Drawing Foundations: Urban Sketching

Course details

You don't need to drive out to the country to draw from life. From an artistic point of view, urban settings have just as much appeal. This Foundations of Drawing course shows how observing everyday life can give you an eye-opening appreciation for cities and towns and their surroundings (from the view out of a bus window to a half-built construction site). Will Kemp, founder of the Will Kemp Art School, demonstrates how to create frameworks for successful sketches using freehand vertical lines, perspective, and tonal blocks. Lessons follow a logical progression, from sketching static buildings and monuments to capturing the movement of individual figures and bustling crowds. The course will enable artists to practice their drawing skills and create fast, bold urban sketches with pencils, pens, or watercolors—whatever tools they have on hand.

Learning objectives

Choosing your materials
Building structure into your drawing
Sketching architecture
Capturing panoramic views of a city
Drawing people in cafes
Sketching movement
Bringing it all together in a start-to-finish drawing

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - Using the exercise files

1. Sketching the Everyday

03 - Capturing movement and change in the urban landscape
04 - Pencils, inks, pens, and sketchpads
05 - Watercolor and acrylic marker pens
06 - Urban sketching vs. landscape sketching
07 - The casual observer vs. the epic documentary maker

2. Structure, Mark Making, and Choosing the Right Materials

08 - Thinking in straight lines - One building at a time
09 - Light and shadow
10 - Matching materials and marks to your subject - Pencil sketch
11 - Matching materials and marks to your subject - Pen sketch
12 - Matching materials and marks to your subject - Color
13 - Challenge - How much detail is enough
14 - Solution - Will sketches a harbor scene

3. Architecture, Perspective, and Making Depth Work

15 - Cityscapes, rooftops, and panoramas
16 - Twilight and nightlight
17 - Early morning light
18 - Capturing a panoramic
19 - Perspective - 1 point and 2 point
20 - Challenge - Sketch realistic windows and doors
21 - Solution - Will sketches a building

4. Cafes, People, and Movement

22 - Cafes, bars, and restaurant scenes - A single figure
23 - People - Groups and scale
24 - Cafes, bars, and restaurant scenes - Groups
25 - Challenge - Sketch people and movement
26 - Solution - Will sketches a street busker

5. Monuments and Street Furniture

27 - Monuments
28 - Natural elements in the city
29 - Lampposts, telegraph poles, and benches

6. Bringing It All Together

30 - Challenge - Bringing it all together
31 - Solution - Bringing it all together in sketching
32 - Solution - Bringing it all together in watercolor

Conclusion

33 - Goodbye