Toulouse Part 12: Big Saturday Sketchwalk

October 8, 2026Leave a comment

Saturday afternoon in Toulouse, and it was time for the Final Sketchwalk. This is always a big public event where anyone can join in, and we were aiming for an end point outside the Basilique Saint-Sernin, which has a tall, tiered spire which dominates the skyline. I had intended on going straight there and just sketching around the square, but the street leading up there, Rue de Taur, was so sketchable as well so I just sketched along the way. I stopped outside a bookshop and drew the view up towards Saint-Sernin. There were sketchers everywhere, sat behind and across, walking around with their yellow bags. I noticed a sketcher sat at the corner ahead of me who had been at the same demo as me a couple of days before, I recognized her big stripy hat, and I like to sketch hats. I liked how the evening light brought out colours on those buildings, and the warm shadow creeping up the street. I enjoyed drawing this a lot, but I had not yet eaten so I went to get some dinner before carrying on. I went to this place called ‘Black and White Burger’ and had a delicious salmon burger. The bottom half of the bun was dyed jet black, probably by squid ink, which was unusual. Funny thing, eating bread dyed black, you really notice it later, as it were.

I walked further down and found a spot looking backwards down Rue de Taur from where I had come. It was a nice afternoon. Another sketcher sat nearby and we started talking, she had come from Germany, I think she taught art. One thing about meeting so many sketchers is discovering what their art background is, because we are all very diverse, some being architects, some being illustrators or comic artists, some being art teachers and professors, some are just people who have the need to draw all the time, like me, while actually doing other jobs professionally. It’s the great thing about Urban Sketching, we all come from different places artistically as well as geographically, but share that same thing, sitting or standing with a sketchbook out on the street. I saw some photos recently of King Charles III, the artist formerly known as Prince, over the years sat with his sketchbook and paints on location and I recognized that look on his face, the sketching face. The act of observing, taking it all in even if we aren’t drawing it all, it’s all the act of experiencing. Of course we as sketchers sometimes feel detached from the scenes we are illustrating, but if you listen to the sounds and the speech and feel the air it all soaks into your sketches. Just ahead of me, another group of sketchers sat down to draw, and I recognized one from the previous year, another sketcher from Germany. I had told her last year about the Totoro show in London, and so the next time she was there she went to see it. That’s awesome (and it put the Totoro theme in my head for the rest of the day), but also gave me the idea to go and watch it again when I got to London the following week, it;s still amazing. When I was nearly finished sketching, I saw some other familiar faces, Jean-Christophe Delphine came by, and with him was Tommy Kane, a very well known name among the Urban Sketchers. He was one of the original group when it was founded, same as me, so I have known him and his work for so many years but never got to meet in person, so that was great. I got to see his big detailed sketchbook, kept inside a protective bag, and it’s big and colourful and amazing as you might expect. We got a picture later. Time was already pressing on, and I probably wasn’t going to get a big close up sketch of the Basilique Saint-Sernin after all, which was fine, it would probably have felt a bit tired and rushed. I prefer these street scenes.

sketchbook with the sketches of Rue de Taur in Toulouse

At the final meeting point outside the Basilique Saint-Sernin, there were many hundreds of people gathered about. This being an open sketchwalk, there were the registered people and the people who came to Toulouse to sketch anyway, so it was a huge and fairly overwhelming crowd. I saw many people I knew though. I thought I should keep sketching sketchers, but only managed to capture the two below, from Wolfsburg in Germany (I met a lot of people from Germany at this Symposium), though I did not have time to colour in her very colourful dress. Then everyone did that thing where you put your sketchbook on the ground somewhere and hundreds of people mill past it going, hmmm. I am not a fan of the ‘throw-down’ at the best of times, anonymisng the sketches while also placing them at a stupid low distance away from your eyes, with the added risk of being trodden on. Everyone laid their sketchbooks against the foot of a railing while the crowds ambled past in a line, solemnly; it reminded me of 1997, at the gates of Kensington Palace after the death of Diana (the Princess formerly known as HRH). There were too many people, and it was a pointless exercise, so I stood back from it and muttered disapprovingly. I spotted my friend Kalina at one point and went over to collect my book from the ground where it had sat for all of three minutes, and then an American lady started really complaining to her that she was moving in the wrong direction, “Why can’t you go with the flow?! We are all going this way!” Of course I had to then say, “Never go with the flow, always against it.” But she was not happy that we had decided to move in an opposite direction from the crowd of people looking down at hundreds of anonymous sketchbooks on the floor, and made sure we knew it. So I said that I don’t go with or against the flow, I am the flow. That got a nonplussed look, but it made me laugh. I don’t like crowds, but I learned how to get through them effortlessly on Oxford Street when I was young and it works for me. But now whenever I feel like I’m not in the same lane as the rest of the world or even on the same road (which is often) I say to myself, “I am the flow” and it all just works out.

And then it was time for the Big Family Photo, which is usually a bit hectic, but this year was chaotic, with no flow whatsoever, in a plaza with little shade and not much clarity on how the photo would be organized (if it ever was). I think they did a big 360 degree picture but I didn’t know where to look. I often miss the end photo because I’m lost or still sketching. These days, it is all about milling about finding the other members of your Chapter and getting the Chapter photo, often with a massive sign showing the name of your Chapter on it, maybe some flags. I tend to wander about a bit at that point. I don’t really have a Chapter; I was one of the OGs, the original Correspondents before we had Chapters, and so my group tends to just be the people who were at the first Symposium in 2010, or the old 2008-09 Correspondents. The old USk Correspondent thing, where we would post updates to the Urban Sketchers site, hasn’t been a thing in a really long time now, at least I haven’t posted (I just post here, in the Old School). I got called over to be included in the UK photo though which was nice. I’ve been away two decades but am still representing Team GB. I missed all the California sketchers getting a photo. While I am an original member of London Urban Sketchers (2012!), I don’t have a Chapter of my own despite running the Davis group since 2010 (‘Let’s Draw Davis!’), we never ended up becoming Urban Sketchers Davis, I never got around to submitting the forms (lazy, or possibly stubborn). Maybe we should fix that and become officially under the USk-brella. Go with the flow, as it were. Anyway, I did get some nice photos, I finally got a picture with Tommy Kane, it was great to meet him after 18 years. I also got some nice pictures with Kalina Wilson, Mike Daikabura and Liz Steel who I first met in person in Portland in 2010, and just as I did last year I had them do a Brucie. It’s a new tradition. It was hot and overwhelming in that square, and we were all going to head over to the Hub for the Closing Reception, but I bumped into Don Colley and we went to a cafe for a quick beer first before walking up there, it was really nice to catch up with him.

