The “Ciutat vella” or “Old town” is defined by the limits of the former defensive wall. It one of the best areas in Valencia for strolling around and sketching. In a walking distance, you can find the most beautiful squares and buildings in Valencia, like the Lonja de la Seda ( the only building in the city that is featured on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre list), the Modernist Mercado central (one of the main works of the Valencian Art Nouveau) the amazing gothic  Cathedral or the Almudi (originally from the XIVth century)  

From our centrally located base (CCCC – Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània) we will explore this neighbourhood, its churches, palaces and narrow streets featuring colourful houses and surprising light.

Join Urban Sketchers Isabel Carmona, Swasky and Hugo Costa for 3 full day workshop that will get you to know Valencia intimately and to develop your personal urban sketching techniques.

The workshop will be hosted at CCCC – Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània where we will start and end each day.

Main Theme:

Architecture and space. How do we represent space? Drawing is a matter of believes, do you believe in perspective?

It will be fun but hard work, as you will be experimenting with perspective and spatial representation all the time, learning about different ways of drawing what you see from different viewpoints, some more traditional than others. There are multiple viewpoints in urban sketching.

There will be multiple opportunities to try out various sketching techniques without fear, and we will share the work we do and discuss our findings intensely. 

Each of the instructors will explore different ways of representing space in urban sketching.

The wider view (Isabel)

On choosing views and scenes to draw and paint we will look at wide panoramas inside and outside and explore various ways of tackling these views from focusing and noticing the space between objects to fish eyes views, “Escher” style, or simply taking a line for a walk.

Isabel’s theme is panoramic views and we will have fun testing various methods of representing space:  figure/ground, light/shade, layers/planes, noticing the space between objects.

We will use a mixture of quick sketches to represent what you see in different ways, synthesizing the view’s components and testing what works for you.   We will explore what happens when we want to represent a wide perspective, 180 degrees around us and notice how suddenly things “fit” in the drawn space.

Techniques used will include pen, colour line and colour washes, the order you use them on also changes how you focus your sketch. Be prepared to experiment and don’t worry if you have not worked with perspective before or you have been daunted by it – this is where you can play with it and lose your fears.

Bending the floor (Swasky)

Space has been one of the main topics in history of representation in arts. Human being has always tried to represent reality. Along the art history we can find multiple ways of this “space oddities”. What I want to try is make attendees aware that probably most of them are as effective as the common and accepted conic perspective. These are paths already opened but I have not revisited, and I want to go through them again, recovering memories that we have buried deep in our mind. As I have written before space is a huge worry but most of the twentieth art movements answered already with plenty of solutions. We are going to experiment with the idea of how our sight works. Keeping this idea of space recreation in mind we will start to experiment it.

After my experience in Manchester USk Symposium, I have made some little changes in some exercises splitting up the process and I have emphasized the work we do with the idea of representing space through conventions.

Shift your head! (Hugo Costa)

We usually represent the space looking right, which is very limited compared to what we are observing and feeling while being in a place, turning the head, and looking up and down. When we are in a narrow street, next to tall buildings or go up to a rooftop we feel the space in a way that should not be limited with conventional vertical lines, defined by one or two vanishing point perspective. If you forget those Renaissance rules, instinctively verticals start to bend and lines to curve.

We will start sketching looking straight, then looking up, and see how 3 point of view perspective can change the way we represent space. Finally, we will go up to a rooftop and shift our head down. 

Learning goals

• Pushing participants out of their comfort zone, at their own level. From beginners starting to sketch to more confident participants, we aim to teach you something new and push you outside your boundaries, helping you to experiment.
• Experiment with different perspective techniques within a live sketch situation, helping you find your own self-expression.
• Making you confident to represent the surrounding space, however complex.
• Using and trying different approaches – line drawing with pens and pencils, colour in different media.       
• Making you think about how do you represent what you see and to develop your own way of representing it in colour (and line) with confidence.
• Losing the fear to draw space and people and stories within it.

Workshop schedule

Wednesday 18 Sep 2019
5 pm- 8 pm	Welcome at the Colegio de Arquitectos de Valencia
Thursday 19 Sep 2019
10 am -10:30 am	Welcome at the CCCC – Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània
10:30 am -1:30 pm	Isa, Hugo and Swasky group workshops
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm	Lunch
3:30 pm – 6:30 pm	Isa, Hugo and Swasky group workshops
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm	Day Review
Friday 20 Sep 2019
10 am – 10:30 am	Welcome at the CCCC – Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània
10:30 am – 1:30 pm	Isa, Hugo and Swasky group workshops
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm	Lunch
3:30 pm – 6:30 pm	Isa, Hugo and Swasky group workshops
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm	Day Review
Saturday 21 Sep 2019
10 am – 10:30 am	Welcome at the CCCC – Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània
10:30 am – 1:30 pm	Isa, Hugo Costa and Swasky group workshops
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm	Lunch
3:30 pm – 6:30 pm	Isa, Hugo Costa and Swasky group workshops
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm	Day Review
Sunday 22 Sep 2019
10 am	Sharing of sketchbooks
11 pm	Open Sketch meeting in Valencia – route to be confirmed

Participants

30 Attendees maximum, 18 attendees minimum, any level of experience is welcome but with previous experience in drawing.

Supply List – what to bring?

A supply list will be provided to all participants prior to the workshop.

Travel and accommodation

You will need to arrange your own accommodation and travel. To help you decide the area see the map of workshop below. Suggested sites to look for a good range of accommodation: booking.com or airbnb.com

Registration fee

£265 (£215 concessions – students or unwaged (with proof of concession status)) – fees are in GBP.

To book: e-mail Isabel – isabel@pushingyoursketchingboundaries.com for a registration form. If you are claiming the concession rate send her the proof of status with your booking form request. Payment can be via bank transfer or PayPal – see links below.

Cancellation policy: All fees are refundable if cancelled more than 6 weeks prior to commencement of course (up to 7 August 2019). Bank charges will be deducted for the refund in the case of an attendee cancellation. If cancelled after the 7 August up to to one week before the start of the course, a cancellation fee of £50 will be retained. No refund will be possible one week before the course.In the event of too few registrants, all monies will be refunded.

Workshop map

You can find the workshop map here.

About the instructors

This workshop combines the abilities of:

Isabel Carmona, Victor Swasky and Hugo Costa