Contribute to Our Sketchbook
Art Submissions
One of our goals is to create a global network of sketchers, and one way we are doing that is by inviting you to contribute to a collaborative sketchbook of locations across the world with your art submissions. We are always looking to grow our community, and invite you to participate.
We’d love to see the world through your eyes.
Guidelines
We accept submissions of storytelling sketches made according to the Urban Sketchers Manifesto that depict a place, culture, slice of time, or event. We encourage posts from sketchers worldwide. We accept posts from individual sketchers as well as posts by a group of sketchers.
To be considered for publication, an individual’s submission must include one or more sketches. A group post submission should include between 2-12 sketches.
Whether individual or group, a submission should be enhanced by written narrative alongside the sketches but not necessarily on the sketches themselves. We encourage contributions which clearly describe more about the location or inspiration for the sketches, and/or the techniques and materials used to create them.
Here are some examples:
Places and trips:
- Trials and tribulations of tablet sketching, traveling in Turkey, by Leslie Akchurin
- Jerusalem Sketchbook, by Sunil Shinde
- The Bicycles of Bhavnagar, by Ankur Z. Zalawadia
- Temuka, Timaru and Oamaru – sketches from the edge of the world, by Peter Rush
- A Transatlantic Crossing, by Isabelle Laliberté
Events:
- Pickering’s Wartime Weekend, by Joe Bean
- Morning Patrol at the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic, by Richard Sheppard
- The aftermath of protests in Kyiv, by Natalia Litvinenko
Slices of time:
- Jazz quartet at my neighborhood library, by Laurie Wigham
- The ride home: sketches on the subway, New York City, by Andre Wee
Sketches of culture:
- Winter Hats on a Moscow Suburban Train by Masha Kirikova
- In Mongolia with the Peace Corps by Cal Brackin
Group posts:
- Oporto through the eyes of sketchers
- Strandbeests in San Francisco
- We Marched for Hope
- Year of the Rooster dawns with color
Other things to know:
- If English is not your first language, we will work with you to edit text for clarity if needed.
- You may also submit posts in other languages, and we will try to find volunteer translators to work with you.
- For best reproduction of sketches, we recommend using a scanner. If a scanner is not available, photograph the sketch and use photo-editing software as needed to make the image as sharp and bright as possible. Tutorials are available online by searching “tutorial how to take photos of paintings for web.” Here’s one tutorial.
- Limit photos of sketchers sketching.
- Show us through drawings rather than photos of the places. Use photos primarily to give some context that the sketch was done on location.
- All accepted guest post submissions go through a collaborative editorial process.
- We reserve the right not to include all the sketches originally submitted .
- All submitted text may be edited for accuracy, grammar and clarity.
- Photographs and sketches published on the Urban Sketchers website can be shared across other platforms including our social media channels and ezine. The artist of the work retains all copyright and ownership and the work cannot be reproduced in any other form without express written consent of the artist.
We also welcome other types of articles related to urban sketching. Please consider submitting essays, interviews, book reviews, instructional (how-to) posts or any other kind of work that you think would be of interest to our readers. Promotions of commercial activities are not accepted. See the following examples:
Personal essays:
- What’s in a drawing? The strength of a sketch, by Liz Ackerley
- Reflections of a beginning urban sketcher…. by Lucie Golton
Instruction and inspiration:
- How to Make Your Very Own Sketchbook, by Richard Sheppard
- Sketching on the go with a three-year-old in tow, by Alex Ragalie
- Discovering the bones of a drawing from the side of the road, by Marcia Milner-Brage
- Scuba diving with a sketchbook, by Nina Khashchina
Interviews:
- Homeless in Oxford: a reportage project, interview by Marcia Milner-Brage
- The art worlds of Dominican illustrator Nathalie Ramirez, interview by Melanie Reim
Book reviews:
- Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger, review by Róisín Curé
- Emma FitzGerald’s Hand Drawn Halifax, review by Marc Holmes
- Gabriel Campanario’s People and Motion, review by Tina Koyama
- If you are submitting as an individual, a brief biographical statement (two or three sentences) about yourself, such as the following: Joe Sketcher is a (profession) based in (city, country). He is a member of Urban Sketchers (local group). You can see more of Joe’s sketches here (links to Flickr or personal blog are preferable to Facebook).
- If you are submitting as a group, a brief statement about what defines your group and how your collaboration came about. If your group has come together through an Urban Sketchers Official chapter, include a link to that group. Individuals within the group may supply links to their personal blog, Flickr, or Facebook.
- Please do not include group photos.
Submission form instructions:
1. Fill in all text based fields FIRST.
2. Upload your images LAST.
Guidelines
All submissions must follow our values.
Even if English is not your first language, we will work with you to edit text for clarity if needed. You may also submit posts in other languages, and we will try to find volunteer translators to work with you.
For best reproduction of sketches, we recommend using a scanner for art submissions. If a scanner is not available, photograph the sketch and use photo-editing software as needed to make the image as sharp and bright as possible.
Limit photos of sketchers sketching.
Show us through drawings rather than photos of the places.
All accepted guest post submissions go through a collaborative editorial process.
We reserve the right not to include all the images originally submitted.
All submitted text may be edited for accuracy, grammar, and clarity.
Submit
Become an Urban Sketcher
Sketching alone on location is great, but it’s also fun to sketch with others. If you would like to meet up with others nearby, see if there’s a USk chapter in your area.
About Us
Our mission is to raise the artistic, storytelling, and educational value of on-location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people worldwide who draw on location where they live and travel.