Kalina Wilson, Pete Scully, Mike Daikabura, Liz Steel in Toulouse

Pete and a big crowd at the Toulouse Symposium

Toulouse Part 11: Saturday morning

September 27, 2026Leave a comment

The final day of the Urban Sketching Symposium. I got up early and had a good breakfast before walking up to the Hub (whenever I say that I think I’m on the Discworld). I wanted to go to Suhita Shirodkar‘s presentation “Bit By Bit Reportage”, which definitely struck a chord with me. I’ve known Suhita through Urban Sketchers for many years and have always been a big fan of her work, especially her recording of old signage in San Jose. We only ever see each other at Symposiums, despite both living in California, but I really enjoyed listening about her various reportage projects done over a long period, ‘bit by bit’ as she says, and it’s very much how I do things too, not realizing that they are reportage. “One sketch at a time collectively tells a bigger story”, one of the phrases she said that stuck in my mind. Once again I sat next to Paris sketcher Yves Damin to capture this talk, I also picked a spot behind someone with purple-blue hair, can’t help sketching colourful hair. “Inspiration is right where you are” Suhita said, I agree, that’s what urban sketching is all about. My Davis drawings over the years have taken on a theme of relentless reportage, following the changes even when I’m not noticing them. She does a lot where she meets and speaks to people, and learns their stories. All in all, a fascinating talk, which was both inspiring and reaffirming. After that, I had a look around the Art Market picking up a new small sketchbook, and then went off on the morning Sketchwalk (which was a long way away, so I took the Metro).

It was over at the Place St. Georges, a nice square with a big playground in the middle and lots of shade. There was at least one workshop happening there, I saw Veronica Lawlor teaching. I went down there with Kalina, but we ended up heading in different directions to sketch, and I settled on this spot looking at the corner of Rue de la Pomme; I wish I lived on a street called “Apple Road”. I found sketchers I knew there, my Italian pal Mauro Doro (he lives in Luxembourg) and Nicola Maier-Raimer (from Hamburg, who I’d met last year), and then Daniel Green (from Minnesota, we have met at many Symposiums now) came by as well. We were joined by Detlef Surrey (from Berlin) and Mat Let (from France, lives in La Rochelle now); I had never met Mat but have followed his great work for a while, and I met Detlef last year in Poznan and was already a big fan. I got his book about the Berlin Wall and so it was great to talk to him a bit more about it, lovely guy. So this was a really nice morning chatting and sketching with friends, it was probably one of the nicest bits of the Symposium, very relaxing. The sketch I did above I had intended to add colour, but I kept stopping and sketching my fellow sketchers instead, that was just as interesting.

The last sketcher above was an artist from Paris called Moriah Costa, who sat and sketched near us (she was taking Veronica’s workshop I think) but I loved her stripey yellow shirt, it reminded me of the Symposium logo mascot. As the morning went on, I figured I should probably head towards the end point, which as it turned out was another rally long way from the starting point, probably about 25 minutes walk at least. It was hot and I needed a cold drink, so I bade my sketching pals farewell and headed towards Place Wilson, a circular plaza with a tree filled garden in the middle. It was getting very hot already and so I found a little bit of shade and quickly drew the statue and fountains in the middle. At first I thought it was Cyrano de Bergerac, probably because I had seen a cafe with ‘Cyrano’ on it, but it looks nothing like him, and I don’t think he had anything to do with Toulouse. This was in fact the poet Pèire Godolin, also known as Pierre Goudouli, who was born and died in Toulouse between 1580 and 1649. He wrote his poetry in Occitan, the language of the South (France not actually being a monolithic French-speaking country for most of its history), and more specifically in the Toulousain dialect. (Incidentally it was only on my last day in Toulouse I realised it is ‘Toulousain’ and not ‘Toulousien’ which I had been saying incorrectly, oops). Godolin wrote the ‘Ramelet Moundi’, a collection of poetry in Occitan. Maybe I will read it someday.

Hot and still thirsty, and complaining about the distance to the end, I walked that long way up to the big Bibliotheque at Rue du Perigord, passing some amazing sketching sites along the way such as the Marché Victor Hugo, the incredible Hotel Ours Blanc and the big colourful carousel, but I reached the end point just after they were done looking at sketches and taking photos, making it totally worth the walk. It was time to get back to the hotel for a rest and maybe find some lunch anyway. I had not explored this part of central Toulouse though so went into some shops along the way. I could probably spend years sketching this place.

Toulouse Part 10: Friday evening by the river

September 25, 2026September 25, 2026Leave a comment

On the Friday evening in Toulouse, there was going to be a massive Drink and Draw across the river at Port Viguerie, an area on the banks of the Garonne with funfair attractions, a big ferris wheel, and a large restaurant where people were lined up to sit at tables. I knew that a lot of people I knew would be there, but I headed over there myself to just see who I could find. I didn’t head straight over there though, and stopped on the embankments at the Quai de la Daurade to enjoy the early evening sunlight on the riverside. This right here I think is what Toulouse was all about, people hanging out in the evening by the riverside, talking. It felt so Mediterranean (I mean it literally is), but coming from such a ‘stay home in the evening’ place it was heartening to see a city so alive with people just enjoying each others company down by the river. It’s hard to explain, but the sketches speak for themselves and these were probably my favourite ones I did on the whole Symposium, in my little brown boo, capturing the light and the community.

photo of my sketchbook showing sketches of people sat by the river in Toulouse

If I hadn’t needed to also feel a bit of social interaction with my sketching friends too, I might have stood drawing people up there until the sun went down, hearing the French conversation waft upwards. I did try out some of the new Roman Szmal paints that we were given as part of the goodie bag, in the little orange tin with the symposium logo on it, to mixed success, but it was something different.

