Drawing Attention – December 2013

Urban Sketchers in Action

Murray Dewhurst
of New Zealand reports that a new Urban Sketchers group has formed in the land
of Kiwis: “Aotearoa, a Maori word meaning ‘the land of the long white cloud,’ is
also called ‘The Shaky Isles,’ or more commonly, ‘New Zealand.’ Whatever you call
our country, you can take some joy in the knowledge that it has finally grown
its own Urban Sketchers group: Urban Sketchers Aotearoa.

“We are a collection of hardy sketchers spread randomly amongst numerous
volcanic islands separated by treacherous waters and long winding gravel roads,
where people happily drive on the wrong side of the road whilst negotiating
flocks of flightless Kiwi and Moa. In this arduous frontier landscape,
sketchers work furiously in an attempt to draw everything and anything, not
just our old colonial buildings, lest some rampant earthquake should destroy it all forever. Check us out before we
disappear beneath the Pacific Rim of Fire.”

Murray also
mentions that the publication Journey Magazine published his article about an endurance mountain bike race he and his team
participated in. “I had quite a lot of fun sketching soaked, exhausted cyclists
in the rain in between my race laps,” he said.

Diane Perin Hock,
Phil McDonel and Richard Sheppardin are excited about
the formation of the brand new group, Urban Sketchers North Bay.
“This area of California is so beautiful and has so many wonderful sites to
sketch. I’m delighted to be part of a group dedicated to sketching it and
sharing it with the world,” Diane said.

Girona Urban Sketchers are gathering at the Col.leccio d’Automomobils Salvador Claret museum of classic cars Dec. 21. Check out their blog and Flickr group after that date to see their sketches of classy old autos.

Sketchers in Vancouver, British
Columbia, are enthusiastically posting their sketches on the Vancouver Urban Sketchers blog.

Tim Richardson
reports that a new Urban Sketchers group has just formed in Birmingham, United
Kingdom. Their second sketch crawl is planned for Dec. 7, and they will be
posting their sketches on Flickr and Facebook, with a blog forthcoming soon.
“Quite a few excellent local artists and illustrators are in the group,” Tim said.

Don Walls and 69 other Spokane, Washington, sketchers have gotten out their sketchbooks together weekly 41 times since February. However, they don’t limit themselves to urban sketching. “We don’t post on USK because we are a diversified group and are unable stick to the USK guidelines,” Don said. “We are now doing a lot of indoor tabletop sketches with still life and such.”

Our hearts go out to residents of the Philippines who are recovering from the devastating typhoon there last month. Urban sketchers post sketches on their 600-member Facebook page and their blog. 

Members of Urban Sketchers Portugal are gearing up for the 47^th meeting of Diários Gráficos (Sketchbook Journals) on Dec. 7. 

Urban sketcher Christine Deschamps’ blog reveals that in November she participated in Rendezvous Carnet deVoyage, the
world’s largest travel sketchbook festival, where she was happily reunited with
other urban sketchers. The event takes place annually in Clermont-Ferrand,
France. 

Hot Off the Press

Scott Wilson’s book of Tombow marker sketches.

Urban sketcher Scott Wilson has published a book called A Pen Full of Light, in which he shares sketching techniques using Tombow markers to create a watercolor effect. The book, which evolved from blog posts he wrote for the Tombow pen company, includes his travel sketching, which Scott calls the “Esperanto of travel,” plus weekly regional expeditions. (To see a sampling of Scott’s colorful Tombow sketches, check out his posts on the aforementioned Urban Sketchers Aotearoa blog.)

Seattle artist and urban sketcher Steve Reddy launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to publish his new book, Now Where Was I? A Sketchbook Memoir. “I’m very proud of the work and the book. I think people, not just sketchers, will enjoy it. It’s big!” Steve said of the 288-page book filled with nearly 700 full-color drawings. The limited press run is for a few hundred copies only, so don’t miss out. It’s available for pre-order now on Steve’s Etsy site.

Steve Reddy’s Kickstarter-funded book.

Get ready to party in
Paraty! That’s the location of the Fifth International Urban Sketching
Symposium in August 2014. Stay up to date on symposium news on the blog and sign up for the e-newsletter.

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Happy sketching and happy holidays!