Ink & Snow: Fairbanks Sketchers

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Fairbanks Sketchers

In collaboration with a couple other artists, myself included, Elizabeth Eero Irving had the great idea to form a local branch of the international group "Urban Sketchers." Here's a link to our Facebook page which will host any posts about upcoming venues + samples of work. There's also our Flickr page, and I've set up a new Google+ webfolio for the sketches I've done while on our outings.

Please feel free to join us if you're ever in this neck of the woods with some free time and an open sketchbook! We have a full roster of unique establishments (so far appearing at The Venue, the Noel Wien Public Library and Ursa Major Distilling) in the prospective pipeline that will be fantastic opportunities to interact with other artists and explore the community.

Soon as we get the thumbs-up from the organization's administration to be a legit chapter, we'll update as "Fairbanks Urban Sketchers," but in the meantime, this is their official statement (and links) copied verbatim from the main group which we're adhering to:

Urban sketchers is a group for everyone that loves to draw the cities where they live and visit, from the window of their homes, from a cafe, at a park, standing by a street corner. Before sharing your drawings, make sure they meet these basic criteria, You did the drawing on location. You have included the location of the sketch in the headline, caption, or flickr map. No sketches from figure drawing sessions. We reserve the right to remove any drawings that don't fit our mission.

This is a group for all sketchers out there who love to draw the cities where they live and visit, from the window of their homes, from a cafe, at a park, standing by a street corner... always on location, not from photos or memory.

Before sharing your drawings in the pool, make sure they meet these basic criteria and they are done in the spirit of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto.

• You did the drawing on location, not from photos or memory.
• You have written the location of the sketch (town and state/country) in the headline or caption OR placed the image on your public Flickr map.
• No sketches from figure drawing sessions or posed models.
• We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
• Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
• Our drawings are a record of time and place.
• We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
• We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
• We support each other and draw together.
• We share our drawings online.
• We show the world, one drawing at a time.

We aim to maintain the group's pool focused on location drawings from every corner of the world. We reserve the right to remove any drawings that don't fit our mission. We also encourage members to write descriptions and stories associated with each sketch.