Image Gallery #1 for Creating Reportage Urban Sketches of People with a Poetic Twist

Two passengers waiting to board our flight. Ink and Watercolour Urban Sketch. and short poem
Urban Sketch with a bit of reportage poetry

My Version of Reportage Sketches using Poetry

I don’t just want to add simple text to my sketches – like location, or some other fact to present a dry description of the scene I’ve sketched. I want to convey the scene before me in a quirky or lighthearted way that provides some cultural or social commentary.

I’ve always loved writing quirky poems, so over the past couple of years I’ve started to add a little more text to my urban sketches primarily in the form of a four line stanza in aabb or abab format.

Here’s a collection of my poetic reportage sketches

Urban sketching in Istanbul with poem reportage, with a view of the riverbank, and ink sketches of people.
Istanbul River View and People Sketching
Ink and Watercolour Urban Sketch at the IMT in Faro. Of two gents having their driving licence appointments
Two gents having their driving licence appointments

Not all my reportage sketches have poetry – some just have text.

I miss writing poetry, I would rather sketch and work on my sketching skills, than sit down to write another poetry collection, but adding a short poem to my urban sketches is the ideal way to combine two of my interests – words and pictures.

What is Reportage?

Reportage is the practice of immersive, narrative-driven journalism that brings current events to life through vivid storytelling, eyewitness observation, and in-depth analysis. Rather than presenting a dry list of facts, it prioritizes a vivid “you-are-there” experience that explores both what happened and why it matters.

https://www.wearecom.fr/en/dictionnaire/report/

Author: Roving Jay

Jay is a project manager who swapped corporate life for a nomadic existence as a travel writer and urban sketcher. Jay has published travel guides, nonfiction writing books, and poetry collections.

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