Portugal Sketchcation: Day 7
Last day of the symposium! This means one final workshop, our last sketchwalk, and closing ceremonies. My final workshop was "Gouache like a Child" with Maru Godas. Gouache is an opaque watercolor medium, which I don't work in often. The point of the workshop is to just take what you like from the scene around you and include it, to worry less about scale, and color, and just have fun. And we did! I'm missing one painting I did as a warm-up that I'll post later should it turn up, but see my other two below.


Afterwards I went to lunch with friends, and also to visit Livraria Lello, a bookstore which inspired the Hogwarts library in Harry Potter. More than just being a Harry Potter-related destination, it's a beautiful store with a unique (albiet, not traffic-friendly) staircase. (Photos in the gallery below)
Our final sketchwalk brought us to Porto's city hall. I arrived late after lunch and the bookstore and had just enough time to get this down before joining in for a group photo.

Here's our 800+ sketchers!

Photo by Antonius Widyaja
Afterward, we had our closing ceremonies. This includes a silent auction of sketches, as well as the announcement for next year's symposium location. Where will we be sketching from next year? Amsterdam! Everyone is very excited (doubly so perhaps, because it is flat and Porto was very, very hilly!). The following morning I grabbed a final pastel de nata, took some photos, and headed out to the airport to catch my flight. The space our Woodward and Father boards had occupied in my suitcase was now filled with new art supplies and artist trading cards from new friends. It was great to see some of my favorite sketchers, and meet new ones! For now, I'm glad to be back in NYC anxiously awaiting doing it all over again next year, in Amsterdam.