Urban Sketchers’ Manifesto No. 6

5/20/12, F-C Pitt Artists Pen, Sakura Koi watercolor

Urban Sketchers’ Manifesto No. 6: We support each other and draw together.

On a rainy Sunday morning – the kind that would usually see me in my recliner with a second cup of coffee and the Seattle Times’ funnies – I drove out to Magnuson Park to join the Seattle Urban Sketchers at my first sketchcrawl. Introvert that I am, going alone to a social event like this – where I wouldn’t know anyone and I wasn’t sure what it would be like – is usually hard for me. The rain, the coffee and the recliner were all telling me I should skip this and go another time.

But two things pushed me out the door: One was the Seattle Times’ full-page spreads that very morning of Gabi Campanario’s vibrant sketches of the new Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibition. Talk about inspiring!

The second was the commitment I had made to myself to give this sketchcrawl thing a try. It’s part of becoming an urban sketcher and getting out into the world – and really seeing the world.

So I did – and I discovered that if there’s such a thing as an introvert’s ideal social gathering, this would be it. I met and chatted with nice people – but only for a few minutes. Then we all went our separate ways to fill a sketchbook page or three. A couple hours later we reconvened and spread our sketchbooks out on a table to share. This time, chatting was much easier because we were admiring and commenting on each other’s sketches instead of making small talk. Our amazingly varied views of Magnuson Park, including my own, enabled me to see this tiny part of the world in a way that I never had before. And I was already looking forward to participating in more sketchcrawls.

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

5/20/12, Copic Multiliner SP pen, Sakura Koi watercolor