The Art of Urban Sketching Book Launch - London 19th May

Urban Sketchers London will be at Cass Arts Islington between 12.30pm and 5.30pm on Saturday 19th May for the launch of The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around The World which contains work by London based correspondents.

Six artists will be sketching, answering questions and encouraging young and old alike to get involved in drawing! It's FREE too, just drop in 12.30-5.30pm.

We had intended to do this book launch a lot earlier - just after Urban Sketchers London formally launched on 1st March this year.  However, the book proved to be so popular that it shot to the top of the art book charts and sold out so fast that we quickly realised we'd be having a book launch with no books!

That didn't seem to be a great idea so we reluctantly decided we'd have to delay it.

Come and meet the founder members of London Urban Sketchers who will be at the event on Saturday afternoon.  We all regularly draw on location around and about London cities and contribute to the international Urban Sketchers blog as well as the NEW Urban Sketchers London blog.

We will be demonstrating how we like to sketch and showing you what are our favourite art materials for sketching.

You should be able to find at least two of us 'working' at a time between 12.30pm and 5.30pm.  One of us will be acting as a demonstrator and will be answering questions while others can be found drawing elsewhere in the store or helping out with responding to questions.

London Urban Sketchers are listed below with the demonstrator listed first

• 12.30 Zhenia Vasiliev Zhenia Vasiliev  and me 
• 1.30 Adebanji Alade Adebanji Alade, My Art My Passion for Sketching and Zhenia
• 2.30 myself - Katherine Tyrrell Travels with a Sketchbook and Adebanji
• 3.30 Olha Pryymak Olha Pryymak and James
• 4.30 James Hobbs Hobbs blog and Barry
• Barry Jackson Prof Shorthair will be around all afternoon.

Cass Arts Islington

Cass Arts

We're very happy to be partnering with Cass Arts for the launch.  They've started a Facebook event page for the launch.  You can find Cass Art Islington at 66-67 Colebrooke Row, London N1 8AB 

The Cass Arts Islington store - where the launch will be - is their flagship store and the largest of their five stores in London.  This is their Manifesto

How to get there

These are the links to:

• the Transport for London map of the Planned weekend Tube closures for the weekend 19/20 May 2012.  This is the link to the Transport for London pdf file which shows the service disruptions this weekend.
• Use the Journey Planner on the TfL website to work out the best route to the store on Saturday afternoon.

About Urban Sketchers

Urban Sketchers started online as a flickr group in 2007 and later became a nonprofit organization. Our mission as a nonprofit is to raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel. We aim to show the world, one drawing at a time.

This is the manifesto we follow:

• 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.

USK is now a charitable foundation, and organises an annual international symposium, as well as encouraging urban sketching.