Drawing Attention

Drawing Attention is the official monthly zine of the Urban Sketchers organization, and communicates and promotes official USk workshops, Symposia, sketch crawls, news and events. It shares news about USk chapters and educates readers about the practice of on-location sketching.

During 2020, Urban Sketchers celebrated a milestone of 300 official regional chapters, however, due to restrictions caused by COVID-19, in-person sketch events and workshops were severely limited. Drawing Attention continued to report on our international community as sketchers turned to drawing at home, participating in weekly challenges, catching up with friends on the other side of the world via Zoom, and watching USk Talks, as ways of coping with lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.

We also introduced our first bilingual article, written in French and English by Parisian sketcher Mat Let, which appeared in the July 2020 issue, alongside an article written in Spanish by Ecuadorian sketcher Mauricio Lopez. Articles in Korean and German have followed, putting into practice our belief that sketchers should be able to read about their sketching communities in their own languages.

As the pandemic dragged on, Drawing Attention turned to more substantive content, providing our readers with articles on art and mental health; coverage of protests taking place worldwide; and inspirational features on topics such as USk Paris’ Nos Prisons Imaginaires project; and the strength and resiliency found in our community of sketchers, including mobility-impaired Kansas City sketcher Robert Reed. Finally, we ended the year with a tribute to beloved sketcher Eduardo Salavisa.

The 2020 Drawing Attention team is comprised of managing editor Patricia Chow; Issuu layout designer Anne Taylor; Mailchimp layout designer Jane Wingfield; English language writers Mark Anderson, Meagan Burns, Jim Chapman, Monique Chiam, Cathy Gutterman, Mark Leibowitz, Pedro Loureiro, Russell Petcoff, Anne Taylor and Jane Wingfield; French language writer, copy editor and translator Sophie Navas; Spanish language writer, copy editor, and translator Rosario Muñoz Gajardo; Spanish language writer Luz Vega; proofreader Leslie Akchurin; and social media designers Frieda Christofides, Rita Sabler and Suzala.

We would also like to thank our numerous contributors this year for their time and sharing their stories with us, as well as the USk Social Media and Tech teams for ensuring the wide distribution of the zine.

Patricia Chow Managing Editor, Drawing Attention