13th Urban Sketchers Symposium Poznan 2025 Symposium Program
13th Urban Sketchers International Symposium
August 20-23, 2025
Description
The 13th International Urban Sketchers Symposium will be held in Poznan, Poland, 20-23 August 2025. Sketchers of all levels, experience, and backgrounds are welcome.
What is the Symposium?
The International Urban Sketching Symposium is an annual educational event organized by Urban Sketchers (USk), a nonprofit dedicated to fostering the practice of on-location observational sketching. The goal of the Symposium is to celebrate and practice the art of on-location sketching in the host city. The event offers valuable field-sketching instruction and opportunities for participants to network and socialize. Following our spirit of “sharing the world, one drawing at a time,” we aim to bring the Symposium to new cities and countries every year. Portland, Lisbon, Santo Domingo, Barcelona, Paraty, Singapore, Manchester, Chicago, Porto, Amsterdam, Auckland, and Buenos Aires have hosted previous editions of the Symposium.
Symposium Passes
There are two types of Passes: WORKSHOP PASS and SKETCH PASS. All pass types include access to the opening & closing receptions, 1 activity/demo, presentations, and Sketch Walks.
The Workshop Pass has 4 options which will give you full access to the number of workshops of your choice with a great lineup of international instructors.
The BIG CRIT - In this structured session, a number of workshop instructors will form a circle or line of tables, each with a seat for themselves and a guest. Each participant with sketchbook in hand will cycle around the tables, receiving a quick critique of their work from 5 different members of the crit panel - not unlike speed dating! This opportunity with a variety of teachers will provide a wealth of useful advice and feedback. Every ten minutes, participants will move on to the next table with the next panelist until their 5 sessions have been completed.
With the Sketch Pass (on sale at USD 160 + USD 12.67 Ticket Fee), you will have a leisurely experience. You’ll meet everyone for the morning gatherings and then explore Poznan between meeting up with others for sketch walks during the day. You’ll be able to meet all the other sketchers during the receptions, demo, and social activities.
Attention: Registration starts on Eventbrite,15 March 2025 at 12PM CET (check for your local time
Workshops
Workshops are one of the main components of the USk Symposium.
They are presented as a more formal educational experience for a smaller group to learn fresh skills firsthand, absorb new and old techniques while acquiring hands-on knowledge from a range of selected Instructors from around the world.
To help you select the Workshop most appropriate for you, we have indicated the experience levels as follows:
Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - Some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - Condent sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Workshops are accessible only to registered Symposium participants.
Useful links
Download pdf version: #USkPoznan2025 Symposium Program
Saturday 23 August 2025 10:30AM – 1:30PM (10:30–13:30)
The Word On The Street: Adding Characters And Conversations To Your Urban Sketches
WS03 Shari Blaukopf Evoking Mood Through Colour
WS04 Stephanie Bower Look Up!
WS05 Róisín Curé
WS06 Maru Godas
WS07 Oliver Hoeller
WS08 Farah Irani
Seeing Ghosts: Sketching People And Pastries In Poznań
Fairytale Landscapes With Gouache And Mixed Media
Storytelling: Your Sketch as Rich as Life!
Workshop: Sketching Through the Lens of Colored Paper
WS09 Andrew James Wonky Buildings: Sketch Like A Drunk Uncle Dancesa
WS10 Uma Kelkar
WS11 Pedro Loureiro
WS12 Fred Lynch
WS13 Olivia Marcus
WS14 Tetiana Ocheredko
WS15 Peter Rush
WS16 Rita Sabler
WS17 Inma Serrano
WS18 Suhita Shirodkar
WS19 Paul Wang
Go-uache on the Go
Sketch Like Theater: Show Less, Tell More
Hunting & Gathering: Sketching Collections and Vignettes
People Everywhere! Create a Lively and Colorful Panoramic Scene
Stains And Textures In Architectural Sketches
Boxes of Energy
Simple Sketches, Big Stories: The Art of Reportage Sketching
Pencils, Line And Rock And Roll
Tactile Landscapes: Bringing Places to Life through Mark-making and Texture
Turn Everyday Objects Into Super Power Tools!
Workshop timetable
WS01 Reham Ali WS01
WS02 Dan Archer WS02
WS03 Shari Blaukopf WS03
WS04 Stephanie Bower WS04
WS05 Róisín Curé WS05
WS06 Maru Godas WS06
WS07 Oliver Hoeller WS07
WS08 Farah Irani WS08
WS09 Andrew James WS09
WS10 Uma Kelkar WS10
WS11 Pedro Loureiro WS11
WS12 Fred Lynch WS12
WS13 Olivia Marcus WS13
WS14 Tetiana Ocheredko WS14
WS15 Peter Rush WS15
WS16 Rita Sabler WS16
WS17 Inma Serrano WS17
WS18 Suhita Shirodkar WS18
WS19 Paul Wang WS19
Activity/Demo lineup
ACT01 Leonie Andrews Your Personalised Poznan Sketchbook
ACT02 Marek Badzynski
ACT03 Danna Feintuch
ACT04 Eileen P. Goldenberg
Thursday 21 August 2025 4PM – 5:30PM (16:00–17:30)
Bending Steel - How To Modify a Lamy Nib into Fude
Bold Statements: How Creative Lettering Can Transform Your Sketches
Expressive Mark Making With Fountain Pens For An Urban Sketch-O-Rama!
