Summer Sketchbooks, and what they taught me.

This month’s newsletter is a flip-through of my summer sketchbooks. These sketches are from ~3.5 weeks in Europe. Week 1 was a vacation in Prague and Vienna. Week 2, I taught aboard a river cruise on the Rhine with Shari Blaukopf and Brenda Swenson. And week 3 was at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toulouse where I gave a lecture and a demo.

Here is the 7-minute-long flip-through. ( youtu.be/hLwc4iCEE08?si=j9GrmV1No-NwDrTX )

Having a cheap little notebook with me all the time is a very good idea. It’s where all the fleeting but important thoughts and observations land.

This page is not so much about the sketches as it is a reminder to go home and study this series called “Character Heads” by the artist Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

Dry media is so versatile, expressive, and above all, easy to use anywhere. Colored pencils and markers along with some staples like my fountain pen and white acrylic marker make for a compact, full-color kit.
* Note: Carrying a lot of mixed media makes your sketch bag HEAVY, so I’m working on a pared-down, full-color dry media kit that I will share in my next newsletter.

Sketching the passing view from the train was made possible by a small set of markers and a black pencil. No watercolor that might spill on a moving train!

Early in my travels I lost a sketchbook, (see sketches in video or here) and while I am sad I lost it, if you’d told me I couldn’t keep the sketchbook, I would have still spent all that time sitting around, looking slowly, and drawing. Because that just is my favorite thing to do.

If I hadn’t been sketching, I would have spent seconds with this lovely installation and gone on with my day. It’s a totally different experience to stand around sketching, look at it longer, and watch people interact with it.

I not only enjoy articulating the how-to and why of sketching, (and I learn a LOT from doing it!) I also enjoy many other aspects of it: the camaraderie of teaching alongside some of my favorite artists, the joy of seeing workshop participants translate ideas into their own work, and even (As I learnt recently from giving a lecture) speaking about my work and work process.

I really enjoyed sharing my passion for a form of “slow reportage” that I work on. I took this shot of the room just before I gave a talk on the subject.

I added many new workshops to this list. To make sense of it, I’m listing them in chronological order. Scroll through for a mixed of local in-person workshops, and travel sketching workshops in India, Istanbul and Spain, and a link to the paid subscriber group that meets online every month.

I’m not sure what we will paint yet, (t will be fall themed) but these workshops are aimed at beginning watercolorists. Workshop on Saturday October 17th.

This link has all the details you need. Don’t wait too long to sign up!
Gateway to India Workshop(s), 2027

Use the code EARLYBIRD at checkout to save $150 on the workshop!
In this week-long workshop, we will sketch people and landscapes and everything in between. Through it all, you are promised a wonderful organizing team, spectacular locations and food, and the camaraderie of like-minded artists.

Read a detailed itinerary and sign up here:
https://frenchescapade.com/2027-calendar/spain-suhita-shirodkar/

EarlyBird discounts exclusively for my newsletter and blog subscribers:
Painters get a 10% discount using discount code EARLYBIRD
Non-painters get a 20% discount using discount code PARTNER

I’m super excited to teach for a week at a location I love: Istanbul! Come sketch this exciting city with me. Sketching sessions each morning and time to see the city or sketch some more in the afternoons. Hotel included in the cost so we’re all in one location and can participate in daily reviews in the evenings!

Read a detailed itinerary and sign up here. Don’t forget to use the Early Bird codes above for a discount on these prices:
https://www.wetravel.com/trips/sketchbook-holiday-in-istanbul-with-suhita-shirodkar-plein-air-holidays-6016582001#tour-guide

Our next online sketching session for paid subscribers is on Friday August 21st and we will sketch bicycles and bicyclists, both of which were so essential to sketching street scenes in Europe this summer. (and, they were SO much fun to sketch once I got over my “I don’t know how to draw a bicycle” notion).

Join us by upgrading your membership at the link below, (You can join live or will receive a recorded video of the session) and I’ll send you a pdf with reference images as well as some tips on how I build up to sketching bicyclists zooting past me in real life!