The Cloisters, NYC
– by Jan Wallen –

Last week someone asked me how I started sketching. Good question.

Drawing, painting and sketching have been a part of my life since I was young. I started with classes at the Denver Art Museum, and all through school. It’s always been a part of my life. My father was an architect and my mother was an artist. Both of my brothers worked in pottery and photography. We even went on vacations based around exhibits at art museums in the states where we lived. So I was around art all my life. However, I didn’t start sketching until I started traveling.

I also love music, and at one point when I was young, I heard the song “I’ve Been Everywhere” by Hank Snow. It tells the story of his traveling from city to city to city around the U.S. He’d sing, “I’ve been everywhere”, and then list city names, one after the other. That’s when I decided that this is how I’ll live my life – I’ll go “everywhere”. So I did. 

For my career, I decided to take the business route, and was a corporate sales executive, then a selling skills entrepreneur and speaker. I traveled a lot during my career, and wanted to be able to capture the moments I experienced in new cities.

That’s when I started taking sketchbooks, pencils and pens with me – everywhere. I also discovered travel watercolor palettes, so I could do watercolor sketches in the hotel rooms and outside by the pool.

Now sketchbooks and a pencil case go with me everywhere. The world is my studio. That’s perfect for Urban Sketching – sketching on location where you live and travel to. You can find out more about it on the Urban Sketchers website. As I look at my sketchbooks, I’m transported back to the places where I did the sketches. More so than photos. It’s a record of places I’ve been and things I’ve seen. You can do that, too.

There are many easy-to-do, practical things that I’ll be sharing with you about getting started with sketching — growing with it, and enjoying both sketching and looking back at your sketches, going back to the times and places where you made the sketches.

Where to Start

My first sketches were done in a fairly stressful situation, when I was in Boulder, Colorado when my mothers health was declining. I found a way to carve out specific times that I could count on being quiet, with no demands on my time. One of those times was for coffee and breakfast at the Afterwords Café at the Pearl Street Mall. I look back at those sketches and the pleasant (thought stressful) memories come back to me. I can recapture the pleasant moments of calm and quiet, and remember exactly where I was sitting.

At that time, things had to be simple. Really simple. I always had a pencil and paper with me, and starting putting a sketchbook in my bag.

One day, I started sketching the things that were in front of me while I sat outside drinking my coffee. I did that several times during the summer I was in Boulder.

Where to start with urban sketching? There are things all around you. Start with what’s on your table, or desk. Or in a favorite place.

Remember, your sketchbook is private. No-one has to see it, unless you want them to. Your first sketch may not be “perfect” – in fact, it’s likely to not be perfect if you haven’t done this before. That’s OK. You’re the only one who sees it, and every time you sketch, it becomes easier, and your sketches improve. Sketching doesn’t have to be “perfect” – ever.

Another way to start urban sketching is to take classes or workshops.

Go to Urban Sketchers and find a chapter near you. Look for workshops.

Go to Google and YouTube and search for “Urban Sketching” and “Urban Sketchers”. On YouTube you’ll find many sketchers giving demos and teaching techniques. Notice the styles and sketchers you like, and Follow them. Watch more of their videos and check them out on Instagram.

A quote from Les Brown comes to me:  “You don’t have to be great to get started; you have to get started to be great.”

With urban sketching, you can go as far with it as you want. Simply get started.