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https://urbansketchers.org/2025/12/09/500-sketch-meets-a-journey-of-lines-places-and-people/
https://urbansketchers.org/?p=65998
Reaching the 500th sketch meet of Urban Sketchers Pune fills me with a deep, almost overwhelming sense of nostalgia. It feels like a milestone carved not just in numbers, but in friendships, shared mornings, and the quiet transformations that occur when people gather to draw the world together.
My own journey began in October 2015, with nothing more than curiosity. A friend following a Facebook page of a group sketching at different locations across the city on Sunday mornings. I simply showed up. That one decision changed the course of my life.
I didn’t just discover on-location sketching, I found a community that became family, a space where my pen found its flow and my heart found its people.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to meet friends who became mentors, guides, teachers, instructors, inspirations, and sometimes even unexpected cheerleaders. For every influence I may have had on others, I’ve received encouragement many times over. We grew together, line by line— sketchers, humans, companions in this beautiful practice of drawing together.
Sketchbook flip through/ AsiaLink SketchWalk Penang2024
Sketchbook flip through/ tour New Zealand Malaysia 2023
Sketchbook flip through/ AsiaLink SketchWalk Suwon2023
A Chapter That Grew, A Family That Expanded
I have vivid memories of the early days of USk Pune—how the chapter grew organically, welcoming sketchers of all ages and walks of life.
Students, professionals, travellers, homemakers… each brought their own lens shaped by local traditions, neighbourhoods, languages, and lived experiences. Together we created a vibrant, multi-layered canvas that came alive in our stories, our sketches, and the colourful throwdowns that soon became our signature.
What started as a local group slowly connected to the global family. Through sketch meets, symposiums, Asia Link walks, collaborations, online talks, spontaneous sketching adventures, I could connect with sketchers across, many of whom have become lifelong friends. Sketching made the world feel smaller, warmer, and beautifully interconnected.
One of the humbling highlights of my journey was seeing my work finding my work featured in Stephanie Bower’s “The World of Urban Sketching”, a global handbook celebrating urban sketchers and stories from around the world. Being part of this publication felt like an affirmation of the path I started with my community.
A City Rediscovered, Week After Week
Our weekly sessions soon became a cherished ritual— an invitation to step out, observe, and rediscover Pune, the city I’ve lived in longest. Sketching changed the way I saw everything. Every street corner had character, every shadow had a story, every place felt new again.
Travel followed naturally. With a sketchbook in hand, new cities— within India and outside became more memorable.
The best part, family supported and the community was around- encouraging, nudging, and celebrating each new experience.
Projects Closer to Heart
Some of my most meaningful experiences came through group initiatives and reportage projects.
Leading our team for “Colonial Influence on Pune”, which featured on USk Talks series. Joining the 24-hour Global Sketch crawl from location, remains a treasured memory.
Winning the USk reportage grant for The Stepwells Project took me across Western Maharashtra, documenting centuries-old water architecture and the stories woven into those silent spaces. It helped me finding how such stories can illuminate history, culture, and community memory.
And with the encouragement and guidance of friend and mentor, I found myself at the one of its kind Travel Sketch festival- Rendez-Vous du Carnet de Voyage in Clermont-Ferrand last year, sharing my Kerala travel sketchbooks and stories with a global audience— an experience both surreal and humbling that stays close to my heart.
USk Talks S2E17 Colonial Influence on Pune
Rendez-Vous du Carnet de Voyage: One-on-one with Manish Pimpley
A Community That is an Integral Part of Me
Serving as part of the core team—planning, organising, and supporting events, workshops, exhibitions, symposiums, e-zines, and initiatives—gave me a deep sense of belonging. Watching the group evolve, adapt, and carry forward the chapter’s spirit has been incredibly fulfilling. Roles change and structures evolve, but the bond remains. Friendships, memories, shared mornings and the joy of sketching together stay than any title.
At the heart of everything is a simple truth:
Urban Sketchers has shaped and is a part of my life in ways I could never have imagined.
500 Meets Later…
As USk Pune celebrates its 500th sketch meet, I look back with gratitude and forward with excitement. I continue sketching with this community—local and global—for as long as I can hold a pen– drawing the world one line, one moment, and one shared story at a time.
Here’s to more meets, more memories, and the ever-growing tapestry of Urban Sketchers across the world.
The post 500 Sketch Meets: A Journey of Lines, Places, and People appeared first on Urban Sketchers.
https://urbansketchers.org/2025/12/09/500-sketch-meets-a-journey-of-lines-places-and-people/
https://urbansketchers.org/?p=65998
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After that, it just made sense that my flamingo would appear to, almost, stand upon its own head.
