Urban Sketching? How do you get into that?

I’m so lucky. Since retiring from teaching in August I’ve begun a new career working in admin for the NHS. My colleagues are great people, so much so that I think of them as my friends now. They seem really interested in my interests, like quizzing and art. Now, I returned to work yesterday following my broken shoulder. When asked what I had been doing with myself, I mentioned about the watercolour challenge and urban sketching.- What’s that? – they asked. I explained and then they said – well, how do you get into it?

I know that I’ve written about this before, but it’s been a while, and so here’s the advice I can give.

Urban sketchers seek to sketch the world around us, one drawing at a time. There’s really not a lot of rules. You can do it by yourself or as part of a group. You can use any medium you like. It’s nice to post your work online, but there’s no law that says you have to. You just have to be there, and sketch whatever you’re sketching on the spot and not from a photograph.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE ANY SKILL! Seriously, you are making your urban sketches for the sheer pleasure of doing so. If you don’t find that you enjoy doing it, then maybe urban sketching is not for you. But try it first. If you do enjoy it, then that’s all the justification that you need.

How can I start?

If you’re not certain about urban sketching, then maybe start by stealth. Maybe try to sketch an object in your house, or if you have one, your garden.

What do I need?

Well, what have you got? You’re better off using materials you have on hand at first, rather than tooling up with a ton of equipment you may only use once. A piece of plain paper, a biro or a pencil will do fine. Away you go. There’s no time limit. Just commit to doing it as well as you can for now. Enjoy letting go of your everyday concerns just while you’re making your sketch. Leave it for a while and then come back and do another one. There’s a lot to be said for making at least one sketch everyday at this early stage. For now, it’s not about results at all, it’s about the process and the enjoyment you get from it.

So, when you’ve made up your mind that you enjoy this kind of drawing, then you can think about what you want to do about it. Maybe the thought of sketching in the open air where you could be seen by members of the general public fills you with absolute dread and in that case you never have to take that step. Keep sketching at home. But if you’re at least willing to give it a go, then there should be nothing stopping you. If you try it and hate it, well at least you had the guts to try and you never have to do it again. But a lot of people find that drawing in public does bring them another level of enjoyment. When you can enjoy sketching in public, then congrats, you’re an urban sketcher!

So I’m an urban sketcher. Does that mean I have to buy a lot of expensive stuff?

No. You don’t have to do anything, other than keep going out and making sketches. But during your first months and years as an urban sketcher it does make sense to try out different materials and media. This will help you learn what brings you your best results and what media you most enjoy working in. This is a good reason to join a local urban sketchers group. In my experience these groups provide a friendly and supportive environment, and you’ll learn a lot from seeing the way that other sketchers approach the same subject.

So, you’ll need something to make sketches with and something to make sketches on. I like sketching in fineliner. If I’m only going to be working in fineliner then I’m perfectly happy to use a cheap packet. On the other hand, if I might want to apply some colour, then I’ll use Uniball fineliners that are waterproof. I carry a small pencil case with half a dozen fineliners most of the time. The other essential for me is a (roughly) A5 sized hard backed sketching journal. Hard backed, in order to withstand the wear and tear of living in my rucksack 99 percent of the time. You may have heard of Moleskine-style sketching journals like this, and looked into the cost. And needed a strong drink to get over the shock. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used Moleskine in the past on sketching expeditions and I’ve enjoyed it too. They’re a very decent product. But there are perfectly acceptable cheaper alternatives, some of which are in my opinion better than a Moleskine. If you look across at my links, I go into details about these on My Materials page.

I often carry a small pocket sized watercolour set. I’m no great shakes with a brush but it’s nice to have them on hand when the mood takes me.

I’ve made urban sketches in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Sweden, Malta, Austria, Iceland, Poland, Latvia, Denmark, Portugal, Romania, USA and Norway and thoroughly enjoyed the process. And that’s what it’s all about.

. . . and Alice

I have loved the 30x30 challenge. On a practical level it has really helped me cope with the situation my broken shoulder has put me into. The challenge has given a sense of purpose to the last four weeks. In terms of the paintings themselves, well, they’re the best set I’ve ever produced. I’m still in the early stages of my watercolour journey but I’m loving where it’s taking me. I’ll reflect a little more on the challenge I another post.

