2012 USK SDQ Symposium I & II

First of all, I would like to thank Conni (mzsketchusa) for her information, without her, I wouldn't know what urban sketcher is and what the symposium is about. Well, maybe will have to find out way later by myself. Also, her encouragement to put all the experiences in words. Thank you, Conni!  

This year's USK Symposium was chosen to host in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The place that I've been always known my whole life bcoz the diplomatic relations history with Taiwan. I immediately want to join the events and of course with the visa advantage plays the big part of it too.

Ok. enough of the pre-stories, let's jump into the workshops I'd taken during the symposium:

I. Mercado Merengue with Melanie Reim and Nathalie Ramirez

I was a little bit overexcited with all the workshops, so I didn't really get all the words Melanie&Nathalie were lecturing before we go to the Market place. All I remembered was "Drawing 3 different size of scenes: small, medium, and large", "you maybe be overwhelmed by all the people and noises surround you but using a thumb nail to identified your stories".  (correct me if I didn't get it right, plz) 

Here are my results:

Mercado Merengue Front

A Dominican Republic native elder, sitting next to me while I was drawing the market front. I was asking if I can draw him and he seems nervous but happily gave me a "si si".

Nathalie suggested with some medium size scene like the market store. I quickly draw the toys that was in front of me. (using graphite pencil and brown micron brush pen)

Here is the what it was looked like when I was drawing the elder. (Thanks for my roommates who traveled with me stopped by that day for some awesome/ memorable photo shots)

II. Capturing the Event with Tom Thorspecken

I was fascinated by the color and energy that shows on Tom's works at SDQ blog pages. 
I desperately want to know how to quickly put a scene with a story and vivid color together in such a short time. Just like a camera capture a event moment. My attention span is just really short unfortunately. I am trying to concentrate longer every time I draw.

The techniques/instructions that Tom gave us are:
1) limited your drawing in 2 hours. (45 mins drawing, 45 mins coloring, extra time for adding lines or final touch)
2) try to put people, buildings, furnitures, and surroundings altogether in 1 drawing.
(aha, he caught me. I always separate the 2. either building, things or just people. I am so bad with putting them in one scene)

Ok. the whole point of all the workshops are challenged ourselves and GET OUT OF OUR COMFORT ZONE!! I think I made it not too badly. 

Side story: while I was in the middle of the "capturing the event" workshop, a native came and tried to talk to me... I couldn't understand what he was saying, so I was just smiling and kept finishing my sketching. 10 mins later, another native came by and try to approach me. Seriously, I was pretty scared and thought that I should probably wrap up my sketch and leave. Turn out, he was just so excited that I captured the same angle as he did 10 years ago. He painted a fighting scene on the street and there was no lamp poles and electrical wires at the time. Looks similar? you judge. (I laugh at my cowardness but feel blessed with such a coincident that happened to me.)

There are three more to share.... to be continued......