Bent over their sketchbooks, a group of art lovers in a public park in the heart of Chennai, India, are busy rendering their surroundings. Their subjects are varied, and they work with any number of mediums, but what unites them is a passion for depicting cities in situ and paying homage to a time-honoured tradition.
They are part of the global Urban Sketchers network, started in 2007 by Seattle-based journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario through the creation of an online forum. The movement, “for all sketchers out there who love to draw the cities where they live and visit”, has attracted a strong following of like-minded artists across the world, with various Urban Sketchers chapters sprouting up in cities everywhere.
Under this movement, sketchers are not confined to a particular medium or style, but their artwork should contain an element of storytelling, capturing scenes that might be gone tomorrow.
It also takes a certain amount of dedication – a group has to sketch together consistently for six months to apply to officially become a part of Urban Sketchers International.
The first Urban Sketchers chapter in India was started in Pune in 2015, followed by Goa in 2017 and then Bengaluru, Kolkata and New Delhi. Today, there are more than 20 chapters in India and many more waiting to be recognised.
The Chennai chapter (USk Chennai) was started by documentary filmmaker Mohan Krishnan and graphic designer Namita Ravichandran in 2020. They now meet twice a month on Sundays at different venues to sketch various landmarks and scenes of interest in Chennai.
Ravichandran says drawing is her passion.
“To me, urban sketching is pure meditation, just focusing on the details, and the colours you want to use. We have no rules, except you should draw live on location and not from a photograph or file image. We have no prerequisite or required qualification as we are a non-judgemental space,” she says.
The “eclectic” group – with 479 members on Facebook – has members of all ages and from all walks of life, Ravichandran adds. Members sketch whatever catches their fancy and meet up at the end of the two-hour session to display their work and take a photo. They can also discuss their artwork informally among themselves.
Members say the sense of liberation and lack of rules are what they enjoy most about urban sketching. It also serves as digital detox and an opportunity to practise mindfulness as they become attuned to the details in their environment.
“What draws me to USk is first the sense of community. With urban sketching, I feel like every sketch has a story and meeting other urban sketchers is like exchanging experiences and stories. You can focus on what you want to showcase and how, unlike in a photograph,” says USk Chennai member Srishti Prabakar Nadathur, an architect and urban planner.
“Urban sketching is a way to express how a visual flows through one’s mind – it’s fascinating how human minds process information differently and each of us has a strong sense of spotting something unique in the scenes around us,” says Chennai-based Aishwarya Ashok, who works as a product manager.
The Pune chapter, started in 2015 by architect and artist Sanjeev Joshi, is one of the biggest in India with 14,400 members on its Facebook page, with about 100 to 150 people who are active and attend meets regularly.
Farah Irani, a set designer and visual artist, is the chapter head in Pune as well as an instructor for Urban Sketchers workshops.
“Urban sketchers are mainly storytellers and capture what they see around them on paper,” she says. There are also exhibitions of members’ works, as well as those of regional chapters, and activities including workshops, sketch walks with route maps, and outreach programmes to get more people sketching.
As regional coordinator of chapters in India, Irani also reaches out to any new group to help them become official members.
Darpana Athale, founder of USk Goa, says urban sketching is a “great way of learning to pause and find meaning in the calm, amid the chaos around us. It helps us observe better and put aside our egos, as there’s no competition between any of us”.
Each chapter has its own unique character, drawn from the city’s culture and people. Some organise sketching collaborations with food and heritage enthusiasts, while others raise awareness about protecting the environment or hold theme-based exhibitions of their members’ works.
But ultimately, it is the sense of artistic community that seems to be Urban Sketchers’ biggest draw.
As Shobha Bhatnagar, a 66-year-old retired physics teacher in Chennai and amateur artist, explains, “USk gave me a window to a world of like-minded people. It gave me a reason to get up in the morning, to sketch as a community and share and appreciate each other’s work with no agenda.”