portland! day one

You may have heard about the 1st Urban Sketching Symposium that was held a couple of weeks ago in Portland, Oregon. I’m not sure where to start! For me, and for the others that attended, it was a hugely inspiring creative event, and the opportunity to sketch alongside urban sketchers from across the planet – America, Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia – was unbelievable. I left packed not just with lots of new urban drawings, but new ways of looking at things, new ideas, and barrels of new sketching energy.

The first day was pretty full on – I attended Jason Das’s ‘Urban Color’ session in the morning. Jason gave us a series of short, fun sketching exercises, such as one where we drew a scene in pen, and gave our sketchbook to someone else to colour in. Below is Robin Carlson (who coincidentally is originally from Davis, where I live and sketch!) who coloured my sketch so nicely.

In the afternoon, more sketching around the Pearl District. I wandered off on my own a little. Portland is such an interesting city, full of creativity and a great choice for the Symposium. I’m considering a move there…

Don’t forget to check out both the Symposium website, and the Flickr group, to see work from all the other amazing artists that went. It was a pleasure to rub shoulders with them all.

By Pete Scully