Ink and watercolour sketch of my favourite Conceição walk street
Posted in Art Room Cabanas de Tavira Europe Portugal

My favourite pedestrian street in Conceicão

I keep capturing this little street with different sketching styles. Probably more to come…!

Ink and Tombow sketches of people of One Week 100 People art challenge
Posted in Art Room One Week 100 People

One Week 100 People 2024 – sketches 1-84

This year’s One Week 100 People challenge was great for honing my style and getting me using my Tombow pens for shading instead of watercolour.

Ink and watercolour sketch of local Spar shop in Cabanas
Posted in Art Room Cabanas de Tavira Europe Portugal Tavira

Day 16-20 of The 100 Day Project

20 days into my 100 day Project and I’m learning how to improve my 15-minute building sketches.

Ink and watercolour sketch of two people having dinner and drinking wine.
Posted in Art Room Cabanas de Tavira Europe Portugal

Back to Sketching People Again

So good to break my people-sketching drought. I much prefer capturing people to buildings, and these people were sketched in local restaurants and cafes.

Logo for the 100 day project
Posted in Art Room

The 100 Day Project 2024

The 100 Day Project is starting on February 18th 2024. I’m taking part. Are you?

Urban sketch on Turkish Airlines flight home
Posted in Art Room Bodrum Peninsula Turkey

Urban Sketching Trip to Turkey

Taking time to sketch visual reminders of our 4 weeks in Turkey. I sketched using a paired down urban sketching kit. And sketched people on ferries, in cafes, on beaches, and some business offices. A real variety of locations and people sketches.

Posted in Art Room

Urban Sketching Travel Painting Kit for Turkey

My very paired-down urban sketching art kit for our 4 week trip to Turkey. Traveling Light with just split primaries, one brush, one pen, and a watercolour book.

Life Drawing Ink and Watercolour
Posted in Art Room

How to use Life Drawing as Practice for Urban Sketching

I’ve always thought Life Drawing was so different from urban sketching. But recently I’ve realised there is an overlap.

pen sketch portraits on a train ticket
Posted in Art Room Europe Loulé Portugal

Urban Sketching on the Train: Sketchbook vs. my Train Ticket

Sketching on different papers is an interesting way to experiment with different tools and techniques with great results.

Outside of Loule Market Algarve Portugal
Posted in Art Room Europe Loulé Portugal

Urban Sketching meet up at Loulé Mercado and Saturday Market

See what inspired me to draw during a day out at Loulé Market with the Urban Sketcher’s Algarve group.

urban sketch cafe scene chairs and customers
Posted in Art Room

Loose Watercolour Technique for Urban Sketching

Sometimes you don’t go looking for your watercolour style choices, they’re just happy accidents.

My WN Travel Watercolour Palette
Posted in Art Room

Tonal Challenge with Watercolour

Discover how I’m approach June’s Tonal challenge with my current urban sketching watercolour kit.

Carrot People Tutorial by Andrey Shmatnik
Posted in Art Room

Tutorial: People and Urban Sketching in Different Scenarios with Andrey Shmatnik

Find out what I learned from Andrey Shmatnik’s Urban Sketching Tutorial on Etchr, and how he sketches different versions of people in the foreground, mid-ground, and background. Including how he stylises his carrot people for more character.

Blind Contour to get you out of a creative block
Posted in Art Room

Get out of your Creative Block with Blind Contour

Find out how I overcame by creative block by using Blind Contour sketches to get inspired and motivated to sketch again.

Hahnemühle watercolour sketch books
Posted in Art Room

Hahnemühle Watercolour Sketch Book for Urban Sketching

A review of the Hahnemühle Watercolour Book, which is ideal for urban sketching.

Sketch from Photo
Posted in Art Room Beach Bum One Week 100 People

One Week 100 People 2023 – Sketches 1 to 32

The first 32 people sketches for this year’s One Week 100 People.

Gentes do Mercado 2022 postcard series
Posted in Art Room Europe Portugal

Gentes do Mercado 2022 Urban Sketch postcards

The Direção Regional de Cultura do Algarve printed a set of our urban sketched postcards of Tavira market, as part of the Mediterranean Diet festival this year. One of my sketches was included.

How to mix olive green from my standard watercolours.
Posted in Art Room

How to Reduce the Greens in my Palette

Here’s how I experimented to reduce the greens in my travel palette from 3 to 1.

The World of Urban Sketching
Posted in Art Room

Getting Inspired by The World of Urban Sketching

Get inspired by the World of Urban Sketching – a new book by Stephanie Bower. Full of sketcher’s insights and great drawings.

Sketch of a group of people outside a bar
Posted in Art Room

Toby Urban Sketch – Adding People in your sketches

If you only have 15 minutes, try this YT tutorial from Toby Urban Sketch for 4 quick tips.

Sketching my Art Table
Posted in Art Room

Random Urban Sketches to end the year

It doesn’t matter what subject or object you draw. It’s all good practice. Here’s a random selection of mine.

O Nuno Urban Sketch
Posted in Art Room

2 Urban Sketchers I discovered this month

Here’s a couple of urban sketchers I discovered this month with simple sketching styles

Urban Sketch People
Posted in Art Room

365 Days of Urban Sketch People (Book 1)

The beginning of my 365 Day of Urban Sketching People. Follow along on my journey to master capturing people live.

Natural Wines Cabanas Urban Sketch in East Algarve Magazine
Posted in Art Room Cabanas de Tavira Portugal

My Sketch featured in East Algarve Magazine

My sketch of a local wine bar featured in East Algarve Magazine.