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Urban Sketch Artist Captures Crown Heights in Living Color

By Sonja Sharp | January 16, 2014 9:14am
Urban Sketcher Jason Das Draws Straphangers
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Courtesy of Jason Das

CROWN HEIGHTS — In the same time it takes an average Instagram user to choose between the Mayfair and Lo-Fi filters, Brooklyn artist Jason Das can sketch a portrait.

The illustrator counts himself among New York's urban sketchers, artists who use their pen and notebook much the way others use their iPhones, capturing the ephemeral moments of city life as they unfold. Recently, the 36-year-old web designer and Crown Heights resident was elected president of Urban Sketchers, a global nonprofit devoted to the craft. 

"A lot of people in the urban sketchers movement draw their food all the time, much the way people put pictures of their food on Instragram. It makes sense — nobody’s going to be bothered if you draw your dinner," Das said. "A lot of it is equivalent to what people put on Instagram. They draw what they ate, their outfit from that day. Once you start doing this, you never lack for material."

 Urban Sketcher Jason Das of Crown Heights sketches Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo's inauguration. 
Jason Das Sketches at Laurie Cumbo's Inauguration
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