I will refrain from giving too many details about the symposium because there have been abundant posts on blogs and Facebook about this glorious international event that went from 27 – 30 July. There were slightly less than 500 attendees from 46 countries and during the four days of the symposium, I attended four 3-hour workshops, one 2-hour activity, and a lecture. For me, the goal of the workshops and activities was to learn new concepts and new ways of working and to begin to apply these techniques in my work. In other words, each workshop is more about process rather than product. Frankly, I have never been very happy with my product during any workshop; therefore this time I was eager to apply the teaching I received to my real journey daybook work as soon as possible. I was able to make 3 journey daybook pages before I left Manchester that may show some slight changes in my way of working. The opening page of this post that has no date was made on 29 July as part of Stephanie Bower’s workshop. While working, I was affirmed in my love of drawing in graphite under watercolor and learned the subtle use of blue to depict deep space. The other two pages illustrate: (1) a way to depict a skyline with simplicity (Pat Southern-Pearce’s workshop) and again, (2) the use of receding blues and an understanding of arch structure (Stephanie Bower). I also enjoyed a wonderful workshop about the figure with Don Low in which I developed more confidence in depicting figures on my journey daybook pages. This use of figures is shown later in my August work.

Manchester skyline

Last supper in Manchester