Then I walked across the long Pont Saint-Pierre, which was also very active with people enjoying the evening, the occasional musician, and amazing views over the river at sunset. Port Viguerie was crowded with urban sketchers and it was a long walk around, Toulouse really made us get our steps in. When I first arrived I saw some people I knew in the long line waiting for a table at the big restaurant, but I said I would walk around for a bit along the banks and mingle. It was very busy, but everyone was sketching. There weren’t many places other than the big restaurant for a drink, and I had already eaten before I left (remembering the evening before when food was very late), but I bumped into a few familiar faces including Hungarian sketcher Ors Levay, who I had met the previous year, so I drew him in my little people sketchbook which was coming along nicely.

sketch of my micro sketchbook showing various sketches of faces

I then walked over to the restaurant area – Racines – and was called over by some friends to join them at their table, and had a very nice evening talking and sketching with people I had not seen in a while. There was of course Don Colley, who I had first met at Portland in 2010 and I’ve followed his art over the years but never managed to ever see him again until now, which was fantastic, sixteen years later. There was Arnaud De Meyer, my old Luxembourg sketcher friend who I’ve met at events many times since first meeting in Manchester 2016, great to see him again. He did a sketch of me (see below). There was Vincent Desplanche who I first met in Strasbourg in 2015 and several times since, I’m a huge fan of his work and he was one of the big reasons I wanted to draw in the Southwest of France (he was also one of the lead organizers of this Symposium), and Jean-Christophe Delphine whose work I have known for many years, but we only met briefly in person in Lille in 2022 (we were all at a big dinner at a moules restaurant, we did manage to sketch each other from a distance though!) and he reminded me that we had both been featured in the same Danny Gregory book many years ago, it was really nice to chat and catch up with him. He told me that Tommy Kane, another long-time urban sketcher I’d known since the start but never met in person, was in Toulouse also, they have become very good friends over the years. Tommy wasn’t out that night but I did finally catch up with him the next day. There were others there I spoke to, new people I met and also bumped into other old friends such as Rita Sabler, Amber Sausen, Daniel Green, and more. Then we had the long walk back over the river, and I walked through the busy streets back to my hotel bed. That was a very nice evening.

Arnaud De Meyer, Pete Scully, Don Colley

Vincent Desplanche, Pete Scully, Jean-Christophe Delphine — Arnaud De Meyer, Pete Scully, Don Colley

I did get a sketch of Vincent eating dinner using a pair of large paint brushes as chopsticks…

Toulouse Part 9: Friday après-midi

September 14, 2026September 14, 2026Leave a comment

After the Friday morning workshop, I took it a bit easy on Friday afternoon. I seem to remember that I had decided to take the afternoon off sketching and just relax, go to shops, hang out at the hotel, but looking at my sketchbook I did in fact draw some street scenes. But I had several hours to myself before the evening Drink and Draw, and I took my time. I did spend a lot of time in a well-stocked art shop, trying my hardest not to buy everything I saw, ending up just getting a few small easy to carry things (that I probably didn’t need; a tube of neon yellow acrylic? Hey I might need it, better buy it). They did have some good art books, including Matthew Brehm’s book on Perspective, in French, and it was fun to see some of my old curvilinear perspective sketches in there, described in French. The scene above is of a bar on the corner of Rue Gambetta and Rue Peyrolieres, near my hotel, called La Reserve. It was sketched many times by many sketchers that week, and as I was walking about the area I could not resist it. It was very colourful, full of flags and people, but I only coloured in the french flags, and the street sign, and left the rest to the imagination. I drew very fast, and decided not to stop in for a beer, as I went off to explore some other shops instead. I wish I had stopped for a beer there though, it looked cool. I did walk down to the Toulouse tourist information office nearby and got some maps and looked at old pictures of Toulouse, I love stuff like that. Toulouse is ancient, probably dating from before the Roman times, though became a prominent city under Roman rule and there are still Roman ruins. I didn’t know that Toulouse was also capital of the large Visigothic kingdom before being conquered by the Franks. Much of its growth and building happened in the 16th century, and there are lots of structures still dating from that time, including the Pont Neuf. I didn’t spend too long in there, but I’m always fascinated by how much history there is to learn.

The sketch above was drawn shortly after the workshop with Marielle, but not in pink ink. This is the Rue des Changes, and when I saw this building I felt as though I had discovered something that nobody else had seen yet, as for once there were not hoards of sketchers about drawing it. I have to sketch it, I said. I did get myself a milkshake (in place of an actual lunch) to have while sketching, and it was good to practice some perspective going down these narrow streets. I was a little tired though so I drew fast, and moved along. IT turned out that pretty much every sketcher who went to the symposium drew this scene too, at least that’s what it seemed like from Instagram. I like the old timber frame house with the thin stone wizard’s tower behind it. I don;t know if it has a name but didn’t see it on the little map I got in the tourist office. I don;t know if anyone else included the massive ice-cream cone in their sketch though, unwittingly juxtaposing with the upturned cone on top of the wizard’s tower. Urban sketching rule, if there is a massive ice-cream cone somewhere on the street you are duty-bound to include it. I ended up going to a bookshop on Rue Gambetta, which I though was small and specialist, one of many small bookshops on that block, but it turns out they were all connected as one very large bookshop, easy to get lost in, as all bookshops should be. It was called ‘Ombres Blanches’ and I was in there for ages. I did end up getting a couple of books, both translations from English books, but ones I’ve wanted (one was a translation of a Terry Pratchett book, the other of an Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy adventure game book, one which I had in English as a kid could never finish, and it turns out I can’t finish it in French either! Great to read in French though, it’s good practice). Also bought some nice cards, I always love the ones over there. Rue Gambetta was amazing for shops though, it was like my perfect street. Bookshops, Comic shops, Games shops, a great Record shop, a couple of Guitar shops (just off that street, near La Reserve), there was even a Football Shirt shop which had some harder to find shirts too, including the maroon Portland Timbers kit I got a couple of years ago. It was the best street to get a hotel on, and I had a great afternoon looking through the shops.

