Sketching To Illustrate My Life

The purpose for this blog is to record my progress as a sketcher/urban sketcher, to make myself accountable to sketch daily, and just for the fun of it. Urban Sketching is an international movement started in 2007 by Gabriel Companario, an artist and journalist from Seattle Washington. There are a few requirements for a sketch to be considered an urban sketch as listed below.

The Urban Sketcher Manefesto

• We draw on location inside 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.

If I do not follow the Manefesto requirements (sketched from a photo that I took, or I sketched an image from the internet) I will disclose that with the sketch. I may also include my thoughts about the sketching process, media used, information about the architecture, area, people, or activity.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.