Sharing a passion: About my workshop “Sketching in the park”

Hello, Manon here! Today I want to reflect on a creative walk I organized at Dworek Białoprądnicki called “Sketching in the park”! Every day for a week, I met people under the altana, and from there we began our little tour around Dworek. Being used to drawing indoors (usually in a coffeeshop) and from pictures, I wanted to challenge myself by sketching “live”. But because I have no academic background in drawing, I don’t always feel confident in my skills, and drawing live sounds intimidating.

Nevertheless, I always wanted to participate one day in one of those drawing groups where people meet and create together, so when I learned that I could do it here and organize it myself, I said yes right away! And the park of Dworek Białoprądnicki is the perfect place to do that, because you have a mix of architecture, nature and passers-by ready to be drawn.

During each session we changed spots and new people came, and I noticed that it really boosted our inspiration! For instance everybody used a different technique, so we exchanged, shared advices and even swapped our tools. Personally I tried charcoal and I practiced using pencils, which I never do, but I actually like it (especially to draw trees and more organic elements).

I was impressed by the talent of the participants and surprised by how differently we look at things and what catches our eyes. For example one of the participant was focusing on specific parts and corners of structures, and I enjoy drawing the whole thing, and we ended up two days in a row drawing complementary illustrations, hers being a “zoomed-in” version of mine.

What’s more, some of the participants have known Dworek for a very long time, as they lived in the neighborhood as children, or even got married here! So, beyond the wonderful time we spent together, I was really moved to see that this place is filled with beautiful memories that these people were kind enough to share with me.