Meet the correspondent: Rolf Schroeter > Berlin

"Since I can think, I was doodling, filling every blank surface with scrawls. Then sketchbooks channeled that passion a bit more.

After finishing architecture studies ten years ago, I moved to Berlin, where i work as an illustrator now. We got children, and there was not much time for sketching anymore.

Kids got older and I discovered Urban Sketchers. Maybe it was not lack of time, but lack of influence, that had constricted my sketching? Now I draw more than ever. Since I reactivated my sketching, my relation to Berlin intensified and I got somehow involved in the city.

I rarely go out for the exclusive purpose to draw, but I always carry sketchbook and pen with me and use it on every occasion. Most of my sketches are done in short breaks into my common everyday-movements. I choose topic, view etc. spontaneously and try to let a place flow with as few resistance as possible on the sheet, trying, to get "disturbing me" out of the way. I like this state of concentrated "self-unawareness." Hopefully occasionally something of "common interest" emerges from that practice…"

• Rolf's sketches on flickr.
• Rolf's blog.
• Rolf's website.

Meet the correspondent: Norberto Dorantes > Buenos Aires

"For years, I wanted to devote full time to the graphic arts, but I did not dare. So I chose architecture as a profession, since it was so close to one of my deepest passions: drawing.

I discovered as a child — in Mexico where I was born — while copying all possible images from books, magazines, pictures, people and even TV, that a few simple lines or spots may communicate many aspects of daily life and my own being. At the National University of Mexico I was inspired to draw en plein air especially architecture and urban spaces. I clearly remember those hours walking and exploring sites that caught my attention intensely. Hours drawing in pencil and watercolor painting.

I currently teach architectural design, perspective, sketches and watercolors. The most rewarding thing for me is to have the opportunity to convey to others an enthusiasm for hand drawing and sketching outdoors. I can see progress in their own expression, which fills me with pride. And it is a personal way to continue learning and experimenting all the time.

I have collected artwork in each city where I lived, my memory on paper. I currently live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a beautiful city that deserves to be drawn. I am very excited to be joining USK and inspired by the work of all participants. Thank you very much."

• Norberto's blog.

Meet the correspondents: SEMARANG, Indonesia > Rudi Hartanto

"I was born in 1967 and always enjoy drawing since my childhood.

As an architect, I feel that freehand drawing has been and still is a very effective way to build a good communication to the clients. It is quick, very expressive and lively information. Sometimes I make a very quick design idea in front of my client and mostly it works very well. Everybody needs everything quick. They do not only like 'Fast food'.... but also they love 'Fast design' or 'Fast drawing' or 'Fast sketching'...

Back in 1987, I was an exchange student. I had lived in Australia for a year and I have lots of sketches done outdoors... One day somebody watched me drawing outdoors. She came to me closer and told me: Could you please make a sketch of my shop? I will frame it if it is good. Off course I didn't mind. After 5 minutes the sketch done. She was very happy... then gave me five bucks directly. Thanks God, I had extra money for that day to buy a chocolate and ice cream.

The word 'Urban Sketcher' it sounds good since the first time I found it. In fact, I have done it on and off for some years.

I never realized that I am an urban sketcher. The term 'urban sketcher' really push my appetite of sketching more and more."

• Rudi's art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: BEIJING > Teo Cheng Huat

"My real interest in sketching started back in Singapore in 1980, when I was in the armed forces serving as a medical orderly for a military school. Every three months, a new batch of officer cadets would be trained at the school. My main duty was to be embedded to their field training as part of the medical support team. Since I had a lot of free time when they are out in the field doing their training, I began to spend time drawing everyday scenes and stuff that trainees do during training and in their off hours. Just like writing a diary, I sketched hilarious things like what the trainees would do behind the back of their officer or faking illness just to get a medical excuse for training. Two years ago, I selected some of the sketches, have them printed and call the sketchbook ‘My Army Daze.’

