Urban Sketching Decisions

Welcome to Draw Tip Tuesday!

When I was out for some errands, I decided to sit down on a bench to enjoy the nice weather while making a drawing of the street I was in, in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. This is exactly why I always bring my sketchbook with me - just in case!

I didn't film the process, but took a photo every couple of minutes, to show the decision process when urban sketching. I will talk you through each of the stage of making this drawing.

Hopefully, this video will answer questions I often get about drawing on location. How do you choose your subject? Where do you begin? How to deal with perspective? How to bring liveliness to the drawing? What if your proportions are all off (I promise, they WILL be!)? When to stop? When and where to add color? And then some.

If you and I would sit together to each draw this view, we would have completely different drawings because your interpretation will be so different than mine. And that's so exciting about drawing. Every time you draw, you are paying so much attention to how you feel, to what you see, to what you hear, to the colors, to what really captures your attention, to the story around the place...And that's what makes you an artist. You are interpreting and you are creating something out of this, and you're creating a memory that lasts because it's in your sketchbook. Isn't that exciting?

Materials used:

-Hahnemühle watercolor sketchbook size A5
-Sailor fude fountain pen with 55degree calligraphy nib, filled with Platinum Carbon Black ink
-Daniel Smith  watercolors
-Pentel Aquash waterbrush

Things mentioned in today's video:

-Join me in Paris! Paris Sketchbook Workshop in October

-A few spots left for The Urban Sketching Vacation Workshop in Malta, smack in the middle of the mediterranean in November!

JOIN ME ON PATREON
If you like my videos here on YouTube, then you can help me keep making them and offering them weekly for free. For just a few dollars a month you're making a huge difference. If you like my videos here on YouTube, then you can help me keep making them and offering them weekly for free. For just a few dollars a month you're making a huge difference. More importantly, you're doing yourself a favor, because I’ll keep you inspired and motivated with extra pieces of encouragement, sharing projects and processes, handing ideas, tips and tricks and much more on Patreon.

Or buy me a coffee, I drink a lot of it, especially when editing videos!

BOOK
Get a copy of my book "Life is better when you draw it".