Three USK 10X10 workshops in October Part #2: Jane Wingfield and Eleanor Doughty

[Read  Part 1 of this series, on Andika Murandi's workshop]

The second of my three Fall 10x10 workshops was Jane Wingfield' People in Places, scheduled for October 14 in the Pike Place Market.

I started the morning by getting lost in the labyrinthine market with all its small shops, stairs, hallways, alleys, which don't seem to follow any meaningful spatial organization. I had to stop at a shop and ask for direction. The shop owner didn't seem very impressed with my capacity to follow his instructions (go to the end of the hallways, pass the glass door, turn left, cross the alley by the gum wall, find the wood staircase and so on), but I finally made it to the Atrium.

Jane had prepared nice booklets with the course handout and a folder with Manila paper for each of us, so that we could freely and loosely sketch people without feeling concerned about wasting paper or making a pretty sketch.

She started by showing us many examples of how other urban sketchers depict people in their sketches, from Suhita Shirodkar, to Jim Richards, Melanie Reim, Jane herself and many others.
Jane introduced several techniques to capture the gesture in posture and quickly sketch people with markers, brush pens, or directly with watercolor. After practicing for a while, we ventured in the very crowded Market to sketch people in context. Below are my manila paper sketches practicing Jane's instructions and tips.

A collage of my people sketch practice during Jane Wingfield's workshop. We tried several techniques and took inspiration from the many examples from Jane's printouts.

Below some pictures from the workshop, including our throw-downs and Jane fearlessly standing in a corner of the market for a demo.

Participants at Jane Windfield's workshop People in places and Jane during the demo

The last exercise was a more complete sketch of people in context. My sketch took quite a while. There were a constant flow of people walking around, never stopping, always changing. It was mesmerizing, distracting, and a bit overwhelming, but little by little, and switching between the buildings, the  people and back to the buildings, things started to make sense.

My final sketch of the People in Places workshop. Some of the watercolor wash was done at a later time.

As I did the previous week, I after the workshop I got lunch (a "crêpe du jour" at the Crêpe de France) then I walked around the area with my sketchbook ready. My attention was caught by the iridescent building on the left of the sketch below, as well as by the never ending constructions in downtown Seattle.

Buildings and construction at the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Virginia Street on my way back from the workshop

My third and final workshop was Eleanor Doughty's From Afar: Rendering Atmospheric Perspective in Watercolor. We met at the Lynn Street mini park in East Lake last Saturday. It was a foggy, moody morning, perfect for working on atmospheric perspective. It was also humid and unexpectedly cold.

The goal of the workshop was to learn about atmospheric perspective and practicing rendering it in watercolor using composition and differences in contrast, details, tone, edges, and color temperature. Eleanor had included several examples in her handout of how talented sketchers and illustrators represented space and distance and composed their scenes.

Eleanor illustrated many of those techniques in her demo, then it was our turn to apply them to our sketches. My first sketch was a bit of a mess, but I used what I learned from my mistakes (too much water, not enough water, too many colors, colors in the background too bright, muddy mess) to make a much simpler second version.

My (second) watercolor sketch for Eleanor's workshop on atmospheric perspective. I used Daniel Smith Blue Ultramarine and Transparent Red Oxide on Arches cold press watercolor paper.

By the end of the morning the sun had come up and it was much more pleasant to stand outside. I had a chat with Eleanor, which told me about her recent trip to Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam, then walked to East Lake avenue. While I was waiting for my husband to pick me up, I sketched the view from this spot, to which I later applied a watercolor wash.

Waiting for my ride in front of the Voxx Coffee, at the intersection of Eastlake Avenue East and Lynn street.

This is all for my 10x10 Fall workshops, but if you are interested there are still 3 workshops in October and November that you might be able to attend (and if you are not in Seattle, there is a chance that similar workshops are scheduled in your area). I'm sure you'll find them fun and inspiring.