After graduating as a interior designer from Singapore in 1985, I got involved in restoration projects and landscaping. Most of these projects are best expressed in the form of hand drawn sketches which eventually I was able to create in my own style.

My home is now in Beijing. However, I am spending a lot of time in Hong Kong recently. Hong Kong is an exciting place to be and shopping and eating are favorite pastime. Since I grew up in Singapore , soon these pastimes are not for me anymore so I begin to explore the least popular places. I try to spend time on weekends visiting old streets, houses, shops and markets as well as some of the outlying islands around Hong Kong . Sometime, we can still find an old tea house, Tim Sum’ restaurant, barber shop and tiny hardware store in up-market area like SOHO or Central district. I hope to draw and sketch them before they are demolished and give way to new commercial and expensive residential development. Back in Singapore, old historical buildings are turned into shopping centers, hotels and posh restaurants. It is quite sad to see these things happening in Hong Kong as well and these places are disappearing every day. I hope I can draw and record these scene as much as possible. My wife introduced me to Urban Sketchers earlier this year and ever since, I am very happy and glad to share my sketches with others.

During my time in Beijing, I will visit the art districts. One of the popular area is  798 Arts District. Other time in Beijing , I will often visit some nearby farms and small towns far away from the city and do sketching of the quiet and peaceful countryside. Traveling to other parts of China is always a great experience because every time there are so much changes in the same city or town due to the rapid changes and developments. In Shanghai, The Bund and in Tianjin, Caozhuangzi Village are good places to do sketching, there are many Western influenced architecture and markets where some varnishing trades still exist.

Beside, I like to cook and most of the time I will sketch my menu and also planning to do a illustrated cookbook soon."

• Teo Cheng Huat's art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: SINGAPORE > Don Low

"It is without dispute to say that SketchCrawl and Urban Sketchers have made me fall deeply in love with sketching, like many others who did too. After I read “An Illustrated Life” by Danny Gregory, I quickly recognized that I am doing something right. I used to think that sketching is a personal and lonely process, but now I enjoy very much going out for sketching trips with like minded people who aren't too embarrassed to sketch and draw in public, and who wouldn't mind people looking over their shoulders as well.

Unlike taking a snapshot, sketching allows me to get acquainted with my surroundings. It is like a process of getting to know someone I haven't met before; you reveal something more as you get to know the person more. Sketching makes me see beyond what I would look at normally, and most of the time, it is also a record of your emotions and even your thoughts. It involves your entire being.

Now I make it a point to bring my sketchbooks and paints along wherever I go, especially if I go traveling. It would be wrong if I had only brought my camera along to these trips. Since I am always traveling with my wife who doesn't draw, I keep my sketching time short so she doesn't have to wait too long for me to complete a sketch. I would try not to include too many details in my sketches, hence I am beginning to sketch more loosely and not be too bogged down by details. However if I have the luxury of time, I would draw as much as possible to put down whatever I see in front of me, including sign posts and posters too. I used to like nature but now I am beginning to be more attracted to urban settings especially in restaurants or cafes where I could do gestural interpretations of people around me.

I used to post as an Urban Sketcher in Glendale, California, where I worked for Disney. Now I am back in Singapore, my home town where I was born and bred, educated and learned how to draw. After spending 4 years in America, you come back looking at local things with a different perspective. Things I have taken granted for have given me a fresh insight to how things are and used to be. My wife and myself have enjoyed Singapore like never before, even though we were back only 2 months ago.

Thanks to Urban Sketchers that have opened my eyes to see the world, one drawing at a time. I am so excited to be included in this community and I would therefore do my best to show the rest of the world outside Singapore what my world here is like through my sketches."

• Don's blog.
• Don's art on flickr.
• Don's website.

Meet the correspondents: MANCHESTER > Caroline Johnson

"I was born during one of the worst winters on record in Sharoe Green Maternity Hospital, Preston. Brought up on a post-war housing estate, archived drawings (aged five) already show a keen eye for detail such as washing on a line and fluff under a bed. By the age of nine I was copying photos of the stars from magazines and had decided to become an artist, feeling that my inherent shyness precluded a career as an Air Hostess.