This last one was done after my rest at the hotel, I had popped across the street to get some street food, then walked around to Place du Capitole for some late afternoon sketching before the Drink and Draw that evening. I used my purple fountain pen and sketched the Rue du Poids de l’Huile (‘Road of the Weight of the Oil? I might be mistranslating that). I can see why they call it the Pink City at this time of day, the light gets a pinkish glow and the stone of the buildings is warm and soft. I like this sort of perspective view too, it’s fun to draw. The evening before on the Sketchwalk, I was talking with a couple of people after I’d done my first sketch, one was an older American woman, and the subject of perspective came up (I think she’d said that she can’t draw straight lines, I said me neither but it doesn’t matter, they all curve eventually anyway). So they asked me to explain curving perspective, which I did as best as I could, based on what I’ve learned (and taught) over the years. While I don’t always get it perfect, and shy away from being very ambitious, I do have a lot of experience with it and like to use it subtly. Anyway, I demonstrated with the buildings around us how you can see the lines go up and then curve around before going down again behind us, and drew out the rough grid to show how that works. She was very sceptical and wasn’t just going to take some “random man’s word for it when her teacher had said to do it with a straight ruler.” (I mean, I have appeared in a book about perspective.) She then wanted to look at the drawing I had just done (the back of a cathedral). “There, see!” she said, clearly winning the argument. “Your lines are straight, not curving!” and I had to explain that this was just one small section of a larger scene, you can’t see the curve like that, but if I drew back and showed the whole street, the curve would be there, as that’s how my eye sees it. She wasn’t having any of it. “Well,” she said “that’s just your opinion.” I mean, no it’s not? Anyway as I sketched the Road of the Weight of the Oil in my purple fountain pen I probably had this in mind as I let the street curve with the eye, following the line of the windows towards the vanishing point (trust the windows, not the ground), my eyeline being just below that of many of the people as I was sat down on a concrete block outside a restaurant, surrounded by waiters and kitchen staff on their break. It was not quite as hot as it had been, and this was looking like it would be a nice Friday evening. I was heading over to the other side of the river for the big evening Drink and Draw, where I would hopefully meet some of the other sketchers I know (and maybe not be asked to explain perspective again).

Toulouse Part 8: Marielle’s Pink Morning

September 11, 2026September 10, 2026Leave a comment

After a long Thursday I slept pretty well, and took my time eating breakfast in the morning. It was overcast and looking like it would not be as hot which was a good sign. By the time I got to the Symposium Hub, I saw the long security line and knew the morning talks would already be mostly over, so I missed that and gathered for the morning Workshop. I had signed up for one workshop only and it was a good one, “Lights and Delights in the Pink City!” with French artist Marielle Durand. I have been a fan of Marielle’s work for years and especially her drawings in blue ink wash, which is really expressive and she has a book I’d like to read called ‘Bleu d’Auvergne’. It’s a very different from the sort of linework drawings I do, but really inspires me and is a style I really want to learn to play with. When I saw a few months before that Marielle’s workshop was available I quickly switched from the first one I had signed up for, and I’m so glad I did, as this really was very different for me and a lot of fun to play with. We were given some special pink acrylic ink to use (I did order some before, just in case), Rohrer and Klingner (from Leipzig) in Magenta, which is a very bright colour indeed. Toulouse was all about the pink. We were in the courtyard at the Hôtel d’Assézat, a 16th century building which now houses the Fondation Bemberg art collection. Marielle showed us a variety of techniques and had a really helpful handout. It was outside my comfort zone, seeing a scene in a different way, approaching it with layers, making my brain work a bit differently. We started with some simple exercises, I found it hard to get used to the ink at first.

I think I actually enjoyed sketching people in this style more than the architecture, which daunted me, like the opposite of my usual situation. I liked looking at things more simply though, in terms of basic shape blocks, how things related to each other, and starting with the lightest tones. We did some test sketches to see how this all worked.

I enjoyed talking to some of the other sketchers at this workshop, it was a really friendly group. Our final exercise was a larger drawing using the previous processes and trying to show more depth and light. I definitely found it tricky, just wanting to go more into some kind of line drawing, but it was a really fun thing to play with. I want to do more, in different colours (I went and bought some blue ink after that which I’ve yet to use; I did try some green ink sketching in London briefly) but playing in this bright pink was so much fun. Merci Marielle for a fun workshop! After it was done we had a group photo, and I went to an art shop nearby because there are never enough art materials to have. France has some really good stuff we can’t get in the US, but I held back, I already have so much. The sun wasn’t yet coming out, in fact it even started to rain a little, but it was still feeling sweaty so I walked back towards the hotel for a rest.

