Sketch 1 was a reject.  Sketch 2 is a Jason Das tribute, using red pen as a base…

I had drawn with colored pens before the Symposium, but it was in the urban color session with Jason Das that I first tried using colored pen as a base for other colors.  This pen was water-soluble (Pilot Hi-Tec-C) so of course there were some challenges to overcome, but some of the blurring effects of water-soluble ink are quite attractive.

Then we went inside. I sketched something for the shared sketchbook, then joined Carrie at the bar to draw detailing…

The bike ride there & back was gorgeous, taking me along the river, over and along railways, and alongside some interesting industrial scenes. I did catch one more scene on the way home, crossing some rail tracks…

I’m really thrilled with the increased turnout at our sketchcrawls ever since the Urban Sketchers Symposium! Thanks to everyone who came out to sketch today.

• it’s not what it looks like – La Nina
• what we comics about when we comics about comics - La Nina
• Dingaling Bros! Fakum and Failey! Three-Ring Wircus! – Skylaar Amann
• The Dreaming Crucible - Joel Shempert
• Milkyboots #11 - Virginia Payne
• Food Stamp Foodie #1 -Virginia Payne
• Papercutter #13 and #14 – Tugboat Press
• Be More Awesome – E. E. Dumas
• How To Share The Joy or Getting Others Enthused About What You Do - E. E. Dumas
• Unemployment for Fun and Profit - E. E. Dumas
• My Friends – Gabby Holden
• The Life and Death of the X-Ray Cafe  (Oregon History Comics) –  Dill Pickle Club, Sarah Mirk/John Isaacson
• Never Knows Best #1 and #2 – Trey Reis
• Sagittarius Manifesto, Two Weeks in Berlin #1 – The Blue Grapefruit Press
• Clutch #22/Invincible Summer #19 – Clutch McBastard, Nicole Georges
• Double Knots – Golden Spun
• (Untitled) – Jessica and Michael
• Awesomness! – Jonah Underwood, Nickle Garden MEDIA & 60 Tons of Battle
• All Things Ordinary #2 and #3 -Derek Neuland
• 10 Years of the Portland Zine Symposium – Portland Zine Symposium
• Growing Wings – Faith McKay
• Zine World #29 – Underground Press
• I Wipe My Butt with the Bible – Sam at The Blue Grapefruit Press
• Letters from Liars #1 and #2 -Androo Robinson
• Weekly Blackbird – Corvus Distribution
• Sex Zine – Julia Gfrorer, Brodie Kelly
• Ariadne Auf Naxos #1, 2 and 3 - Julia Gfrorer
• Flesh and Bone - Julia Gfrorer
• King-Cat Comics & Stories #71 – John Porcellino
• Emily Dickinson was a Fucking Ninja #249 – Mara Williams
• Make Your Own Darn Game, Fantasy Edition - Buttersword
• Free Society Libary No.6 –  Essays on the Social Problem by Henry Addis, June 1898 (Corvus Distribution)
• I Love Soda – Rebecca B.
• Piscataway Philadelphia Portland, a zine about friends – Sarah, Rebeccca, and Shelley
• Little God of Make-Good – Michael Whittier
• You Are Here – Carolee Gilligan Wheeler, Maureen Forys, Michael Whittier, Michael Wertz, Marissa Falco
• A New Declaration of Independence and Other Writings by Emma Goldman Anarchist – Corvus Distribution

Also, I will count among this batch a zine I received in the mail shortly before the symposium: The Pamphleteer from the excellent Wonderella Printed.

As part of The Soft Sciences, I’ll be launching a new webcomic in about a month, and will announce that here when it takes off.

There are other new projects, as well.  Dangerous Aromas was our project all summer; now that that’s printed (and will be available online shortly), expect to see a lot of action here and at The Soft Sciences as Mike and I turn our attention to online projects, and as my urban sketching frequency kicks back into high gear.

Hair of the Dog Brewery & Tasting Room – Opening Day

Originally uploaded by geminica

New brewery & tasting room has opened at the east foot of the Morrison Bridge – SE Water & Yamhill, just up from Clarklewis!

Alexis, Mike, and I went to another Science Pub event at the Bagdad Theater. The fabulous Mary Roach entertained us with a lot of talk about zero gravity vomit and poo, in support of her new book, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.

These sketches are obviously completed on that vintage ledger paper I already wrote about. Sure enough, it takes fountain pen and light washes of watercolor really nicely, and I kind of like the way the color lines wash out.

