Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 9: City - Shorter Sketches

In the first part of my "City Sketches" report, I collected longer sketches which required more time and more space for my materials. 

This is the second part of my report - sketches that were done with a minimum amount of tools which I could whip up in seconds. A few markers, a marker and my pocket printmaking kit, or a few pencils - all had to fit in a little pouch attached to my sketchbook with an elastic band. 

And these sketches covered everything - from sketching from a moving boat to a quick stop in a cathedral or sketching while eating an ice cream. By the way, I highly recommend this technique as a timing device - given a choice of overworking a sketch or losing part of my ice cream portion due to melting, I choose saving my ice cream every day!

I like the limited color range, and it is interesting for me to see (again) which sketches were done early in the trip (still stiff, jet-lagged, etc.) and how things opened up one-by-one. Some of these sketches were done at night - I wish I did more night sketching - something to think about! 

I hope to use more of this "extended pocket set" of tools - it is very small but more than what I usually have in my pocket (one pen), and it brought me a lot of joy this summer! Here is to a super portable kit that is more than one pen!

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 8: City - Longer Sketches

I decided to split all my "Toulouse city" sketches into two posts. Mostly because when I look through them, I see two very different approaches and two different things to learn from them. 

This is part 1:

These sketches took longer; they are mostly painted with gouache and mixed media, and I used different papers. I can definitely see which ones were done at the beginning of the trip and which ones came later - with a more relaxed and "in the groove" feeling I developed by the end of the trip. Looking at them now - after almost a month since I was there - I wish I could re-do them all :)  It is obvious that there were several sketches that had to happen only so that better sketches had a chance. There is a long list of "what is wrong" in my head, but I am working on focusing on positive things in each sketch. So here they are: 

• I am grateful for the idea of pre-mixing certain gouache colors to take with me. 
• And that there were not too many of them. 
• I am glad I thought about pairing my paints with other media in terms of colors and how they work together. 
• I liked the overlapping, and leaning into a more gestural/dancing approach to composing my pages.
• I like how white space worked in the bridge sketch. 
• And I remember how I enjoyed adding typographical elements - even is it is ineligible mostly now. 

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Succulent Garden as and Answer

When in doubt about what to draw, if I have limited time or am still jet-lagged, there is an answer to "what to draw": succulent garden! Gouache in my new Etchr Hot Press Sketchbook - gifted by Etchr as one of the sponsors at the USk Symposium.

 

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 7: Markets

While in Toulouse, I visited a couple of outdoor markets and a famous covered market named after Victor Hugo. All the tour guides suggested having breakfast or a branch of lunch there, but somehow I only drew :)

There are very colorful meat and seafood stalls, as well as bread and cheese. Fruit, flowers, wine, and coffee ones I did not get to sketch - will have to tackle them next time! 

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Two Recent Publications!

After sorting through my travel-delayed mail, I finally got my hands on an actual real-life copy of "On The Spot" with my art on the cover and my underwater sketching article inside! (Here is my original post about it) Thank you, Gabriel Campanario, for your support in editing the article and getting in published! 

And in the June 2026 issue of Drawing Attention (Urban Sketchers Publication), I have an article, "Printmaking in Urban Sketching". Thank you, USk Editorial Team and Suhita Shirodkar, for your support in editing the article!