Teaching at the 5th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Paraty, Brazil was an incredible experience. The diverse mix of attendees, their shared passion for urban sketching, and a beautiful city made for a dream mix. Add in some rain, trekking across the cobblestones of Paraty, and standing right in the middle of Chafariz Square to capture it’s energy, and it felt like an adventure.

We started each workshop by drawing quick, almost-blind-contour sketches of “easy” (read “not moving”) people. We kept them loose and fluid, and didn’t sweat the details (or the proportions). It was all gesture and quick capture. Next, we moved into what was the most challenging segment of the workshop: drawing people on the move. To make it easier to capture the repeated motion of a person walking, we positioned ourselves in the middle of one of Paraty’s narrow roads, where we could observe crowds moving up and down the street.

It…