Toulouse Part 7: Thursday Evening Sketchwalk

September 10, 2026September 10, 2026Leave a comment

The Thursday evening Sketchwalk was quite far from the Hub, but I jumped on the Metro for a few stops and found myself next to the cathedral of Saint-Étienne. The summer evening sunlight was dripping with gold. I was early for the Sketchwalk (since it was about 40 minutes’ walk from the Hub, most people did that, adding to their already massive step count for the day. Looking at the map, the end point of this Sketchwalk should not be too far, at the Museum de Toulouse (where I think the limited-ticket Drink and draw event was going to happen that night, but I was not fast enough to pay extra for that ticket). Actually it was about another 25-30 minutes away on foot, accounting for getting lost a few times, which not only eats into your sketching time but also, why so far from the start point for such a short Sketchwalk? I wasn’t thinking of that when I got a headstart on my evening sketching. Actually I first sketched a fire hydrant around the corner from the cathedral (see below), and as I sketched I had a conversation with a young sketcher from Germany who had travelled to Toulouse with her partner for the Symposium, but not as registered attendees. There were a lot of non-registered sketchers here, as there were in Poznan, and it really made it all feel as though this was the global capital of sketching for a few days. It’s inspiring for those of us who like to draw everything. Anyway I found a spot in some shade to draw the back of the cathedral, and decided to draw in pencil, which was slightly faster, but not really by that much. I loved the really thick charcoal pencil I used for the tree foliage in the foreground though, it’s one of those I have in my bag from a previous Symposium that I never use, but it’s fun to experiment. As I stood sketching, as I always do, my legs started to feel all that walking. A restaurant was opening up nearby, some of the workers were sat outside before their shifts. One of the women who worked there came up and asked if I’d like a seat, since they didn’t have any customers yet, which was very nice of her. She brought a seat out to me and I was able to rest while adding in the paint. Still it took me an hour to draw it. I was really happy with it. I do wish I had drawn the view from the front as well though, in the main Place. I saw a lot of people sketching that and their drawings were amazing, but I didn;t have time because I had to go on a long expedition to find the Sketchwalk’s distant end point.

Pete in sunglasses standing in front of Cathedrale St. Etienne in Toulouse holding up a sketch of the cathedral.

Here is that little fire hydrant (inside its protective shell as many are here) in a quiet street, covered in stickers. Another one for the collection.

It was a long journey to the end point by the Museum of Toulouse, and by the time I got there, there was o time at all for sketching, and I missed the throw-down (not worried about that, I never like those), and the final photograph (would have been nice, but ‘tant pis’). I did find the spot where Simon de Montfort died, which was impressive, there was a big plaque commemorating his death at the Siege of Toulouse fighting in the Albigensian Crusade. I always thought he died in battle in England, but it turns out that was the younger Simon de Montfort, the one who led the Barons’ revolts against the king in the mid 13th century and effectively ruled England. This one was the father, the Elder, I always forget there were more than one. Still, very impressed to find big historical landmarks. There were a lot of people still about at the end of this Sketchwalk and I was talking to some sketchers from England, one of whom was Si Newell, whose amazing work I have followed for years but I had never met (though I did sketch him at a London sketchwalk years ago, but didn’t realize that he was Si Newell at the time). It was amazing to look through his book in person, his style is so distinctive, I remember Gerard Michel enthusing about him years ago. Anyway a whole group of us went to dinner, sketchers from all over the world, at an Italian restaurant nearby. It was so hot, everyone was so sweaty. It was nice but we ate so late; I had seen Len Grant at another table eating a delicious looking pasta dish so I ordered the same thing, but it actually came with loads of bacon on it, I don’t eat that so had to have that taken off, but embarassing, but the pasta was lovely. I still came nowhere near finishing it, it was a huge dish and I was stuffed. Everyone was talking to each other though, these are always the best moments of the Symposium, though I think I was the only one sketching. I tried to draw as many of the people there as I could, though I was pretty exhausted by this point it was still a fund way to capture the evening. There was a pair of large naked green statues behind Si (he is the one in the middle with the beard). I didn’t have room for desert, but I had a very refreshing beer before the walk back to the hotel.

As I was getting back to Place Capitole to my hotel, I walked past a table and saw a bunch of old friends, Lapin, Arnaud, Mauro and some others, and Dan Archer who I’d met the previous year, so I stopped to chat and sketch with them for a little bit. Lapin’s family were there, I don’t think I’d met his wife before and his daughter was a baby last time I saw her. I had made these little blank Panini football style stickers to draw people on, but kept forgetting to actually sketch on them so I drew a few here, really quick tired sketches, and gave them out. I think they were the only ones I did on the trip, but it’s an idea I’ll keep for a future sketching event. Lapin had been drawing his famous portraits on beermats this time, and so he did a sketch of me and gifted it to me, it’s very cool. I still remember him drawing my hand on the night before the very first Symposium (how young we all were) and calling it ‘L’incroyable tenu de crayon de Pete’ (because of the way I hold my pen, which gets remarked upon a lot, and after that it became the official name for it). By this time I was exhausted and well in need for a good night’s sleep, and I slept well.

Toulouse Part 6: Róisín’s Thursday Afternoon Demo

September 8, 2026Leave a comment

Thursday afternoon in Toulouse. After my break at the hotel I had a late lunch at a little place called ‘Les Burgers de Papa’ on Rue des Lois, and had a conversation with a French sketcher who was in there too, before walking to the Hub to join the gathering for the Afternoon Demos. This is the part of the Symposium where everybody has to pick a Demo (when they register, in the few seconds they have to decide their whole schedule), just one Demo, and then everyone heads out en masse to a spot where their Demo instructor will give a demonstration of their urban sketching theme or technique, and speak and draw or paint for about an hour while you watch. Often during workshops there is never enough time to just watch the instructor do a full picture so these can be useful, but there’s only one opportunity to attend a Demo. I quite like them because they are a bit more relaxed. In Toulouse, one thing it did mean was even more walking. After the long walk up to the Hub, our group gathered and then had another very long walk (about 30 minutes) back down to a shaded square overlooking the Garonne. I had signed up for Róisín Curé’s Demo on ‘Fast People Sketching’. Since this is something I like to do a lot at Symposiums I was interested to pick up some different tips and tools, and Róisín (who is an urban sketcher from Galway) spoke a lot and shared a lot of techniques. I had originally signed up for her Workshop, but changed to Marielle Durand’s one afterwards (big fan of Marielle’s work and wanted to learn her technique; see the post on that Workshop later!), I switched from the first Demo I’d signed up for to this one. We gathered under the shade of some big plane trees and Róisín started quick sketches of people that were sat at nearby cafes, and I took the opportunity to sketch the scene myself, taking notes as I do. One of my favourite moments from the Poznan Symposium was sketching Stephanie Bower’s Demo, drawing all the people there watching, and then meeting and speaking to them after. It is a fun way to document what the Symposium is all about. In the sketch above, the guy I captured briefly in the hat is a sketcher from Croatia called Mario that I spoke with afterwards and now follow, he was nice and he just mailed me a copy of his sketching zine from Hvar, that was a great read. Below, I drew the volunteer (whose name I didn’t catch), she was seated and would be translating some of Róisín’s comments into Spanish for a couple of the Spanish-speaking sketchers who were there.

