Urban sketchers depict Berlin, one drawing at a time

Anja Rieger, a German urban sketcher, at work at the Berlin tourist attraction Checkpoint Charlie. The sandbags and sign showing a military officer simulate the site’s state during the Cold War.By Rebecca CiesielskiTheir motto is, “We show the world, one drawing at a time.” Their manifesto requires them to capture truthfully what they see and share their drawings online.The Urban Sketcher movement may have started as just a group on image sharing site Flickr in 2007. But the brainchild of journalist Gabriel Campanario has now grown into a global movement that attracts a diverse group of people united by a passion for sketching.Anja Rieger spends much of her free time sketching everyday life in Berlin, seeking out unusual locations such as the city’s underground network or its airport.“I have always to be very careful that people don’t feel like they are being watched when I sketch them,” says Rieger, as she begins to draw the outline features of a cafe visitor in her sketch book.Urban space is a major theme for the 52-year-old who is one of around 20 urban sketchers currently active in Berlin.The movement also has a presence in many other German cities, from Flensburg in the north to the southern metropole of Munich. Rieger uses crayons and water colours to sketch people sitting in cafes or to draw aircraft on the runway at Tegel.Like all urban sketchers, Rieger shares her work online and follows the simple rule that she has to be where her subjects are. Rieger never sketches from memory or uses photographs as an aid.“I draw things I see because I simply wouldn’t be able imagine some of the things I see,” she explains.Within 20 minutes Rieger has completed her sketch of people sitting at tables surrounded by the cafe’s walls before commencing to fill in the white spaces with water colours.Of the eight rules that urban sketchers have to adhere to, one of the most important is to be truthful to the scenes they witness.Conflict is often the catalyst for a sketch. It could for example be the recent civil unrest in Brazil or a squatted house next door, as founder Campanario explained on his blog.These are themes that press photographers use their cameras to record with lightning speed. However, there is now a limitless supply of photos and the public feels oversaturated, says Reinhard Schulz-Schaeffer, professor of design at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. “A journalistic illustration profits from the changed meaning of photography.”Schulz-Schaeffer also believes that a photographer can influence the viewer by his choice of subject.“This interpretation of events is often not recognised,” he says.An illustration, by contrast, does not even pretend to be unsubjective. Architect Omar Jaramillo says for him sketching is a search for truth that goes above and beyond what photographs can show — with the side effect that the artist can sometimes achieve unusual personal results.“Once I sketched a sailing ship in great detail and suddenly understood how it functioned,” explains Jaramillo, founder of the Berlin Sketchers blog.The Ecuadorian previously lived in Sicily and Abu Dhabi and has sketched across the globe. The process helps him to get closer to where he is, says Jaramillo. – DPA