Hosted by four Ohio USk chapters, the summit includes two workshops or two sketch walks, a sketching supplies goodie bag from our generous sponsors, and networking opportunities with fellow sketchers from across the region!

There will also be three additional sketching events that are open to all and do not require Summit registration. These events are listed in the "Additional Summit Activities" section as well as the Ohio Regional Urban Sketchers website.

All skill levels and media are welcome. Participants must provide their own art supplies.

Summit Schedule

Saturday, August 10

Summit Workshops and Sketch Walks, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM

Address: Dayton Metro Library – Main, 215 East 3rd Street Dayton, OH 45402

Registration

Workshops: Registration is limited to 84 participants. Maximum workshop size: 12 participants per session. Each workshop pass includes a morning and an afternoon workshop.

• Workshop Pass (no lunch): $55
• Workshop Pass + Boxed Lunch: $72

Sketch Walks: Registration is limited to 30 participants. Maximum sketch walk group size: 15 participants per session. Each sketch walk pass includes a morning and an afternoon sketch walk. There are two different routes with two groups per session (morning and afternoon). Summit organizers will assign participants to each group so that all sketch walkers can experience both routes.

• Sketch Walk Pass (no lunch): $25
• Sketch Walk Pass + Boxed Lunch: $42

Participants must purchase a workshop OR sketch walk pass via Eventbrite. Combination workshop/sketch walk passes are not available.

Boxed lunches will be catered by Dorothy Lane Market.

You can also bring a lunch or find other food options independently. Based on previous summits, the Summit organizers highly recommend ordering a boxed lunch or bringing your own so that you have more time for sketching and socializing.

Refund Policy

Ticket and boxed lunch refunds (minus Eventbrite’s fees) are available through Saturday, July 20, 2024 due to the need to finalize supplies and programming.

Library Parking and Transportation

• Main Library Parking: An onsite parking garage and convenient street parking are available. Visit the Main Library’s homepage for additional information and directions.

• Downtown Dayton on-street parking: On-street parking rates, durations, and times vary by location. Visit the Downtown Dayton Partnership’s “Parking & Transportation” page to use their interactive parking lot and garage map and to learn about the Passport Parking app.
• Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus routes: RTA routes 1, 2 and 4 serve the Main Library. Visit the RTA website and click “Bus Routes & Schedules” for more information.

Accommodation

• The Fairfield by Marriott Hotel in downtown Dayton is offering a special group rate of $189.00 per night to Ohio Regional Urban Sketchers Summit attendees. The hotel is across the street from RiverScape MetroPark and a two-block walk from our event venue.

• You must book your room by Monday, June 10 to receive the group rate. Reserve your room by calling (937) 331-9330 and ask for the “Ohio Urban Sketchers” rate.

Workshop and Sketch Walk Schedule

Workshop and sketch walk details are listed in the “Workshop and Sketch Walk Descriptions” section below and on the Ohio Regional Urban Sketchers website.

Registration/Check-In, 9:00-9:30
Workshop 1, 9:30 AM-12:30 PM

• Mike Daikubara, COLOR first INK later (Loosen Up Your Watercolors)

• Mary Jo Ernst, Simplify with Soluble INK

• Yuki Hall, Expressive Pen & Wash

• Nancy Lick, Ink Rendering Techniques

• Marlene Steel, Your Sketchbook: Thumbnails, Value Comps, and QuickDraws

• Jeff Suntala, Soften That Sketch. Embrace The Moist!

• Jose Pablo Ureña, Strong and Expressive Lines: Enhancing the Character of Urban Landscapes

Sketch Walk 1, 9:30 AM-12:30 PM

• Dayton Daily News/Courthouse Square/Dayton Church Supply Route (Moderator: Kenny Moore)

• Victoria Theatre/Riverside Park/Memorial Hall Route (Moderator: Christina Wald)

Lunch and Keynote Speaker (Mike Daikubara), 12:30-1:45 PM

Group Photos, 1:45-2:00 PM

Workshop 2, 2:00-5:00 PM

• Mike Daikubara, COLOR first INK later (Loosen Up Your Watercolors)

• Mary Jo Ernst, Simplify with Soluble INK

• Yuki Hall, Expressive Pen & Wash

• Nancy Lick, Ink Rendering Techniques

• Marlene Steel, Your Sketchbook: Thumbnails, Value Comps, and QuickDraws

• Jeff Suntala, Soften That Sketch. Embrace The Moist!