ACT05 Rob Sketcherman From iPad+Procreate to Printable Sketchbook
DEM01 Reham Ali
DEM02 Dan Archer
DEM03 Shari Blaukopf
Sketching from an Unconventional Perspective
Adding Characters And Conversations To Your Urban Sketches
Evoking Mood Through Colour
DEM04 Stephanie Bower Look Up!
DEM05 Róisín Curé
DEM06 Maru Godas
DEM07 Oliver Hoeller
DEM08 Farah Irani
DEM09 Andrew James
How Painting First Can Result in Fast and Confident Progress
Fairy Tale Landscapes: Gouache Mixed Media
Storytelling: Your Sketch as Rich as Life!
Enhancing Sketches with Metallic Paint on Colored Paper
Divide And Conquer: Drawing Complicated Scenes Fearlessly
DEM10 Uma Kelkar Go-uache on the Go
DEM11 Pedro Loureiro
DEM12 Fred Lynch
DEM13 Olivia Marcus
Sketch Like Theater: Show Less, Tell More
Sketching in Monochrome with Ink Washes
How To Quickly Capture A Crowded Scene
DEM14 Tetiana Ocheredko Stains And Textures In Architectural Sketches
DEM15 Peter Rush It’s Not Beautiful, Why Do You Draw That?
DEM16 Rita Sabler
DEM17 Inma Serrano
Skyline Panoramas
Fluid Strokes: Bringing Movement and Life to Our Paper
Activity/Demo lineup
DEM18 Suhita Shirodkar Sticks and Stones
DEM19 Paul Wang Turn Everyday Objects Into Super Power Tools!
DEM20 Svitlana Lagutina Beauty in Simplicity: Watercolor Sketching
DEM21 Vanessa Leung
DEM22 Julia Majewska
DEM23 Simone Ridyard
DEM24 Andrey Shmatnik
Thursday 21 August 2025 4PM – 5:30PM (16:00–17:30)
Savour The Scene: Quick Sketching in a Cafe
Capturing The Moment: Mixed Media Speed Sketching
One-point Perspective and Creative Use of Watercolour Including Lots of Splashes!
Capture The Vibe Of A Historic City
DEM25 Liz Steel Architecture Starting With Shapes
Lecture lineup
LT01 Elizabeth Alley Sketching in the Arctic
LT02 Ivan Chow
Thursday - Saturday 21-23 August 2025 9AM – 9:30AM (9:00–9:30)
The Hand that Draws the Future - the Cognitive Benefits of Urban Sketching
LF01 Vanessa Leung Art To Cart: Transform Sketches into Merchandise
LF02 Rita Sabler
LS01 Andrey Shmatnik
LS02 Detlef Surrey
When Photography Falls Short: The Power of Drawing in Telling Sensitive Stories
How Urban Sketching Changed The Way I See Cities
Berlin - The Wall Revisited. Search For Traces With My Sketchbook
Important information
WARNING: Make sure that you pick ONLY the number of workshop/s that is/are included in your Workshop Pass. Eventbrite ticketing system will allow you to pick 4. Workshops beyond your ticket entitlement will be deleted.
Activity/Demo
Reham Ali
Alexandria, Egypt
Convey A Powerful Sense Of Place
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Intermediate1
Workshop Description
Expressive sketching with dynamic angles and intense loose colors. Storytelling an architectural scene isn’t just about the physical structure - it’s about how we see and emotionally connect with the space. Every angle, shadow, and color in an urban scene plays a role in creating an atmosphere that evokes different feelings.
Your sketch doesn’t just capture the material form of a space; it expresses how that space affects you.
By the end of this workshop, you will have learned to transform mundane architectural scenes into emotionally charged, visually captivating interpretations. It’s all about seeing the potential for drama in places other people might overlook!
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Supply List
• Waterproof ink pens (fountain pens or fineliners)
• Watercolor paints (watercolor tubes if possible)
• The colors used will be: Black, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna (these 4 are essential for this workshop but you are free to add any other colors)
• Small water spray
• Sketchbook or loose paper, preferably watercolor paper or water-friendly paper at least A4 size or larger (be ready to apply more water than you are used to!)
