Finally an update here! I know. Sometimes the blog gets unvoluntary pauses, due to work, lazyness with scanning and the very ease of using Instagram (do follow me on Instagram if you want more frequent updates!).
Anyway! Chicago, as I promised in the previous post! The Urban sketchers symposiums are always awesome experiences, meeting up with old friends and making some new too – plus teaching workshops and drawing, of course! Such a treat. But Chicago was a great trip in other ways too. Me and my dear M made a five day vacation out of it before the symposium began, and it´s a fantastic city to visit. So much to see, and the city itself has so many different faces, depending on where you go.
The first thing that struck us both is the scale of the architecture downtown. Stockholm is a beautiful city, but VERY LOW in comparison to the really big cities in the world. We got aching necks from the first hour of walking through Chicago, just from constantly looking up. And then, when we relaxed a bit and lowered our eyes, we immediately started bumping into urban sketchers everywhere. 🙂 We met at least three sketching heroes of mine during the first hour or so, Chicago´s own Don Colley, and then Rob Sketcherman and Lynne Chapman nearby.
I found drawing really tall buildings quite difficult, when you´re not used to it. I made a few hit-and-miss sketches before I kind of got the hang of the scale in the downtown part of Chicago. One of the coolest spots to draw from was at the top of the Kemper Building, where I was lucky enough to have my workshop location during the symposium. I´m glad I don´t suffer from vertigo, you´re really on top of the world in one of these skyscrapers. And oh the light among the buildings and the view towards the horizon – SO spectacular!
Chicago isn´t just about tall buildings, though. People, workshops, symposium events – more posts from the trip coming up in the next few days!
Most sketches: A4 format, fountain pens with DeAtramentis document inks and watercolours on Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook pages.