Still, having now completed the challenge it really didn’t take me long yesterday to go back to my beloved fineliners. I have already posted the Treasure Island copy. Well, almost immediately after that I made this copy of Ralph Steadman’s illustration of The Walrus and the Carpenter – back to Alice again.

Back to the journal

 I reported earlier today that I have completed the 30 direct watercolours for the 30x30 challenge. One of the results of this is that this afternoon I felt free to pick up my fineliners again. For my birthday on the 15^th my daughter Jess bought me a copy of Treasure Island with the wonderful Mervyn Peake illustrations, which is now a treasured possession. So I took a few hours and made this copy. Nice to be working with fineliners again and nice to be working in my current A5 sketching journal again.

Direct Watercolour Challenge 2025 - day 28 challenge complete!

30 –This is a response to a photo prompt for the Facebook Sketching Every Day group for the 30^th. I wouldn’t say I think it’s the best painting of the set but it will do. So that is it. The challenge is complete. I won’t try to go into detail on my thoughts and feelings about the experience – that will come later. For now I will just say that I have enjoyed it immensely .

Here's most of the paintings together

Direct Watercolour Challenge Day 27

What a whirlwind of a week it has been for me with the challenge. I’ve already made 8 pictures since this time last week, and what’s more, I still like all of them. I have one more to do to complete the challenge. I have already painted the background of number 30. This is a response to a photo prompt for the Facebook Sketching Every Day group for the 30^th. I’ve left negative space in the shape of the building depicted and to be honest, if anything happened and the worse came to the worst I could get away with leaving it as it is and declare my challenge complete.

I’ve designated today as a rest day. Predictably enough even now my fingers are getting itchy and I’m feeling as if I should be setting up ready to paint. I won’t though. Probably. I’m enjoying the wanting to do it, and the feeling that I could do it if I chose to. The pressure to finish is largely gone and it’s nice to feel I can luxuriate and take my time with the last.

Direct Watercolour day 26 - paintings 28 and 29

My plan was to hedge against inertia after finishing painting 27 was to start all 3 of the last 3 paintings. I’d already selected the subjects and each of them were going to require a background painted wet on wet. So I could do one, put it to one side to dry, do another and so on. Now, one of the last 3 is going to be a view of Venice and that was the one I was going to paint first. However at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to continue with another painting of the Roosevelt Island aerial tramway.

28 This is not a copy of anyone else’s painting. It shows the previous type of car, which were replaced a couple of years ago, as I was told last year by the driver/operator I spoke to. I’m pleased with this one, even though I didn’t quite finish it yesterday on the 25^th to put me back 3 ahead. I did a little finishing off this morning and then picked up the Venice picture and got cracking.

29  I was really delighted with the background I had painted for this painting of Venice the day before. It had dried beautifully. The plan with this one was to fight my natural tendency, and try to stay quite loose and not obsess over detail. I’m quite pleased – I think that I’ve gone some way towards what I was trying to do, and let’s not forget that the challenge is a journey. Above other things it did give me a lot of pleasure painting this too, which is kind of the point.

So here we are – 1 painting left to do, and four days left in which to do it. I know what I’m going to paint too. I shouldn’t start to speculate about how I’m going to feel when it’s done until it actually is done – but I can’t help it. In 2023 I felt that I got better and better as I went on, and I missed the challenge so much that I did keep going for weeks afterwards. Well, I certainly feel that 2025 is the best set of watercolours I have ever produced, and I’ve got better throughout the month again. So – who knows what might happen?

Direct watercolour day 25 - painting 27

So I spent about two hours on painting 27 on Tuesday and finished it by mid-morning on Wednesday. The First World War and in particular the great tragedy of it has fascinated me for a long time. The tank was originally suggested by Winston Churchill and was first used in the Battle of the Somme. Being a member of a tank crew was one of the most hazardous things one could be at that time. There’s no official figures, but it’s reckoned that the average life expectancy of a member of a tank crew was probably less than 6 weeks.

