Urban sketching: Just a fad, or here to stay?

One of the biggest cultural phenomena last year was the explosion in popularity of adult coloring books.

Today’s versions are created by illustrators and artists, feature intricate and complicated details, and are printed on good quality paper. Studies have shown that using coloring books can relieve stress and anxiety and provide relief and relaxation benefits akin to that of meditation.

But for those who don’t like coloring those kinds of drawings, or those who want to take their artistic leanings a step further, why not make your own drawings?

The rise of urban sketching

Along this line, urban sketching (also called outdoor or plein-air sketching) has become more popular in the past few years.

In 2007, Seattle-based illustrator Gabriel Campanario created an online forum which soon attracted a global community of sketchers, who “love to draw the cities where they live and visit, from the window of their homes, from a café, at a park, standing by a street corner…always on location, not from photos or memory.”

Eventually, Urban Sketchers (USk) was established, a non-profit devoted to raising “the artistic, storytelling, and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice…” with the aim to “show the world, one drawing at a time.”

Urban sketching in Manila

USk has affiliated groups around the world, with one in the Philippines (USk-PH).

According to USk-PH’s Lauren Villarama, the group is a “regional chapter of Urban Sketchers and was formed in May 2011” with three members. There are now “more than 50 active members who join the monthly sketch sessions around Metro Manila.” The group has announces target sketching locations and reports of their activities on their official blog.

Villarama adds, “Joining the sketchwalks is always free, and anyone can join regardless of background, experience, age, and paper preference!”

The group also conducts activities with fellow USk organizations, notably USk-Singapore, some of whose members spent a week in Manila last year to sketch, coming up with “Show Me Manila!,” a book of their output.

No drawing skills? No problem.

We all drew as children, but many of us set this aside when we grew older, thinking that “real” drawing required fine arts skills.

The truth is that anyone can, and should, draw. The end product might not be of the kind that’s hung in a museum, but it is valuable as your own form of artistic expression.

To brush up on drawing fundamentals, find books on drawing, watercolor, and urban sketching, or watch tutorials on Youtube. For inspiration, go to Instagram and look up the hashtags #urbansketch, #urbansketchers, #usk, and #uskph to find a wealth of lovely photos and information. It’s a big community, and the more you research, the more resources you’ll discover.

Sketching can also be a solitary practice, something we can do while waiting for someone, stuck in traffic, or in a long meeting.

The benefits of drawing

Like meditation, drawing grounds us in the moment. A daily drawing practice, says cartoonist and college professor Linda Barry in her latest book “Syllabus,” is a way of “being present and seeing what’s there.”

There is no such thing as a “bad” drawing; “liking and not liking” what is taking shape under your hand, Barry says, “can make us blind to what’s there. In spite of how we feel about it, it is making its way, fro the unseen to the visible world, one line after the next, bringing with it a kind of aliveness I live for: right here, right now.”

Writer and advertising maven Danny Gregory agrees. In his book “An Illustrated Journey,” he says that drawing forces one to slow down, to pay attention, to note details, to see the play of light and shadow and the nuances of color. The power of drawing, he says, “makes the familiar unfamiliar and vice versa.”

Gregory adds, “Don’t worry about the quality of the drawings… Make your own images, and you will make your own memories.”

You needn’t own a trove of art materials to begin sketching. In his introduction to his book “Creative Sketching Workshop,” urban sketcher Pete Scully says “Sketching is one of the best ways to get interested in the world around you. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on.”

Sketching materials

The materials to be used can be as simple or as fancy as you like and as your budget will allow. All you really need to sketch is paper and a pen or pencil.

To preserve your work, invest in a hardbound sketchbook. Some sketchers also bring regular and colored pencils for making guidelines and coloring; pens of choice for inking; watercolor paints (usually in small tins or plastic boxes with six warm and cool primary colors or basic sets of 12 colors with secondaries of green, violet, and earth colors); regular brushes and aqua brushes; and a water cup for washing out brushes.

Where To Buy

Good quality to high-end watercolor and calligraphy supplies are not readily available in the chain bookstores and art supply shops, but there are some entrepreneurs supplying good materials online.

Art Nebula PH carries Raphael brushes, Sennelier paints, and the popular metallic Finetec paints. Art Whale carries Shin Han paints and Escoda brushes. Artisan MNL has Schminke, Yarka, and Daniel Smith paints, Princeton Neptune brushes, and calligraphy supplies. Deovir Arts has physical stores in some malls. They stock Holbein and Van Gogh paints and a wide variety of other art materials. Half Pan PH carries empty plastic half-pans you can fill with your choice of tube paints and stick in your own metal tins (mint tins like Altoids will do). Ifex PH stocks Winsor and Newton artists’ and Cotman paints.

Start now

To get started, pick up pen and paper right now. Observe and draw what’s in front of you – a coffee cup, a book, your laptop. Look out the window – sketch your neighborhood. Draw images in your diary or planner to contextualize your daily experience.

This, says Barry, “will teach you to hear, see, and remember the world all around you.” You will also give yourself a tool for achieving relaxation, grounding, and inner satisfaction. — BM, GMA News

Follow Jenny Ortuoste on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.