Be Sneaky! in Chicago

First trial-run of my USKChicago 2019 workshop

On the last, cold day of March, I took 6 participants to the warm, beautiful interiors of Navy Pier, where we made #SneakyArt together over 3 hours.

After a brief introductory talk, I demonstrated some quick sketching techniques to the group.

My first sketch was how I used to draw up until a few years ago.

Expressive, yet unsatisfying for many reasons.

Being Sneaky was my ticket to teaching myself how to draw better. And these are some of the techniques I employed to achieve my personal learning goals.

Tracing the outline in a single line (TOP RIGHT) is a way to see a person as the volume they occupy in your vision. It is your unique point of view of your subject.

A unique shape.

One way to overcome the obstacles in HOW YOU DRAW is to approach them from a fresh point of view.

Tracing the volumes immediately completes the entire figure within seconds.

It helps to break up the muscle memory of your general drawing style, the way your lines curve for the neck, the way you draw the legs or the hands or what the hands and legs are doing.

ON THE TOP LEFT, I drew a person that stood before a shop display, in 30 seconds. My key when drawing fast is to start with the most interesting aspect (in this case, her jacket) and draw that first. With the brush pen, I draw long, confident lines.

CONFIDENT LINES are crucial to drawing fast.

I continued the demonstration with another single line sketch (BOTTOM CENTER) into which I filled the ‘interior’ details later.

On the BOTTOM RIGHT, I address an interesting question - HOW TO CONVEY AGE IN A SIMPLE WAY?

Drawing figures upside down is another fun exercise I demonstrated. It’s another great way to ‘see’ what you’re looking at.

The FIRST DRAWING SESSION was a 30 minute exercise in which the participants stood on Level 2 inside the Navy Pier and drew the visitors and tourists we saw on Level 1. The unique perspective worked to throw participants off their natural styles and eased them into the new drawing challenges.

I made SneakyArt

while they worked…

But also with them

to overcome the hurdles together

Demo #2 people +

their urban environment

In the SECOND DEMO, I spoke about the value of including people in urban-sketching.

The subject I picked was a carticature artist ~50 feet away from us, working in a pop-up stall. (Unrelated - Her work is terrific. Go there and check her out.)

I spoke about the dual process of SEEING and DRAWING as I worked. We addressed composition, framing, layering, and selective detailing. All of these are important subconscious artistic decisions we take that can be tweaked to favor the SneakyArt blend of minimalism and speed.

Here I address a question about retaining individual expressions/poses while drawing crowds of people

Picking subjects at the cafeteria far away, I looked for interesting features to motivate my sketch and left out whatever ‘bored’ me.

I was lucky to have a super enthusiastic group (pictured here without Aaron Elswick) with specific queries and a willingness to try new things.

Since this was a trial run, my end goal was to gather honest feedback from my participants about their expectations vis a vis the experience having finished the workshop.

This summer I will be leading an urban sketching workshop at USK Chicago Seminar 2019. It will be a 2 day art extravaganza in the streets of downtown Chicago, with nearly 200 artists coming in from all over the country.

Be Sneaky will be one of 18 workshops at the event, and after this trial I am eager to get going.

But before that, I have another trial workshop coming up! I will be leading 6 sketchers in a Be Sneaky workshop at the Minneapolis Institute of Art this weekend. I am excited to try out some of the suggestions I received at the Chicago workshop!