In my last post, I’d agreed to lead an urban sketching event at the lovely Penny Post in Old Town Alexandria to promote Traveler’s Company products. This was completely out of my comfort zone as I only paint alone in my studio, never in public, and never outside.
I find being over prepared lowers my anxiety so I did research, watched videos, and practiced. You can find a really comprehensive overview of urban sketching on Urban Sketching World and see real examples at UrbanSketchers.org
I stopped by Penny Post and picked up an A5 Slim Watercolor Paper Spiral Notebook to test the format and paper. The paper is smoother than I’m used to and less absorbent but once I adjusted my technique I liked it a lot. The narrow format forced me to think about my composition. I haven’t attempted to span the spiral to paint on a spread yet but I’m keeping an eye out for a venue that will benefit from the format.
A couple practice sketches to get used to the new Traveler’s Company watercolor paper from my tent at the King & Union weekend pop-up market in Old Town Alexandria.
The morning of the urban sketching event was sunny and hot and we had a good group with a nice mix of ages and art experience. It was fascinating seeing enthusiastic Penny Post fans checking out new ink colors and pens (they did a show of hands and most people stop by at least once a month, if not more!). I asked one woman if she writes a lot of letters but no, she uses the colorful inks for journaling.
After a brief show and tell of my travel art kit and my urban sketching examples and offering a few pointers, we exited the cool store and searched for a shady place to sketch for 90 minutes.
I’d been wanting to paint fibre space on Prince Street. They’ve done a lovely job transforming the building with bright blue paint and orange planters and fun murals. I found it humorous that numerous people stopped and took a break to sit in their Adirondack chairs, chatting on their phones or just enjoying a quiet Sunday morning. And the bistro tables and chairs made setting up my watercolors a breeze.
Pencil and pen sketch of fibre space in Old Town Alexandria (on Traveler’s watercolor notebook)
The 90 minutes flew by: spent about 30 minutes sketching and 45 minutes painting. My friend and fellow artist Gannon Beck came with me and worked at the table, not 5 feet away from me. Back at Penny Post, we did a show and tell of what we’d been working on. Some went into cafes and worked on interior sketches, some took photos and came back to Penny Post to work, and some braved the heat and worked on storefront windows and building facades. Really love how different everyone’s art was, including mine (on the right in the photo below) and Gannon’s (on the left).
I considered doing more work on my painting at home but decided I liked it just the way it was. I added some text showing where I was, the date, how long I worked on it, and signed it with my artist mark.
