Urban Sketching outing today

   On Friday a member of the Vienna Urban Sketchers group contacted us to ask if we were going to be meeting on the weekend as she planned to be here in Graz. This is the first time someone from another chapter has contacted us to meet, and so, of course, we were excited and shuffled a few things around to make it work. On such short notice, only Jana and I managed to make it, but we had a great time. It was so much fun to see some of this other member's sketches and to hear about the chapter in Vienna and what they organize on a regular basis. As a young chapter, we are still getting our sea legs (or should that be sketching legs?) and welcome new ideas. We heard about the type of meetups that they hold and are planning on incorporating some of the same things into our group.

We sketched at two locations.

   The first was an indoor subject, a local cafe with beautiful balconies full of plants and a glass ceiling. We have been wanting to draw here for a while. It was fun to see how differently our work turned out.

    The second was an outdoor theme in which we sat in the window of a cafe and sketched a few cityscapes. Each of us chose something different. I spent a bit of time adding color to my first sketch here. I am not as bold as the others in adding color right away and I had the largest sketchbook so it took a bit longer- at least that is what I tell myself:).

   Keeping in mind that these are not intended to be stand-alone works of art but rather fun relaxed sketches in which the goal is to enjoy other peoples company while practicing I am including my sketches below- take them for what they are worth.

    I am really impressed with what the others produced:

    Later in the afternoon, feeling sufficiently warmed up, I decided to paint a little more so I started on the first bird out of what I hope will be a mini-series called 'Melody of the skies'. The paper is vintage sheet music I picked up a second-hand shop a while ago.

   Have you ever been on a sketching tour or gone sketching in public? What was your experience? Did you enjoy it or were you nervous that people would watch you sketching? Let me know in the comments.


 If you are in Graz and would like to join us one day check out our facebook page, Urban Sketchers Graz.


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