• Brushes (try to have at least one big brush size 8 or larger if possible )
• Small plastic container of water
• A stool to sit on while working ( optional)
About the Instructor
Reham M Ali
Reham studied Fine-Arts and now works as Assistant Professor at IAU university. Reham is a workshop instructor in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and has taught at several USk Symposiums. Sketching architecture came as a natural part of her study and work. She began sketching on location in her senior year in college, and in 2015, she discovered Urban Sketchers. Since then she started to focus on sketching her hometown city, Alexandria, which is the main subject of her watercolor and sketching work.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/reham_m_a
Dan Archer
Hong Kong
The Word On The Street: Adding Characters & Conversations To Your Urban Sketches
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Intermediate - Advanced
Workshop Description
Learn the insider tips and tricks of illustrated reportage with graphic journalist Dan Archer as he shows you how to create a balance between background and foreground elements; how to work quickly in ink; how to add colour and depth with watercolour washes; how to lay out your page with speech balloons that are clear and legible; and how to capture a truly memorable interaction with the people around you.
In the first part we will cover the basics in our toolkit, from facial gestures and body posture to the core elements of speech balloons and text boxes. Then we will progress to sketching people in real time, including overheard dialogue and ambient sound. We will conclude by interviewing a local together as a group, creating a unique sketch that conveys both a sense of place and character.
In this workshop you will need the confidence and the willingness to step outside of your comfort zone and experiment with live sketched interviewing techniques!
Supply List
• 1 main waterproof black pen for drawing (with a fine tip, 0.3 or more – preferably with a pressure-based variable nib)
• 1 main method for applying colour (watercolours/water reservoir brush pen OR coloured pencils/markers)
• 1 pencil/mechanical pencil for underdrawing
2 lettering pens: 1 for normal text (0.3 fineliner suggested) and 1 for bold text (0.5 fineliner suggested)
• 1 watercolour sketchbook (preferably fine grain as it’s easier to write on)
About the Instructor Dan Archer
Dan has been working as a graphic journalist for over a decade since graduating from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2009 with an MFA in Cartooning. His work focuses on human rights-related topics and he uses illustrated reportage and comics to protect the anonymity of his interviewees, which have included survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, homelessness, incarceration, and state-sponsored violence in Colombia. His graphic journalism has been featured by the BBC, Al-Jazeera, CBC, Vice, the US State Dept, CNN, Associated Press, the Nib, the Colombian government, Open Society, European Journalism Centre, Die Zeit Online, Der Speigel, and he has a Maynard Institute Award for mental health reporting. His debut graphic novel, Voices from Nepal: Uncovering human trafficking through comics journalism was published by University of Toronto Press in September 2024.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archcomix/
Shari Blaukopf Canada
Evoking Mood Through Color
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Advanced1
Workshop Description
As urban sketchers, we draw what we see as faithfully as possible. But a scene is not just objective reality (after all, why not simply take a photo?). It’s also what we feel at the scene: the historic and cultural dimensions; the weather and time of day; and our emotional state at that moment.
All this can be summed up as mood. And mood is best conveyed by modulating colour temperature with intention. In this workshop, we will be using a limited palette exclusively to focus on colour temperature. I will show you how the same scene, sketched with a warm-colour triad, is markedly different in mood compared to a cool-colour triad. How warm colours push forward, while cool ones recede. How placing a cool colour next to a warm one produces a specific effect. And how bright colour schemes and analogous colour schemes will help you think about colour differently, and therefore broaden your expressive range.
We tend to always dip into the same colours, and produce the same mixes. In this workshop, I want to make you think about colour differently. I will ask you to execute small sketches in which you mix bold colours with intention and with thought — and maybe even with a bit of the healthy discomfort we feel when we’re outside our comfort zone.
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Learn More Here
Supply List
A basic watercolour kit containing fresh colours, either in pan or in tubes (colors should include a warm and a cool version of Red, Yellow, and Blue, as well as a Burnt Sienna or Quinacridone Sienna (total: 7 colours)
• A small sketchbook and a pen or pencil
• Some sort of watercolour brush.
• 1 watercolour sketchbook
About the Instructor Shari Blaukopf
Shari is a Montreal-based teacher, painter and sketch blogger who loves to travel and share her love of sketching. She’s the author of The Urban Sketching Handbook: Working with Color, and you can find her online courses on Learn. Shariblaukopf.com. She is co-founder of Urban Sketchers Montreal and has been part of the Urban Sketchers community since 2012.
She’s given many watercolor workshops both on her own and internationally through the Urban Sketchers Workshop Program. Her watercolors are in corporate, government, private and royal collections in North America and abroad, and she’s a signature member of the American Watercolor Society and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.
Look Up! Sometimes the most amazing things to sketch are above your head! But how do you capture Poznan’s decorative, beautiful building tops and towers in your small sketchbook?
In this workshop, you’ll learn my best tips and tricks on how to use the principles of 3-pt perspective to give your sketch the dramatic sense of looking up at something tall. It’s a powerful technique that I use all the time in my work, as this type of perspective view makes you feel like you are IN the space. Fear not, it’s not hard when you know what to look for!
1
Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums Learn More Here
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Supply List
• A stool for sitting
• Other favorite sketching supplies. (I’ll be using graphite pencil and watercolor.)
