URBAN SKETCHING FOR BEGINNERS

For the first time, Ian starts each workshop with a pencil and rubber, instead of a fine liner.

This means you get to make mistakes, rub out and redo until you have your basic sketch down. You’ll learn Ian’s methods for sketching everything out first – loosely and freely.

If trying to be too perfect has held you back so far, then these first lessons will be a game-changer.

For the first time, Ian has developed a series of skill-building exercises that work in perfect harmony with the course.

Each exercise starts with a demonstration from Ian, then deep dives into a specific technique that you will practise separately, before applying it to your main picture.

Exercises include hatching, drawing perspective, penwork, drawing on paint, understanding , choosing and mixing , brush pen techniques and more.

You’re going to be amazed at how quickly your skills flourish and the difference this makes to your overall work!

This Urban Sketching for Beginner's Course is a slower, more methodical course. Each carefully crafted lesson builds on the previous one through four comprehensive workshops. As you work through the course and complete each lesson and technical exercise, your knowledge, skills and confidence will increase incrementally.

By the time you have completed the fourth and final workshop and activities, you will have developed the skills and confidence to sketch with a high degree of confidence and competence.

In this course Ian has assumed no prior knowledge, skills or experience. Starting with a pencil and a blank page, you'll be guided step-by-step, from drawing your first line, to slowly building up your picture, piece-by-piece.

You'll learn how to draw the right shapes, how to get the proportions right on your page first and then how to carefully layer your picture with more detail, and tone.

You'll be amazed at the speed and the results you achieve, even if you haven't picked up a pencil since high school.

Yes. This is over-my-shoulder learning with Ian Fennelly.

Ian is an experienced and engaging teacher and has broken each workshop down into easy-to-follow stages. Within each of those stages he takes you through each step in the process, while explaining everything he is doing, slowly and methodically.

You can also slow down, pause, or speed up each tutorial to suit your own style of learning. And with lifetime access, you can watch the course over and over again.

While this course has been designed for beginners, many experienced sketchers take it to learn more about Ian's specific techniques and style, and his particular thinking behind certain components of sketching, such as choice.

Along with the sketching side, you're also learning other important factors of urban sketching, such as how Ian chooses the perfect locations and viewpoints, how Ian deals with the general public, and how he infuses his work with storytelling and the subtle details he brings into his work.

Yes, you'll get lifetime access to the course and all of the supporting downloads and resources that come with it. It never expires which means that you can you learn in your own time and at your own pace.

Our learning platform is super simple to use. Each tutorial is delivered by video and requires nothing more than clicking the play button.

The Urban Sketching for Beginner’s Course was part-filmed in the historic market town of Shrewsbury, England and part in Ian’s private studio.

With its winding cobblestone streets lined with pretty boutiques and rows of crooked, half-timbered Tudor buildings – Shrewsbury has all the elements Ian needed to teach you urban sketching as you’ve never been taught it before!

Here are the notable differences between this course and the other urban sketching courses we offer:

1. Pencil: Ian starts this Beginner's course using a pencil, instead of a fineliner. Pencil is much more forgiving and allows you to make mistakes, rub out, and redo. It's perfect for beginners.

2. Exercises: This course includes a series of technical exercises that are separate to the main course. This allows you to practice specific techniques on a separate piece of paper, before you apply them to your main picture.

These carefully designed exercises are designed to build your skills and confidence quickly as you sketch each picture.

Exercises include hatching, drawing perspective, pen work, drawing on paint, understanding , choosing and mixing , brush pen techniques and more.

3. Skill Building: In this beginners course, each of the four workshops builds on the skills you learned in the previous one. So, as you progress through the course you are adding new skills while building your competence and confidence, step-by-step.

In our other urban sketching courses, each workshop is typically 'standalone'.