Uploading photos

Wellington Sketchers has its own flickr group, and we would love it if you post your sketches up there. Flickr is a website where people can upload photos, and include their photos in online groups. Please only post things that you have drawn or painted, so we avoid any copyright issues.

There are several other flickr groups and international online sketching groups which sketchers might be interested in. We will often highlight any special events or competitions that these websites are running. Each of those group's has its own rules of what can be posted on that group's flickr page.

Urban Sketching

UrbanSketchers is a network of artists around the world who draw the cities and areas where they live and travel to. Their main website and the book Urban Sketching by Gabriel Campanario has heaps of information on this huge international sketching movement. Sketchers can upload their own urban sketches on the Urban Sketchers Flickr Group, provided your sketch meets the urban sketching manifesto. The Flickr Group usually also has a Weekly Theme going on, for those looking for inspiration. 

Worldwide Sketchcrawls
The Worldwide SketchCrawl site sets a few dates a year where sketchers from all the different corners of the world join in a day of sketching and journalling and then, thanks to the Internet, share the results on an online forum. We will be advertising the worldwide sketchcrawls on the Wellington Sketchers site and, where possible, we will set up local sketching meetups on those dates.  

Everyday Matters

Danny Gregory was the founder of the Everyday Matters online group. Another site, inspired by this is the Everyday Matters challenge site. There is an Everyday Matters Flickr group where you can post photos of your sketches. The site has a weekly drawing challenge, posted in the Yahoo group each Sunday. This is a great online group for people who can't get out to sketch on location easily.

Sketchbook Challenge

The Sketchbook Challenge website has regular posts with lots of different sketchbook tutorials and short articles. The site tends more towards sketchbook journalling, which includes drawing, sketching, and painting, but also encompasses collage and multimedia. The site has monthly challenges, with random draw prizes, which you enter by posting a photo of your sketches answering that month's challenge on the Sketchbook Challenge Flickr group.

Artist's Journal Workshop
The Artist's Journal Workshop website supplements the book Artist's Journal Workshop by Cathy Johnson. Much of it focuses on sketching and watercolour techniques. It also covers some other media, and leans towards using artist sketchbooks as a record or journal of your experiences. The corresponding Flickr website is here.  

Sketching in Nature

If you like sketching nature, have a look at the Sketching in Nature website. Sketchers from around the world can post their own sketches on the Sketching in Nature flickr site. Art added to this pool needs to be nature related--birds, flowers, trees, fungus, astronomical phenomena, landscapes, botanical art, field sketches, etc. They'd like most of it to be done on the spot, but careful botanical studies are more than welcome, as well.

Illustration Friday
Illustration Friday is a website where they post a new topic each Friday and you have one week to draw, paint or doodle your interpretation of it. Artists and illustrators of all levels are welcome to post their works for each challenge on the site, and it is really interesting to see how differently and creatively everyone interprets the weekly topics.   

Do you know of any other publicly accessible international sketching groups that you'd like to see listed here? Email us at Wellington dot Sketchers at gmail dot com.

Wellington Sculptures by Fiona Ryan