There is Róisín again above talking and sketching. It was pretty hot out and everyone was sweating, but I was glad for the shade. There were some other Demos happening nearby, I spoke with one sketcher from England (Peter) that I’ve met a few times who had left his assigned Demo because it was not interesting, better to wander and sketch. I really enjoyed this one though and wanted to sketch the scene from the other side, so I drew the group there fast, adding in a few pink shapes for the background, it was all it needed. I liked that massive stripy hat that one woman was wearing, I did draw her hat twice during this Symposium as she ended up in one of my Saturday sketches too, when she was sketching nearby, though I never spoke to her. I did chat with some other sketchers after the Demo and walked back to the Hub (another long walk) with a sketcher from Germany, Gabriela, in time for the start of the next activity, the evening Sketchwalk (which would be taking place about 40 minutes’ walk from the Hub, seriously; thankfully for that, I jumped on the Metro, but a lot of people did make the trek). Too much walking in the late afternoon heat. I drank plenty of water.

Toulouse Part 5: Thursday Morning

September 5, 20262 Comments

After the Halle de La Machine on Wednesday I went straight to the Symposium Hub, which was at a municipal building called Pierre Baudis, and unlike at any other symposium there was a security search and metal detectors before you could go inside. That slowed things down, and there was a long line to enter the building. Good place to chat to people, but it was annoying to have to do that every day. It was packed inside, but the system to get registered and pick up the lanyard and goody bag was well run; there were about 800 sketchers registered for this event, it was massive compared to how it used to be. Like last year, more than half were first-time Symposium attendees too. It really has grown so, so much since that first Symposium in 2010 (see these posts with tag “UskPDX10”!), and since Urban Sketchers launched in 2008 (see this post!). So many people were in pink, the colour of Toulouse, and not just the hi-viz volunteers. It was very exciting. It was also still so very hot, and not any less sweaty inside. I did sketch during the opening reception, and caught up with old sketching friends, but I will post that separately. I then went quickly to watch the England semi-final at a pub which, very annoyingly, they lost, against that lot. I already posted that. Let’s fast forward to Thursday morning, then. After a nice breakfast at the hotel I walked up to the Hub, about 20-25 minutes from my hotel, to catch the morning remarks. Of course I missed those, because the line to get through security was really long. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything too important. I did at least arrive in time for the Presentations, which is always one of my favourite parts of a Symposium, getting to hear another urban sketcher speak about something, I find it really inspiring. Last year’s ones (Elizabeth Alley adventuring in the Arctic, Rita Sabler telling difficult stories around the world and Detlef Surrey following the Berlin Wall) were really fascinating. I like to draw these talks and take loads of notes of course, as I do all the time anyway. This one was by Len Grant, a Manchester based artist whose work I’ve followed for a while, I think since the Manchester 2016 Symposium. He was presenting on the theme of “Publishing a Neighbourhood Sketchbook in 154 Easy Steps”. Since this is something I have been thinking about doing for ages, Davis, I was particularly interested in what he had to say. His books look great, and his talk was very funny, I took a lot of notes. I sat next to Yves Damin from Paris who also sketched. I am always surprised at how few people are sketching along at these talks these days, but I’m someone who can’t really stop. Len said he has four books based on neighbourhoods in Manchester, and that got me thinking, yeah I could do two about Davis, one for the city and one for the campus, but then what about London, I would love to do a Burnt Oak and Edgware book, then do one for every other part of London that has meaning to me, Crouch End and Highgate, Camden Town, Tottenham, and then I think wait, I’ve been talking about a Davis one for more than a decade and still haven’t found time. Well maybe I’ll get going on that. If I get time.

I had a one-workshop Symposium pass this time, same as last year, but my workshop was not until Friday so I joined the Thursday Morning Sketchwalk, which was going to be starting at the same place as the Welcome Sketchwalk the day before, down by the river. It was a fairly long walk down there but there were people to talk to. Spotting symposium attendees all around was easy enough, with our orange lanyards and nametags (great for when you can’t remember people’s names) and those bright yellow bags that all the art goodies came in, they might be my favourite symposium bags yet, with ‘Loulou’ on them. I sketched some of the volunteers at the start as we all gathered, many others were heading off on their workshops, and those tall sticks with the pink signs on were very helpful. The army of volunteers really made the whole thing run smoothly.

We gathered to sketch on the high Embankments by Place de la Daurade. The panorama sketch above was of sketchers looking out across the Garonne. It had pre-splattered it with light coloured paint, in fact this was done a couple of days before because I had expected to eb drawing fireworks but that didn’t happen, so I drew sketchers. Genine Carvalheira is there on the left, and there was a sketcher from Canada over there too who I spoke to for a bit (but cannot remember her name; this is why I write them down!). The others were a group of sketchers from Madrid who I didn’t get a chance to speak to that day, but I happened upon them a few days later in Carcassonne, and sketched alongside them, and made friends with them even though I speak no Spanish and they spoke no English. We speak Urban Sketching. Lovely people, they gave me an Urban Sketchers Madrid badge.

