Robin Ewers Carnes is a watercolor artist, illustrator, and graphic designer born and raised in Cincinnati and has 20 years’ experience in the art and design field. Known for her sketches of Cincinnati landmarks, she enjoys capturing the history of the city, past and current.
Robin has been an admin of Urban Sketchers Cincinnati since its official chapter recognition and helps organize sketch outings every month. She has taught many workshops in the area and is so excited to return as instructor for the Ohio Regional Summit, this time in Cincinnati! Notable Cincinnati public art projects she’s been a part of include the Eden Park Basketball Court revitalization and several ArtWorks Cincinnati-sponsored projects: the Ezzard Charles Mural, the Over the Swine Pig Statue, and the Christian Moerlein Brewing Heritage Trail Pig Statue. Robin currently has a gallery of work in the Suites Lounge at TQL Stadium, the home of MLS team FC Cincinnati.
Wes Douglas is a marketer, an art director, a children’s book illustrator, and instructor for a local Art League. He has led workshops on urban sketching with markers, sketching people in an urban setting, “urban uglies”, and sketching urban vehicles. Wes has been one of the instructors at the Chicago Sketch Seminar every year since its inception in 2014. He was also the Sketch Correspondent at the 2017 USk Symposium in Chicago. Wes likes to make his workshops fun and informative.
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. 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 Ohio! She is also the fundraising director for the global Urban Sketchers organization and was previously a mentor on the Membership Team. She is excited to return as an instructor for the 2025 summit and to get messy with blue ink. It is never too late to create, a blank page stays blank until you make your mark, any mark!
Andrew McQuilkin, FRDI has served in key design leadership roles in the retail industry for 40+ years. He has extensive knowledge and background in design: working with many top brands, mentoring hundreds of planners, interior designers, architects, and students. He has been recognized several times for his retail design industry contributions, awards, and his insights have been published across the retail design industry. He has always emphasized and taught hand sketching as a critical part of the design process.
Christina Wald is a designer, illustrator, and educator passionate about storytelling. After illustrating over 60 picture books, she wrote Sketching Here & Everywhere: My Sketching Obsession, a combination of personal anecdotes and years of teaching. She now documents her experiences around the world. In 2023, she published a travelogue about her residency at Château d'Orquevaux, followed by a second one on Romania in 2025. She is currently working on one about Argentina. For over a decade, she has taught illustration and narrative storytelling at Northern Kentucky University and the Art Academy. She founded the Cincinnati chapter of Urban Sketchers in 2017.