I studied Fine Art for two years at the lovely Neo-Classical art school in Preston, in the industrial North West of England. An extra year's Foundation Course was spent at the palm-clad Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall. Then to London, in the heady, hippy late Sixties, and three years at the Central School of Art.

I now divide my time between Rennes in Western France and Manchester in the North-West of England.

The city of Rennes is in Brittany, for the most part a rural region which is bounded by rugged coastlines, sandy beaches and small fishing ports. The interior is scattered with romantic mediaeval villages, forests of Arthurian legends, intensive pig-rearing farms, industrial agriculture and the occasional sophisticated university town, such as Rennes.

Manchester is the birthplace of England's Industrial Revolution, and was the world's first industrialised city. Here was a thriving cotton industry, the remains of which can still be seen in its surviving cotton mills and warehouses, and the city's grand architecture... witness to the wealth of the few and the misery of the many.

I'm a tutor for painting and drawing workhops, where, among other things, I strongly encourage the use of sketchbooks.

I've done numerous public mural commissions and artworks for Chambers of Trade in England and France. I show my work in several galleries in North-West England.

Drawing and painting is a great delight to me and when I can't draw regularly I feel incomplete. I carry at least one sketchbook with me at all times and I'm drawn to the urban and the architectural, and the people who move through these places, who are often quite unaware of their surroundings.

As an artist, I feel it's up to us to reveal the beauty of the mediocre, the commonplace and the overlooked. It's easy enough to do a pretty picture of something like a vase of beautiful flowers! But it's a challenge (and a pleasure) to me, to show the charms of the urban — a humble nettle growing out of the pavement, creeping shadows, derelict mills, forgotten doorways and broken fences; the watchful solidity of a gasworks, the mystery of parked cars; bland shopping malls with nothing to recommend them... the intrusive and enigmatic shapes of new structures which stand like glittering giants against the steadfast skies.

I'm so pleased to be part of the Urban Sketchers' community!"

• Caroline's blog.
• Caroline's art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: SANTO DOMINGO > Nathalie Ramirez

"Drawing has been to me my most faithful mirror. 'A drawing never lies' I heard someone dear to me say once, and boy is it true.

I grew up surrounded by paintbrushes and music on this half island called Dominican Republic. I have always believed that I carry this craving for art in my blood, my grandfather was a self taught painter, my mother a painting teacher, my father an architect.

At high school I thought I wanted to go on and study advertising, yet a friend advised me to go to a wonderful design school, Altos de Chavon, in a town here called La Romana. I graduated in Fine Arts and Illustration. From there, I went on to Parsons in New York City, and a fantastic teacher opened my eyes and heart to the world of reportage drawing.

It has become an intrinsic part of my life now. I'm always willing to learn and grow from the experience of drawing life as it's happening around me. It's a priceless gift, and although I cannot say I haven't run into frustrating moments, drawing is always there for me, as my eyes, as my hands, as my voice."

• Nathalie's blog.
• Nathalie's art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: LOS ANGELES > Virginia Hein

"I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t drawing.

The other day a woman saw me sketching and asked me where I learned to draw… I was surprised by the question, but realized that behind it was her desire to draw, we chatted a bit and I made some suggestions. I thought about this later… yes, I was trained in art school, but in truth I’ve been learning to draw since I could pick up a crayon, and I still feel I’m learning every time I draw! I wouldn’t want it any other way!

I was born in Los Angeles, California, and the city and surrounding area continue to be a favorite subject. My studio is in nearby Pasadena. I love many things about this area… I’m drawn to places that feel like the “old” Los Angeles (which is relative of course!). I never tire of the effects of atmosphere (what some unkindly call smog!), the verticals of the palm trees and horizontals of freeways… and the many brush-covered hills. And, wherever I travel along comes the sketchbook, and I fall in love with places through drawing them. I think my work is becoming progressively more gestural — more about the feeling I have about a place than factual representation.