Direct watercolour challenge day 24

 Okay, so I finished yesterday, June 23rd, having made 26 watercolours to be 3 days/ paintings ahead, It's just as well because circumstances at home meant that I wasn't able to start painting today until this evening. Besides, I got up pretty tired this morning and the reverse side of making two pictures I was very pleased with yesterday was that I thought that there's no way I can top that, so what would be the point?

Well, it's not the first time I've felt like this during the challenge. So I did what I did then. I used a bit of psychology on myself, reminding myself that it was really stupid to come this far and give up - and if I left off painting today I would find it harder to do it tomorrow, whereas if I at least made a start I would be much more likely to come back and finish it tomorrow. This will only leave 3 more paintings to complete the set. Also, what I have done this year is, in my opinion, a better set than 2023's. So logically, all these last four paintings need to be is better than the worst four paintings from 2023. That's a far less daunting prospect. 

So I spent about two hours on painting 27 tonight. It's not finished but it has momentum now, and I think it's going to be fine. 

Direct Watercolour Challenge 2025 - paintings 25 and 26

25  Up until Sunday 22^nd June I had painted every day during the challenge, although this does not mean that I completed a painting every day. However on the Sunday I wasn’t at all well with a bad stomach. Well Ifelt on the mend on the 23^rd. Having lost the day on the Sunday I was still two pictures ahead of schedule. In 2023 I made a couple of pictures based on films. Now, we all have films we love which aren’t necessarily great films and one of mine is Cliffhanger. I think it’s a great, although at times rather silly, action movie, and if it’s on the telly then that’s it, I’m settling down to watch it. I did mention previously about how I’m afraid one of these last few pictures will be rubbish and spoil the set. Well this one is fine, thankfully.

26  I  did actually begin this one before the Cliffhanger picture. It’s my (very inferior) copy of a painting by my favourite watercolour artist, Thomas Schaller. I waned to apply colours across the paper which I would then leave to dry so I could paint on it. I started Cliffhanger while waiting for the paper to dry and enjoyed it so much that I didn't come back to this until I had actually finished the Cliffhanger painting. This shows the aerial tramway from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island in New York City. I rode on this in 2024, and the view on the ride back to Manhattan is out of this world. I think that if you pressed me for a definitive answer to the question – apart from London – which is the favourite city you have ever visited – I would say New York. As I said with number 24, I do think I learned quite a bit from trying this. If it encourages anyone to go and have a look at the original, the that’s a real bonus.

Direct Watercolour challenge 2025 - 23 and 24

23 Now, what with me being off work with a broken shoulder, it being the weekend shouldn’t make any great difference. However I always feel that I should be more productive during the challenge at the weekends, so on Saturday 21^st I set out to make another 2 pictures. Since I was already 2 ahead of schedule then this would put me 3 ahead. The first one shows London’s Crystal Palace just after the disastrous fire in 1936. The Crystal Palace was originally built in Hyde Park in London to house the 1851 Great Exhibition. After the exhibition the building was bought by a group of businessmen and transported to Sydenham in South London where it was rebuilt as part of a large scale Victorian tourist attraction. In 1936 a devastating fire consumed the building. What was left after the fire was irreparable and demolition followed, When I invent my time machine the first visit will be to the medieval London Bridge and the second will be to the Crystal Palace.

24  Cards on the table, this is not an original work. It’s a copy of a painting of Budapest I found on the internet. I found it on Reddit, but all I could find out about the artist was the artist’s username, Matway. Sometimes you can learn a lot from trying to reproduce another artist’s work and I think that this was one of those times. Now, when I can produce something like this without having to copy anyone else’s, then I’ll know I’m getting somewhere.

Direct Watercolour Challenge 2025 22 Port Talbot Dock Hotel

 

 was so happy with my bison painting that I decided to start another painting on the evening of the same day – Thursday 19^th June. I didn’t start until much later than I normally would because it wasn’t until later in the day that my new pad of watercolour paper was delivered. So, this building is the Dock Hotel in Port Talbot. After marrying a local girl I moved to Port Talbot from London in 1986. Port Talbot, an important industrial town, did have many fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings but a lot of them were swept away I a large scale redevelopment of the centre of tow in the early 1970s. I did see this building before it was demolished in 1989 – a crying shame in my opinion. 

