text: Why are you sketching? · Nono Martínez Alonso
  Is there a drawing competition? Are you an architecture student? Why are you all sketching around here? Why are you doing this?
  People stop by to ask what and why we're sketching, and sometimes to simply watch us doing our thing. They first look at you and your drawing, then they look at what's in front of you, wondering what is so important as to deserve being sketched.
  Why are you doing this? It's a relaxing, joyful, and rewarding experience. A meditative moment in which your week finally slows down. There's no need to think about anything else: Just pay attention to what's in front of you and render it in your page.
  After deliberating what to draw, the beginning of a sketch—the blank page—can indeed be stressful. Why, then, would you put yourself in such a situation? Well, you start loving the challenge, a challenge that requires your effort and concentration and pushes you to get a tiny bit better every day. Once the drawing is laid out on the page you can continue adding detail and shading and coloring mindlessly, without too much thinking, and feeling a rewarding sense of joy as your sketch gets closer and closer to a finished drawing.
  Is there a drawing competition? Not really.
  Are you an architecture student? This is a funny one that I'll try to cover in a future post.
  Why are you all sketching around here? Frequently, it's just me by myself (or with Mom). But we also meet with the Urban Sketchers group from time to time to sketch a specific place or building altogether.
  I'm truthful to the Urban Sketchers manifesto: sketching on location and capturing what I see from direct observation, using my drawings as a story-telling medium.