Curiosity won out, and I had to order a vintage ledger from eBay. It arrived yesterday. I did a quick experiment to see if the paper was like Lapin’s…

Do you see the crazy effect here? The lines on the ledger are water soluble!

Looking close at Lapin’s work, I see the blue lines on the ledger sometimes blur a little – but mine sometimes melt away entirely. I guess that’s good, since the lines are a bit darker than I would have liked.

Well, it’ll be fun to experiment with this!

I wish I hadn’t drawn the frame, or had drawn it to the left – the elephant would be better on the right side of the frame.

Then we went for more coffee at Floyd’s – there continues to be a lot to discuss as we all absorb our experiences at the Symposium and go through resulting changes in our practices! – and afterwards stopped at Hoodoo Antiques to draw this scene…

These were drawn in the sketchbooks donated to symposium participants by Legion Paper; a new product to be released this month, Stonehenge Wired.  The 90 lb paper is nice and sturdy, takes Lamy Safari fountain pen without feathering, and holds up well to watercolors – I’m liking it.

It all started to change when I joined the Portland Urban Sketchers in October 2009.  Through the comfort of being part of a group and the support of other artists-in-progress (as we all are, always), I started to relax.  After all this time!

When I set off with Gabi Campanario to sketch Pioneer Courthouse Square on Friday afternoon during the Urban Sketchers Symposium, I was ready to take this to the next level.

Gabi is also known as the Seattle Sketcher; he does reportage sketching for the Seattle Times. His specialty is using the act of drawing as a way of interacting with this city, learning about people, and sharing stories with others.  He also founded Urban Sketchers.

For our sketching expedition, Gabi talked about his style of approaching a scene.  He looks for the elements of the story, tries to capture a broad view, and also some detail views.  He talks with his human subjects, finds out more about them as he sketches them.

While we were there, the giant inflatable movie screen used for “Flicks on the Bricks” had been laid out and was being prepared for inflation.  I decided to go straight for this transitory scene, and sketched it quickly, knowing it could start inflating  at any moment.

Once it was partially inflated, it went up very quickly!

Here’s the major part of this for me, possibly my largest breakthrough at the symposium – I went up and spoke to the fellows that were inflating the screen.  I was quick and nervous and shy, and only got a little info – Kurt was from Washington, and his cohort was Ben – but it was my first time purposefully breaking the fourth wall.  My drawing wasn’t great – I wasn’t proud of it – but I showed them, and Kurt exclaimed in delight, “I’ve been illustrated!”  It felt so good to be open & interactive with my sketching, and to know that it didn’t have to be a masterpiece to have a place in the world.

Multiple times during the symposium,  I was approached by strangers who wanted to see my drawing and find out what we were doing.  I’ve done enough urban sketching now that my response was automatically positive and inclusive – it didn’t bother me, I didn’t feel ashamed, I didn’t hide my sketchbook.  I accepted that, while my page might not look great, in the larger scheme of things I was embodying “art happening on the street,” and that was by far the most important piece of art I was making.

Since the symposium, I’ve been seeing my city anew.  It’s full of untold stories waiting to be found, and sketching is a way to get there.

See what I mean, about the symposium being a transformative experience?  I’m not just sketching differently… I’m thinking differently.

Thanks, Gabi!

Now, like anyone else who has ever taken an art class, I know that being systematic at the beginning of a sketch is a good thing. We’re supposed to make thumbnail sketches. We all had to do them. But how boring, when there are all those gorgeous details to capture! All those colors!

Brehm pointed out that if you know what gorgeous details you want to focus on, creating structure at the beginning can be a way of delivering those details on a silver platter – by focusing first on placing your horizon line and a few perspective lines, then blocking in values, you can easily see how to direct the eye to the details you’re going to add at the end.  Starting this way makes it easy to tell where you don’t need more detail.

Additionally, he gave this advice for anyone who tends to run out of time with an unfinished drawing: scale the size of your drawing to reflect the amount of time you have.  Sounds simple, but I’ve always basically drawn to the size of my paper, and never thought about going smaller.  Keeping it small can help you to focus only on details that you really want, and to avoid getting frustrated with a thousand details that you don’t have time to draw. A small drawing can still be developed with color and be a gorgeous little piece – and better to have a small, finished drawing that delivers the goods, than a half-finished 8.5×11 sketch that you eventually have to abandon for lack of time or patience!

In the old days, I hated making thumbnail sketches, and always leapt ahead into the wild blue.   (And certainly, in many instances, I’ll still do that, since the looseness of that technique has its own rewards.)  But now, the idea of starting small, building structure, adding value, and only then moving on to detail seems quite appealing. I’ll be experimenting with this in the months to come!