I’ve made my living as a toy designer, illustrator, and also teach drawing and design. I’ve always drawn and painted whenever possible — however, maintaining a constant sketchbook habit is something I’m doing now more than ever — especially since discovering Urban Sketchers! I’m delighted to be a correspondent!"

• Virginia's art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: NEW YORK CITY > Butch Belair

"I'm a photographer and digital artist living in Brooklyn. Perhaps because I work in advertising where many hands shape my work, drawing is something I do for myself, like a meditation: sitting for long stretches of time, calmed by the varied forms, texture and fabric of the city and how they are changed and shaped by light. I appreciate the press of time and striving to keep my composure as the light rapidly changes, hoping to capture the small details without losing the overall mood. I aspire to be focused and open at the same time, constantly intrigued by what something actually looks like, as opposed to the idea of it in my head. I drew a lot as a kid, but lost interest for reasons I can't recall. A few years back I started drawing again with a pen and a sketchbook and have since been testing my hand at watercolor. Now, if I could, I would do little else."

• Butch's art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: SÃO PAULO > Eduardo Bajzek

"I was born in 1975 in São Paulo, Brazil, and I still live in this city.

My passion for drawing led me to the architecture college and later to the architectural illustration field during my professional life.

For a few years I tried to establish myself as an architect, but I realized that working on construction sites wasn't easy for me because of the huge stress related to this activity.

In 2003, I chose working only with illustration, and since then I have been producing hundreds of artworks for construction companies, real state offices and architecture firms.

One great Australian illustrator, named John Haycraft, encouraged me to practice drawing on location, and in 2008 I bought my first sketchbook, which was soon inaugurated in a trip to Italy and Switzerland. Drawing in the streets in the middle of people, feeling and absorbing each particularity of the cities was a fascinating discovery.

The sketchbook was a good way for me to control my tendency to detail and overworking.

To accomplish that I created myself a rule: no later additions on the sketches. Well, I've broken this rule once or twice but I'm still focusing on that. When I'm traveling with my wife I don't have so much time to spend on each drawing, what requires faster sketches as well. However, my wife has just started her own sketchbook and she is very, very patient now!

Being an architect, I tend to make line drawings. Sometimes I use watercolor but I always bring with me a small set of markers, which is easier to deal with. I've been trying to focus not only on buildings and to apply different techniques. In this sense, this community is a great opportunity for me to learn more about different styles and ways to see the world.

The sketchbook also represents a new phase in my life: the searching for improvement and also a new course of my career."

• Eduardo's art on flickr.
• Eduardo's blog.

Meet the correspondents: MÁLAGA, Spain > Luis Ruiz

"Since I was a child, I have always loved drawing.

As an architect, I was trained to sketch on site in my first year of my studies. I have always considered sketching a wonderful tool in my job to understand things, more in the field of spatial relations than in their material aspect.

On the other hand, I have always brought a sketchbook with me in my travels as a much more effective way of keeping a memory than a photograph. But lately my travel sketches tended to be too few and too quick.

I have recently found Urban Sketchers, and then discovered the immense joy of sketching outside with no particular task. Reading Usk’s manifesto, I feel especially sensitive with the point of keeping a record of time and place, and I’m changing from sketching just architecture to understand the city as a big scenario for human activity.

I live in Málaga, a city in the south of Spain with more than half a million residents and 2,500 years of age; but also the center of a busy and lively metropolitan area, home of an active harbour and a big tourist destination. Now that I have two small children and I do not travel as much as before, I’m trying to show this mixture of old and new in my drawings. It is so rewarding to share my work with so many excellent artists and receive continuous feedback from other members! And, last but not least, to learn from other parts of the world.

I'm delighted to join Urban Sketchers."

