The studios through the eyes of the artists of Urban Sketchers Bali

Every year we are excited to work with the artists of Urban Sketchers Bali. Urban Sketchers is a global community of sketchers dedicated to the practice of on-location drawing. An urban sketch is a drawing created on location, indoors or out, capturing what the sketcher sees from direct observation. Urban sketchers use any kind of media to tell the story of their surroundings, the places they live, and where they travel.

In 2007, a global community of urban sketchers began to form when Seattle-based journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario created an online forum “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.”

So every year, members of USK Bali head into the studios to live sketch and then emerge with some incredible artwork to capture the studios during Ubud Open Studios. Our favorite moment is their end-of-day throwdown where artists share the pages of their sketchbooks with each other.

Scroll on for some past years’ sketches.

In the studio with Christyne Forti.