My Three Takeaways from One Year of Urban Sketching
Last year, due the lockdowns and lack of interaction with others during the pandemic, I found myself in need of a sense of connection to a creative alike community. That is when I decided to pick up Urban Sketching as my new hobby. In this blog, I would like to walk you through my experience and share my three main takeaways exploring the world as an urban sketcher in the past one year.
How did I come across Urban Sketching?
Up until a year ago, I mainly painted alone in my small art studio/home office and only interacted with other artists via my social media accounts. I mainly use oil, acrylics and watercolor and paint landscape sceneries where I normally pretend I do not see the buildings and people in my reference pictures. One day, I coincidentally came across an event called National Sketch Day Eindhoven; where Urban Sketchers gather and paint their surroundings. I have to be honest, this was not my usual way of creating artwork. Why you may ask? — mainly because I have never joined such an activity before and did not know if this was something for me to pursue. Also the thought of painting outdoors in front of other people, made me feel a bit anxious.
Nevertheless, given that the lockdown situation was taking its toll on me, I decided to take the plunge and subscribe to the event. I did a bit of research on the type of art supplies I needed and visited my favorite art supplies store.
The event day arrived. Truth be told, I was expecting and looking for a group of 20–25 people, but instead I found myself surrounded by a diverse group of about 130 people who were socializing, drinking their coffee and exchanging their sketchbooks with one another. I was extremely overwhelmed as I really did not expect this many people sharing the same hobby and passion in such a small country! I did not know anyone there, but everyone were welcoming to all new joiners and beginners. I had signed up for a workshop hosted by Marlon where she taught us to enjoy the process and embrace the mistakes we might make in our sketch. For example she encouraged us to paint directly with our fine-liner rather than pencil. For many artists, including myself, starting on the first page of a brand new sketchbook comes with a lot of pressure and anxiety. I call it the: ‘what if I mess it up effect’. I followed Marlon’s advice anyways and used my fine-liner and sketched the picture below.
Throughout the day, I learnt that Urban Sketching organization has chapters active in a few cities in the Netherlands. Lucky for me, the city of Eindhoven also has their own active group of volunteers who organize and plan meet ups every first Saturday of the month! To that point, I was not sure if urban sketching is something for me to pursue, but having met a few people and experiencing the feel and vibe was so nice that I wanted to try and join again. As you can see from my sketch above, I was a total beginner, but I agreed with myself that I will keep joining the group’s activities and try to learn, improve and mainly be a part of a community.
Since then, I have joined many of the monthly and even national sketch days hosted in the Eindhoven and the Netherlands. I even got to organize the 26th edition of Eindhoven city’s monthly urban sketching meet up where we visited the PSV Stadium and Microlab with a great panoramic view of the city.
My Three Takeaways
The following is what I have learnt since I started this amazing journey:
- It is an opportunity to try something new — Painting outside, surrounded with people while having my precious art supplies laying on the ground or grass was definitely something new to get used to. Having birds and bugs poking my paint supplies is definitely not what I expected. Overtime, I experimented and learnt a way that was comfortable for me to try this new hobby. I have also slowly moved more towards a more travel friendly art supplies in size and weight. Overall, I am learning and am excited to try develop my skills further.
- You get to travel & explore new places — The overall Urban Sketching organization in the Netherlands organizes a few national sketch days in a year. The previous one was hosted in Amsterdam city and the next one is planned to be in the beautiful city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This has allowed me to travel to different cities in the Netherlands more often and visit the cities via a different lens. I have also attempted to take my sketching supplies along with me when I travel abroad to immerse myself in the local’s architecture and scenery.
- You meet inspiring and talented people from across the globe — By joining the monthly sketch days of my city and national events, I have had the opportunity to meet an amazing, talented and inspiring group of artists.
Are you curious about Urban Sketching in the Netherlands but not sure if there is an active group in your city? I encourage you to check out this page. If you are not based in the Netherlands or planning to travel abroad, check the website of the Urban Sketchers. There is a very strong global community of Urban Sketchers active in over 390 cities around the world! So chances are that you can find another fellow sketcher/group wherever you are located.
I am hoping that by sharing my experience and learnings of one year, I can inspire you to take the step and try Urban Sketching or another hobby you have been wanting to try. The first step is always the hardest, but I can assure you that the outcome is rewarding.
Lastly, I would like to leave you with a few of my sketches made in the past year. I occasionally share my process and final artworks on my Instagram page. Feel free to drop by and say hi!
Want to read this blog in Dutch? Check out the translation by the Urban Sketchers Netherlands.
I hope that you enjoyed this blog and it helped you in your journey. I write a blog on a monthly basis and publish them on the first Friday of the month. These blogs are about my experiences along with tips and tricks as an artist and human being. If my blogs interest you, please consider Buying me a Coffee. This way, I can continue to provide you with more content every month on medium, Instagram & YouTube page! Feel free to also share the link to this blog on social media with those around you who you might think be interested in reading it. Thank you for supporting my passion.
