Symposium Participant: Pete Scully

Hello, my name is Pete and I come from London. I live in California now, and am the Urban Sketchers correspondent for Davis. I've been in the US since late 2005, and work for a small department in a big university. I sketch whenever I have a moment, usually lunchtime. I mostly sketch in my watercolour moleskine and use mostly micron pigma pens and cotman watercolours. I am most interested in recording the world in which I live on a near-daily basis, to capture it while it's still there, because one day I might forget it.

I've never been to Portland but everyone says I will like it. I hear the local beers are good, and there are lots of places to buy zines. Point me in those two directions and I'll be fine.

I'm looking forward to the Symposium because I want to learn not only how, but why other people sketch. When you're out sketching a city it's a solitary experience where you often go where the wind or sunlight takes you, and it's a revelation to find that so many people do exactly the same thing, for mostly the same reasons. I am an urban rat, and I love cities, as characters with giant personalities and centuries of baggage; urban sketching allows me to examine my relationship with the city streets I love.

I have really enjoyed being part of Urban Sketchers, as well as taking part in the Worldwide Sketchcrawls, looking at and learning from everybody's work with all their various styles has been inspirational, and gives great impetus to keep going, try new things. I'm a little more confident now than I used to be, but you never stop learning. I believe drawing is all about lines and choices. I also believe it's incredibly personal.

My sketchblog: petescully.com

My urban sketches

My flickr site