Urban sketching and gatekeeping
When is urban sketching, urban sketching? Opinions varry, a lot. Here’s my take. Your mileage may vary!
This sketch doesn’t qualify as Urban sketching. Because I’ve done it from a photo I took.
“Urban sketching” as a named thing started in 2007. Gabriel Campanario started it.
The Urban Sketchers homepage states:
Urban Sketchers is a global community of sketchers dedicated to the practice of on-location drawing. We share our love for the places where we live and travel—one drawing at a time.
The Urban Sketchers manifesto is clear. The first point is “We draw on location, indoors or out”.
If you sketch from a photo, it’s not urban sketching. Some people involved in the urban sketchers movement are quite vocal and dismissive about anything done from a photo. Which is ironic since the sixth point of the manifesto says “we support each other”.
To exclude people who draw from photos is a form of gatekeeping, I feel. Not everyone is in a position to go on location to draw, for whatever reason.
What is not in any descriptions or manifesto is that sketches should be in urban environments. It’s not in the manifesto. It’s not anywhere. But!
It’s in the name. To me, by definition, if you do “Urban sketching”, it ought to be done in an urban environment. Doing a landscape out in nature, on location, is “plein air”, not “urban sketching”.
But then I feel like I’m gatekeeping when I say this.
That’s it. That’s the rant and ramble, even it doesn’t mean much and doesn’t reach any conclusion other than “it’s complicated”, and “we shouldn’t gatekeep”.
More thoughts
Published on November 5, 2025