Urban Sketchers Hyderabad marks 300th event with month-long weekend sessions

Urban Sketchers Hyderabad's marks its 300th event with month-long sketching sessions to capture city landmarks.

Urban Sketchers’ Hyderabad chapter(USk-H) celebrates a key milestone — its 300th event — this month. This global community of artists practising drawing on location has turned this occasion into a month-long celebration. “Instead of celebrating the milestone as a single event in a day, we planned to spread it across the month,” says USk-H’s co-founder and software architect Faraaz Farshori.

The recent Sunday meet-up held at Abids saw members of this global community of artists render the Sunday Book fair, Taj Mahal Hotel and Mozzamjahi Market through sketches. While the sketching session on December 8 at Banjara Hills covers Lamakaan, GVK Mall and the City Centre shopping area, one on December 22 in the Old City has Bara Galli, Hussaini Alam, Charminar and Khilwat in focus. However, the group is most excited about the session on December 14 at the Police Commissionerate on Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, as they have never sketched this building.

A chapter of the US-based Urban Sketchers (USk), the Hyderabad group held its first event in November 2017 with members sketching the Boat Club in Tank Bund. Since then, their two-hour sessions at various locations have had around 30-60 members capturing a slice of the cityscape on paper. Members display sketchbooks featuring different expressions, come together for a group photograph and post it online. “The idea is for everybody to put their own observations and insights on paper as Urban Sketchers,” says Faraaz.

USk-H’s vibrant community has brought together individuals from different professions. These hobby/amateur artists embark on individual sketching journeys to present different dimensions of the same building/street through sketches. “Most of the individuals are not professional artists; they pursue this as a weekend hobby, something they had missed until then,” says Faraaz, who created art as a child but discontinued it later and revisited it, using Urban Sketchers as a tool.

For Di Hu, an education consultant with Amerigo Education, USk-H provides an avenue for her creativity and a way to discover the city. Di Hu joined Urban Sketchers in Washington in 2021 and takes her sketchbook to cafes, doctor appointments and on her travels. “It is a great way to observe and record my surroundings. Every place where I sketch became a part of my life profoundly. It feels as if I had interacted with the place and its people and created deeper connections than if I had just walked by or taken a photo of it. With my sketchbook and brush, I become part of the scene and the scene becomes part of me.”

The USk-H also conducts free workshops on the basics of watercolours, sketching and charcoal drawing, which help budding artists to broaden their creative boundaries.

Those interested to attend the Sunday sessions can get more details through USk-H’s social media pages.