MJ @ USK BCN - Day 0

I'm really happy I was able to go to my first International Urban Sketching Symposium this month. What a great event! July has been a very busy month, as we also moved from Ottawa to Toronto just before taking off for Spain. So I really didn't have time to post too much on the blog. Now I finally get some time to report on my experience of this event. It was truly inspiring and I gained a lot from it. 

Days before leaving I found a neat little travel backpack at DeSerres while purchasing a couple art supplies for the symposium. It was a bit like getting ready to go back to school. This bag was the perfect find. It has a lot of storage compartments to stay organized and is made for traveling. It fits nicely under the seats in the plane. The bag was designed by Luca Artioli and Marco Pulga for Lexon. 

Despite being exhausted on travel day, I managed to do a couple quick urban sketches to warm up for the event. I used a simple black pen. My very first sketch was about passengers waiting to board the plane. It's interesting to see the coming and going of people from all over the world in an airport. 

We arrive a little early in the morning in Barcelona. It was 7:30AM, local time. After a quick tour around our hotel, we spend a bit of time at the hotel bar. I used the spare time to sketch an area of the bar. It was beautifully designed with a lot of neat details. There wasn't a lot of people at the time since it was early, but we were able to get some complementary juices and coffee.