Illuxcon 2017 - Part 3

I had the fortune to be part of the Urban Sketching Workshop hosted by Sean Murray and Ron Lemen at Illuxcon this year. When I received the announcement email for the workshop and that it was limited to only a handful of people I made every effort to make sure I was a part of this awesomeness. I have been a huge fan of Sean's work for years and I love how he sees and creates architecture. As I continue working on The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia I inch closer and closer every day to begin visualizing the actual Bazaar and not just the monsters. I knew an opportunity to work closely with Sean would greatly benefit me and help me in my efforts. Both Sean and Ron had a lot to share as they talked about approaching sketching, architecture, and then abstracting and creating your own worlds. I can not speak highly enough about this workshop. It got me out of my comfort zone and got me to do a lot of things I never do, but really want to. I hope they provide this workshop again because I will definitely be there!

The workshop began with a brief conversation at the GoggleWorks about sketching and approaches to seeing rather than just looking at the world around you. Sean and Ron covered ways to approach abstraction and building complexity and that lived in feel that makes a world believable. A van was provided to transport us to a couple locations, which saved us a lot of time and allowed us to work outside the bubble of a few blocks of the hotel or GoggleWorks. The first location was an old shopping and manufacturing area. It was old but is still in use with layers of construction and remodeling from years of use. Sean and Ron would give a quick lecture about the area and approaches to working and then we were set free to sketch and move around the area. As a group we moved to a completely new area nearby on foot for more conversation and sketching. We sketched for 30-45 minutes in each area. We then took the van to a completely different area closer to the hotel. It was a small manufacturing area surrounded by a lot of very different buildings. Again, there was a small conversation about the surroundings and then we sketched. We moved as a group on foot to the last area a few block over that was more of a typical city street with large governmental buildings and architecture. Scale and detail was discussed and we had our last sketch setting. We returned to the hotel on foot and had final thoughts. In the end it was a four hour workshop and never a dull moment.

Here are some images from the day, as well a selection of my sketches that I liked...

Everyone's sketchbooks at the end of the workshop for review.

This was my favorite sketch from the workshop, it was also my last of the day.

It focused on something smaller and more intimate, which I prefer.

While these are not all of my sketches from the workshop, I feel these were the most successful and achieved the goals of the workshop. The fist two sketches of the day were my worst as I was figuring out which stylus to use and how I needed to approach what I was working on. I tried to stick with everything I was working on and did my best not to abandon a drawing if it was not working out as planned.

Here are a selection of images I took at the workshop. So might be recognizable as what I was looking at while sketching while others are just neat things I saw while exploring. Sean and Ron stressed that you sketch FIRST then you take your images. Once you sketch it you will remember it better and the image will help with details later.

After sketching in the first two areas we took a break to look at what every one was working on and do a recap before moving to out next two locations.

This is an invasive species that is reeking havoc on the local tree population.

They were everywhere... and I mean EVERYWHERE.

Tomorrow I will share some images and thoughts from after Illuxcon when we were in a cave!

That is all for another exciting Thursday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com