Urban Sketchers’ Manifesto No. 3

4/27/12, Akashiya Sai markers, Hand Book sketchbook

Urban Sketchers’ Manifesto No. 3: Our drawings are a record of time and place.

I had only a few minutes before I had to get to the next errand on my to-do list, but it was enough time to stop at a coffee shop with outdoor seating. It was chilly and windy, yet sunny enough to make Seattleites feel hopeful that spring was on its way. Shivering, I quickly sketched this scene of the fish ‘n’ chips joint across the street, the stiff breeze flipping my sketchbook pages, when a young man startled me by asking, politely, if he could take a photo of me. He seemed amazed that I would be sitting outside a coffee shop sketching. (Because I view the drawings of a lot of urban sketchers, I feel like we are everywhere, yet I suppose we’re still a novelty.) Smiling for his iPhone camera, I thought about how he was making a record of that moment, just as I was.

(This is one of a series of blog posts about how I have interpreted the Urban Sketchers manifesto.)