USk Workshop – Capturing stories: Visual storytelling in the accordion sketchbook
USk Workshop – June 13-15, 2025 About the workshop: The workshop will focus on visual...
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Whether you’re a novice sketcher or a seasoned artist, we believe there is always room to learn and grow. Through our annual Symposium, education programs, and USk Talks, our members are able to gain insights and knowledge from local and international artists.
Attend a Workshop
In 2011, Urban Sketchers created the USk Education Program to create and foster educational opportunities for sketching enthusiasts and to support artists interested in teaching urban sketching under the USk umbrella. The goal is to bring the educational experience of the Symposiums to any city where a qualified instructor can lead a workshop. While the instructors’ styles may vary, they retain common areas of focus: issues of artistic creation, such as drawing, composition, techniques and materials; and creative approaches, such as vision, expression, storytelling and reportage.
Upcoming Workshops
Recent Workshops
USK Workshop – Urban Safari: Sketching Stories in Oslo!
Are you interested in more than ‘just drawing’? Would you like your sketches to come...
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USK Workshop – SWAP Sketching Experience with Marina Grechanik & Maru Godas
Discover the beauty of urban sketching with two international Urban Sketching instructors Maru Godas and...
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City Perspectives with Nina Johansson
Nina´s workshop, City Perspectives, will take on ways to deal with all the overwhelming visual...
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USK Workshop – Spirited Color, Line and Texture
Join International Urban Sketchers, Maru Godàs, Paul Wang, Santi Sallés, and Suhita Shirodkar on Madeline...
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USK Workshop – Let’s Get Closer
Plein-Air Watercolor Workshop in Tuscany with Majid Modir and a guest artist. Join a creative...
Learn MoreAbout Our Instructors
More than 60 instructors from every continent have taught Urban Sketchers Workshops to date. If you would like to bring a USk Workshop to your official chapter contact us at education@urbansketchers.org
Symposium
The Symposium is a comprehensive Urban Sketchers event that fosters the art of on-location drawing by offering diverse activities related to on-location sketching and knowledge sharing among sketchers. The symposiums are organized by volunteers from around the world.
The Symposiums we have organized so far:
2010, Portland, USA: 72 participants
2011, Lisbon, Portugal: 150 participants
2012, Santo Domingo, Dominican Rep.: 95 participants
2013, Barcelona, Spain: 360 participants
2014, Paraty, Brazil: 240 participants
2015, Singapore: 420 participants
2016, Manchester, UK: 423 participants
2017, Chicago, USA: 477 participants
2018, Porto, Portugal: 765 participants
2019, Amsterdam, Netherlands: 668 participants
2023, Auckland, New Zealand: 444 participants
2024, Buenos-Aires, Argentina
2025, Poznań, Poland
Watch Past Symposium Lectures
Playlist
7 Videos
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1:02:33
Symposium
The Symposium is a comprehensive Urban Sketchers event that fosters the art of on-location drawing by offering diverse activities related to on-location sketching and knowledge sharing among sketchers. The symposiums are organized by volunteers from around the world.
The Symposiums we have organized so far:
2010, Portland, USA: 72 participants
2011, Lisbon, Portugal: 150 participants
2012, Santo Domingo, Dominican Rep.: 95 participants
2013, Barcelona, Spain: 360 participants
2014, Paraty, Brazil: 240 participants
2015, Singapore: 420 participants
2016, Manchester, UK: 423 participants
2017, Chicago, USA: 477 participants
2018, Porto, Portugal: 765 participants
2019, Amsterdam, Netherlands: 668 participants
2023, Auckland, New Zealand: 444 participants
2024, Buenos-Aires, Argentina
Watch Past Symposium Lectures
What's In Your Pocket? A Juried Review of Cool Urban Sketching Gear - Mark Leibowitz
Sketcher-in-Residence: Pushing the Boundaries of Creative Curiosity, Lynne Chapman
Drawing a Sense of Place = Design Tool - Richard Briggs
The Development of Urban Sketching Considered Through Vintage Sketching Books - Ed Harker
How to Make Your Regional Chapter Rock! - Alvin Wong
Drawings Inside a Prison - Nelson Paciencia
Teaching Non-Artists to Draw - Karina Kuschnir
Instructors at the USk Symposium 2026
Marina Abramova
Dan Archer
Eduardo Bajzek Barboza
Jane Blundell
Richard Briggs
Donald O Colley
Róisín Curé
Marielle Durand
Ian Fennelly
Marina Grechanik
Virginia Hein
Uma Kelkar
Nina Khashchina
Owen Labbé
Lapin
Veronica Lawlor
Inhong Park
Kek Hoon Pin
Peter Rush
Dietmar Stiller
Lis Watkins
Katie Woodward
Presenters at the USk Symposium 2026
Stephanie Bower
Renata Brito
Maru Godas
Len Grant
Elena Klimova
Hyoju Ban ( Lewis)
Natalia Li
Barbara Luel
Natasha Maurits
David Morales H.
NAN – Nadine Ramond
NAN – AnneJC
NAN – Nata Shilo
Daniel Pagans
Peter Richards
Rita Sabler
Alrun Schmidtke
Inma Serrano
Suhita Shirodkar
Irena Spector
Liz Steel
Zainab Tambawalla
Paul Wang
Peggy Wong
Delphine Zigoni