Urban Sketching : Reflection

Urban Sketching - a global community of artists, professionals and amateurs who make sketches from nature in the cities, towns and villages where they live or travel. As I researched, Urban Sketchers began in 2007, when journalist Gabriel Campanario formed a group on Flickr. As more and more people started posting their drawings online, Gabi created a group to support people who depict things and events in life that directly occur here and now.

The motto of Urban Sketchers "We show the world, one drawing at a time!"

As I understand this drawing - it is to draw from life, indoors or outdoors, to depict directly what we see. The drawings tell the story of our environment, the history of the places where we live and where we travel. Also, drawings are a “record” of time and place. Artists are true in depicting scenes that are visible using any materials and each other’s individual styles.

After our lesson, I decided to explore this topic more deeply. This led me to many artists. But for myself, I noted two artists: James Hobbs and Fred Lynch. First, we have James Hobbs from London. He's an artist and freelance journalist. His artworks can be seen occasionally on his blog and the main Urban Sketchers site. His style is that of simplifying, distilling a scene down to the minimal but yet retaining recognisable features of the places and things he draws. Very impressive and challenging.

The second one is Fred Lynch, an illustrator and gallery artist based in Massachusetts who is also a Professor of Illustration at Montserrat College of Art and a member of the Illustration Faculty at Rhode Island School of Design. I particularly enjoy his evocative drawings of buildings and streets in small Italian towns. He has an architect’e eye for architectural details, but renders them with a beautifully free line and precise but lively application of washes.