Direct Watercolour challenge 2025 - painting 21

 

On the previous painting – the Betjeman statue – I used my last piece of proper watercolour paper. I ordered a new pad from Amazon, but it had not arrived by the time I wanted to start, so I took a gamble. I used a piece of ordinary 150 gsm sketching paper. It worked out better than I  hoped, for I know that the colours do look a bit muted on this sort of paper. The North American bison is a really interesting animal. Extensive hunting and slaughter of the bison population of the USA meant that a population numbering tens of millions in 1800 had dwindled to under 1100 by 1890. Since then efforts of conservationists have been outstandingly successful. There are estimated 150,000 bison today and they are no longer on the endangered list.

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge - 17 - 20

The last time I posted I was 2 paintings ahead of schedule. I  have painted every day since, but the 17^th painting took so long that I lost a day. Which I made back up by doing two the next day. Here they are

17  The Caffe Tramvaj in Wenceslas Square in Prague. I visited Prague in 2017 and this café is where I enjoyed a cappuccino. It’s one of my favourite cafes anywhere. Is it because the coffee is incredibly good, or very cheap, or because it has the most wonderful staff ? That would be no, no and no. But it’s an old tram! I read in the Autumn of 2024 that it had been shut down for not having a permit. It’s a shame. I am proud of this one – it took absolutely hours to complete.

18 British Grand Prix. Back in 2022 during the challenge month I managed to make a couple of pictures which were actually relatively close to what I saw in my head while I was making them, and one was of a 1950s formula 1 grand prix car . I was proud of it and did sell it. So come 2023 I  did another Grand Prix picture but this one was rubbish. Well, things have been going so well with my 2025 pictures that I decided to bite the bullet and have another go.

19  Okay, so, by the end of Saturday 14^th I had made 16 pictures in total, which put me two pictures,  two days ahead of schedule. Sunday 15th was my birthday and Father’s Day so I didn’t get started until the evening. As a result I only finished it on the Monday. Making picture 18 on Tuesday morning kept me a day ahead. However I still had enough oomph and had a plan for a ‘quick’ picture. I’m not sure which seaside pier this is, but I’ve always really liked piers. 10 minutes to do the sea wet on wet, then leave to dry. 10 minutes to do the sky then leave to dry. 10 minutes to do the light mountains and the dark mountains in the background. 15 minutes to paint the pier. Bish bosh, job’s a good’un.

20 I found it difficult to find the oomph to paint today.- Wednesday 18th. With my broken left shoulder I  have to sleep in an upright position and for the last three nights I have slept very poorly. I  pushed myself, remembering that this makes the two thirds complete mark. It’s a stupid thing but I’m feeling pressure now every time I  make another painting because it’s been going so well and I don’t want to spoil it with rubbish. So this is a statue of former poet laureate, lover of Victorian architecture, and architectural conservationist. It’s situated in St. Pancras Station in London.

So there we are. 20 completed, with 12 days of the month left.

30x30 Direct Watercolour challenge 14 - 16

Yes, folks, it's the 15th of June. as it happens it's my birthday, but it's also the end of the first half of the month of the 30x30 direct watercolour challenge.

In my last post I explained that I've managed to put myself a painting ahead of schedule. With three paintings made across Friday and Saturday, by yesterday evening I was 2 paintings ahead. I would like to make another today to stay that way but time will tell if that's going to happen.  So without further ado -

14 What can I say ? I  love huge fossils of extinct animals and the museums where they can be found. This in an exhibit in the La Brea Tar Pits, a bucket list destination. I tried hard with this one but it's not there, I'm afraid.

15 Thames Barge. I don't often copy other people's work, not least because my copies so often suck compared to the originals. but I made an exception for this,

16  I do love a choo choo. This is an interesting one because although it looks about 90 years old it was actually built in the 21st century, reusing a lot of parts from older,  scrapped engines.

