Out of my Comfort Zone in Barcelona

The past 4 days, I've been attending the 4th annual Urban Sketchers Symposium--sketchers from literally around the world descended on Barcelona, España for workshops, demos, and other opportunities to learn from some of the best sketchers from around the world. And Barcelona is an AMAZING city!!!!!  The event was extremely well-organized, and we are leaving with piles of new sketchbooks, paints, pens, USk buttons--all donated by the symposium sponsors. I practically need a second suitcase.

I attended 5 workshops.  It's very hard to actually produce good work in a workshop, as in learning what other people do and how they do it, you typically are working well out of your own comfort zone--using different materials, colors, techniques, etc. from what you typically use. 

The workshops were great and I learned a lot, mostly about using tone, a new way to use ink, a new color palette, and how effective it is to create strong foreground elements.  All really helpful, but my sketches, as expected, weren't that great.  Here are some...