Moynahan Studio: Effective and Expressive Urban Sketching Workshop

On July 21, I attended a workshop with Tomas Pajdlhauser (aka Captain Tom) called: “Effective and Expressive Urban Sketching” and this blog post is about what I learned.

This was the ad for the first workshop offered by Captain Tom - demand was so great, he added another on July 20, 2019!

Our July 21 workshop group

A Captain Tom Fan

I first met Tom in 2015 when I was part of a group organized by Ottawa artist Colin White doing "Alley Sketching" around Ottawa and I've been a huge fan of Tom's ever since!

Not only do I love Tom's unique sketching style, I also follow his many world travels & sketching adventures and his work with youth (teaching animation and storytelling) on social media.

He is also co-owner of Birling, a store located in Centretown (across the street from the Art House Cafe) where he combines his passion for skateboarding and art offering great merchandise (I picked up my Birling water bottle there) and ALL of these activities happen concurrently while Tom works at his day job as Creative Director doing backgrounds for animated TV shows and movies!

The Ottawa Urban Sketchers have wanted Captain Tom to do a workshop in Ottawa for quite some time (I might have begged but it was Kristina Corre who succeeded). When Tom offered to do a workshop in Ottawa in July, and posted it to his Birling website, I signed up as fast as I could!

Captain Tom (Tomas Pajdlhauser) demonstrating his approach to inking

Captain Tom demonstrating in the afternoon portion of the workshop

I have already posted pictures and details about the workshop on the Ottawa Urban Sketchers Blog https://ottawaurbansketchers.blogspot.com/2019/07/ottawa-workshop-with-captain-tom.html and what I wanted to add here is: I went to the workshop as a fan really hoping to simply witness Tom's process more than anything else. What I walked away with at the end of the day was so much more.

For starters, even before the workshop started, I added neutral tint and turquoise to my palette because they were listed in Tom's emails. It had been a long time since I purchased any "new colours" for my palette and I absolutely love them!

Neutral tint was developed in the 18th century by English watercolorists and is essentially a light red (red iron oxide) + indigo (or iron blue) with a touch of yellow (gamboge or yellow ochre). It was preferred over sepia ink as a neutralizing (de-saturating) mixer because it did not dull either warm or cool paint. It is apparently very effective for stormy sky and Tom said he loves using it for his winter skies.
Turquoise is a beautiful earth colour on the cool side and it is the preferred colour for Tom when mixing greens (Tom mixes with yellow ochre.) I bought a Winsor Newton Cobalt Turquoise (PB28 PB30) from all the turquoise variations available for sale.

"Effective Urban Sketching"

Anyone wanting to do "Expressive Urban Sketching" Tom believes, should first learn "Effective Urban Sketching" and that was the focus of our morning session.

Tom believes that if you "mess up perspective ... proportions ... it tells your audience that you really don't understand what you are drawing"

Tom demonstrated how to locate the horizon line and how to use sighting for proportions and angles.

Tom's perspective sketch from the morning demo

Not so easy! My perspective sketch from the morning session

My Takeaways From the Morning Session

Tom said that within the first five to ten minutes before he even begins to sketch a scene, he ascertains (in his head and not on paper like at the demo) a number of practical basics such as:

Scale on the page
Identify the horizon line
Identify perspective
Blocks out proportions
Details

I do none of this. At the very most, after determining my "Why" and my "What", I make a thumbnail sketch to map out my composition and try to establish my values. When I start to sketch, I use my pencil for "sighting" (measuring and for angles), but a horizon line is not even part of my thinking process and I suspect it's not part of many other sketcher's processes either!

Here's what I will takeaway with me from this workshop's morning session:

I understand the principles of perspective but I never practice perspective and I am going to start! Using pencil only, I plan to do daily sketches where I draw the horizon line, perspective and shape proportions of everything around me.
I understand what the horizon line (eye line) is but I never practice establishing the horizon line either in my head or on paper prior to starting my sketch. I plan to do this from now on.
I still need thumbnails. Tom does not create thumbnails and instead takes mental "snapshots" of details (people, shadows etc) he plans to use later. This will not work for me. I often forget what I went downstairs for (LOL) so I know that I personally need these visual notes (thumbnails)
I will use "Perspective Made Easy" by Ernest Norling for reference with my daily sketch practice.
I will stop excluding cars from my sketches. Tom wanted us to include people and cars in our sketches and I realized how much I have been avoiding cars. Tom says "they're just boxes with wheels - apply perspective and proportion" I may spend more time just sketching cars in Centretown.

Tom highly recommends "Perspective Made Easy" by Ernest Norling and said its the only book you'll ever need. (It is available in pdf online at http://www.storytellerartist.com/documents/Perspective_Made_Easy.pdf )

"Perspective Made Easy" by Ernest Norling

Tom demonstrates how to add details to your sketch that are in proper perspective and proportion.

The Afternoon Session

In the afternoon, Tom demonstrated his approach to creating his signature expressive urban sketches.

Tom demonstrating his process for inking in the scene

Tom uses only a number 10 watercolour brush and a simple watercolour palette of only nine colours (Ultramarine Blue, Turquoise, Neutral tint , Cadmium Red, Alizarin Red ( used rarely ), Cadmium Yellow, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, and Yellow Ochre) and believes that anyone (with practice) "can make magic with just that".

Tom began to ink in the scene.

My Takeaways From the Afternoon Session

Tom's trademark sketching process goes something like this:

Penciling in a minimal amount of detail ("just a reminder")
Inking using a fountain pen working left to right. "It's terrifying. Every line is the final line." said Tom, but it is his trademark process and requires that you be fearless, embrace mistakes, and adapt along the way.

The more you draw, the less you have to paint. You can't ruin a great ink drawing with paint.
While inking constantly be looking at your subject making editorial decisions always keeping in mind that you want your viewer to see what YOU think is important. Lead them to it.

Painting: Tom is actually thinking about the colours he will use while the ink is drying on his sketch

Your first colour dictates all the other colours
Leave white paper - don't cover everywhere with watercolour -
Be aware of watercolour consistency ("tea", "coffee", "pure pigment" which reminded me of Marc Taro Holmes "tea, milk, honey") for your foreground, mid-ground and background
Tom seldom looked up when he was at the painting stage "the painting part has less to do with what I see (in the scene) and more of what I am seeing on the paper", he said

Here's what I will takeaway with me from this workshop's afternoon session:

I will experiment my newest palette colours (neutral tint and turquoise) regularly
I won't rush to use my watercolours. I will spend less time with my pencil and more time with my fountain pen inking a solid sketch before wetting my brush.
I wont rely as much on the scene for the painting part. I will concentrate on the design on the page.