Urban Sketchers Poznań Symposium family photo
Workshops and wild lines
Each day of the Symposium kicks off with a morning briefing to make sure everyone’s up to speed on what matters. Then we cross the road to the park to find our volunteer guides for the day’s workshops.
I had two workshops back to back: Andrew James’ “draw like your drunk uncle dances” and Peter Rush’s “boxes of energy.” They could not have been more different. The first was all about distortion and bold lines using a thick marker. The second focused on tight, deliberate pencil sketches.
Both tutors ran their sessions with clarity and care. Andrew’s background as a science communicator really showed. He helped us loosen up, see shapes differently, and let go of perfection. He nurtured us into bending and stretching the world into bold, energetic, meaningful lines.
Peter was just as prepared. His materials alone were inspiring: intricately drawn urban scenes of street furniture and signage sketched on the backs of cereal boxes. Recreating even a fraction of his style was a serious challenge. At one point he said he suffered for his art. When I joked after our session that we had suffered too, having had to sit on the cold pavement for hours he laughed and said we didn’t know the meaning of suffering.
One frustrating thing that happened that day was the theft of my collection of New Zealand cereal boxes. I had them in a brown paper shopping bag under my chair during a symposium lecture. At first I told myself it must have been picked up by mistake. But by the end of the symposium, it still hadn’t been returned to the info desk.
I was really shaken and annoyed. Not just because I’d lost my surfaces to draw on for Peter’s workshop, but because all my bull dog clips and magnetic clips were attached to that bag. Those tools are an essential part of sketching outside. Thankfully, Peter had a few spare boxes to share, so I could still take part.
Poznań host the annual Urban Sketchers’ Symposium
Yesterday the Urban Sketchers Symposium roared to life with an Australia/New Zealand meetup. We’d only known each other online—Facebook comments, ticket chatter—but someone suggested a face-to-face.
We met out the front of Poznań’s Town Hall, smack dab in the middle of the Town Squre. No trouble finding each other, between the backpacks and the tshirts, sketchers are easy to spot. Quick intros, recognising people from Instagram, figuring out who was going to which workshop until the Melbourne crew’s caffeine alarms went off. Off we marched to a delightful café with a cool courtyard; sketchbooks came out as fast as the hot beverages. Coffee goes cold when you’re busy drawing each other, so you need to sketch fast.
Aussies and Kiwis represent!
I had my starstruck moment too when I met Helen Wilding, whose drawings of Brunswick I’ve admired for years. She couldn’t have been kinder, and yes, I left with a postcard and she doesn’t just give those to everybody!
Back at the Town Square, I walked and wrangled with my suddenly-too-tight backpack. It was a struggle getting my left arm into the strap but once I did I realised I was trapped bacause I couldn’t get the backpack off! I was going to have to ask for help but right now, every tourist had their phones aimed at the the clock tower, waiting for the famous midday goats. In the end, I flagged down two unamused beat police who set me free.
Evening brought the Art Market (filled with amazing art products, it’s like a candy shop for urban sketchers) and official opening. The Novotel Centrum buzzed with sketchers from every corner of the globe. This is what we call our tribe; a few days each year when you know you belong. After 15,000 steps though, I tapped out early. Asleep by 8:30. Wide awake at 3am. That’s my new normal.
This morning kicked off with Ivan Chow’s lecture, The Hand that Draws the Future. His message was interesting: sketching isn’t just art, it’s brain training. Fire neurons, wire neurons backed by science. Draw more, think better, calm the mind.
Next came my first workshop with Ireland’s Róisín Curé. She’s every bit as warm, generous, and inspiring in person as she is on her YouTube channel. She turned a café into a classroom, and by the end of the session, every cup, saucer had been immortalised.
During the lunchbreak I found a shady spot under the trees and sketched Stary Browar’s least glamorous side. Not my best effort, but putting that pen on paper and doing the work is the point. Brush meets paper, brain rewires, joy stays intact. It’s just Science!
I missed my demo with Paul Wang thanks to my poor briefing-listening skills. Lesson learned. Dangit, we are destined to never meet!
Tonight’s “Drink n Draw” will carry on without me. Between jetlag, sun, and steps, I’m cooked. My sister’s grabbing sushi and a burger on her way home, and I’m here, happily tapping out this update.