About the Instructor
Stephanie Bower
Seattle-based Stephanie worked as a licensed Architect in New York City before gravitating to professional architectural illustration and concept design. She taught for over thirty years in New York City at Parsons School of Design and in Seattle at the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts.
Stephanie is thrilled to be living her life-long dream as a globe-trotting instructor and urban sketcher, connecting with sketching friends around the world! She has taught at eight USk International Symposiums, has several online sketching classes, and teaches perspective and watercolor workshops around the world. Her awards include the prestigious Gabriel Prize fellowship in architecture to Paris, the Civita Institute’s fellowship to Italy, and she was twice honored with “Best Travel Sketch” in the KRob international architectural delineation competition.
Stephanie’s work has been featured in Watercolor Artist and Artist magazines, and she is the best-selling author of several books on sketching including The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Perspective, The Urban Sketching Handbook: 101 Sketching Tips, as well as the giant sketching tour around the globe, The World Of Urban Sketching.
Seeing Ghosts: Sketching People And Pastries In Poznań
WORKSHOP
Workshop Description
One of the nicest things to do as an urban sketcher is to go to a café, sketch your pastry and coffee and then a colourful, busy background, complete with other customers. But people insist on blocking your view as they pause to make their selection, making you stop sketching in frustration until they move away.
A brilliant solution to this is to sketch the background in full whenever you get glimpses, then add any people on top as they arrive, in a brightly coloured ink. Then by adding monochrome values to the background around the “ghost” people, a very cool effect is achieved. Any lines “inside” the people’s shapes that are too distracting can be hidden with a white gel pen.
Supply List
• Watercolour by Roman Szmal ** provided by sponsor **
• A 55o Fude fountain pen (X 2) recommend but alternatives are any types of ink pens
• Waterproof ink in a dark colour: I will provide the contrasting bright color, or the student can if they prefer to choose a specific bright color
About the Instructor
Róisín Curé
Water brush, size medium or broad
• A6 portrait format watercolour sketchbook, min. 200g weight
• White gel pen, with a nib that’s not too fine
• Magnetic clips for paint box so they can sketch in a very cramped space on their table
Róisín is a passionate urban sketcher, as well as an author and teacher. An urban sketcher since 2012, her goal is to spread the fun of urban sketching to as many people as possible. She has written three books on urban sketching, including one in the The Urban Sketching Handbook series, called Drawing Expressive People (2020). The other two are about Galway (2019 & 2024) and Dublin (2021 & 2024).
She has taught all over Europe and as an instructor with Urban Sketchers, teaching in Porto (2018) and Amsterdam (2019). Sketching events in which she has taught or taken part include Portugal, Spain, France, Holland, the UK and Switzerland and of course Ireland.
Róisín has conducted classes and workshops for a global community since 2014 and an online sketching club since 2020. Her YouTube channel shares her sketching journey, constantly encouraging viewers and explaining her techniques. She also writes a sketching blog each week and hosted the Sketch Therapist podcast until 2023, which aimed to entertain, inform and inspire.
Róisín is the inventor of the SketchPocket, a mobile sketcher’s speciality bag made of cactus leather. The design was her solution to her obsessive desire to sketch in ink and watercolour anywhere and everywhere, standing or sitting.
Róisín co-founded Urban Sketchers Galway in 2014 and it is going strong today, with the group meeting weekly in Galway City. She speaks English, Irish, French and Spanish.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roisincure
Maru Godas
Spain
Fairytale Landscapes With Gouache And Mixed Media
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Suitable for all levels1
Learn More Here
Workshop Description
How can we capture the vibrant essence of a space – with its bustling life, charming rooftops, windows, and unique details – in a panoramic view? That’s exactly what we’ll explore in this Fairy Tale Landscapes workshop. We’ll dive into techniques that highlight all the little things that make Poznań so special, using colorful and engaging methods to bring the scene to life, just like a storybook landscape.
We’ll start with gouache as the base material for the backgrounds and larger areas. From there, we’ll layer in details using dry techniques like colored pencils and Neocolor crayons, experimenting with textures to capture the feel of rooftops, windows, sculptures, shops, and other charming elements of the city. We’ll focus on combining materials with a limited color palette, and most importantly, we’ll learn how to plan and distort the space in a way that allows us to capture the full dynamic energy of Poznań in a large, expressive panorama.
Supply List
• Basic colors of gouache: Cyan, magenta, yellow. Black and White. Small tubes.
• An empty plastic palette for mixing. I recommend that it can be closed to preserve wet gouache.
• Water container
• A sketchbook suitable for mixed media techniques size A4 hot pressed (190-300 gr)
• Basic acrylic hair brushes. (rounds, flats, rigger, filbert...) A cheap quality will work. If you want to create wild strokes and marks,
About the Instructor
Maru Godas
bring old and worn brushes.
