Relaxed Rule on Drawing From Direct Observation
You may have noticed this mentioned in the post from USk Edmonton Themes post for February. I checked with Yvonne R to find out where her information came from as I could not find an official announcement. Here is her response.
“USk hasn’t “officially” endorsed sketching from photographs (you won’t find this info recorded in print) but I listened in to a Zoom meeting of chapter admins where it came up in discussion. USk’s position still adheres to the manifesto but, recognizing the extremely unusual circumstances, is allowing local chapters to make decisions about drawing from photographs as an alternative. Their position is that as long as people are sketching local sites, even from a photograph, they’re exercising their creative muscles and contributing to their own mental health. Several chapter admins in that meeting had already made drawing from photos an option in their areas and the USk admin acknowledged the value.”
I encourage you to sketch from direct observation as much as possible, but if that means you are not sketching at all, then by all means sketch from a photo of a LOCAL site. Please mark your sketch as NON USK, so other members know it is from a photo.
Remember this is still a “sketch”, please do not submit work you have taken many, many hours to complete. The idea is to get the “feeling” of the subject in a loose and not overworked manner. Save your “Rembrandts” for other Facebook pages.