• Jose Pablo Ureña, Strong and Expressive Lines: Enhancing the Character of Urban Landscapes

Sketch Walk 2, 2:00-5:00 PM

• Dayton Daily News/Courthouse Square/Dayton Church Supply Route (Moderator: Kenny Moore)
• Victoria Theatre/Riverside Park/Memorial Hall Route (Moderator: Christina Wald)

Workshop and Sketch Walk Descriptions

A recommended workshop supplies list is available on the Ohio Urban Sketchers Summit website or as a downloadable PDF.

Mike Daikubara · COLOR first INK later (Loosen Up Your Watercolors)

Workshop Description: Sketching a complex scene can be intimidating at first, requiring lots of planning, lots of underlying line work, and lots of time. It might even make you give up starting with the thought of all of this. But there’s an approach to make this go all easier using the “COLOR First INK later” approach. Contrary to the approach of line work followed by adding color, broad watercolor washes of loose color are applied first using a mop brush to get started. Since details are hard to control with this brush, it ultimately makes sketching easier and less intimidating since you’ll give up trying to control the colors. You’ll also quickly find out that it’s really hard to make a mistake at this stage since the colors perform their magic by mixing on their own and thus, you’re actually controlling the colors. Once the initial layer of the color wash has dried, ink brings the details and the focus of the story to life, followed by additional colors and highlights to finish the sketch. This is all done using limited tools in a limited amount of time. The results?! The sketches are more vibrant, dynamic, and overall, just fun!

Workshop Goals: By the end of the workshop, you will have learned to: 1) Jump into sketching a complex scene with broad watercolor washes without hesitation; 2) let go of trying to control colors in direct watercolor, and thus learning to control it as a result; and 3) bring focus to the sketch story in tightening up the sketch through lines, additional colors, and highlights.

Mary Jo Ernst · Simplify with Soluble INK

Workshop Description: In this class you will learn how to capture a moment or scene, on location quickly using only a water brush, soluble pen, white highlighter, and a sketchbook. Soluble inks allow for sketchers to carry little while creating more and will be used to explore values and encourage a more expressive sketch style. This workshop is an excellent introduction to linework and values for beginners and for seasoned sketchers that are striving to loosen up with their artwork.

Workshop Goals: You will leave the workshop knowing how to assemble an easy, inexpensive setup and having expanded strategies to create more balance, drama, and movement in their artwork.

Yuki Hall · Expressive Pen & Wash

Workshop Description: In this workshop, you will learn how to capture the essence of the scene by simplifying the complex subject matter into simple shapes using a pen and watercolor. You will also learn how to avoid a rigid coloring-in style of painting and instead, how to execute it with expressive pen lines with confident brush marks which bring out the true quality of watercolor medium such as freshness and spontaneity. The method of blending colors on the paper to create excitement in your painting will also be discussed.

Nancy Lick · Ink Rendering Techniques

Workshop Description: This workshop will explore different ink techniques for both line and ink wash that will bring your drawings to life! You will learn to create textures, establish light and dark values, and develop points of interest in a drawing. Perspective and the use of negative space will be covered to help strengthen your compositions. Traditional techniques as well as experimental methods will be demonstrated. Working with ink is often intimidating due to its permanency, but you will receive tips on how to plan your sketch and fix the parts you want to change, allowing you to approach the medium freely and with confidence.

Workshop Goals: Learn a variety of ink techniques that are both experimental and traditional; strengthen your compositions and the use of perspective; create volume using light and dark; and learn to manipulate materials to create textural effects and points of interest.

Marlene Steele · Your Sketchbook: Thumbnails, Value Comps, and QuickDraws

Workshop Description: The 5 Value puzzle: It’s all in the middle values! What role does value structure play in a concept? Does it really matter what you do with middle tones? I have an exercise for you… Sketchbook examples: Where I find inspiration: why I love my inner urban studio! Demolitions/renovations; urban denizens; and business as usual—markets, barbershops, lawn concerts, etc.

Workshop Goals: Incorporate the thumbnail practice into your preliminary process; how to Think SHAPE; maximize the thumbnail with assigned value options. VALUE = IMPACT; and encourage personal pursuit and freedom as an individual growth goal.

Jeff Suntala · Soften That Sketch. Embrace The Moist!

