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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Algarve Urban sketches on show at a Tavira Market exhibition

Here’s some tips for practicing sketching small and tiny figures to include in your urban sketches to add a sense of scale and context to the scene. Limiting your canvas size helps you to practice reducing the level of detail necessary. I created a list of tips that can be incorporated into your practice sessions, and share some of the challenges I encountered to help you resolve some of the hurdles you may face when sketching these tiny figures.

I painted the same scene in two styles—Wobbly urban sketch and precise studio sketch.

A recap of my first urban sketching event with the Algarve group at the Tavira Market, where we were sketching scenes to be used at the Mediterranean Diet Festival later in the year. I also did some colour mixing to create a complimentary and cohesive colour to depict Tavira stone on the local buildings.

More people sketches for my one week 100 challenge 2021. I sketched figures on public transport, at cafes and at the local farmer’s market. I also had a go at a bit of reportage.

My Sketcher Spotlight on urban sketcher Suhita Shirodkar, and a review of her figure sketching made simple class. Looking at line of action, drawing verbs, and exaggerating gestures. It’s all about identifying shapes, and making your figures expressive and loose

Sketching at a Sunday concert series in Santa Monica with The California Feetwarmers.

Looking for a quality podcast about urban sketching?

How not to get overwhelmed with TMI about the technical side of watercolour.