
The Urban Sketchers (USK) is a collective of anonymous people who gather together to draw outdoors, spaces, on a street or even at home. The idea is to draw on paper everything you see. It's a playful moment that can be shared with friends or family. The idea is to draw without any fear, so anything goes at these events even your imagination.
Who are the urban sketchers (USK)?
Rui Soares: It is a movement that exists internationally. It was created by a Spaniard, Gabriel Campanario in 2007, he is a journalist and conceived this idea, because he is also an illustrator, through the program flick he put pictures and sketches online and later created a blog for the purpose. At this point in almost all countries there is a group of USK.
When the group was created Madeira people soon joined the meetings?
RS: The first meeting was April 3rd, 2011, except that I had already started this hobby in urban sketches of Portugal, I found them over the internet. Mario Linhares and Eduardo Salavisa are two of the initiators of the concept at the national level and then I thought after being accepted, why not do the same here on the island? I always liked to draw in the outdoors, since I was a kid I came to the street with a friend to studies and that was a habit I returned as a student in the fine arts. The concentration of the USK, as a rule, is on a street or in an area where we can draw together.
Do you discuss the drawing?
RS: Here is not much interested in discussing art, the objective is draw for fun, no matter if you are respected artist or not, it is only a moment to share with people who love to draw. It does not matter the result in the end too, because the idea is to do studies, sketches and participate.
How many people participated in the first meeting?
RS: 17 people participated in the last 13 because it was held in August, vacation time for many. The average participation walks around 16 persons, what is interesting is that in every meeting there are always new participants.
What is periodicity of this gather to draw?
RS: It depends. It was more regular in the beginning, however, I would liked that it was not just me to propose an event, that other participants also wanted to organize more meetings. In the past, a group of Ribeira Brava promoted an activity of the USK.
How would you characterize the USK Madeira?
RS: They are person’s related arts, visual education teachers, some students and people from other professions who also enjoy drawing.
But you are not limited to draw the urban space?
RS: There may be indoors, landscapes. There are people who have the habit of drawing everything they see. I liked to be like that, but I do not draw with this regularity, there are people who create their graphic diary, for example, Pascal has several books that show this type of studies.
The aim is also to create a graphic diary?
RS: It does not matter. There are those who do travel diaries, there are people who appear with loose pages, the idea is to draw on site, however, it appeared a person who just drew what it appeared in his imagination, because it was not interested in that surroundings.
http://urbansketchers-portugal-madeira.blogspot.pt/
http://urbansketchers-portugal.blogspot.pt/