When you are sipping tea sitting in your veranda, you would also want to capture a few moments, so why not Urban Sketching! Urban sketching is not just about sketching cities, but it is about sketching all your visuals into a sketchbook, it might be anything, for example, a car, airplane, garden, fountain, and of course cities, that is, buildings.
What is Urban Sketching?
Urban sketching is all about observation, that is, what all things you observe in your surroundings that would interest you. So, in short, urban sketching is the practice of drawing the things that surrounds you, maybe in a sketchbook. It is about capturing your personal visions or maybe the places you travel to.
And the most interesting part is it could be a narrative of your everyday life, that is, what all things you do in your entire day, for example, your teacup, station, the street you regularly visit, your car and even the clothes you wear and the list never ends because your vision never stops capturing things!
And when you see your sketch book after a few years, all your memories would get refreshed as you see your explorations, memories, creative moments and artful adventures all in your sketchbook. It could be your artistic journey!
Is Urban Sketching only for professionals?
You might be wondering whether if you are not an artist, so would you be able to do urban sketching? Of course, yes! Urban sketching is not only for professionals but also for the ones who have no relation with art but just want to express their thoughts and observation through drawings. Urban sketching is a kind of documenting your personal experience, for instance, in a creative journal
Professionals use urban sketching as a method to capture their arising thoughts and ideas while observing the surroundings. And for the professionals, client also send them to visit different places where the professionals can make visual reports by using their artistic skills .
As in urban sketching, a professional gets immersed in the culture of the city and create illustrations for clients which uses it for their promotional ads, books or collaborations with brands.
And since, urban sketching is not a limited concept; it’s a wide one as it depends on the observation of the viewer or the artist and the main component which plays their role are personal observation and interpretation of the drawings.
Why one should go for Urban Sketching?
Sketching would make you feel even more present in a moment. As clicking a quick snapshot and moving on would not give that satisfaction as comparison to sitting and sketching the site yourself.
While you are doing sketching, you are telling a story of the moment and recording or impression on your sketchbook. So, just take the sketchbook in your hand, observe your surroundings and give Urban sketching a try!
Urban sketching is an amazing way to connect with other people across the world, urban sketchers could be found in your own hometown and definitely in major cities. The things that will bring you and your sketching community together is free sketching outings, organised weekend workshops, sketching conventions and symposia.
Social media also helps to bring people from across the world together on a platform on which they could share their work and ideas on various subjects.
How to Urban Sketch?
For all the beginners who are new to picking up their artistic skills should basically choose some of their favourites like your favourite art journal, watercolour, pen or ink and find a place which arise your curiosity and observation skills as an artist you can look beyond an object and here you are all set to go!
Don’t think about whether what you are drawing is right of wrong, the most important thing in urban sketching is to capture a focus!
So, if you are putting your hands down on Urban Sketching, here are some tips which would definitely help you:
- Keep it simple: Choose the ones that suits you. You can choose anything, a pencil or pen, a small set of watercolours and journal or sketchbook are the ones you should carry with yourself. These are the things that would get you through any sketching opportunity.
- Be flexible: If you are not having your essentials then you should be flexible enough that you can draw even on other things, for instance a napkin because capturing moments is the major part.
- Be alert: Keep your observation skills on alert, don’t let it mess up and keep an eye on all the things that are going on around you, so you don’t miss any opportunity!
- Be prepared: Always keep a small kit with yourself wherever you go! So, you don’t have to suppress your boost of enthusiasm because of lack of kit.
So, now it’s your time to explore your skills and have focus on the things around you. Get set go! Have an artistic journey wherever you go don’t forget your sketchbook or journal and capture all the beautiful things of your journey!
Disagree? Here is a contrast to read.
This was all about urban sketching but if you are a beginner, Pencil & Chai Fine Arts Gurukul conducts outdoor sketching sessions in Bangalore outdoors is a best opportunity get exposure to urban sketching.
