Urban Sketching with Gabriel Campanario

Urban sketching, also known as on-location drawing, is just what it sounds like. Instead of snapping hundreds of photos that will go ignored in your phone, you lovingly document the world around you via on-site sketches — creating tangible, thoughtful artifacts from your urban life. If this sounds niche, it’s not. There’s a whole global community of people sharing this kind of work via the Urban Sketchers organization, founded by none other than your instructor, Gabriel Campanario.

In this one-day workshop, we’ll walk you (literally) through the basics of urban sketching, as you create a sketchbook drawing from start to finish. The class will meet at SVC to talk about the basics, then we’ll walk together to Lake Union Park, or a similar location, to sketch on location. Your instructor will demonstrate the steps of bringing an urban sketch to life, and be on hand to help guide you through creating your own drawings. At the end of the day, we’ll share our sketches with one another, and leave with lots of inspiration and tips for starting your own practice as an urban sketcher. Here are a few of the skills you can expect to pick up:

• How to choose a great sketching location
• Tips for composing a scene
• Using a line drawing as your starting point
• Enhancing your line drawing with watercolors
• Meeting other urban sketchers and adding to your sketchbook
• The urban sketcher’s mobile studio inventory list

Supply List:Only pen or pencil and paper is required to take the class, but if you’d like to bring a full kit, here’s the list:

• Sketchbook: Alpha and Zeta series Stillman & Birn sketchbooks are recommended, but you are welcome to bring your favorite brand.
• Pen: Uniball Vision and Micro Pigma are good brands of waterproof pens. You may also bring your own fountain pen.
• Pencil: A regular HB pencil would do, but you may also bring a pencil with a hard lead (i.e., 4H) and another with a soft lead (i.e., 3B)
• Watercolor kit: Winsor & Newton and Royal Talens Van Gogh pocket kits are a good start.
• Waterbrushes: Niji or Pentel
• Water container
• Rag or paper towel
• Brushes: an angle brush is recommended
• Visit Gabriel’s blog for more details about his urban sketching kit