2025 30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge 9 - 13

 In my last post I showed my first 8 direct watercolours of this year's challenge. I have tried to produce full pictures, with backgrounds. My broken left shoulder means I can spend time on each picture and this may be why, in my opinion, these are the most consistent set I have produced in any year. Here are the next five. See whether you agree.

9 I find Americana a very fruitful source of inspiration, and likewise, I do enjoy portraying vehicles.

10- this is the beautiful city of Chester. At the moment this is about as good as I can do. Really pleased with this.

11 Way out of my comfort zone here, This was made on the 10th, the second picture of the day, to put me one day ahead.

12 I made this in my Canson mixed media journal. This is maybe why it is a little sketchy. I like the way that the bus wheel came out.

13 My reference photo has the car blue, but I love to see a red Morgan 3 wheeler so that's what I've painted. 

So that's where we ae - still 1 day ahead of schedule. More than a third done and closing in on the halfway mark

2025 30 x 30 Direct Watercolour Challenge

I don’t think I’ve posted since before last Friday, That was the day that I broke my left shoulder. Which is one good reason why I haven’t posted. One handed typing is a pain. One other reason why I haven’t posted since is that it’s now June, and June is the time of the 30x30 direct watercolour challenge. Direct watercolour means that you don’t sketch the design first – you have to go straight in with watercolour.

I first undertook the challenge in 2018 and I did complete it. I repeated in 2019, did not attempt it in 2020 and then made my third completion in 2021. Especially in these earlier years I quite often made quite sketchy paintings that were pretty quick and easy to do. I look at the stuff I did in those years and it’s not brilliant at all. Well, we all have to start somewhere. Then in 2022 I managed to make some pictures that I was quite proud of during the challenge. Not all of them by any means, but certainly some of them. In 2023 this continued, and although some of the first ten were a wee bit ropey, as a set they were clearly the best I’ve done. I loved the whole experience.

2024 it was a different story. Whereas my first ten were inconsistent the year before, now they were very consistent. Consistently bad. I didn’t think that any of them were any good. If I had managed one decent picture then maybe I might have continued. However they were all rubbish and I gave up after 10. I wasn’t annoyed with the fact that I wasn’t doing better than 23. I was angry with myself that I’d gone so far backwards.

So to 2025. I promised myself this –

I would give myself however long was necessary to make each painting and not go chasing the schedule of at least 1 per day.

I would on the same hand be prepared to stop working on each painting when I had done what I could and not overwork it.

I would be more experimental with colours

I would be doing it for fun

So 9 days in how is it going. Well, judge for yourself – here’s the first 8 –

1 – Old Royal Mail Van. One of my 2023 favourites also had an old postman’s van, although the one in this is older. Really pleased – a lot of quite difficult elements in this.

2 – Multicoloured warthog. I set out to be experimental here and I do rather like the results. One friend has already asked for a print.

3 – Donkey. Probably the weakest of the 8 so far. The actual modelling of the animal itself isn’t bad. I like the ghostly trees in the background. But I think I needed to be bolder with the colours. The overall effect is a little insipid.

4 – bull – Nothing insipid about the colours with this one. It was a bit of a reaction to what happened with the donkey and although it’s maybe a little more crude, I think it’s far more successful.

5 – 1940’s London. My plan with this was to use some bigger blocks of colour than I normally do and less detail and more suggestion. I am bowled over by the result. Yeah, it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a painting that turned out very close to the picture that was in my head when I started. If I could have made something like this last year then I might well have completed the challenge.

6 – Oslo tiger statue – a very different painting, much bolder. I think the modelling of the statue itself is really good. Although when I was in Oslo in January it was so dull and gloomy it was hard to believe that the place ever looked like this.

7 – mid century grocer. It was time I made at least 1 picture where the focus is on a human figure. I have overworked the face, sadly. At least it’s not a complete wash out – I like the work on the shirt, for example.

8 – 30s/40’s Americana. While I was looking for reference photos for my grocer I came upon a photo showing this. I knew it would work as a subject if I could do my best to do it justice. Overall it took hours butt I’m stupidly pleased with the result

Well, look, I have to say that I think it’s the best start I’ve ever made to a 30x30 challenge. I think I’ve certainly spent more time on it than I’ve ever done before. Will the quality continue. Watch this space.

