Gabriel Campanario

Gabriel Campanario

Founder of Urban Sketchers, publisher at Sketcher Press and former columnist at The Seattle Times

Rewind: Lapin’s journey from drawing Paris commuters to publishing more than 40 books

How do you launch a career as an independent reportage artist or professional urban sketcher? While still working as a graphic designer in Paris in his mid 20s, Lapin honed his drawing skills sketching subway commuters. He also tried to use as much of his vacation time “to go far away, usually alone with a […]

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Reportage News: Uganda Sketchbook, The Visual Anthropologist, Urban Sketcher Village in Erlangen

Uganda’s landscape and wildlife in watercolor and pencil “I traveled to Uganda to make one of my dreams a reality: to witness the mountain gorillas.” —Joan León Hot off the press! Barcelona-based sketcher Joan León, the author of Ilustrando Sudamérica*, takes us to a whole new continent in Cuaderno de Uganda ($16.77 on Etsy), a publication he released last […]

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Reportage News: Mereida Fajardo, Joan Chiverton, Chip Sullivan, Luís Simões, plus a new Sketcher Press book!

Hello readers, Here’s a new bulletin of sketching and reportage news. If you like what you read, please share so others can learn about On the Spot and Sketcher Press. Behind the scenes at a London hospital “Vital Organs” is a newly-released 48-page publication collecting the gripping reportage drawings made by Mereida Fajardo at Chelsea […]

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Reportage News: Simo Capecchi in Adesso magazine; Paul Madonna’s All Over Coffee; Substack Reads features On the Spot

Hello readers, Some housekeeping: On the Spot has a new tagline: the Magazine of Reportage Illustration. This slogan better reflects my original goal for the newsletter: to create a reader-supported publication that pays artists for articles of compelling visual storytelling. In light of the new tagline, “Sketching News Roundups” are now called “Reportage News.” These posts will […]

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Rewind: Marielle Durand on drawing inside the French Parliament and around her Paris 13 neighborhood

The guest of my January Live Zoom was Marielle Durand, an artist, author and urban sketcher based in Paris. Durand belongs to a very small group of artists who holds a special pass to draw inside the French Parliament, where she has been documenting political debates since October of 2022. We talked about many things during our […]

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Reportage News: Rolf Schroeter; Christina Wald; Sketchers on the Road; Calendar

Hi readers, It felt good to kick off On the Spot in 2024 with a contributed article by Houston based artist Judith Dollar. Next, I announced this Thursday’s Artist Talk with Marielle Durand (Are you in?). And now it’s time to review some compelling reportage that caught my eye in the past few weeks. Rolf Schroeter’s protest art You may […]

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Meet my guest for January’s Live Zoom

French artist Marielle Durand has been sketching for more than 20 years, but when she started her career as a professional artist she never imagined the job would open doors like the ones that lead into the French Parliament. Since October 2022, Durand has belonged to a very small group of artists allowed to draw the political […]

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Rewind: Louis Netter on Reportage Drawing

Dear subscribers, It was a pleasure to host Irish-American artist and scholar Louis Netter during our December Live Zoom. Netter’s upcoming book, “Reportage Drawing: Vision and Experience” promises to be a must read for any artist and sketcher who wants to harness the full potential of observational drawing. The book is the culmination of the academic research […]

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Sketching News Roundup: Niki Groom, Olivier Kugler, Victor Juhasz, Anna-Louis Fesltead

Hello readers and welcome new subscribers, I’m glad you are here for another fresh batch of sketching news. Niki Groom at ‘Peace Feast’ Art by Niki Groom Community events offer great opportunities for reportage. In Bristol, England, local artist Niki Groom was commissioned to document Peace Feast, a multicultural evening of food and music held at Refugees Welcome North […]

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