Musée des Augustins, Toulouse

I thought it would be a good idea to familiarise myself with Toulouse. This French city is hosting next year’s Urban Sketching Symposium in July 2026.

It’s the first time I’m attending, and I’m using it as an impending deadline, to help me focus on urban sketching buildings, street scenes, and urban vignettes in a loose and gestural style. I’m sure there will be a few people sketches thrown in there as well to help show a sense of scale.

I have no idea what subjects we’re going to sketch in Toulouse, but I thought I’d get to grips with the architecture to help minimise that imposter syndrome feeling amongst hundreds of seasoned urban sketching artists that will also be attending the Toulouse symposium.

Musée des Augustins, Toulouse

I’ve surprised myself with my first building. This is quite complex with a 2 point perspective to take into account. But I really liked all the foliage in the foreground.

Sketching the Composition in Pencil

I started by sketching out the two tall trees, to use those as guide points to help me place the building lines intersected with them. I sketched out the rest of the foliage, and then sketched the building in pencil.

In hindsight I would probably have been better to sketch out the building as big shapes first, but I’m giving myself a break as it’s my first one. By sketching the lines first, it’s too easy to jump to some of the details (like the windows), instead of just getting the big shapes into position first, and doing the details at a later stage.

Relaxed Approach to Perspective

I like to aim for passable perspective, I don’t want to get too technical and precious about it, and I definitely don’t want to start drawing lines into the vanishing point. I’d much rather eye-ball the vanishing point, and look at the intersecting lines, and the relationship between shapes, angles, and the distance between objects to take my best guest at a realistic perspective.

Watercolour Palette

I’m planning on using the same palette of 20 colours I finalised with Jane Blundell. That way I can really get to grips with how to mix this limited set of colours. For this first sketch I used 8 of the colours, and two grey inks.

Painting the Foliage

I used the same puddle of paint for the greens. I started with New Gamboge and added Phthalo Blue (GS) and French Ultra Marine for the first layer on the taller trees, and added more French Ultra Marine for the second glaze. I used the same puddle as a base for the other greens, by adding varying levels of Quin Gold for the rest of the foliage.

Painting the Buildings

I had a puddle of Raw Umber in the well, so added Potter’s Pink and a little dash of Opera Rose/Pink for the majority of the building. Toulouse is known as the pink city, so lots of the facades are this earthy warm shade. For the little areas of tiled roof, I added some Indian Red to this mix.

Painting the Buildings

For the sky I had a puddle of Phthalo Blue (GS), and added some Cobalt Turquoise Light, and then really diluted it down. I like that the sky has a slight green tinge to it from these two paints. I feel it compliments the foliage, and it isn’t just a band of blue at the top of the sketch.

Painting the Shadows

I used my water brush with diluted ink to add some tonal areas of shadow. For the archway I used Raw Umber to draw more attention to those areas.

How to Improve the Sketch

If I was to do this sketch again, I’d probably accentuate the angle of the side buildings to make them steeper and more dramatic, or make the tower bigger and more dramatic to create an iconic focal point. This is a strategy that Matt Gibbons uses really effectively. I didn’t pick a focal point out before I started sketching, and that’s obvious from my final sketch.

I also think this building could benefit from a greater tonal range. As it stands, it’s a pleasing scene, but there really isn’t a lot of tonal variety.

As an experiment I added shadows to the building on the right. If I’d left more white areas on this tower and made it bigger, having it next to the adjacent shadow who help to make this tower a strong focal point. This shadow also adds more interest and diversity between the buildings.

I really hadn’t planned too, but I think I need to draw this scene again with these modifications, and see the impact it has.

Materials for Sketch 1

• Landscape A6 Hahnemühle Cold Pressed 200gsm watercolour book
• Hongdian m2 Fountain Pen
• Grey Meerkat Octopus waterproof ink – fountain pen
• Grey Kangaroo Octopus waterproof ink – diluted in a water-brush
• W&N Professional and DS Watercolours

I’m going to have another go at this scene to see what I can improve.