Free drawing lesson

Sketch your city: a five-place drawing route

For everyone · 1 week

Five places in a week: draw them, publish them on the map and put them together into your own route. That’s how your personal atlas and your first trail appear, one you can walk your friends along.

What you need

Sketchbook
Any medium
A phone with location

Step by step

1
Pick five places
A courtyard, a café, a bridge, a market, a view from your window. Places that mean something to you.
2
One a day
Draw each place in about 10–20 minutes. Don’t aim for perfect, going out is what counts.
3
Mark it on the map
Tap “+”, photograph the drawing or pick it from the gallery. If the photo has a location tag, the place is set automatically; otherwise find it in search or move the pin.
Lessons like this one, step by step, are also in the SketchMap Atlas app: Home → Art courses & workshops. Open this lesson in the app
4
Add a story
Add a title and a few words in the “Story” field: what was here, who sat nearby, what it smelled like. These lines make a drawing alive.
5
Publish and create a route
Publish all five works. Then open the map, tap the route button under the search and “Build a route”, tap your five works one by one and press “Done”. Name the route and save it: it appears in Profile → “My traces” → “My routes”.

Common mistakes

Choosing places you think look impressive instead of places that mean something to you.
Waiting for a perfect drawing: ten to twenty minutes per place is enough.
Publishing without the story: a line about who sat nearby or what it smelled like makes the drawing remembered.