Student Success Stories

Guide5 October 20268 min read

How to Draw Signs and Lettering in Your Urban Sketches

Plain letters first, chunky letters second, and always check the spelling.

Guide, Landscape16 September 20266 min read

Why Your Landscape Sketches Look Flat (And The Fix)

Perspective does most of the work in a street and almost none of it in a field. Here is what Ian does instead, and the four ways he separates a foreground from a background.

Guide15 September 202611 min read

Our 4 Week Urban Sketching Experience: What Riomaggiore Taught Us

The lessons that came back again and again from the hardest scene we have set.

Guide10 September 202610 min read

Why Sketching the Same Scene Twice Teaches You More Than Moving On

Most sketchers move straight to a new subject. Here is what the second attempt gives you that the first cannot.

Guide7 September 20268 min read

Is Sketching from Photos Still Urban Sketching?

Urban sketching is about what you notice, not where you sketch. A photograph takes some of that out, and you can put it back.

Guide17 August 20263 min read

Why a Quick Sketch Has More Life

Why your quickest sketches often have the most life, and how to loosen up.

Village14 August 20265 min read

Inside Our Cheshire Villages Retreat

Five days, five villages and sketchers from around the world. Here is what we took from the Cheshire retreat.

Guide9 August 20266 min read

How to Sketch an Animal That Won't Hold a Pose

Animals move, and for a lot of sketchers that is where the sketchbook closes. Here is how Ian catches the life of a subject that won't hold a pose.

Guide5 August 20265 min read

How to Sketch a Bridge Without Getting Lost in the Cables

All that steel, stone and perspective can make a bridge feel impossible to draw. It isn't. Here's how Ian approaches any bridge, from a local footbridge to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Guide29 July 20267 min read

When to Mix Watercolour on the Page vs in the Palette

Learn when to mix watercolour on the page for life and when to mix in the palette for control, with real examples from our urban sketching courses.

Materials25 July 20267 min read

Ian Fennelly's 8-Colour Starter Palette

The Only Watercolours a Beginner Really Needs

Guide17 July 20265 min read

How to draw a complicated scene without drowning in the detail

How to find the big shapes hiding beneath all the detail.