• Soft Colored pencils like Luminance, Policromos, Prismacolor, etc (Not a selected box, take few single colors: ochre, pink, blue, turquoise, etc) add black pencil and/or Pitt oil black pencil.
• Neocolor II crayons in case we need to add details on top, match the color palette of your color
Formed as a graphic designer at the IDEP School of Design and the “Escola Superior de Disseny Llotja de Barcelona.” She founded her own graphic design studio in Barcelona, providing graphic design services to publishers and agencies in Spain: RBA, Planeta, National Geographic, Salvat, etc. She always had an illustration project on her hands and continued to paint with oils and gouache in her spare time. It was his true passion, and finally decided to dedicate it full time.
When she met the Urban Sketchers, new paths and new languages were opened, as well as the opportunity to travel and do workshops and lectures around the world. Also, to meet amazing people. She loves all techniques: Chinese ink, oil, watercolor, and colored pencils, although she’s known for her drawings and workshops with gouache and acrylic paint.
She has collaborated on several illustrated books and magazines and is the author of “Park Güell Journey,” the interactive digital book “Suri y yo,” and “Organic Beauty,” translated into five languages. She has done illustration commissions for CaixaForum, Racc, La Caixa, Diputación de Barcelona, Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, La Vanguardia, etc.
She was the director of the illustration festival “Compostela Ilustrada” (Spain) (2019–2022). Likewise, she has done international workshops in Chicago, Brighton, Palo Alto, Madrid, Porto, Lisbon, Tuscany, Bern, San Francisco, Málaga, New York, Santiago de Compostela, La Réunion Island, New Zealand, Tel Aviv,etc. Currently, she’s a member of the board of the ‘Centre Artistic de Sant Lluc,’ a century-old art institution in Barcelona. Now, she manages a dynamic balance between professional illustration commissions, authorship projects for books, and teaching activities, which include urban sketching workshops and illustration classes around the world.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marugodas
Oliver Hoeller Austria
Storytelling: Your Sketch as Rich as Life!
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Suitable for all levels1
Learn More Here
Workshop Description
Storytelling is at the core of Urban Sketching. Yet how to move beyond *just* sketching a pretty picture to tell a story is a challenge for many sketchers. What turns a sketch into a story? What elements does a story need to be understandable and interesting at the same time? On top of that, how can we make our story as rich as possible?
In this workshop we will unravel what’s required to create a rich spread that tells a story. Step-by-step, we will look under the hood and build foundations for future story tellers.
First, we’ll deal with what to draw - the elements. We’ll cover the role of ‘establishing shots’ to give a sense of place as well as ‘zoomed-in details’ that give a flavor of the place and action. Then we’ll move on to the placement of the elements on the page. In order to turn our story elements into a coherent and readable whole, we’ll explore how overlapping elements, panels and an arrangement along a grid can help structure information. We’ll then move beyond the visible to make our story richer. Students will learn how to include overheard conversations and sound elements for an additional layer of information. Lastly, we will explore how color schemes can emotionally charge our stories. In a final piece students will apply all this information in their own way.
This workshop is great for those who want to bring storytelling to their sketching and look for concrete steps on how to make this happen.
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Supply List
• Scissors!
• Fine liner and watercolor or other preferred sketching media (digital is possible)
About the Instructor
Oliver is a traveling artist, illustrator and educator. His passion is storytelling in Urban Sketching and he sees the humorous and ironic with an empathetic eye. Oliver’s work has been professionally recognized including the international travel sketchbook award 2022 “Prix de Carnet de Voyage”. After more than a decade in the UK and the US, he now lives with his wife and son in Vienna, Austria.
Workshop: Sketching Through the Lens of Colored Paper
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Beginners1
Workshop Description
Colored paper can feel intimidating, but in this workshop, you’ll discover how it transforms your approach to sketching. Working on a colored base forces you to see the world through a single hue, simplifying overwhelming visuals and helping you focus on creating vibrant, cohesive art.
We’ll explore printing patterns as creative stepping stones that anchor your composition, reduce the need for excessive detail, and spark playful exploration. With the paper’s color guiding your palette and the patterns streamlining your process, this workshop teaches you how to turn these tools into creative advantages. You’ll leave with bold, expressive sketches that tell a story through light, contrast, and texture.
Whether you’re new to sketching or eager to try something fresh, this session will help you embrace colored paper as a tool for dynamic, story-rich sketches.
Supply List
• A4-sized colored paper (minimum 2 sheets of the same color, 150-220 gsm)
• Watercolors (a limited basic color palette works as long as we can create good shadows)
About the Instructor Farah Irani
• Watercolor palette (for mixing colors)
• Watercolor pencils or crayons (black, white, and few colors of your choice)
• A small stool to sit on (optional, but recommended for comfort)
Farah is a graphic designer, illustrator, and creative director, blending design, stage production, and visual storytelling. An avid urban sketcher, she captures everyday moments with energy and character. In this workshop, Farah introduces a playful approach to colored paper, guiding you through intuitive, expressive, and fun sketching techniques. .