Weekend Sketches

Yesterday I just never found the time for another watercolour Treasure Island copy. In the last two or three months I’ve just been working in my Canson A5 mixed media sketching journal. However on Friday I wanted to make a copy of one of William Heath Robinson’s illustrations for the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. The original is such a complex illustration that I decided to use one of the empty pages in my Daler Rowney A4 sketchbook. Here’s my copy.

You know, I enjoyed it so much that I used the book for all of my sketches this weekend. Amongst others was this copy of a Treasure Island illustration by Walter Paget. Paget was a respected and very successful English illustrator in the last years of the 19^th century ad the first couple of decades of the 20^th. His illustrations to “Treasure Island” provide many striking images of the story and are amongst the most popular.

Finally, then, old Victoria London, a favourite subject of mine to sketch. This one took hours.

This week's pirate

Sorry – I’m a little bit late posting this one. This is my copy of Robert Ingpen’s Long John Silver. Robert Ingpen is an Australian artist and his illustrations of “Treasure Island” are among my favourites.

Seven Ages of Public Transport on London's Roads

 Last week I posted recent sketches of various forms of public transport on London's roads through the ages. I realised hat I hadn't made a new sketch of a trolleybus. So, here we go, in chronological order of their use rather than when I made them

1) Horse drawn bus

2) Horse drawn tram

Electric Tram

Motor Bus

Trolley Bus

Double Decker 

Now, yes, I know that's only six. Because I haven't yet done what should be the last of he series, a modern London Double Decker. Watch this space.

This week's Pirate

 Sorry, busy and no real time for chat this morning. Yesterday though was the third consecutive Saturday when I made a watercolour copy of an original Treasure Island illustration. The original of this was by Louis Rhaed and made at the end of the 19th or start of the 20th century. 

Me and London Buses (and Trams

^{You know, if I’ve got an old, or very old black and white photograph of London to use as reference for a sketch, then I’m happy. If it has a method of public transport in it, then doubly so. What can I say? I’m a simple soul. So while I’ve been chancing my arm at copying some Treasure Island illustrations recently, during the last week or two I’ve also been making some sketches of London transport. Here they are:-}

London’s first ever scheduled horse drawn buses were operated by Mr. George Shillibeer in 1829. Shillibeer – shilli name. Regulations over the next 30 years saw more efficient, lighter buses which could carry more passengers. Horse drawn services came under competition from motor buses and electric trams from the end of the Victorian era, and the last horse drawn service was withdrawn in 1911. The bus in the picture was operated by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC). The company was formed in the eighteen fifties, and was one of the main companies to be amalgamated to form London Transport in the 1930s.

London’s first red motorbuses were operated by the LGOC – General for short. In fact London Transport would use the same colour scheme when they took over. London’s first really successful motor bus was the type B that entered service in 1911. During World War I 900 of these buses were sent out to the Western Front where they were nicknamed ‘Ole Bill’ after a popular newspaper cartoon figure of the time. The last Type B was withdrawn in 1926.

^{A couple of horse drawn tram lines began running in London in the 1860s, but they didn’t really get going until the 1870s.Electric powered trams weren’t used until the first years of the 20th century. By the outbreak of the First World War London had the largest tram network in Europe. However it was hard for tram companies to find investment for further expansion in the 1920s. Trams were expensive to maintain and competition from larger and more reliable motorised buses saw some companies increasingly switching. By the mid 30s it had been decided to replace London’s remaining tramways with motor buses and with trolleybuses powered by overhead wires. The outbreak of World War 2 meant that the last tram services remained until 1951.}

It's probably fair to say that no form of public transport ever contributed so much to London as the Routemaster double decker bus. Its contribution to London’s visual identity alone is immense. The iconic Routemaster first ran in 1954, and even though production ended in 1968 Routemaster services were still running into the new millennium, finally ending in 2005. I haven’t lived in London for 39 years, but I was born there, I grew up there, I went to London University. It will always be my home town. And there are some things which always feel like home to me, and a Routemaster bus is one of them. Thankfully, of the almost 3000 built, over a third of them still exist.