Rutgers Art Library (RAL)- New Brunswick

Urban sketching is a movement created in 2007 by Seattle journalist and illustrator Gabrile Campanario. Although similar to plein air painting (to paint outdoors), a term which was made most well-known by the French Impressionists during the 19th century,  urban sketching looks at the ideas of visual storytelling in a virtual environment and the educational value of on-location drawing. This movement encourages drawing spaces and places on location, rather than drawing from photographs. Urban sketching brings together an international group of people who “Show their world one drawing at a time.” The goal is simple: sketch what you see, in- or outdoors, and share online.  You don’t need to be an artist, expert, or someone who draws all the time. This project is a collaboration between the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Rutgers University Art Library. If you have questions about this project, please contact Megan Lotts, Art Librarian at megan.lotts@rutgers.edu or learn more at the project's website.

Learn more about Urban Sketching at Rutgers- New Brunswick

• at the following link: https://libguides.rutgers.edu/urbansketching/home
• Rutgers University Libraries- New Brunswick press release
• Tales we READ Urban Sketch press release

Urban Sketchers Manifesto

1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live, and where we travel.
3. Our drawings are a record of time and place.
4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
6. We support each other and draw together.
7. We share our drawings online.
8. We show the world, one drawing at a time.  

About Urban Sketchers (from the website: http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/our-mission.html) - Urban Sketchers was formed in 2007 and is an international nonprofit dedicated to fostering a global community of artists who practice on-location drawing.

Mission
Our mission is to raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of on-location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel.

• Weisenfeld, Gennifer. 2013. Imaging Disaster : Tokyo and the Visual Culture of Japan’s Great Earthquake of 1923  1st [ed.]. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press,. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520954243.

• Campanario, Gabriel. 2014. Urban Sketching Handbook: Tips and Techniques for Drawing on Location. Urban Sketching Handbook. Laguna Hills: Quarto Publishing Group USA.

• Jenkins, Eric. 2012. Drawn to Design : Analyzing Architecture Through Freehand Drawing  Basel: Birkhäuser,. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783034610964.

• Jones Allen, Diane, Randolph T Hester, Jeffrey Hou, Laura J Lawson, Marcia J McNally, and David de la Pena. 2017. Design As Democracy: Techniques for Collective Creativity. Design As Democracy. Washington, D. C: Island Press. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-848-0.

• Kaczmarek, Sylwia. 2019. “Ruining, Demolition and Regeneration in Urban Space: Sketching the Research Problem.” Geographia Polonica 92 (1): 5–16. https://doi.org/10.7163/gpol.0133.

• Lavoie, Caroline. 2005. “Sketching the Landscape: Exploring a Sense of Place.” Landscape Journal 24 (1): 13–31. https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.24.1.13.

• Kelley, Matthew James, Mark Pendras, and Heather Minnella. 2012. “Sketching Culture, Sketching Nature: Uncovering Anchors of Everyday Nature for Urban Youth.” Social & Cultural Geography 13 (8): 873–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2012.735690.

• University Wire. 2019. “The Artist: Pete Scully Discusses Urban Sketching”, January 11, 2019.

• Ivanova, Yu. V. 2017. “Urban Sketching as an Area of Transforming Art Practices.” Humanitarian Vector 12 (3): 132–39. https://doi.org/10.21209/1996-7853-2017-12-3-132-139.

• Heath, Sue, Lynne Chapman, and The Morgan Centre Sketchers. 2018. “Observational Sketching as Method.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 21 (6): 713–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2018.1484990.