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farah.colors
Andrew James
New Zealand
Wonky Buildings: Sketch Like A Drunk Uncle Dances
Learn More Here
Workshop Description
We’ve all watched a “drunk uncle” hit the wedding dance floor, having the time of his life despite his uncool moves. This workshop brings that fearless energy to urban sketching. We’ll turn frustration with “getting it right” into friendly wonkiness while having as much fun as possible.
You’ll leave this workshop feeling more bold and confident in your sketching, focusing less on perfect proportions and more on capturing the essence of a scene.
Drunk uncle’s dancing works because he has three essential things: Confidence, dance moves and swagger.
• Confidence: Bold, confident lines give structure, and wonkiness gives personality. We’ll focus on how to commit to each line with a purpose and a hint of wobble.
• Dance moves: You’ll learn the techniques of sweeping, stacking, and extrusion to create exaggerated, lively sketches.
• Swagger: The final touch—accentuate a building’s key features and tie the drawing together with spot colour and shadow.
Finally, we’ll hit the dancefloor ourselves and see these ideas come together in a systematic approach to drawing you can apply again and again, just like your drunk uncle on a dancefloor.
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Suitable for all levels1 1
Supply List
Any pen that makes bold lines. Tombow Fudenosuke firm tip is highly recommended. Other options include brush markers, fat fineliners (0.5mm or bigger) calligraphy pens, fountain pens etc.
• Something to draw shadows and colours with. A mid-toned grey marker is especially useful. You can use markers, watercolour and brush, coloured pencil or whatever else you like.
About the Instructor
Andrew James
• Something to draw on. A sketchbook you are happy to make working drawings in and a sheet of nicer paper for the final sketch. I’ll use Fabriano watercolour paper.
Andrew is a sketchbook artist and Urban Sketcher from Wellington, New Zealand. He set out to learn to draw because of an upcoming trip. He felt that having an illustrated record of a year-long journey would be cool, but he didn’t expect to become obsessed with recording his life in pictures in little books. After more than a decade the sketchbooks are starting to pile up.
He is a founding member of his local chapter, Urban Sketchers Wellington, and draws as much as possible, especially with his young sons—kids are the most fearless and fun artists, inspiring! When not drawing for fun, he turns science into stories with words and drawings for a conservation non-profit.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajamesdraws
Uma Kelkar
Go-uache on the Go
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Beginners/Intermediate1
Workshop Description
Gouache painting seems elaborate and time taking. These technical challenges are easily overcome in this class by doing 2 things: (1) Painting in a small size (10cm x 10cm) and fixed size, on beer coasters actually, makes a very attractive collection. This collection of sketch-memories can be clubbed with writing to make a travelog. (2) We will learn to mix most colors from only 3 primary colors (+black + white) while keeping our water clean.
With these 2 tricks, we open up the world of using colors in any order since this is an opaque medium. What we lose in speed in gouache, we recover in freedom of sequence of paint (as compared to watercolour).
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
• 2 brushes - about ¼ inch or 0.75cm width and a small round work best. Kids brush quality is great!
Uma will provide paper (beer coasters) and will bring empty palettes.
• An A4 sized Cardboard or support to clip on the paper and palette onto.
• Water containers
About the Instructor
Uma, was born and brought up in Pune, India but has lived in San Jose, USA for the past 20+ years. She is a watercolor painter, urban sketcher who also sketches in ink, gouache and on the iPad. She has taught at Urban Sketchers International Symposia (2017, 2018, 2019, 2024) and is author of Urban Sketching book for the iPad. She believes heavily in cross-pollination and borrows ideas from various fields to improve sketching. She is an engineer by profession. She was Secretary on the Executive Board of Urban Sketchers from Aug 2019 to July 2022. She is also Founder and CEO of Vivify.ai, a startup that uses AI to make human to human connection between creators stronger while multiplying their income.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umapaints
Uma Kelkar
Pedro Loureiro
Portugal
Sketch Like Theater: Show Less, Tell More
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Beginners/Intermediate1
Workshop Description
Reality is overwhelmingly rich with details, but we don’t usually sketch it like that. We simplify, we refocus, we interpret! When we learn how to break down reality into simpler building blocks, our attention is enhanced. We perceive the world around us in a different way!
In this workshop we’ll explore one way to visually simplify the world and commit it to our sketchbooks. We will see how large washes of watercolor become shapes that mimic buildings and elements of landscape, akin to setting the stage ready for a theater play. We will overlay other shapes as shadows, shedding light on the true focus of the sketch. Finally, we will explore the ink pen as a tool to outline and detail the architectural features, the people and all the different elements that imbue life in the streets, much like actors and props achieve that on stage.
A sketch starts on a blank page. A theater play starts on a dark stage. Both artforms tell great stories by adding as little as possible, interpreting as much as can be, and by playing with our perception of reality, giving us back an enjoyable and immersive narrative that ends up playing a part in our inner world.
