Urban Sketchers Symposium 2018 in Porto I Part 1

In July took place in Porto, Portugal the 9th Symposium of Urban sketchers. I was lucky enough to be there and enjoy the beauty of the city and the kindness of the locals ! The city offers many angles to sketch, it's very colorfull, light and shades are very contrasted due to the sun but also because of the narrow small streets. It always takes time for me to figure out what techniques to use to describe and be truthfull towards what I have in front of my eyes… Here are my sketches, trying different approaches in my Moleskine sketchbook.

Lamy fountain pen ink and watercolor

Lamy fountain pen ink and watercolor

Lamy fountain pen ink and watercolor

Watercolor and watercolor pencils

Watercolor and watercolor pencils

Here is a funny story… I did this following drawing from the window of my guesthouse the first day I arrived. The building on the other side of the street was a ruin and the roof full of holes. The windows were broken but still, but you could still see the beauty of the windows… 

Watercolor and watercolor pencils

… Workers started to come the next morning and demolish the roof… 5 days later, I did another drawing:  the roof totally disappeared and I could discover the iron work of the staircase inside. 

Does this building still exist today ?

Lamy fountain pen ink and watercolor

I tryed here to work in direct watercolor, which is not my habit…

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

And to finish this post, I want to show you a playfull attempt with ink and collage, stealing my son's (used) origami papers to evokes the azulejos of Porto, the colorful ceramics on the buildings…

Pentel brush pen and collage

Japanese brush pen and collage

Collage with origami paper

I guess that you will wonder where is the huge amount of people I could meet in Porto… In a next post, I will show the sketches I did of the funny faces of tourists, sketchers and locals I drew in the LEUCHTTURM1917 sketchbook offered by the sponsor during the symposium !