Dominos

Posted on by Thor

On the afternoon of the final day there was a SketchCrawl in Santo Domingo‘s Parque Colon. I had done several thumbnail sketches of domino players in Veronica Lawlor‘s, The Decisive Moment Workshop. I decided to try and get a larger sketch done. The game is rather fast paced usually punctuated with loud arguments in Spanish about moves that could have been made. It is rather nice that people linger in the park all day. This game of dominoes would migrate periodically to keep the board in the shade of the parks trees. Along with the locals, there were 100 artists gathered in the park this day.

 One of the men viewing the game looked after me by shooing away anyone who stood between me and the board. I smiled and gave him a thumbs up for his assistance. Melanie Reim was just as infatuated by the game and she did a lively series of sketches from her spot sitting on the grass. I did a few more loose thumbnail sketches in the park before all the Urban Sketchers gathered for a group photo in front of the Cathedral.

The Decisive Moment

Posted on by Thor

0n the morning of the final day of the Santo Domingo Urban Sketching Symposium, I took Veronica Lawlor‘s Workshop called The Decisive Moment. I have always admired Veronica’s loose spontaneous sketches. The idea of the decisive moment came from photo journalist Henri Cartier-Bresson. As he said, “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment” Veronica pulled out her iPad and showed us sketches by Ronald Searle from his Paris Sketchbook. I have a copy of this sketchbook and it is a prized possession. She also showed us thumbnails from Gustav Klimpt. She suggested we explore Parque Colon doing small quick thumbnails instead of detailed sketches. She explained that her first impulse when on an assignment was to do as many thumbnails as possible.

I found doing the thumbnails quite liberating. Each sketch had to begin with a frame. I probably could have organized the thumbnails better on the page, but I was just focused on getting each image down as quickly as possible. I worked straight ahead using ink and watercolor washes.

The first thing that caught my eye was a young man feeding the pigeons. If anyone walked too close, they would take flight all at once. I sketched a candy cart, the monument to Columbus and then became infatuated with the men who played dominoes all day long. The cathedral was a cool reprieve from the hot park. The chihuahua named Pancho belonged to a couple who stopped to talk to me in English. The owner was an artist herself and I suggested she join us for the SketchCrawl later in the day.

Urban Symposium Panel

Posted on by Thor

Right after lunch each day there was a panel discussion where instructors from  the Santo Domingo Urban Sketching Symposium would get up in front of the room full of artists and talk about their experiences sketching that day. I had this sketch fairly well layed out when Gabi approached me and asked me to be on the panel. Sigh, I would have to finish the sketch the next day. I sat center stage, sandwiched between the amazing talents of Veronica Lawlor and Nina Johansson. Gabi Campanario, who founded Urban Sketchers, had heard about my run in with the guards at Puerta del Conde and he wanted me to relate the incident. My main point was that it was important to always finish the sketch, come hell or high water. This was the first time that the person who insisted I stop sketching was carrying a gun.

It was incredibly rewarding to hear students from my first workshops relate what resonated with them.  I thought that instructing and standing in front of a room full of piers might be stressful, but the opposite was true, I felt at ease and at home among artists who shared my desire to document and record events by sketching. The next day, I sketched Marc Holmes, Lynne Chapman and Liz Steel into my unfinished sketch from the day before. Lynne, smiled broadly, radiating good humor and Liz had filled an entire sketchbook already. I had taken Marc’s class and it made me realize that it helps to be thrown outside the usual sketching comfort zone when being asked to think about sketching in a different light.