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Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 10: Miscellaneous!

As always, there are stories and sketches in each trip that are hard to categorize - I told you most of my Toulouse adventures in the previous 9 posts, but much is still left unsaid! I scanned a few more pages to add here as a reminder that there is more :)

For example, I took an amazing collage class from a long-time online art friend whom I saw in real life for the first time - Marina Grechanik. How we got to share materials with a great group in this class, got bombed by a pigeon, and how much joy it brought me to collage a leaf from that park in my sketch, and how I still think about what I learned there.

And how there were parakeets in the park near our hotel, and apple trees and many interesting birds, and mice and rats - especially if you are out for a stroll at 7 am. How after a few days I had "stairs friends" and how breakfast became my most important meal of the day. How there were fireworks on Bastille Day and an important soccer match watched by the whole country, and how I slept through it all. How there were treasures to find and draw. How I went to an art museum to see Sorolla and saw Bonnard. How I played art games with friends and how I spent an unexpected extra time in Toulouse.

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

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!

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 6: More People

After scanning through my whole Toulouse sketchbook, I realized that I have more sketches of people than I thought (and shared) before! But I still wished I sketched people more!

Here are some notes and sketches from three lectures that I attended: Len Grant, Rita Sabler, and Suhita Shirodkar.

From the Big Crit Event:

Random people on the street:

Faculty Tour:

Another Dinner with Friends:

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 5: Japanese Garden

I did my demo for the Urban Sketchers Symposium at the Japanese Garden (Jardin Japonais Pierre Baudis), but since it was so close to the hub and such a wonderful place to visit and sketch, I ended up going there several times! To draw the large metal steampunk sculpture of the dragon sitting in the lovely duck-infested waters (Tholus the dragon, by Tom Petrusson), to draw in preparation for my demo (second image), and to draw with friends while being chased from the grass by the garden worker! (ducks visited us there too :)

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 4: Rooftops

After the Symposium, there were opportunities to go further from the hub and sketch in more unusual places. One of my favorite ways to see a new city is to find a good rooftop view! I had some wonderful company to sketch with in both places and used my gouache kit (see post about my trip tools) and some pencils over it.

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 3: People

The best part of USk Symposium? People!

Since my return from the trip, I've been thinking a lot about different aspects of the Symposium experience, and every time my mind goes back to PEOPLE. People I knew who made me super welcome. People I knew only online but finally met in person. People I've never known but now have an amazing connection to. People who came to my workshops and gouache demo. People who shared the experience of sketching in a hot city with lots of other sketchers. It was amazing! I drew people as much as I could, but I wish I'd drawn more :)

Here are some of the people sketches - no names ;)

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

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 2: Demo

Each of the Faculty Members at the Urban Sketchers Symposium was giving a demo on the first day of workshops. Unfortunately, all the demos were happening at the same time, so there was no chance to attend demos of the fellow symposium teachers (and there were so many I wanted to see!!). My location was in the Japanese Garden in Toulouse and I managed to find a spot with at least some shade for both myself and all who came to watch me paint.

My workshop was in black and white; however, my demo was in full color and mixed media - mostly in gouache - but with some addition of colored pencils and such. It ran a little bit over an hour. I started by explaining my tools set-up and then jumped into the scene. Painting and keeping a commentary running during each step and brushstroke is different from just painting, but I enjoyed the experience, comments, and questions from the demo participants. And I ended up with gouache-hands (see photo below), a piece that I enjoyed, and it was later auctioned at the Symposium and a dear friend got it!