User:Jorgeroyan/sandbox

Urban Sketchers

Urban Sketchers (USK) is a global community of artists that practice drawing on location in cities, towns and villages they live in or travel to. Their drawing is done in a way of visual journalism to record the life around them as they see it happen in front of their eyes.

The Urban Sketchers movement was started in Seattle in 2007 by Gabriel (Gabi) Campanario, and since then grew to a following of thousands of artists around the globe. The Urban Sketchers Manifesto translated into several languages provides a unifying vision for the loose network of Urban Sketchers communities.

The USk motto is “We show the world, one drawing at a time!” This simple and central idea drives the Urban Sketchers project of drawing the world and sharing their sketches, work, and related life activities via blogs and social networks. The movement is inclusive, all skills levels are welcome – professionals and hobbyists alike.

History
Urban Sketchers started as a group on Flickr (an image sharing site) in November 2007. The Urban Sketchers founder Gabriel (Gabi) Campanario is a Spanish journalist and illustrator living in Seattle. He is a journalist for The Seattle Times where he contributes as an artist and a writer to both the printed edition as well as blogs. As more and more artists began to submit and share their drawings online, Campanario started a group to support and promote journalistic drawing depicting real life as it happens in front of the artist.

A year later in 2008 Campanario created the Urban Sketchers blog. Participation in the Urban Sketchers blog is by invitation and is limited to a hundred artists. The term Urban Sketchers Correspondent was created. Correspondents are invited by Campanario and commit to contribute journalistic sketches on a regular basis. The sketches are accompanied by stories providing a background for the sketch: when and where the sketch was created and some details about content – words and narrative that go with pictures.

The Urban Sketchers blog gained popularity between 2008 and the present, attracting hundreds and soon thousands of visitors daily. A hundred talented Correspondents publish a variety of sketches keeping the blog’s content current and engaging for those interested. Visitors and readers can travel around the globe virtually and see the world through the eyes of Urban Sketchers.

Urban Sketchers depict events of everyday life, scenes observed in large cities, small towns and rural areas. Buildings, people, parks, markets, planes, trains and automobiles, shops, cafes, anything and everything that can be observed finds the way into Urban Sketcher’s sketchbooks. Being true to their journalistic purpose, artists create a visual chronicle of life around them. The sketchers use a highly diverse set of sketching techniques and materials. These extend from simple pencils to inking to various watercolor painting techniques to iPads, Urban Sketchers use any materials they choose for their purpose and, in the spirit of the Manifesto, are committed to sharing their methods freely and generously.

During 20th century a practice of sketching took a step back as compared to the way it was commonly practiced in the previous 100 years. Photography took the limelight as a preferred method to depict images for journaling and journalism. Sketching was relegated to shadowy studios of classical art schools, became a practice of a select few and fell out of the every day life of the every day person. And then the artistic trend turned again. In the early 2000’s a man or a woman with a small sketchbook and a pen or a brush were beginning to be fixture in coffee shops, parks, streets and airports. Sketching as a practice is experiencing a renaissance; and the Urban Sketching movement is encouraging participation through word of mouth and in art classes and on-line social networking.

Thousands of sketchers at all points of the globe connect using various social media – Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Flickr. Many do not have a language in common, but can communicate without difficulty using visual imagery. In addition to the original blog with its one hundred Correspondents, sketchers now have Facebook groups, regional blogs, multiple Flickr groups – both by location and by theme. The spirit of camaraderie and sharing with which Campanario had started the original group remains strong. Wherever a sketcher may travel, she can contact a local group of sketchers and be surrounded literally overnight at Internet speed by a crowd of friends whom she only knew virtually before.

In December 2009 Campanario established Urban Sketchers as a nonprofit organization (501 (c) (3) tax-exempt). A board of directors was elected. The organization’s task is to raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel.

Urban Sketchers Manifesto
1.	We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. 2.	Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel. 3.	Our drawings are a record of time and place. 4.	We are truthful to the scenes we witness. 5.	We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles. 6.	We support each other and draw together. 7.	We share our drawings online. 8.	We show the world, one drawing at a time.

USK activity
Urban Sketchers is a diverse group of people. They do not belong to a single category. They are architects, artists, graphic designers, teachers, students, retirees, computer professionals, musicians, writers, airline workers, with art degrees and without. The only category that unites them all is a passion for sketching, an activity that is not influenced by changes in technology, does not need marketing, requires very few rules and opens countless possibilities.

The list of tools sketchers use varies from person to person. It can be as simple as a sketchbook and a pen or as involved as full plein air setup with a tripod easel. The most common set of tools fits in a small bag or backpack. Sketchers prefer to be mobile. People sketch standing or sitting. Park benches and steps offer a welcome relief. Some carry portable stools to be prepared.

Supplies and materials are discussed with enthusiasm when sketchers meet in real life or virtually. The kind and quality of paper for sketching generates much interest, as do types of sketchbooks, kinds of pens, varieties of inks, watercolor sets and so on. Because sketchers work in any conditions that the locale and climate offer on a given day, the materials should be able to accommodate that and be portable at the same time.

Surprisingly, the way a sketcher dresses becomes important. Conditions may require sitting on the ground or hiking in the nature or visiting a place of worship or being out in the sun for extended time or being rained or snowed on.

Sketching in public as well as sketching members of the public creates interactions with the said public. The majority of these interactions are positive and good-natured. People are fascinated with the process of sketching and with observing an artist creating art in front of them, and compliments and support are abundant. In some instances, sketching in a café has produced a free coffee from a proprietor, and on a rare occasion sketching produced an invitation to sketch a cultural event that otherwise would be closed to an outsider. For example, a group of aspiring musicians, Flon Flon en Musette, were performing a street concert that was documented by an Urban Sketcher who happened to be on site. The sketch then made it onto the face of the group’s compilation CD and the sketcher was invited to a private concert. On a single occasion an objection to being sketched was noted, and an irate storeowner asked a sketcher to leave. It is worth noting that sketching on public property does not require permissions, it is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Urban Sketchers Communities
Urban Sketchers created many regional communities. Correspondents of the original Urban Sketchers blog and Flickr group organized local sketchers and number of local sketching groups were started. Other grass roots leaders started groups and brought them under Urban Sketchers umbrella. Urban Sketchers France, Urban Sketchers Berlin, Urban Sketchers Israel, Urban Sketchers Chicago, etc. have started and attracted dozens of sketchers. Urban Sketchers Singapore has hundreds of sketchers.

Regional Urban Sketchers groups function similar to the main global group. All embrace the vision of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto as leading guidelines, while each group maintains its local and cultural individuality. Many groups have their own blogs where correspondents are invited based on local criteria, Facebook and Flickr groups where all are welcome.

Urban Sketchers communities:

Urban Sketchers Symposiums
As part of promoting location drawing as practice and connecting sketchers around the world Urban Sketchers organization creates Urban Sketchers Symposiums. These are festive gatherings of artists, where for 3 days sketchers draw on location, attend numerous workshops, panel discussions, lectures, meet each other in person and draw.

1st International Urban Sketchers Symposium took place in Portland, Oregon, USA July 29 – 31, 2010. 2nd International Symposium was held in Lisbon, Portugal in July 21 - 23 2011. It was attended 200 people: organizers, instructors and participants. 3rd Urban Sketchers Symposium was conducted in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, July 12 – 14, 2012, and was very popular. The 4th International Urban Sketchers Symposium is planned to take place in Barcelona, Spain in July 2013.