Once again, the sun was with us.
October’s meet-up happened at Yokohama on the 20th. When I left my home in the morning, the sky looked gloomy. But as I was getting closer to Yokohama, it became sunnier. Arriving at Ishikawa-cho Station, I was welcomed by the blue sky and these fun people.
10月20日、横浜にて月例スケッチ会を行いました。朝、家を出たときはどんよりした空模様だったのですが、横浜に近づくにつれ晴れてきて、待ち合わせ場所の石川町駅に到着すると、青空とともにいつも愉快なスケッチャーの皆さんが出迎えてくれました。
Kumi-san has already posted
her report on the meet-up, so this time I’m gonna write a lighter, more casual post than usual (I intend to now, but I don’t know. I always write too much).
久美さんがすでに
レポート記事を投稿されているので、今回は少し軽めにまとめたいと思っています。
It was the second meet-up we had in Yokohama this year. But, as contrasted with sketching waterfront sites (Red Brick Warehouse and Yamashita Park) in May, this month we explored the old shopping area called Motomachi in the morning and then went up to the hilly side of the city called Yamate (aka the Bluff) in the afternoon.
横浜でのスケッチ会は今年2回目。ただ、前回5月は赤レンガ倉庫や山下公園といった水辺のロケーションだったのとは対照的に、今月は午前に昔ながらの商業街・元町をぶらりし、午後は丘を上がって山手エリアを散策しました。
The Motomachi shopping area is centered around two streets: main street called Motomachi-dori and a smaller one running parallel to it called Motomachi naka-dori. Before starting to sketch, we checked out what the streets are like and a café on the naka-dori caught our eye. It’s also a fishing tackle shop as its owner likes fishing (café and fishing tackle shop are an interesting combination, right?). At the time, a guy was playing the guitar in a terrace seat… I was like, “Hey, so much is going on at this place.”
Both of the streets are lined with “sketch-genic” shops and it was tough to choose what to draw. But the café lingered in my mind. So, I went back to sketch it.
元町通りとその横を走る元町仲通りを中心とする元町のショッピング街。スケッチを始める前にみんなで二つの通りをチェックしていたところ、釣具屋併設のカフェが目に留まりました。カフェのオーナーが釣り好きのため、釣具屋も一緒にしてしまったとのこと。その日はテラス席でギターを演奏されている男性がおり、なんだかネタの多いお店。。。気になりすぎる。。。どちらの通りにも描きがいのあるお店が立ち並んでいて、何を描くか迷ってしまいましたが、結局このカフェが気になりすぎて、戻って描きました。
This is my go-to style, brown ink pen drawing + light watercolor wash.
いつも通りのブラウンインクのペン画と軽い水彩のウォッシュ。気楽に描くことができて、いいかんじ。
Throw down of our morning sketches. They show what different charms the area has.
午前のスローダウン。元町の景色の豊かさがわかりますね！
We were spoken to by people making a free zine about the Motomachi area. They asked us if they could take pictures of us for the latest issue which will be published in February.
スローダウン中、元町のフリーペーパー、MOTOPACHIを制作されている方に、わたしたちの写真を撮ってよいかと声をかけられました。
We might be in the next issue of MOTOPACHI. We’ll let you know once it happens.
2月に発行される最新号にて、商店街のスナップ写真の一枚として掲載されるかもとのこと。また情報は追ってお知らせしますね。
After the photo shooting, we got off to the hilly side, Yamate. We went up a very steep road…
午後は山手エリアへ。なかなか傾斜のきつい坂を頑張って上りました。
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| Naoko-san's dog. Just adorable! |
The Yamate area was one of the first residential districts for Westerners after Japan ended its isolation in the 1850’s. You can still find old, beautiful Western buildings in the area.
山手エリアは横浜開港後に西洋人居住区になったため、今でも美しい西洋館がいろいろ残っています。
When everything is worth drawing, your brain stops working. Because you don’t have to squeeze your sketcher eye to find a good subject, you will not work hard unless you consciously try to (does this make sense lol?). That happened to me in Yamate. After having lunch, I wandered around Motomachi Park and just wasted time. Hmm… I finally got to work on a sketch of this old apartment, Bluff No. 234, but there was only one hour left.
絵になる題材ばかりに囲まれると、感覚を尖らせて努力して描きどころを探す必要がなく、逆にクリエイティビティが低下するということがありませんか（わたしだけ？）？これが山手で起こってしまって、「どれもこれも描けるけど、さて何を描こう？」とだいぶ時間を無駄にしてしまいました。やっと山手234番館前のベンチに身を落ち着けたときには、あと残り1時間。
I quickly grasped the general shape with ballpoint and added watercolor.
ががーっとボールペンで描き、水彩をざざーっと乗せました（語彙力）。
Throw down of our afternoon sketches and group photo. Wow, these are gorgeous!
午後のスローダウンとグループ写真。みんなすごい！
Yokohama is pretty far from where I live, so I didn’t have a night round this time and went straight back home. But it was a fruitful and fun time as well as the other monthly meet-ups. In May, we enjoyed early summer’s sunshine and breezes in the waterfront area. This month, we discovered different charms of Yokohama in its hilly side with a feeling of coming autumn. I’m sharing some sketches from this meet-up here. (If you post yours on Facebook, I’ll add them later.)
Oh, by the way, we are expecting to have a little busy winter this year. A couple of more events other than regular meet-ups are coming. Stay tuned for our next move. Thanks for reading:)
この日はナイトアウトはなしで、スケッチ会終了後、真っ直ぐ帰宅しましたが、いつも通り実り多く楽しい時間を過ごしました。5月は港近くで初夏の陽射しと風を楽しみましたが、今月は秋めく高台のエリアで横浜のまた違う魅力を発見する一日になりました。みなさんのスケッチもバラエティ豊か。Facebookにアップされたものをこちらでシェアさせていただきます。
あ、ちなみにこの冬のUSk Japanはちょっと忙しくなりそうです。通常の月例会以外のアイディア、企画がいくつか進行中。今後に乞うご期待！
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| By Anne |
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| Casey-san |
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| By Eriko-san |
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| By Hiromi-san |
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| By Keiko-san |
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| By Kumi-san |
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| By Lavinia |
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| By Michiko-san |
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| By Tetsu-san |
