Drawing Attention – October 2015

Urban Sketchers Events and Workshops

Urban Sketchers founder Gabi Campanario has made the following announcement:

Gabi sketching last year in Paraty, Brazil, at the USk Symposium.

Dear fellow urban sketchers,

Since setting up the Urban Sketchers nonprofit in 2009, I’ve been quite involved with most operational aspects of the organization, from filing government forms and dealing with bank accounts to setting up blogs, organizing events and recruiting volunteers.

As Urban Sketchers has grown and thrived, many others have contributed their time and efforts, and we’ve built a solid and sustainable nonprofit. That level of shared commitment and belief in our mission is why I feel comfortable that we’ve reached the point in our natural evolution for the founder to take the back seat. After my term expires in December, I’ll no longer be part of the Executive Board.

But I’m not wandering off too far. I have offered to serve on the Advisory Board and plan to continue contributing as a blog editor and correspondent.

I’m very proud of the work we do as a nonprofit, organizing an exhilarating international Symposium every year, promoting workshops and publishing blogs.

It makes a difference in the way people see the world and connect with each other.

I hear it all the time: “Urban Sketchers has changed my life!” people tell me. And I reply the same way: “It has changed mine, too!”

Gratefully and respectfully yours,

gabi

Thank you, Gabi, for everything you’ve done for sketchers around the globe!

YOUR sketch could appear here!

Want to see your sketch on the global Urban Sketchers blog flag? You can! All urban sketchers and correspondents (on either the global blog or regional blogs) may submit a sketch for consideration by sending the following to Shiho Nakaza at shiho.nakaza@gmail.com with the subject line: “Flag Material from (your name)”:

• A high-resolution photo of you sketching, or a photo of a sketchbook page shown next to the background where you’re sketching (photos from smartphones are OK as long as they are at least 960 pixels wide)
• A high-resolution scan of the sketch
• Location of the sketch/photo (city, country)
• Your website/blog/Flickr site with your location sketches

The dates for the Seventh International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Manchester have been set for July 27-30, 2016! To receive updates about the 2016 Symposium, subscribe to the Urban Sketchers Symposium mailing list.

Urban Sketchers is seeking a volunteer Fundraising Director. The Fundraising Director creates and implements a plan to solicit donors and identify funding sources, based on preliminary work already completed by the Executive Board. The Fundraising Director will be a part of the Executive Board, which is composed of officers and directors and oversees the day-to-day management of the non-profit organization, and will work closely with the Sponsorship Coordinator (Omar Jaramillo), who is already in place, to develop sponsorship opportunities. Please send a letter of interest and description of qualifications to Elizabeth Alley at elizabeth@urbansketchers.org.

Three Urban Sketchers workshops are available in San Francisco (USA), Naples (Italy) and Chatham County (USA) this month!

News from Urban Sketchers Communities

Urban Sketchers Israel at Loveat coffee shop for Illustration Week in Tel Aviv.

Urban Sketchers Israel took part in Illustration Week Tel Aviv with a group exhibition. Called Sketch It @ Loveat, the expo told the story of the coffee shop Loveat through sketches made on location, according to Marina Grechanik. The expo took place in a central branch of the coffee shop, “so both the sketching team and customers could recognize themselves in the sketches,” she said. The group also held three sketchcrawls during the event. At the opening event, visitors were invited to make spontaneous on-location sketches and to take part in the expo on a “live” wall.

Urban Sketchers North Portugal was featured in the newspaper when the group sketched in Gondifelos.

Don Gore, moderator of the #urbansketchers hashtag on Instagram, is pleased that the group has more than 20,000 followers! Meanwhile, back on Aug. 31, moderator Kip Bradley announced that the Urban Sketchers Flickr group has collected more than 200,000 images since November 2007 from more than 8,555 members on all continents. Thanks for sharing, sketchers, and keep on posting!

USk O’ahu at Winward Community College

USk O‘ahu (USA), a growing group, recently held an event at Windward Community College that exemplifies the group’s attempts to sketch both urban environments and Hawaii’s scenic backdrops. “We hope that more people will find us as we add special events to our schedule, such as the departure of Solar Impulse 2 from Hawaii next spring,” said Sebastian Sievert.

Outdoor Painter, the online edition of Plein Air Magazine, has featured three US Urban Sketchers groups recently: O‘ahu, Texas and New York City.

Sketchers in Action

Ami Plasse has an exhibit of his “migratory path” from Brooklyn to Austin.

In his exhibition “Drawing TX: The First Four Years,” urban sketcher Ami Plasse (USA) chronicles the people, places and events he has experienced since following the well-traversed migratory path from Brooklyn to Austin in 2011. The body of work, consisting of drawings, animations, paintings and prints, aims to document both the rapidly changing character of his new home and his own personal trials and tribulations over four transformative years. The exhibition at Wonderwall Studio runs through Oct. 4.

Kate Buike with one of 25 astronaut sculptures she sketched last summer.

Urban sketcher Kate Buike is a volunteer for the Museum of Flight in Seattle (USA). To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the museum installed 25 artist-embellished, life-size astronaut statues in local businesses this summer. Kate made it a personal project to sketch all 25 Astronauts on the Town in their locations. At its culminating celebration party Sept. 19, the museum used Kate’s sketches on promotional posters. 

Mike Daikubara chronicles his trip to Machu Picchu

Boston (USA) sketcher Mike Daikubara has just published his fifth book of sketches, this time covering his adventures in Machu Picchu earlier this year. The 74-page book “captures the exact route we took, what transportation methods we used, what hotels we stayed in, what altitudes were in each location and how we avoided getting altitude sickness,” Mike said. “All this information along with all the on-location sketches I did (along with some photos) are bundled into this one book.” 

Three sketches of the Banks Peninsula area by Aukland (New Zealand) sketcher Murray Dewhurst have been published in the Indonesian travel magazine DestinAsian. “Sketching these in Akaroa and Okains Bay, I would never had expected they would end up with such an international audience!” Murray said.

Juliana Russo’s new book

São Paulo (Brazil) sketcher Juliana Russo has published a new book of urban sketches. Called São Paulo Infinita, the 104-page publication was edited by G GILI of Barcelona.

Stephanie Bower, Seattle architect and urban sketcher, will have a class on Craftsy called “Perspective for Sketchers” beginning Oct. 12. Visit Stephanie’s website for a link when the class goes live. See the next Drawing Attention for a discount coupon code for Urban Sketchers!

Shout it Out in Drawing Attention! 

Not seeing anything about you or your Urban Sketchers group in Drawing Attention? Then we want to hear from you! Please send your urban sketching news items with links and images to: drawingattention@urbansketchers.org. Or tag me, Tina Koyama, on news you post on the Urban Sketchers Facebook page. Subscribe by e-mail. Happy sketching!