists & Illustrators, Watercolor, and Drawing. If you are interested in past issues of the Drawing and Watercolor magazines, you can download backissues even cheaper directly from the publisher's website, where you can buy each year's four issues as one digital download package for US$19.

Email Wellington.Sketchers at gmail.com if you know of any courses or sketching news that we can let people know about!

Sketching news

In sketching news, Strathmore are running another set of free online workshops. They run three free workshops twice a year on varying topics. Past workshops have included watercolour sketching, sketching people, drawing techniques, and more. To do a workshop, you need to first register on their site, which is a free and painless process. People can sign up for the workshops during February. The workshops start in March 2013, and you get sent links to each lesson, which you can do at your own pace. This round of workshops will include one on Sketching and Drawing with Toned Paper.

An example of the great sketches that can be done on toned paper. This sketch was done by urban sketcher Natalia Li, in Kiev, Ukraine. Natalia started a flickr urban sketching group in Kiev, and says that they will start sketching outdoors again in earnest once the cold winter is over. (Sketch posted here with permission of the artist. Thanks Natalia!)

In other news, if you are looking for a lightweight, foldable stool for sketching outdoors, Kathmandu currently have their brand, the Roamer Tri Stool, for around 50% off ($10 down from $19.95). I am not sure when their sale ends though.

Finally, a reminder about our next sketching meetup: SAT, 16 FEB 2013, Medieval Jousting Tournament, at Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt. Time: 9.45 - midday. Meeting place: Hill overlooking the jousting. Click here for more details

Worldwide Sketchcrawl # 38

In sketching news, the Worldwide Sketchcrawl # 38 happened on the weekend. 

What is a sketchcrawl? It is like a drawing marathon, where you set aside a day (or some of it) and just move around your city or town, recording what goes on around you in your sketchbook. The idea was started by Enrico Casarosa in San Francisco in 2006, who has turned it into a worldwide event, which sketching groups all over the world join in.  

The sketches, using all sorts of mediums and done all around the world during Sketchcrawl # 38, are displayed on the Sketchcrawl website. I think you may have to join the forum to view the pictures, but joining in free and painless. You can also view most of the sketches from previous sketchcrawls there too.

As it was Wellington Anniversary, I was away all the weekend, so I didn't organise a sketching meetup for this event. But we are all set to join in the next Worldwide Sketchcrawl, which will be number 39, on Saturday, 13 April 2013. Further details about this April meetup will be posted on our blog closer to the time. Any thoughts or suggestions? Email Wellington.Sketchers at gmail.com.    

Wellington Harbour

Sketching in public

The Sketchbook Challenge, which is one of the international sketching websites that we follow, has a theme that is really relevant for us this month: artist dates and sketching in public! The challenge they have chosen for this month is to set some time aside for yourself to sketch, preferably with friends. Perfect for Wellington Sketchers!

Tracy Bunker writes, "An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist."

Well, Wellington Sketchers doesn't meet quite that often, but we'll see if we can squeeze in a sketching meetup or two in January, in honour of their sketching challenge. Details here.

During January, the Sketchbook Challenge website will be uploading posts about artist dates, and advice on sketching in public. Here are a few they have posted already about outdoor sketching: Drawing in Public: the Abstract Way by Carol Sloan, and Working in Public by Tracy Bunkers.