Here are a few more people I sketched down there, above you have Sander from Mechelen, in Belgium, sat sketching with his headphones on, we spoke for a little while, and then I drew a couple of sketchers from Austria, Victoria Krisai and Jelde Flessner (I mis-spelled his first name), very quick sketchesjust to capture the moment. I liked his pink hat.

One thing I will say about the Sketchwalks in Toulouse versus the ones in Poznan, the ones this year tended to cover a very large area, a long walk between start and end points, and also they are advertised only to Symposium attendees and not to the general public. That’s two things I will say about the Sketchwalks. I didn’t mind so much the second because the non-registered people found them anyway; there are always a lot of people who come for the ride, who could not get a regular ticket, but are still a big part of the whole Symposium experience and I met a lot of ‘Symposium Fringe’ sketchers, several of my sketching friends did just that. They don’t get the orange lanyard or the yellow bag, but Urban Sketchers did design a special Urban Sketching ID badge this year that people can download and wear even if they are independent sketchers in the whole thing, which is nice. Still, Poznan advertised their Sketchwalks with a lot of advance notice, Toulouse however may have been more conscious of the crowds, and not without reason – that Welcome Sketchcrawl was really over-populated, as was the final one on Saturday, so I can see why. No, my gripe was the long distance covered, and it was like that for all of them. One of the Sketchwalks had an end point over 30 minutes’ walk from the start and when you are sketching and it’s hot, that’s a long way to go for a short event (I walked and timed it, but missed the actual end photo). Just have it closer, focus on one area. This one was a bit of a walk too, but it was at Place du Capitole, right by my hotel, so not as bad. Before heading up there though I stopped to draw the scene above, because I loved all those rooftops. I wish I’d had a higher vantage point, so I could sketch them from above. I drew fast, then dashed up to the end point, where I didn’t miss the photo, I just didn’t join it because I was talking to people. I did a couple more people sketches (the one on the left, below, is of my long-time Urban Sketchers pal Omar Jaramillo, though it’s not very accurate, I was hot and tired. We got a nice photo together after. I declined to go to lunch though as I needed to rest and shower, the Toulouse heat already getting to me. I am glad I did. The next event was later in the afternoon, the Live Demos, and that was a walk back to the Hub and another walk back to the River. I definitely got my steps in in Toulouse.

Toulouse Part 4: Halle de La Machine

September 4, 2026Leave a comment

After hearing so much about and seeing so many sketches of this incredible place with all the machines and the giant Minotaur, I took Wednesday afternoon to look for it myself. I took a train to Montaudran, on the outskirts of Toulouse. It took a little while, as there seemed to be only one train an hour so I spent a lot of time waiting in the main SNCF station in Toulouse, Matabiau. I went into a photo booth and made some silly photos, you can get them themed on the World Cup where you copy the poses of various French players. Back in France 98, I got a similar thing which I still have, though I’m 28 years older now and so I am even sillier. Eventually the train came. Montaudran isn’t far, and the Halle de La Machine is a very short walk from the station. Short, but in blazing heat. The deceptively cool morning had turned into a furnace by mid-afternoon. I only had a couple of hours by now before I’d have to go back and get registered for the Symposium, pick up my packet and my pass, see all the people. That should be enough? Soon after arriving, I definitely wished I had longer. It’s one of the most unusual places I have ever visited, a collection of highly inventive and often massive machines housed in and around a large building on an old airport runway. ‘La Machine’ is the creation of François Delarozière, and it’s hard to explain them, so you should check out their website. Perhaps the most famous of the giant machines in their collection is Astérion the Minotaur, which I sketched above. It is gigantic, and kept outside. It has platforms on its back so people can ride on it, because it is not just a giant statue, it does actually move about, walking (with the aid of wheels) about the grounds, breathing smoke and bellowing. When I arrived,I was told Astérion was still sleeping, so I waited until it was being woken up before going to sketch it. There were, naturally, some other sketchers around, and I wouldn’t be surprised if at least half the Symposium sketchers visited at some point. It’s an urban sketcher’s delight. I had to pick what I sketched sparingly, as I only had a couple of hours, and I didn’t join the tour which was going around demonstrating how a lot of the machines work (which sounded really fun), but while I sketched the enormous unusual machine below, the performers of La Machine transported us into a different world.

This immense structure, made of steel, balloons, glass, and lots of botanical features, is called Le Module Aéroporté, created between 2010 and 2013 and built by Patrick Grevoz, and looks like some sort of flying greenhouse. It’s hard not to think of the sort of creations in Miyazaki movies, like Howl’s Moving Castle, and Castle In The Sky. ‘Steampunk’ would not do it justice. Ethereal live music started playing, and clouds were pumped into the space, propellors rotated slowly while performers on bungee ropes sailed up and down, giving the effect that this whole machine was flying slowly through the sky. It was a pleasure to be sketching at this moment, though I wanted to draw fast, as this thing was just so, so big. I felt quite emotional, it was such a piece of theatre, and I wanted to spend the time really taking it all in, but I also wanted to draw it, and I also knew I did not really have the time. It made me want to start drawing and inventing my own flying machines, which I always used to love doing as a kid, the more impractical the better. This is a place for the imagination alright.

There are so many machines and inventions, not just the giant ones. Several were musical instrument based, with guitars and drums mixed in with strange steel contraptions and bicycle wheels. I watched a demonstration of a guitar machine called ‘La Pete Townshend’, where the performer would play some tunes on the electric guitar, and then a huge rotating metal arm would swing around performing the famous Townshend windmill power-strum. Another machine used wheels and parts of s ewing machine to create a device that painted pictures. Another had eight guitars bolted to a giant wheel, I have no idea how that was supposed to work. There was a massive banquet table with iron machines on it to open and pour bottles of wine and sort out your plates and cutlery. I wish I could have watched it all. There were two giant spiders, one inside and one out, so I found a chair and sat to draw the inside one, looking right at me with massive creepy-doll saucer eyes. I thought about the neighbour kid in Toy Story. Spiders do scare me so this would have been terrifying to see in action. I drew it quickly and coloured it in later. I heard an announcement that the Minotaur was waking up.

