Synopsis: A look at Urban Sketchers, a network of global artists drawing the cities in which they live and travel.

Proec, Croatia appears as heads bobbing in the waves and languid bodies reading on the sand. Tokyo appears as a jumble of lines and angles, forming factories and tiny restaurants. Brooklyn appears as a jolly Russian woman munching on a donut, beverage hoisted in hand.

Welcome to Urban Sketchers (USk for short), a site that's part blog, part art gallery, with drawings of people and places in over 50 countries, from Bhutan to the Vatican City, South Africa to Uruguay. USk consists entirely of sketches, some in pen, others with a dab of water color -- like a National Geographic with a heavy emphasis on "graph."

Consider it a tale of 200 cities, told one sketch at a time. 

Sketching is an artist's purest vision, based on first impressions, unrefined by computer facilitated augmentation. Nina Johansson, a USk correspondent in Stockholm, Sweden, notes that "Drawing a city isn't just capturing it on paper, it's really about getting to know it, to feel it, to make it your own."

Urban Sketchers was launched in 2007 by Spanish-born journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario, who currently works in Seattle. He started USk as a Flickr group, which remains open to all comers. The blog is created by official USk correspondents -- ranging from published authors to young illustrators -- selected from all Flickr group members "based on the quality of their work, style, originality, geographic location and overall skills as visual storytellers."

All USk contributors adhere to the group's manifesto:

"1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. 2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel. 3. Our drawings are a record of time and place. 4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness. 5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles. 6. We support each other and draw together. 7. We share our drawings online. 8. We show the world, one drawing at a time."

Since Urban Sketchers is a community, not a business, artists are encouraged to start their own USk city blogs by assembling at least three sketchers in their area. The goal: to get more artists out of their homes and studios and onto the streets, capturing their hometowns. You could even describe USk as a movement of sorts.

As the free and rapidly growing site urges, "What are you waiting for? Get your fellow citizens out to sketch!"