Hundreds of people will be sketching in Aotea Square today. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
Hundreds of people will gather in Aotea Square today to draw cityscapes as part of a global gathering of urban sketchers.
More than 500 people from 30 countries are attending the international Urban Sketchers Symposium in Auckland.
Organiser Eric Ngan said they will meet in the square at 3pm today for a mass on-location sketching event, which is open to anyone to join - they just need to bring their own materials.
Ngan said sketching is a good way to see the city through a different lens.
"A good location can be anything because it's up to the artist to interpret what they want to achieve out of it.
"We could have 30 people all looking at the Sky Tower but you'll get 30 different results."
He said sketching was a mindful exercise.
"You remember that sketch for a lifetime afterwards.
"It's not like a photograph that you snap and it's done, you will remember the hard bench that you're sitting on, that the wind was getting cold and your hands were getting cold, that there was a cafe nearby playing music."
Urban Sketchers is a global community of sketchers dedicated to the practice of on-location drawing but it has been three years since they gathered, with this symposium postponed due to the pandemic.
Sketchers from groups in Wellington, Christchurch and Taranaki have also joined the symposium.
They have been sketching areas of Auckland City as they learn about techniques, principles, and concepts of drawing on location.