Guest Artists

For the third consecutive summer, hundreds of art and travel enthusiasts will converge in Edmonds, Washington, to participate in Sketcher Fest, the premier festival of travel sketchbooks in North America.

Meet the stellar roster of international, national and local guest artists who will be sharing stories about their journeys, teaching workshops, and showcasing their sketchbooks July 19-20.

Sketcher Fest events will be hosted at Graphite Arts Center on Main Street and at the Edmonds Waterfront Center overlooking Puget Sound.

Cyrille Briand

Pornichet

Cyrille Briand is a sketcher, watercolor painter and illustrator, living on the Atlantic French coast. He is the author of “Carnet de l’Estuaire,” a travel sketchbook showcasing both tourist and industrial sites along the Loire River delta, and “4 Islands Sketchbook,” about his trips to Corsica, Rhodes, Iceland and Hawaii. Briand joined the Urban Sketchers community in 2017 and founded a local Urban Sketchers chapter for the Saint-Nazaire region in 2019. He teaches workshops focused on outdoor sketching in watercolor. And avid traveler, he looks forward to every trip so he can return home with a new sketchbook full of colorful impressions.

Marielle Durand

Paris

Belgian-born artist and author Marielle Durand has been following her guiding principle of drawing on location for over 25 years. She likes to capture the beauty behind ordinary and extraordinary moments, whether she is exploring the Algerian Desert, visiting the Auvergne region or strolling around her Parisian neighborhood. Since 2022, she belongs to a small group of artists invited to draw the political debates inside the French Parliament. A series of watercolors Durand painted on the spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were recently exhibited at Art-Maniak Gallery in Paris and are the subject of her most recent book “Paris Jeux t’aime.”

Nishant Jain

Vancouver, B.C.

Nishant Jain’s sketching journey began as an immigrant in North America, walking around with a sketchbook to better understand his new world. His work fulfills a curiosity for urban life, and the public spaces that enable us to coexist in harmony. He shares his art in a weekly newsletter to thousands of readers around the world, and is the host of the SneakyArt Podcast. Nishant just finished writing his first book, “Make (Sneaky) Art,” which releases in September. He lives in Vancouver (Canada) with his wife and toddler.  

Lapin

Barcelona

Lapin is a French artist living in Barcelona. He has filled more than 220 sketchbooks over the last 20 years and published more than 50 books. A self-described mobile illustrator, he draws with fineliners and watercolor on custom sketchbooks bound with ledger paper from vintage accounting books. He draws from direct observation, quickly and precisely, depicting his surroundings, the people he meets and the places he’s visiting. Lapin has participated in the Urban Sketchers community since its creation. He teaches the art of sketching at Elisava University in Barcelona and was nominated as an official air and space painter of the French Air Force in 2019.

Mário Linhares

Lisbon

Mário Linhares likes to link art with community projects. In drawing, he enjoys embedding influences from the masters of the past and learning how those methods and techniques can be used nowadays. Linhares has a B.A. in Design, an M.A. in Visual Arts Education and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts, with specialty in Drawing. A professor in Lisbon, he belongs to the Fine Arts Research Center and Studies at the University of Lisbon. Linhares started Urban Sketchers Portugal in 2009, joined the international executive board in 2011 and served as the nonprofit’s education director until 2019. Linhares is the author of several books, articles and essays, contributes drawings to exhibitions and delivers lectures worldwide.

Dominika Wróblewska

Gdańsk

Dominika Wróblewska is a freelance illustrator based in Gdańsk, Poland, specializing in reportage illustration and writing. A keen observer of the world around her, Wróblewska is fascinated by the idea of drawing as a form of sport, pushing the limits of where a drawing can be made. A good example is her long-term project capturing those who meander through subterranean cave systems. Wróblewska’s illustrated reporting of farmers protests and the winter swimming culture in Poland was recently published in On the Spot. She is also one of the artists featured in “Reportage Drawing,” a seminal book on the subject by Irish-American author and academic Louis Netter.

Jenny Jing Zhang

Chicago

Jenny Jing Zhang is a Chicago-based artist, urban sketcher, and illustrator who never leaves home without her sketchbook. From the winding alleys of her native China to the vibrant streetscape of Chicago to the sun-soaked piazzas of Italy, she captures the pulse of urban life with expressive ink lines and playful watercolor washes. A 2022 Fellow in Civita di Bagnoregio, Jing Zhang teaches worldwide, sharing her love for sketching on location. Whether leading workshops at USk Chicago or piecing together cityscapes like a puzzle, she believes every sketch is a journey — and every journey deserves a good sketch, or a bunch.

Nina Khashchina

San Francisco Bay Area

Sketcher and illustrator Nina Khashchina is a prolific travel sketchbook artist always prepared to capture a moment, even when she is scuba diving, kayaking or on a horseback. She has filled more than 155 sketchbooks over the years, documenting trips to the Maldives, Spain, Alaska, her native Ukraine and many other locations. Known for her gouache, ink, and mixed media work, Khashchina is is often drawn to the diverse colors, textures, and lighting of urban and natural environments. She has been teaching drawing and painting as an art instructor for more than 15 years and is a member of the Urban Sketchers community in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Joey Mason

Los Angeles

Sketch journalist and animation artist Joey Mason is known for his ongoing “Sketches de Resistance” project covering civic protests and activism in Los Angeles. His work draws inspiration from street photography, vintage illustration, and the Urban Sketchers movement, and aims to capture overlooked moments and to foster an appreciation for everyday life. Mason has published several paperback collections of sketches featuring scenes of street life along New York’s 5th Avenue, Los Angeles’ Figueroa Street and other unique urban settings. His reportage documenting the recent wildfires and community response was recently published in On the Spot.

