Sketcher Fest with Gabi Campanario and April Wu

This is a recording of our live demo on July 5th, 2023 with Gabi Campanario and April Wu! We talked about Sketcher Fest: a festival that brings together urban sketchers, travel sketchbook artists, art vendors, publishers, and the general public during a weekend of workshops, exhibits, and sketching activities in Edmonds, Washington.

Gabi

Spanish-born journalist, illustrator, and author Gabriel “Gabi” Campanario is best known for his storytelling sketches of the Seattle area—which appeared weekly in The Seattle Times between 2009 and 2021—and for his role as the founder of Urban Sketchers, a global organization of artists who aim to “show the world, one drawing at a time” through on-location sketching and reportage. He is the author of Seattle Sketcher: An Illustrated Journal and The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around the World.

In 2022, Gabi launched On the Spot, a Substack newsletter, and Sketcher Press, a publishing imprint, to amplify the work of urban sketchers and reportage artists.

April

April Wu is a stationery enthusiast and urban sketcher based in Seattle, Washington. She is also a representative for TRAVELER’S COMPANY USA. The collaboration project with TRC USA and Art Toolkit combines her passion for documenting trips through paintings with the hobby of urban sketching. This summer, with the TRAVELER’S COMPANY TRAVEL & SKETCH campaign, she hopes to encourage anyone to capture their daily adventures in their own TRAVELER’S notebook.