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Supply List
4 or A5 watercolor grade (at least 180gsm) sketchbook.
• Waterproof ink pen (a common rollerball pen works perfectly).
• Watercolor palette with at least cobalt blue and burnt sienna.
About the Instructor Pedro Loureiro
• Medium-sized watercolor brush (12 round or similar) and a small one for details.
• Water recipient.
• Cloth or paper tissue.
Pedro is an architecture illustrator from Lisbon, Portugal. He began his artistic career as a child by copying his favorite comic book panels. Later he took drawing classes in architecture school and joined the Urban Sketchers community, consolidating his path into the professional art world.
Pedro’s mediums are waterproof ink and watercolor, which he uses to paint places, events, and people to remember. His goal for teaching is for his students to realize how perception changes when seeing the world through sketching, and everyone can learn to draw. He uses sketching as a tool of perception and understanding of surroundings, exciting characters, and stories of the everyday.
He teaches regular sketching workshops and tells stories in the blog Storysketching and in the Urban Sketchers Portugal. He was a regular writer for Drawing Attention, the monthly Urban Sketchers zine. Additionally, Pedro leads The Wedding Sketchers, an event live sketching project. “By sketching, we see the world in a novel way, and each sketch we do is a story that we tell back to the world.”
Instagram: www.instagram.com/pedromacloureiro
WS12
Fred Lynch USA
Hunting & Gathering: Sketching Collections and Vignettes
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Intermediate/Advanced1
Workshop Description
We’re all familiar with drawing scenes, but that’s not all that a sketcher can do to capture perceptions, or to share observations. In this workshop, we consider two alternatives - focusing on parts rather than the whole and allowing for us to talk about things differently. We explore two age-old vehicles of visual communication: the vignette, and the visual collection.
A vignette is an irregularly shaped image on a page – one that doesn’t extend to the edge of the paper. They tend to focus on a more particular feature of what’s before us. We see them in books in magazines all the time, but what are the design principles behind them? In this workshop, we’ll learn how vignettes are like letterforms. They interact with the white of the page (negative space) and respond to a viewer’s need for a sense of gravity.
A visual collection is a page that features an arrangement of a series of vignette sketches that make a singular statement. Imagine, for instance, a page filled with little sketches of taxicabs, pub signs, or public sculptures. The collection can reveal more than a single scene. It’s an interesting alternative to describing a place or an interest. In this workshop, we’ll build on our new knowledge of vignettes and learn to design and create visual collections which express our own interests.
Learn More Here
Supply List
4 or A5 watercolor grade (at least 180gsm) sketchbook.
• Waterproof ink pen (a common rollerball pen works perfectly).
• Watercolor palette with at least cobalt blue and burnt sienna.
• Medium-sized watercolor brush (12 round or similar) and a small one for details.
• Water recipient.
• Cloth or paper tissue.
About the Instructor Fred Lynch
Fred has been a professor of Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design (his alma mater) in Providence, Rhode Island for over thirty years. Fred is a recipient of RISD’s John R. Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching. For twelve years he taught sketching journalism in a Summer Studies Program in Central Italy.
When not teaching, he creates artwork and illustrations that are published and exhibited all over the world including many Urban Sketchers Handbooks. He has won awards for his illustrations. Fred and his work have been featured on the Travel Channel. A longtime urban sketcher, he lectured at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona, and taught workshops in Paraty, Manchester, Porto and Amsterdam. For a number of years, Fred served on the USK Education Committee and is the inventor of the Big Crit, which began in Paraty, Brazil. Fred lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/FredLynchArt
Olivia Marcus France
People Everywhere! Create a Lively and Colorful Panoramic Scene
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Intermediate/Advanced1
Learn More Here
Workshop Description
Capturing the human body can seem complex and intimidating. Yet drawing people in the street or in their daily activities, sketching their attitudes, their particularities, depicting a crowd is an inexhaustible source of inspiration! During this workshop, we’ll learn how to compose a lively, colorful crowd scene and finally capture its atmosphere in panoramic format. We’ll focus in particular on how to create the illusion of movement and multitude.
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Supply List
Black pencil (Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black 8B or Polychromos black)
• Any kind of water-based and transparent technique such as: 2-3 waterbrushes filled with watercolor ink (ex. Rohrer & Klingner or other brand OR water-based pigmented ink markers ( ex. Talens
Pantone Markers from Royal Talens or other brand OR Watercolors + brush
• Some color pencils (Polychromos or Luminance or other brand)
• Watercolor or mixed media hot pressed or smooth paper sheets
About the Instructor
Olivia Marcus
Olivia is a graphic designer and a sketching instructor. She worked with Vincent Desplanche and Luc Perillat on the organisation of the 10th USk France meeting 2023 (900+ participants) and also created the graphics for the event.
She is an active volunteer within her USk local chapter of Tououse for which she organizes monthly meetings and is in charge of the Chapter’s social media.
