Boo Hoo For Me, But Not Really

The Urban Sketcher's Symposium is currently underway in Chicago. At one point, I thought seriously about signing up and attending. This is an international gathering, so frequently it is in far, far away places, but this year it is in Chicago. I love Chicago and absolutely adore the architecture there.

I grew up several hours south of Chicago.  Five to six times per year from the time I was a young child until I was a young teen, I would travel by train with my mom to downtown Chicago to spend the day. To this day the hustle and bustle of the Loop, including the trains running on the elevated tracks, makes a little place in my heart whisper "home", even though I've never lived there. While I don't make it back as often as I'd like, those early experiences formed some sort of imprint on me.

The older buildings in Chicago just "look right" to me. This is what started my love of certain styles of architecture, especially anything by Louis Sullivan. One of the stops on each and every trip was the Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street.  I didn't realize until well into adulthood that it was designed by Sullivan.

So there a bunch of urban sketchers in Chicago happily sketching and posting here on Instagram.

I made a deliberate decision this spring not to sign up for the symposium, because I am not ready. Mostly, I sketch one object at a time and I have not tried to sketch buildings, other than a very occasional sketch. At some point, I could see this becoming a big part of my sketching, but I haven't even started this line of learning. I am someone who leaps, but I was afraid that this type of immersive experience at this point could backfire and be too overwhelming. Currently, I am good with putting together one 6 week plan after another and figuring out where I should focus. I am getting my daily drawing done each and every day. The skills will come. While I am having more fun that I can describe learning to draw and paint, on the other hand, I am also very serious about this. I want to make good decisions about what I want to learn and how I want to proceed. For now, it is best to work the current plan and not get sidetracked by buildings.

In two to three months, though, I may branch out into buildings. I already have purchased several online courses on Craftsy about urban sketching and sketching architecture. I also plan to take Liz Steel's online courses. Until then, I may do an occasional building sketch here and there, but I hope to stay focused on what I'm sketching now, which is mostly cats, people, flowers, or replica toys.

In spite of feeling wistful from time to time when I look at the sketches coming out of Chicago, I believe I made a good decision this spring. Plus, I'm very fortunate and have some fun things to look forward to this weekend.