Workshop Description: Use non-waterproof pens and watercolor pencils to zing up your sketches. Contrast the use of soft and hard edges and dull and bright colors when sketching quickly.
Workshop Goals: To become aware of the nether zone of the moist, where all good things happen and learn new ways of using fun tools. As always, drawing and perspective tips are given, so you will become a better draftsperson. Your sketches will become more vibrant, yet in control.

Jose Pablo Ureña · Strong and Expressive Lines: Enhancing the Character of Urban Landscapes

Workshop Description: This workshop is about exploring strokes with ink to enhance the whole elements that make up the urban landscape. You will use drawing tools to achieve a confident, striking, playful and expressive line, encouraging your personality as artist. You will also use drawing resources to analyze the environment and create dynamic compositions on paper that accentuate rhythms and tensions with attractive visual paths.

Workshop Goals: Analyze the urban landscape and learn to highlight the elements you want in your drawing; compose scenes with well-organized dynamic visual rhythms; explore ink as a powerful drawing medium and one that requires determination when drawing; and achieve a strong and attractive line—made with confidence—that enhances the perception of the urban landscape.

Additional Summit Activities

Friday, August 9

Informal sketching at Carillon Historical Park, 2:00-5:00 PM

Address: 1000 Carillon Blvd, Dayton, OH 45409
Admission: Pay at the park when the sketching group meets. $14 per adult (ages 18-59), $12 per senior (ages 60+), $10 per child (3 –17). Children ages 2 and under and Dayton History members are FREE.

• If the sketching group has at least 15 attendees, each will receive a discount of $1.00 per ticket.

• Please RSVP to ohiousksummit@gmail.com with your name, phone, and number in your party by Friday, June 7, 2024.

• Discount cannot be applied to online ticket purchases.

Parking: Visit Carillon Park’s “Parking & Accessibility” page for more information.

Saturday (evening), August 10

Drink & Draw, Oregon Historic District (location and time TBA)

Address: 501 E. Fifth St., Dayton, OH 45402
Parking: On-street parking rates, durations, and times vary by location. Visit the Downtown Dayton Partnership’s “Parking & Transportation” page to use their interactive parking lot and garage map and to learn about the Passport Parking app.

Sunday, August 11

Informal sketching at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Air Force Museum), 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

Address: 1100 Spaatz St, Dayton, OH 45433. Entrance to the Air Force Museum is on Springfield Street at historic Wright Field (Gate 28B), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Admission: Free
Parking: Free
Additional Information: Visit the Air Force Museum’s “Visit” page for more information, including visitor screening guidelines.

Instructor and Moderator Bios

Mike Daikubara, daikubara.com

Mike Daikubara began carrying a sketchbook in 2000 to communicate better and faster at his design day job. Now he sketches daily to see, understand, and enjoy! A Japanese American, Mike grew up in Tokyo and New York City attending an international school with kids from all over the world. He is an artist, author, and designer with over 20 years of product development experience in various industries such as cosmetics, consumer electronics, bath/kitchen products, medical, and the juvenile industry. He currently lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and two Bengal cats, Tenten and Totora.

Mary Jo Ernst, instagram.com/Mysteriousmannequin/

MJ Ernst is a multimedia artist. After living in Chicago for 37 years, she recently moved back to West Michigan where she grew up. Creating art is like breathing and has been a stable element in her life. Being semi-retired from her custom dress shop business has allowed creative experimentation. One of her favorite mediums is a soluble blue Pilot pen, and she has developed a sketch technique that produces bold, expressive, and dramatic values in her artwork. She is very involved in the global Urban Sketchers organization and mentors art groups in North America to become official regional chapters. Artistic outreach is important to ease people's fears of what is holding them back from creating. MJ teaches regularly at a local art center in West Michigan and at large sketch events in Michigan, Chicago, Toronto, and now Ohio! She is very excited to be part of the Ohio Sketch Summit 2024 and get messy with blue ink. It is never too late to create, a blank page stays blank until you make your mark, any mark!

Yuki Hall, yukihallfineart.com

Yuki Hall is an award-winning watercolor artist whose approach to watercolor painting emphasizes simplicity, effective use of tonal value patterns, fluidity, and execution of confident brush strokes. In her painting, she strives to create a sense of atmosphere without being bogged down with unnecessary details. Yuki holds a signature membership to Transparent Watercolor Society of America, Ohio Watercolor Society, and Whiskey Painters of America. Yuki’s work has been accepted into highly competitive national and international-level watercolor juried competitions, and her works have been often published by art/watercolor publications, such as Watercolor Artist Magazine and Splash, Best of Watercolor by North Light Books. Most recently, her pen and wash sketch was featured in the fall 2021 issue of Watercolor Artist Magazine. Yuki is also an avid teacher who has taught watercolor painting and sketching since 2013. Her highly organized, friendly, and non-intimidating teaching style has been well received by students of all levels.

