Wow! Urban sketching – I’ve only just discovered it (October 2023) and I love it! Being out in the town, with minimal equipment, recording the contemporary scene before me – ‘warts and all’ – and not ‘chocolate box’. And the Urban Sketching movement is huge, global!
The styling of the end results is often very scribbly and almost naive, but I am currently finding it to be a real breath of fresh air. (I hope to get a lot better at it, very soon…)
The concept behind urban sketching, is to get out there and only ever sketch the scene ‘live’ and in the field (well, town). Travelling light, with minimal kit, we aim to record the scene as it is – traffic lights, graffiti, road signs – a true reflection of all the ugliness of the real world.
There are thousands of Urban Sketchers groups around the world and the principle, is to capture a series of pics to portray the sketch within the live scene and to also show a flat pic of the sketch ,as well as a pic of the scene itself. Aiming to demonstrate one’s faithfulness to the Urban Sketching principle – as well as to the scene itself.
These days, I never leave home without at least an A6 sketchbook, 3B pencil and an ink pen. 🙂