Urban Sketching: Pen & Wash Course

Learn to sketch urban street scenes with this pen and wash drawing short courses in Sydney!

Join a professional artist as you embark on a journey to explore the neighbourhood, capturing its vibrant seasonal surroundings, stunning urban scenes, and inviting public spaces in beautifully sketched compositions. Then, breathe life into your artwork with the rich tones and textures of watercolour wash.

Throughout the course, you'll not only hone your outdoor urban sketching skills but also discover new techniques that add depth and focal points to your drawings. You'll have the opportunity to experiment with various sketching styles, and practice infusing a sense of time and place, along with the value of your personal response, into your compositions.

Once you've mastered this highly portable art form, you'll be well-equipped to take your creative talents with you while travelling or embark on an exploration of your local surroundings through the captivating world of visual journaling.

The session commences in our classroom, where you'll meet your fellow participants before embarking on a day of drawing outdoors in carefully selected locations.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this urban sketching course, you should have:

• Refreshed your knowledge of basic rules of perspective in the built environment
• Built confidence in using washes by progressing through single, two colour and limited palette washes
• Learned how to use colour washes to create a sense of depth and focus, and to capture local colour
• Learned the fundamentals of tonal value in the context of the built environment
• Used drawing exercises to explore different sketching styles
• Understood the importance of capturing a sense of time and place and the value of your personal response
• Learned to make better-informed decisions about equipment
• Learned tips for creating more confident line styles
• Explored approaches for producing journals.

Course content

What will be covered in this urban sketching course?

• Observation
• Simplify a complex scene
• Perspective and composition
• Proportion, volume, light and shade

Intended audience

Who is this urban sketching course for?

This course is designed for a range of drawing abilities. It is recommended that students have previously completed Urban Sketching: Drawing Course or Drawing Course for Beginners or have some drawing experience.

Course materials

What to bring to class

Please dress appropriately for the weather, wear walking shoes and bring a water bottle, lunch and/or snacks.

Bring your own materials: click here for materials list

*Some coloured paints will be provided.

Additional information

Please note the following:

The course will go ahead in most weather, with undercover/indoor destinations used if it rains. We will only cancel if the weather is particularly inclement.