It's the end of another fabulous 6 weeks of UAB Site Sketching and I am proud to say that in our second year running it just keeps getting better. To sum up the experience I wanted to share a lovely message that I received from a first time sketcher last week... kind words that made my day!

[Hi Emily, Thanks so much for your teaching, encouragement and advice over the last 6 weeks. I have had a fantastic time and learnt so much. When i started i said i wanted to feel comfortable sketching on location and find a way to capture the essence of a place.  Well,  i am thrilled to say that i feel well on my way to doing just that. I love my sketches i feel like they are little jewels, that are uniquely me. What a thrill!!!!!

I had a 'moment' today, after doing some jobs in new farm i decided to stop for a short time at a park on the river- i had my sketch book with me- and just sat and did a little sketch. 20minutes later i realised i was so calm and at peace almost in a meditation. It was the BEST feeling.
At last sketching feels like just the best thing to do- i'm hooked.
Thank you so much for opening this wonderful world to me. What a gift!!!] 
June 2013

UAB is back with another sketching workshop from the 17 August - 21 September. Find more details here. 

In the mean time I am traveling in Europe & the UK for 5 weeks from tonight and will be attending the 4th International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona. I will do my best to blog some work from Spain! I can't wait to share my drawings with you. 

Happy Sketching
Emily

We're excited to announce that UAB will be hosting a 6 week site sketching workshop from Saturday 4 March - 8 June! It's a beautifully crisp time of year in Brisbane and the weather is perrrfect for drawing outdoors. Below is a sketchmap of our chosen route. The locations include:

Having recently returned from a 6-week trip overseas and been distracted by one or two other life changing experiences around health (I took on a 5 week juice fast) and relationships (I fell in love and got engaged!), my 6 weeks out of regular studio practice, has turned to 2 or 3 months! 

It struck me that as I build my relationship with my studio practice once more, the tools, tips, tricks and self-talk I use to get me back into the studio are the same ones that I used at the very beginning of my practice and may well be of use to you.

If you are someone like me who is inspired but somehow finds the day passing without taking some action towards the expression of that inspiration then these top 10 tips for getting you back in the studio are for you:

1. Cultivate Gratitude for Where You Are
Take stock of where you are and take a moment to appreciate what you have achieved in your learning and creativity so far.  Acknowledge whatever feelings are there whether it's excitement, regret, anticipation, disappointment or even pressure it is valid to feel all of these.  However, recognise that you don't need to honour, nurture or indulge any of these feelings.  What's important to remember is that you are a new creative being in each moment and in this moment you are choosing yourself exactly as your are.  This is the most empowering place to come from.

3. Build Some Sketching into Every Day Activities
Make a commitment to yourself to draw every day, even if just for 10 minutes - this could be taking a few minutes on your morning walk to capture something or maybe sketching your lunch before you eat it, perhaps even dashing off a few sketches of people passing on the street as you sip your morning coffee. 

The act of sketching or drawing reconnects you to what you like to draw, what you are good at drawing and what inspires you.  It is good to remember that just drawing alone can be the pathway to the inspiration for a whole body of work - stick to an exploration of something for long enough and something will come up.  Try a 7 or 30 day challenge to draw every day and see what emerges.  Even sketching ideas first thing in the morning upon waking or last thing at night can be very revealing.

If drawing is not your thing perhaps it's about taking a photograph each day that inspires you or even spending some time collecting images to collage.

4. Prepare your Creative Space
Whatever your space may be, whether it's a little desk in the corner of a room or a large purpose-built studio space make sure everything is where you need it so you don't spend time rummaging and searching for things. 

If you don't have a creative space, it helps to claim one and make it a dedicated creative place.  This adds value to what you are doing and stakes a claim for your creative energy to manifest.  It also means you can walk into that creative space at any time without being put off by having to set something up and then pack it all away which interferes with creative flow.

5. Gather and Collect Inspiring Visual Stimulus
Books, photographs, images of other artist's work, your own sketches, magazine images and even inspiration from books about mixed media techniques and painting or sketching can all be rich sources of inspiration.  Whenever I am stuck I go to my bookshelf and pull out some books that appeal to me in that moment.  I flick through them and suddenly get an idea for what I want to play with or how I want to progress a canvas. 

Pay attention to what you are gathering too as these are signposts to inner creative voice and will be steering you toward manifesting it. 

Other magazines like Artist Profile, Frankie or even nature inspired magazines like National Geographic can be useful too in terms of what others are doing and can trigger ideas that form a launchpad for your own to catapult from.

6. Set a Goal For Your Practice
Having a goal and something to aim for in your work is really helpful.  When I was first starting out, my goal was to discover who I was creatively and whether I really wanted to paint full-time.  This took the pressure off needing to produce something and shifted the focus onto a curious engagement with painting and drawing itself. 

It can help to also set smaller practical goals like finishing a canvas or to discover one new technique each week for a month.  You may want to to fill a diary with drawings and see what happens, what emerges or create an abstract painting or small study each day.  For a while I just painted a swatch of colour and doodled and out of those experiments, I had enough inspiration to keep me going for a couple of years! 

Whether it's working through a book on colour theory or just being gentle with yourself when creating - make sure it INSPIRES you.

7. Get Connected to Your Creative Uniqueness
It was Oscar Wilde who said, 'Be yourself; everyone else is already taken' and realising this about our creativity is probably the most powerful thing we can ever do for ourselves.  Recognise that you have a unique contribution for the world and that you are on a journey to uncover it and share it. 