• Luis' art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: MADRID > Toño Fernández

"I showed a passion for drawing from an early age, standing out among my peers for my capacity to express what I was observing. I still remember the day when my teacher grounded me because she asked us to draw a swan and she said I had traced it. One day she asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I answered without hesitation: “I want to be a fireman.”

I worked hard and in 2003 I passed the exams to join the Madrid Fire Department. Around the same time, I began to explore my artistic abilities more seriously. I took an illustration course and developed a passionate interest in comics, illustration and traditional animation.

Now I combine my work as a firefighter with my love for capturing images. During the free time, I draw for pleasure without having to make a living out of it.

I can’t find anything else that makes me feel a comparable emotion than when I stop to look around me and start drawing."

• Toño's blog.

Meet the correspondents: OSLO > Guillaume Bonamy

"Hi, My name is Guillaume Bonamy, a French citizen living in Oslo, Norway.

I have roamed the Earth for ten years now, recording all the beauty it deigns to share. Be it just round the corner or around a mountainside, in the heart of a forest or the bowels of a casino, I take note of those moments of shared joy, sorrow, of discoveries and meetings.

Guided by nature for the choice of tools, media, supports and composition, for the most appropriate means to maintain our dialogue and record my impressions. Each moment, each place unique, with its own particular language that I try to put down on paper by drawing or painting. From California to Hawaii, France, Spain, Germany, Malaysia or Norway I recorded, translated and interpreted.

I have lived in Oslo since April 2008. Here, life is characterised by a contrasting nature and changing climate. The topics are varied, and you have to learn patience to catch each moment in order to tame this city. The many activities on offer in Oslo are often linked to nature, and the sketches do not escape this rule.

From the marina that wakes from its winter sleep in April, to the sound of the repairing of ship hulls, the cross-country ski trails directly accessible from the city's metro line, the bars with their terraces full of people in summer, and even in wintertime, when the customers keep warm will under blankets, the colourful islands around the city front or the fjord with its permanent flow of sea traffic, Oslo lives, and every day I discover a little more."

• Guillaume's blog.
• Guillaume's art on flickr.

Meet the correspondents: CATANIA, Italy > Omar Jaramillo

"I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I studied architecture. I moved to Kassel (Germany) in 1999 to accomplish a master degree. Since 2007 I have been living in Catania, Sicily (Italy) where I work as a landscape architect.

Although I have always drawn and paint, it was not until I started studying in the Uni-Kassel, that I started keeping a travel sketchbook. I had a teacher there who used to do a lot of sketches when he travelled on university excursions. When he retired, I helped to organize an exhibition of his sketches. He brought a huge box full of sketchbooks he had filled since he was an architecture student. I spent a whole day selecting the most interesting drawings. It was a wonderful experience that opened my eyes to a new world.

In the last 10 years I have the feeling of being in a long journey. I like to discover the cities where I live, to understand why a place is the way it is and what makes it different and unique from others. Drawing is for me a way to learn to love a place, to become part of it.

I like to draw architecture but I am more attracted to urban scenery, portraying how people live in the city. Since I’m a foreigner, everything that locals find normal and taken-for-granted, for me is exotic. I always carry a small watercolor travel set from Windsor and Newton and my sketchbook in my bag.

I always thought that drawing was a solitary experience until I found Urban Sketchers. It was amazing to find so many people doing the same thing. It is a great place to share!"

• Omar's blog.
• Omar's art on flickr.
• Omar's website.

Meet the correspondents: BERKELEY, California > Gary Amaro

"The Snail Circus taught me a lesson. Afternoon at an open air café under the canopies and among the barber chairs, Christmas lights, and cactus flowers, two young kids charging admission to their “performing” snails while a third flipped through pages of a heavy phone book like she was about to preach a sermon. One of those magic moments and me without paper or pencil.

Now I carry a sketchbook and a handful of pencils and brushes with me wherever I go, which is not to say that I can always make time to draw what catches my eye, but at least I’m prepared. Observational drawing is a constant practice and a kind of meditation.