Nancy Lick, cia.edu/academics/illustration/faculty/nancy-lick

Nancy Lick is an award-winning artist from Cleveland who works in a variety of media, including watercolor, collage, and printmaking. She has taught drawing and design courses at Ursuline College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Baldwin Wallace University and currently teaches illustration at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Nancy works out of her home studio in South Euclid and shows her work regularly in a number of galleries.

Kenny Moore

Kenny Moore is a retired educator. He has been active in Urban Sketching since January 2020, participating with both the Dayton and Cincinnati chapters. He lives north of Dayton, in Clayton, Ohio, with his husband, Anthony and two feisty Scottish Terriers, Finn and Freya.

Marlene Steele, marlenesteelefineart.com

Instructor and artist Marlene Steele has 40+ years of experience as a plein air painter working in oil, pastel, and watercolor. She is the Fiscal Year 2019 recipient of the “Individual Excellence Award” from the Ohio Arts Council for her plein air series on the renovation of the Cincinnati Museum Center. Steele has exhibited her pastel and oil pieces widely throughout the region and the nation.

Jeff Suntala, suntalawatercolors.com; suntala.com

Jeff Suntala is a lifelong, Cleveland-area illustrator/watercolorist who became consumed with all things digital once it became practical for creating art. He soon realized that while it was a great way to make a living, it wasn’t nearly as fulfilling as creating actual physical art. A member of the Ohio Watercolor Society, Jeff has concentrated on urban plein air painting of Cleveland for the last several years. His watercolors can be found at suntalawatercolors.com, and his illustration work can be found at suntala.com. Jeff has participated in the Cleveland Urban Sketchers group since its inception.

Jose Pablo Ureña, josepablourena.com

Jose Pablo Ureña is an urban sketcher, visual artist, and co-administrator of the USk chapter in Costa Rica. He walks through cities and neighborhoods with ink, watercolor, and paper in hand, which has given him a unique contact with the landscape, urban culture, people, and architecture. His artistic work is a bridge between drawing and painting, experience and memory, with special attention to the physical and symbolic transformations of urban places. Ureña currently works as a drawing professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Costa Rica, from which he has a degree in Fine Arts and a Master's in Visual Arts.

Christina Wald, christinawald.com

Christina Wald is a designer, illustrator, and educator. After illustrating over 60 picture books, she has finally written a book! Sketching Here & Everywhere: My Sketching Obsession is the culmination of years of teaching sketching to others and her own journey. Christina loves to travel and sketch all over the world. She went to New Zealand with the Urban Sketchers in spring 2023, did a month-long artist residency at Chateau d'Orquevaux in the Champagne region of France in summer 2023, and produced a Travelogue about the experience. She is taking groups of sketchers to Romania in June 2024 and will be teaching a workshop in Tuscany in May 2025. She started the Urban Sketchers Cincinnati group in 2017 and is the Social Media Coordinator for the International Urban Sketchers group. Her picture books are sold all over the world from the San Diego Zoo (for she has illustrated three books including their Centennial children's book) to The Wild Life of Elk in gift shops in the Grand Tetons to Camas & Sage: A Story of Bison Life on the Prairie in Yellowstone, to Return to Kew Gardens on sale at Kew Gardens in 2022! She also regularly illustrates German-language books for a Swiss publisher, including one by yodeling star Melanie Oesch! Her latest books out in 2024 are The Train Rolls On to the County Fair and The Story of KRIT. Christina teaches illustration and narrative storytelling at Northern Kentucky University and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and three cats.

About Urban Sketchers

Illustrator Gabi Campanario started Urban Sketchers (USk) as an online forum in 2007. Since then, it has grown into a loosely organized global community of artists who promote the art of urban sketching locally. There are USk chapters in 450 cities in over 70 countries as of spring 2024.

The USk Manifesto seeks to define urban sketching and provide a unifying vision for the global urban sketching community. USk encourages diversity in subject matter, style, and technique.

Sponsors

The Ohio Regional Urban Sketchers Summit is grateful for everyone who made this summit possible, including: