The story below is from our September/October 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Sketch Roanoke meets in settings around the city to give artists a chance to connect and explore.
Christina Nifong
Sketch Roanoke co-founders and volunteer leaders are artists Maria Stone (left) and Michael Holcomb, pictured in Virginia Western Community College’s arboretum. They choose visually interesting places for artists to gather and create, twice a month.
As an art major at Virginia Commonwealth University, Michael Holcomb drew everywhere — capturing moments from the cafeteria, the quad and campus events in his sketchbook. After he landed in Roanoke, he was interested in finding opportunities to keep creating — and encouraging others to join him.
Christina Nifong
Maria Stone worked as a ceramic artist in Richmond before moving to Roanoke. She was looking to meet other artists in a new city and explore a different medium.
Each of them figured an informal sketch group was the way to go. Each began by setting up separate “sketch Roanoke” Instagram accounts.
Then, in January 2024, Holcomb and Stone started chatting at a local brewery event and realized they were dreaming the same dream.
Christina Nifong
“We said: ‘Let’s make this happen,’” Holcomb remembers. Sketch Roanoke held its first meetup two months later.
Over the past year-and-a-half, the group has gathered to draw at coffee shops and parks, at the Taubman Museum of Art and Riverdale in Southeast Roanoke (muralist Jon Murrill spoke at an event there last May).
“We want people to draw for the sake of drawing, create for the sake of creating — no matter your skill set,” Holcomb says.
The concept of urban sketch groups gained momentum in the early 2000s, as a way to encourage a practice of quick, onsite creating and connect artists from across the globe. Today, the nonprofit Urban Sketchers boasts 500 chapters from Japan to Brazil. Sketch Roanoke is not affiliated with Urban Sketchers, but knowing about sketch groups from other places helped local participants find Sketch Roanoke.
Holcomb and Stone are volunteer leaders; the group has a core following. Sketch Roanoke strives to get together twice a month in a variety of visually interesting settings. Its goals are simple: Everyone is welcome. All media are encouraged. Drop in when it works for you. Engage as much or as little as you like.
Christina Nifong
At Sketch Roanoke gatherings, all kinds of artists using all kinds of materials are welcome. These sketches were created at an event held at the Virginia Western Community College arboretum in June.
“As an adult, it’s hard to make friends,” says Stone. “I think the best way to do that is around a shared activity. ... It creates space for conversation.”
At a recent event at Virginia Western Community College’s arboretum, a dozen artists drew — using colored pencils, watercolor paints, fine-tipped pens, iPads, even highlighters — in a wide range of styles.
Franklin County elementary school art teacher Miranda Banks detailed a wooden bridge in a teal colored pencil. “This keeps my art vitamins going,” she says.
Holcomb painted a bucolic scene across two pages of his spiral-bound book. “It’s easier than sketching alone,” he explains. If you’re by yourself, you can feel self-conscious. “But if four or five people are all drawing together, it’s like: This is a thing. That’s cool.”
The story above is from our September/October 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!