I’m interested in history and a sense of local color and place, how cities and towns move through time, and the ghosts of their past: the classical, the monumental, the ornate, the rustic, the repurposed, the industrial, the functional, the natural, the ramshackle, the abandoned. Portraits and landscapes alike, I see my sketches as fragments of stories.

I live in the East Bay, working as a concept and storyboard artist in the video game industry and teaching comics storytelling at Academy of Art University. I sketch all over Northern California. Look for posts by me from San Francisco, the Sonoma Coast, the Sacramento River delta, the gold country foothills, and wherever else I roam. Also, expect me to stretch the “urban” factor with views from the rural fringes, the roadsides, and points between the places on the maps.

I'm amazed and impressed by the work on Urban Sketchers, and pleased to be part of this community."

• Gary's blog.

Meet the correspondents: JAKARTA > Dhar Cedhar

"I began outdoor sketching in the 80s, but the sketches were still unorganized. It was not until 2001 that I began sketching on sketchbooks of various types and sizes.

At the beginning, I made sketches only as an exercise and documentation of various objects that served as important visual reference. For an illustrator, visual reference is very important in supporting the quality of pictures to be made. Recently, the sketching turns from simple visual reference into an art expression as well as a medium of socialization between me, the sketcher, and my surroundings.

I was born in 1966 in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. In mid 1994, I moved to Jakarta and worked as an illustrator until 2000. Since 2001, I have been a freelance illustrator and owner of KACITA, a visual design company.

Out of my routine, I do outdoor sketching around the city. There are thousands of multi-complex problems at all sides of life in metropolitan Jakarta. Urban society in crowded areas, river banks and railway sides, traditional market merchants, walking merchants, and community of middle-to-high class at luxurious cafés or malls are all interesting subjects for sketching on a sketchbook. Of course, it needs a hard effort to make it."

• Cedhar's blog.

Meet the correspondents: TOKYO > Kumi Matsukawa

"Hi, I'm Kumi. I was a little child who would draw on anything and everything if there was space to draw. Now I am an illustrator. I mainly draw storyboards for TV commercials. At the same time I teach watercolor and pastel in my neighborhood. Both works entail sketching.

However, for a long time I considered sketches to be merely a training or of secondary importance. It was since 2008 when I participated in one of the World Wide SketchCrawl events that I found the joy of sketching and sharing. In other words, I discovered how much potential sketches themselves have. Since then, I am hooked on sketching.

I enjoy sketching on location very much. Landscape, buildings, people, animals, plants. It's like a dialogue with the subject. For example, when I draw an old tree, I feel as if I am listening to its story. An old tree — like a old man — has a long, complicated story and what I do is transcribe it in the form of a sketch. The story has ups and downs like its branches do, and it has intricate details exactly the way its leaves look. So I try to capture as much details as possible, but I sometimes have to sum up some of them due to the circumstances. Or I may amplify something interesting. But that's not an exaggeration, just a result of the struggle to earnestly focus my attention to it.

I live in Kanagawa prefecture, where famous tourist spots are, such as Yokohama, Enoshima, Kamakura, Hakone and so on. I also go sketching to Tokyo. The view of Tokyo is not as photogenic as other prominent cities are. But has a lot of interesting, new and old places to draw. For instance, there is a new tower called Tokyo Sky Tree. When it is completed in 2012 it will be one of the tallest in the world. So I'm planing to sketch it on a regular basis.

I also enjoy very much seeing other sketchers works depicting things with unique style. Their various approaches always impress me, inspire me!

I am so happy to be aboard USk!"

• Kumi's art on flickr.
• Kumi's website.

Meet the correspondents: PORTLAND > Kurt D.Hollomon

"I have always been focused on observational drawing, urban landscapes in particular, but I became more intense about it back in 1997 when my body nearly all froze up. I couldn't draw at all for about two weeks. My hand couldn't feel the pen. I was told that I might have MS and that I should switch my emphasis to working with the computer.