My favorite video on creative genius is Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk see below - it's about 20 minutes but really worth watching and very entertaining. 

8. Make a Creativity Date with Yourself
Taking time to be with ourselves in our creative space is as precious and nurturing to our creativity as date night with a partner.  Value yourself enough to block out some time in your diary regularly to focus on your creativity.  One of your goals may be to just show up in your creative space for 30 minutes a day or an hour 3 times a week.  It doesn't matter what the time is or how long, when you are starting from scratch it's getting in there that counts. 

Make a commitment to yourself to honour this and connect it back to what's important to you in relation to making your art.  What does it give you?  For me I get a sense of peace, it's like a meditation, I feel a sense of joy when I start painting with colour and a sense of being home, I just have to think about luscious thick oil paint in dusty pinks and greens to make me feel like I just want to get in there and start playing!

9.  PLAY!
Once you have made it to your creative space, just play.  I often begin my studio session with some non-dominant hand drawing to music with no pressure on outcome.  If I am nurturing some new work, I just play.  Each surface layer is built up of layers of playful engagement that are spontaneous and easy.  It may help to remind yourself that if you don't like something you can always paint over it later.  By allowing this side of ourselves to be engaged we create space for wonder and joy and for new ideas to emerge.

10. Be Gentle and Avoid Self-Judgement
Gentleness in self talk is imperative at this playful stage.  Self-talk that is gentle, compassionate, kind and supportive will only nurture your creative practice.  Remember you are giving your inner creative child to play, they will not be able to come out and serve you if they feel like they are in trouble for something. 

Really notice if and when you are being self-critical.  Often we are more self-critical when we are stressed about something and give ourselves a hard time.  Drop the resistance, notice where it is in your body and breathe into it, see if in that moment you can bring something positive or gentle in.

Removing any judgementalism from your creations is especially important in the early stages of creating work as we have a tendency to self-censor ourselves and shut down our playful, creative exploration when we do this. 

By allowing ourselves to get into our creative space armed with all the things that inspire us and gently encourage ourselves to create, we allow possibility to enter and creativity to flourish.

Week 3 of the first Big Binge for 2013 and this group is coming along in leaps and bounds. The techniques we discovered this week were definitely in contrast to last week and our sketchers are stretching themselves with grace. Below is a recap of what we worked through. The results of which were sublime. 

Techniques we focused on:

Positive & Negative Space 

• Thinking about depth & tone we were seeking out the boldest contrasts in light inside and outside of the Cathedral. Positive and negative space is a very powerful and dramatic tool that involves a certain level of imagination and careful observation. One trick we found is that when using this technique it is best bitten off in chunks. Sketch out your subject first in light (but confident) lines and then take the time to observe where your light source is. Adding depth through tone can be achieved in a manner of ways. So far we've looked at soft shading and different hatching techniques. Choose your technique according to what you want to say. Lines are expressive. Lines are your language. Lines are your tools for constructing your visual comment about the world around you.

Composition

The Cathedral is a very grand space. With the subject being so vertical in height, it is necessary to consider the elements of composition in order to make the best use of your page. 

• Rule of thirds 
• Sketching your composition in the corner of your page takes 10 seconds and may save you much time.
• Is your image dynamic or static? This is determined by whether your composition is symmetrical or asymmetrical. An asymmetrical composition allows the eye to dart around the page with ease. 

* Thanks to the people of the St Johns Cathedral for your hospitality and warm understanding of our need to Binge within your amazing place. 

Continuing the success of 2012's on-site sketching sessions, participants will soon be joining Emily Fong for weekly sketching sessions at various locations around Brisbane. The sites have been choosen to expand observational drawing skills and introduce concepts and ideas whilst exploring our city and exposing budding and experienced creatives to an abundance of inspiration. For more info or to enrol click here.

Do you want to learn to sketch and draw this year? Join us for a 7 week summer workshop series exploring drawing with other like minded creatives. This workshop is suitable to all skill levels and persons over the age of 18 years. For more details visit our enrollments page, here. 

At Urban Art Binge we teach sketching on location and Mixed Media Painting amongst  many other things. Recently I was asked to explain if there was a difference between sketching and drawing and if so why we choose to focus on the former. 

Sketching is a process of visualising thoughts onto a surface in an immediate, expressive and honest manner. It is thinking through mark making and not intended to be labored over or contrived in any form. Sketching is a process whereby an artist can quickly record an observation, a moment, a feeling, or an idea to be reworked or transformed at a later stage. 

Learning to sketch is a process of learning to LET GO. Letting go of pre-prescribed notions of perfection and accuracy and submitting to the beauty and freedom of PLAY. 

Sketching on location is about being present within your environment, engaging with your surroundings & harnessing these observations as an infinite creative resource. It's also about travelling at home as well as further afield. 

Drawing is a technically refined version of the description above.
An efficient means of visual expression. Drawing is a language. One with an ever expanding vocabulary and the ability to cross cultures.

For me, it was in choosing to take on French as a second language, that I quickly discovered that my native tongue was actually drawing. This was a powerful moment for me as a person and as an artist.

I speak of depth and perspective with the pressure of my hand.
I express lightness and whimsical thoughts by dancing my wrist. 
I suggest texture through varying marks.

But most importantly, the power of my passionate language is in what is not spoken. A sketch offers the gift of imagination when it is not entirely finished. It is not technically perfect. It has gaps where YOU are invited to fill in the blanks.
 
This is why we teach Sketching on location at UAB. 

Em