Sketches from Porto, USk Symposium

I thought it was too late to be posting sketches from the Symposium in Porto. But, encouraged by Jane's recent post with her post-symposium sketches, I decided better late than never. So here are some of the drawings I did during the Symposium sketchcrawls and the classes I took. It was the first time I have attended a Symposium, but I hope it's not the last. It was amazing to be so immersed in sketching and surrounded so continuously by sketchers! I am posting just a few sketches here, but more are on Instagram. I am Sue.Heston on Instagram.



This is one of the drawings I did in Jose Louro's workshop. I also took a workshop with Joao Catarino, and both of these guys stretched the way I think of urban sketching.



What? A watercolor? Charline Moreau demoed a monochrome watercolor underpainting technique that was all about values and it really resonated with me!



This was the scene at the Final Sketchcrawl - sketchers as far as the eye could see (over 500!).



And one of my personal favs from a sketchcrawl in the "upper city" to wrap up a picture-heavy post.

Birthplace of Fado

I'd never every heard of the music genre Fado before visiting Portugal during the Porto Symposium. My first live encounter was at our third sketchwalk at Sé, Porto's Cathedral that sits atop a hill with a commanding view of Porto. I sat and drew the trio below. Afterwards they came over to see my drawing and I asked them to sign it. They did but they hid the signatures not wanting to "ruin the picture".



 I gave them my card which has the USk blog and manifesto on the backside, so they could see other sketches from the symposium. When I returned home I got an email from them asking if I could send a scan so they could use it for their next cd cover. I love it when these unexpected encounters happen as a result of urbansketching.

After the symposium I, like several other sketchers, stopped for a few days in Coimbra, home to one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world. It was first  established in Lisbon in 1290, maybe with a different name, and then relocated in Coimbra in 1537.  I ran into this group from the university, just after Tina Koyama had sketched them. 

Then this one in Lisbon. 

Read more about the Fado singers and my new summer dirink discovery on my blog: olysketcher.com.