Sanika Phawde

Boston

Sanika Phawde is an illustrator, educator, cartoonist and reportage artist born and raised in India and based in Boston. Through autobiographical comics, visual essays, drawings on location, gouache paintings and illustrated interviews, Phawde’s work strives to capture and communicate instances of emotional connection, queer immigrant culture and conversations people have over meals. Phawde’s illustrated storytelling has been published in The New Yorker, On the Spot and many other publications.

James Richards

Siesta Key, Florida

James Richards is a traveling artist, author, urban designer, former professor and international workshop instructor. His sketching expertise, workshops and lectures have taken him to 50 countries and 27 universities. He’s a founder of Urban Sketchers Texas and the author of “Freehand Drawing and Discovery” and “Travel Artist,” as well as an online instructor for Skillshare, Craftsy and The Great Courses. His work has been featured in 30 instructional drawing books and numerous art and design magazines, shown in group and solo exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, and seen on NBC Nightly News. He’s based in Siesta Key, Florida.

Bill Russell

San Francisco Bay Area

Bill Russell works in a variety of creative skill sets, as an illustrator, designer, painter and visual journalist. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Illustration at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and created “The Bay Folk Sketchbook” as a staff artist for the San Francisco Chronicle, showcasing unique portraits of people at work and play. Russell’s insights on reportage can be found at IllustratedJournalism.com. Based in Marin County, he recently traveled to Japan, Morocco, Tahiti and Buenos Aires on sketching trips.

Rita Sabler

Portland

Rita Sabler is the author of two books of reportage, “New York Reawakens” and “Listening to New Orleans,” and currently works as a freelance visual journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. An award-winning visual journalist, author and educator for more than a decade, Sabler has inspired diverse audiences to cultivate a lifelong passion for travel sketching and reportage. From 2019-2023 she served as the education director on the board of the Urban Sketchers organization. Her reportage about the Kalaupapa Settlement received the International Sketchbook Prize at the 2019 Rendez-Vous du Carnet de Voyage Festival in Clermont-Ferrand.

Christina Wald

Cincinnati

Christina Wald is a designer, illustrator and educator passionate about travel and storytelling. She is the author of “Sketching Here & Everywhere: My Sketching Obsession,” a combination of personal anecdotes and tips from years of teaching. In 2023, she published a travelogue about her artist residency at Château d’Orquevaux, followed by a second in Romania in 2025. She is currently working on one about her experience traveling in Argentina last fall. Wald founded the Cincinnati chapter of Urban Sketchers in 2017 and has taught illustration and narrative storytelling at Northern Kentucky University and the Art Academy for more than a decade.

Stephanie Bower

Seattle

Stephanie Bower is the author of three best-selling books about sketching, “The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Perspective,” “The Urban Sketching Handbook: 101 Sketching Tips,” and “The World of Urban Sketching.” A self-taught watercolor artist with a background as a licensed architect, Bower juggles parallel careers as an architectural illustrator and sketching instructor. Her awards include the prestigious Gabriel Prize fellowship in architecture to Paris and the Civita Institute’s fellowship to Italy. She has also been honored twice with the “Best Travel Sketch” prize in the KRob international architectural competition and her work has been featured in Watercolor Artist and Artists Magazine.

Eleanor Doughty

Seattle

Eleanor Doughty is a Seattle-based artist originally from Virginia. Her mixed media work captures realistic subjects and imbues them with significance and character. Inspired by artists such as Charley Harper and Masaaki Yuasa, Doughty ‘s style has been described as “lighthearted and nostalgic … seeking clarity and visual impact in her drawings.” Doughty has been traveling internationally to teach on-location sketching since 2019. She writes the newsletter Hand To Paper on Substack and co-hosts the popular Street View World Tour on Zoom with Jenny Adam. Outside of urban sketching, Doughty is a freelance illustrator, specializing in large format works up to two stories tall.

Jane Wingfield

Olympia

Jane Wingfield got her start at the Chicago Art Institute and later studied art in college and sumi painting in Tokyo. She started sketching on location in 2009 when she joined the fledgling Urban Sketchers Seattle at a gathering at Volunteer Park. Since then she has been sketching nonstop and volunteering with Urban Sketchers in Seattle and internationally. She has taught workshops in the Pacific Northwest and New York City. Sketching on location for more than 16 years has given her the gumption to start sketching just about anywhere. She believes travel sketches are not only fun to make but also the best souvenirs to bring home after a trip.

Daniel Winterbottom

Seattle

Daniel Winterbottom is a professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. His love of urban wandering led to a passion for urban sketching and reportage. Traveling frequently, he has found subjects that reappear from continent to continent while documenting the local nuances. He is fascinated by natural phenomena, reflectivity, light and shadow, and disappearance. In his body of work thematic narratives emerge, often accompanied by personal commentary. He embraces stylistic exploration and refinement. Winterbottom was awarded an Urban Sketchers Reportage Grant in 2021 for his project “The Shifting Landscapes of Despair, Hope, Survival and Persistence.”

Gail Wong

Seattle

Gail Wong’s love for travel and sketching intertwines. Her most recent sketchbooks are filled with colorful drawings of Peru and Argentina. She has also filled numerous concertina-style books with sketches made in Portugal, the Netherlands and many other destinations. A retired architect and lecturer at the University of Washington, Wong co-wrote “The Urban Sketching Handbook: Spotlight on Nature,” with Virgina Hein in 2022. Her passion for sketching and painting revived after joining the Urban Sketchers Seattle chapter in 2009 and later serving on the board of the international organization. Working in ink and watercolor, she’s been capturing landmarks and cityscapes ever since.