The afternoon workshop on day two was “Light of Lisboa”, led by Matthew Brehm. This workshop, located in the largos and ruas north of Rossio, was great, and the exercises Matt gave us – making quick pencil sketches of no more than three-four minutes, focusing on the darks to make the light stand out more – were refreshingly liberating. Having spent all morning on what felt like a bit of a painstaking drawing it was nice to free myself up a bit. I like drawing in pencil – I do it so little these days that I forgot how enjoyable it feels. Of course, I ultimately like seeing my pen drawings, and so I did my ‘longer’ drawings in pen, but played about with one particular view (below), my favourite of them being the quick one in orange micron pen. It made me want to do all my drawing like that. I won’t, but it will for sure influence the drawing I do usually do.

I think this was one of the workshops that I came away from with the most new knowledge; the simple tips Matt pointed out to us really made me think about certain aspects of making a sketch. That’s what these symposia are all about, learning from the way others do things.

And here I am with my sketchbook, and my Giants t-shirt.