It was sweaty enough inside where it was cool, outside was scorching by this point. I started to draw the Minotaur when one of the little French kids waned me that it would be waking up any moment and I had to be careful or it would probably walk on me, thanks for the warning kid. I followed the crowd out of the way, and stood in some shade across the runway. The assembled kids and their families were treated to a show of mechanical fountains and what might have been snow machines dotted around, scaring the life out of the parents, and me too. I drew the Minotaur from the side, before being chased from my shady spot by a nearby fountain nozzle that probably wouldn’t have hit me, but I took no chances. I resumed my spot next to Astérion the Minotaur and watched it wake up. It was a spectacular sight. A woman in the cockpit area controlled its movements, and the eyes opened, steam came from its nostrils, its mouth opened to murmur and bellow, its arms made shapes and the wooden panels that made up its hide moved in and out as it breathed. It was incredible. I was not there long enough to watch it move about, but I experienced enough of it to be super impressed. I picked up a few bits in the gift shop, and went to catch my train back into Toulouse. If you are ever down that way, I recommend visiting the Halle de La Machine, and maybe going in the morning to give yourself more time there.

Toulouse Part 3: Big Wednesday Morning Sketchwalk

September 2, 2026Leave a comment

After a good nights sleep (I had expected French fans partying in the street until the wee hours, but they lost the semi-final to Spain), I woke up early on July 15 and had a nice breakfast at the hotel. This was the first day of the Symposium, but official check-in wasn’t until late afternoon, and I had the day to do whatever I wanted, as long as it was sketching. There was going to be a big ‘welcome sketchwalk’ down by the river in the morning, open to anybody whether part of the Symposium or not, so that was my plan. I also wanted to try to get down to the Halle de la Machine as well, and sketch the big Minotaur. thankfully after the roasting hot day before, this morning was much cooler, with some cloud providing a bit of a break from the oppressive sun. (Spoiler Alert, it didn’t last and the afternoon was even hotter) I walked down Rue Gambetta, which is where my hotel was (on the corner of Place de la Capitole) and it turned out that Rue Gambetta was the most interesting street in France. It had great cafes and bars, sure, but it had record shops, comic shops, loads of bookshops (most of which turned out all to be the same huge bookshop with different entrances, based on its themed areas), games shops, guitar shops, and even (and I am not makin this up) a football shirts shop, in which they had many classic shirts including the maroon Portland Timbers shirt I got a couple of years ago. I stood outside a board games shop which had not opened yet, and drew the scene above. It was a fairly narrow sidewalk, and as I sketched, various fellow sketchers passed by, on their way down to the Garonne. I recognized a few, who said hello/bonjour, and as more and more people passed by with sketchbooks and stools over their shoulder I was definitely getting excited. Like when you go to a football match and see your people on the tube in their Spurs shirts, and then you do the long walk up Seven Sisters, and you get closer to the stadium and can hear the crowd and smell the onions on the hot dog stand, and the people selling scarves and programmes, and the lads coming out of the pub and the kids on their dads’ shoulders. Well it wasn’t really like that at all, actually, but I was still excited to be at the Symposium, around the world’s sketchers again. My crowd. It might have felt a little performative, standing sketching while everyone was heading towards the sketchwalk, but urban sketching is urban theatre, “all the world’s a page” and all that. (I thought of that phrase a few years ago when writing a workshop I never ended up teaching) When I’d done enough I walked down Gambetta towards Place de la Daurade, where the Sketchwalk was happening. And wow, there were a LOT of people down by the river.

I saw some people I recognized and said hello, but mostly just wandered about looking for sketchers to draw. I zeroed in on this one guy in a beret, whose name was Akalu, and who lived in Michigan (but originally from Ethiopia). I wanted to sketch fast and often, using my fountain pen in my little brown book. It was nice to chat with people, find out what they like sketching, and be friendly and open. The Symposiums are so, so big now that it can be easy to feel a little lost in the throng, and a usually shy person like me would, if this were my first one, probably just hide. I still do, really. So I like to try to talk to people, and sketch them. I met a lot of people I didn’t sketch, and among all the people there I do now find it hard to remember people as well when I’ve not sketched them too. Oh by the way, the little stamp on the page, that was the official Symposium logo, the little mascot is called ‘Loulou‘ and was designed by local illustrator Olivia Marcus. I loved the logo. Also below, I met a sketcher from Houston called Chris Fitzgerald, who told me stories about San Francisco while I drew her. Then (after spotting my old pal Omar who I last saw in berlin last year) I found a spot with a view across the river, among the trees and the hundreds of people, and tried to capture the scene (above). This was a lot of sketchers. Probably too many sketchers. But each of them was doing what we do, just drawing the world, like I do every day. Capturing the occasion. I listened in to people talking to each other, in English and in French (and some German). I always worry in crowds like this whether I’m going to get a bit lost and not find the people I know, but as I wandered about, I came across them, had a few nice reunions.

I did want to sketch the sketchers hard at work though. Usually I’d go and show them, sometimes I’d forget. You can see in the second sketch below there’s one of the volunteers, wearing the distinctive bright pink hi-viz vest they made them all wear. I really liked her yellow bumblebee-striped hat.

It was so nice beside the river. I drew the sketcher above, whose name was Heike (she was from either Germany or Austria), and then sketched the two ladies fanning themselves on the embankment. It was already getting very warm. I ended up getting one of those hand-held paper fans myself, as many people did, and made good use of it during that week. And then, we all gathered up to look at all of our sketchbooks, but there were so many people that I didn’t really see anything. As we know I’m not a fan of the whole “put your book on the floor and have loads of people wonder whose book it is” thing they like to do at the sketchwalks. I wandered off back to the hotel, and planned the rest of my day. It was definitely getting hot again, there was no escaping it.