That sure didn't sit very well with me. The "you might have" became a "for sure" in 2003, when I was diagnosed with MS. But I had already hit the streets perfecting my observational skills, mark making and drawing in my sketchbook with a wider variety of pens and brushes. I figured I'd better get the drawings now while I can. I’ve been teaching drawing at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, since 2001, so when I was done with class for the day, out I went to a different location each afternoon to make a new drawing in my book. My sketchbooks were already going places with me.

I love the thrill of getting everything down on the page before cars leave, and of course clouds block the sun and shadows move. There’s nothing like it. Not exactly like the adrenaline rush I had when mountain climbing, but intoxicating all the same."

• Kurt's blog.

Meet the correspondents: CUPERTINO, Calif. > Patrick Vilain

"As long as I can remember, sketching has always been a habit of mine. It’s like travelling while standing still, conversing with yourself. There’s always a little monologue going on.

What I like about sketching is that it enables me to really stand still for a moment, cut out all the distractions and really focus — a real luxury in this “2.0” day and age. I’m always surprised, when looking at some old sketches, to remember so clearly the context (time, sounds, events) in which they were created. This added value is totally inaccessible to the viewer, but is definitely a large part of the fun of being a sketch artist.

A creative path follows an arc and if I had to define mine, I would say that I’m currently moving away from sheer realism and try to inject more subjectivity into my process. Switching tools really help, from a pencil, ball point, pen and marker to currently a brush and Chinese ink.

As for sketching in the Bay Area, there’s no denying that it’s a pretty cool location. The weather is pretty much always on your side and there’s a real diversity of sights between San Francisco all the way down to Silicon Valley.

Cities and buildings really speak to me. On the other hand, sketching people is also rewarding, especially when I succeed in capturing the essence of a person. I find that excessively hard and it eludes me most of the time.

I’m very excited to join the Urban Sketchers community, share my explorations and be stimulated by the great sketches that I see coming in on a daily basis."

• Patrick's blog.
• Patrick's art on Flickr.

Meet the correspondents: GHENT, BELGIUM > Robbe Vervaeke

"I started sketching about a year and a half ago. I've always loved drawing from reality, but it took something more to get me to start carrying my sketchbook everywhere with me. A friend of mine started a sketching blog, and I suppose I have become one of the most enthusiastic members. Now I can't let go of my moleskine. I bring it everywhere I go. I have made it a habit to arrive everywhere I go early, so I can sketch. In bars, on trains, whenever I have got nothing really on my hands, I'm sketching.

I graduated from animation at the KASK in Ghent last year. Long ago, I decided to try and become an artist rather than an animator. The thing that drew me into animation wasn't Disney. I have never really seen a Disney film. It was the fact I love film, I love drawing, and I met William Kentridge. So I put two and two together, and here I am. It's an unusual choice, but the most interesting things can be found in places you would never look.

I have this unhealthy obsession with oil paints, I can't really let it go. I'm that type of person that always has to stay busy, you know the type. I'm trying to work as an independent filmmaker. At the moment I'm pitching a short animation film project made entirely in oil paints. Imagine being a painter inside the fine borders of film.

Sketching is the thread that holds it all together. I love it, I'm obsessed with sketching. It combines this unique and intense way of looking at people and places, to film, to animation, to painting. I sketch for my own benefit. I'm constantly trying to improve.

I believe that, if I improve my sketching abilities, all areas of my work will benefit from it. And I don't think I'll ever be able to quit.

I live in Belgium, and I commute a lot. I sleep in a small town called Deerlijk, but I do everything else in Ghent. I travel around inside of Belgium a lot, wherever I go, I report it in my sketchbook. From everyday life on trains to the big museums in the area, I draw everything I see."

• Robbe's blog.
• Robbe's art on Flickr.
• Robbe Vervaeke's drawings at Gentschetsts blog.
• Robbe's graduation short film "erszebet".