This summer, I had the privilege of attending the International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toulouse, France.
The four-day conference brings together sketchers from all over the world. There are workshops and lectures by veteran urban sketchers, professional artists, and art educators; sketchwalks and drink-and-draws; and meet-the-author events.
Even though the symposium only had about 500 tickets available, hundreds and hundreds of additional sketchers flocked to Toulouse to draw. If you visited any major tourist spot or main street in Toulouse, you’d see dozens, sometimes hundreds, of people sketching. It’s truly such a fun and beautiful sight!
Anyway, I’m writing this blog post to share the highlights of the symposium for me and my thoughts on what I plan to do differently when I attend the 2027 symposium (Toronto). I hope this article helps people avoid the mistakes I made as a first-time symposium goer.
Highlights and What Went Well
Sketching in the morning, outside at a coffee shop
Sketch first thing in the morning
This is my number one takeaway from the symposium: sketch first thing in the morning. Past 10:30 AM it’s too hot or too sunny, there’s too much going on–events and people asking you to do things, and by the afternoon you’ll be exhausted. If you don’t sketch in the morning, you risk not getting in any satisfying sketches in the whole day, especially if you are participating in workshops! With workshops, you’re most likely trying something new or mimicking someone else’s style, and if that’s all you do that day, I guarantee you’ll think “I didn’t sketch enough” when you’re lying in bed that night.
My favorite moments from Toulouse were when I was sketching in the quiet morning while drinking coffee and eating a pastry. I will 100% do this every single day of the Toronto symposium.
Rosa Gallery Toulouse palette
Not bringing a lot of supplies; Rosa Toulouse Watercolor Palette
I was tempted to bring all the art supplies I own.
I talked myself out of bringing anything but a small sketchbook and a handful of pens and pencils because I knew I’d get the symposium welcome bag, which has a lot of supplies in it, and that I’d want to buy stuff at the symposium art market. And it worked out great! My absolute favorite purchase was the Rosa Gallery Toulouse Watercolor Palette.
Rosa Gallery is a Ukrainian-based art supply maker. They produced a watercolor set specifically for the conference made of colors that are prevalent in Toulouse architecture, like orange/pink and baby blue. Using this new palette was exciting. I would 100% buy a symposium-specific palette again. (Note: Rosa only took cash!)
Meeting Stephanie Bower
There were a few author meet-and-greets midday. I went to one that featured Stephanie Bower, who is dubbed the “queen of perspective” and has created a number of books about urban sketching. Stephanie is an urban sketching celebrity, and I’ve been a huge fan of hers ever since she was featured on the Drawing Inspiration podcast, on which she talks about the emotional journey she took to arrive at becoming an urban sketcher. Her books have been immensely helpful to me in developing my skills, particularly regarding perspective.
She was lovely in person, of course, and I had the chance to talk with her for over five minutes and take a photo with her. She signed my copy of “Understanding Perspective.” It was an honor to meet such a legend–it’s something I will remember forever!
What else went well:
Closing ceremony auction: The artists who led a lecture or workshop were able to submit one piece to an auction at the end of the symposium. They displayed these works like a mini gallery, right outside of the closing ceremony function hall. The work was brilliant and beautiful, and I loved seeing it all.
Introducing myself to new people: I tried to be outgoing during the symposium even though I am an introverted person. It paid off because one of the best parts of being in Toulouse was chatting with people from around the world.
Symposium merch: There was NO merch at the symposium! I couldn’t believe it. Thankfully, I had ordered a symposium hat on the Urban Sketchers’ online store prior to the event. I’m so glad I got it ahead of time!
Workshop
What could have gone better; lessons learned
Registration process is a nightmare
Urban Sketchers uses Eventbrite to release their tickets, and it does not work well…at all. They release the tickets in waves, depending on how many workshops the ticket includes, and in order to get a ticket you have to repeatedly refresh the page and attempt to purchase a ticket until the request randomly goes through. If you look at social media posts about this topic, you’ll find dozens of angry and disappointed people who were not able to get tickets, or they were able to get tickets but could not register for the workshops they wanted.
I saw on one of the complaint posts about this that a representative of the Urban Sketchers said that they have to keep this system because it is the only affordable option. While I understand the budget constraint, this step in the symposium process is a crucial one, and I feel like they need to change this for next year or risk losing potential attendees.
Maybe they will improve the process, but if not, my advice to first-timers is to continue to refresh your page until your request goes through and even attempt to do so well after the ticket sale initially dropped. I was able to purchase my ticket twenty minutes after they were dropped, despite it appearing like they sold out. I heard some people were able to purchase hours later.
But honestly, if you can’t get a ticket, it’s far from the end of the world, which leads me to my next topic…
Getting a ticket wasn’t necessary
I like to learn, so I thought I’d definitely want to attend multiple workshops and lectures. Surprisingly, by the end of the symposium, I wished I’d gotten the sketch pass (zero workshops) or not gotten a ticket at all.
The workshops were fun, but they are three hours long during the hottest part of the day. Similarly, at the workshops, it was interesting to learn someone else’s sketching style, but really I would have rather spent that time sketching in my own style. The lectures are informative, but they run out of seats (I had to sit on the floor). The art market, meet-the-author events, and most of the sketchwalks are public, so you can still enjoy those things without a ticket. The opening and closing ceremonies weren’t anything special, and while it was exciting to open up the goody bag, the truth is that I don’t need more art supplies, and when I get new supplies, I want to pick them out myself.
My plan for Toronto is to go for a SketchPass, but I won’t be upset if I can’t purchase one. There were sketchers everywhere in the city, and no one cares if you have a symposium pass or not. I’m more excited for Toronto because I’ve already decided that I will have more time to actually sketch!
Closing ceremony
Stay close to the venue
The conference venue is the hub of everything. My Airbnb was about a twenty-five-minute walk from the venue, and it was way too far–it made each day more exhausting than it needed to be. I highly recommend staying within a ten-minute walk so that you are able to easily go back to your room if you need a break, forgot something, want to change clothes, etc. I switched to a nearby hotel for the last two days of the symposium, and it was much better.
What else couldn’t have been better:
Planning my schedule: As I said before, I think it’s important to sketch early in the morning. I think it can also be beneficial to have an idea of spots you want to sketch or sketchwalks you definitely want to do ahead of time.
Mentally prepare for how good and intense others are: The people who attend this are going because they love urban sketching. Some people are really, really intense about it. Like, still sketching at 11 PM at night at the bar sort of intense (I saw this with my own eyes!). I felt a little self-conscious in my first workshop because I was obviously the least skilled drawer of the group. I quickly shook this feeling–and I absolutely loved seeing all the wonderful work everyone produced, and it inspired me to want to keep improving my own craft. I’m not bringing this topic up to complain, but I am glad to understand this going into Toronto.
Knowing people: I only knew one other person attending the symposium. I’m certain this number will go up since Toronto is only a short flight from Philadelphia. I think my experience would have been better if I had a couple of sketching friends I already knew to hang out and sketch with.