She has been a sketching instructor for several years. She teaches sketching workshops for the City of Toulouse and the University Toulouse Capitole since 2022. She was invited by USk Barcelona to teach at the BCN SketchFest 2024.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/om_lapom
WS14
Tetiana Ocheredko Poland
Stains And Textures In Architectural Sketches
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Suitable for all levels1
Workshop Description
Every place has its own history, memory, and character, just as every person has their own emotions and experiences. In this workshop, you will explore how urban spaces and people influence each other.
During the session, you will learn how to create expressive, emotionally charged sketches of urban environments using textures, patterns, stains, and tonal accents. Special attention will be given to combining materials such as ink, acrylic, and pencil to effectively capture the multi-textured nature of urban architecture and the atmosphere of a space.
Supply List
Black and colored ink
• Natural or synthetic brushes
• Colored paper
• Gouache or acrylic paint
About the Instructor Tetiana Ocheredko
• Matte pencil 8B or any graphite pencil 8B-12B
• Fine liner A container for water
• Wet and dry napkins
Tetiana is a Ukrainian multimedia contemporary artist who has been living in Poland since 2022. A member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 2012, she has participated in over 45 international exhibitions and held 10 solo shows across Europe, China, the USA, Australia, and Cyprus. In 2020, her series of works earned her the prestigious Silver Key Honor Award from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cyprus. From 2016 to 2023, she worked as a painter-animator on the Oscar- and Golden Globenominated animated films painted in oils, «Loving Vincent» and «The Peasants». Her works are held in museum collections in Cyprus, Ukraine, and Egypt.
In this workshop we will put our sketchbooks aside and do our best not to be possessive about our work. The intention is to draw freely and release some inhibitions to reflect all the dynamics of city life.
We will be sketching urban spaces on loose paper and the reverse side of found cardboard packaging. The tone and texture of these boxes enhances color pencil drawing. Also the mechanical form of the box perfectly expresses our urban world. We will let our hands go free, do our best to get away from the carefully rendered line. With pen and pencil we will quickly draw the busy urban spaces we encounter.
We will observe urban space and draw everything in it. - more energy, more lines, to allow your spirit and character to show in your sketching - the intention is not to look at objects in isolation, it is to see that everything is interconnected. To capture the mood and energy of a place. I will emphasis how layering objects directly in the foreground will make the drawing immersive and establish depth and scale no matter how many mistakes!
Allow yourself to get caught in the juxtaposition of busy streets, capture the moment. Draw all the mess, the signs, traffic lights, the ornate facades, wires, people, bikes and cars in one glorious energetic whole.
Supply List
Minimum 0.5mm drawing pen. Suggested brands, Artline Drawing System or Lousy Liner (made with recycled plastic and black ink). Or a medium nib fountain pen.
• Graphite pencil - minimum 2B
About the Instructor
Peter Rush
• Color Pencils. Any good quality brand is fine: For example, FaberCastell Polychromos, Prismacolor Premier, Cretacolor Karmina and Caran d’Arch Luminance.
• Paper / cardboard: loose paper, found paper on the streets, recycled packaging like cookie, cereal and toothpaste boxes that have a smooth texture and are grey or brown
Peter is an enthusiastic and dedicated artist and architect whose enjoyment of urban sketching comes from wanting to show the whole character of the place. To spatially draw the everyday streets, the ordinary places where we live. With every drawing he aims to express the mood of a moment that will resonate to make an empathic connection with the observed.
His urban sketching has taken him to many places with exhibitions of his work throughout Australia, New Zealand and the United States. His urban sketching has been consistently recognised, winning and being selected as a finalist in numerous art prizes in Australia and New Zealand. His work has been featured in publications, most recently, The World of Urban Sketching by Stephanie Bower.
Simple Sketches, Big Stories: The Art of Reportage
Sketching
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Intermediate/Advanced1
Workshop Description
In Poznań, around three million rogal świętomarciński croissants are sold each year, but this isn’t your average pastry. With 81 layers of dough, a precise weight of 150-250 grams, and a meticulous six-hour preparation process, it’s a subject of local pride. So much so that this iconic croissant is protected by the European Union under Geographical Indication status.
What better place to practice the art of visual reportage than in the interactive rogal świętomarciński museum? In this workshop, we will learn the basics of capturing stories through drawings, starting with the rich history and craftsmanship of this beloved pastry. We will address the fundamentals of illustrated reportage: identifying key elements, selecting powerful visuals, simplifying complex scenes, and using composition and writing to enhance storytelling.
1
Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Supply List
• Favorite line making tools: Graphite Pencil or Black ink pens with waterproof ink (Artist
• Pitt pen by Faber-Castell or similar)
• Inexpensive sketch pad for quick studies and exercises (Clairefontaine Crok’ Book 8” x 12” Sketch Pad or similar)
• A Sheet of Hot press Watercolor paper (12 in. x 16 in. or 30 x 40cm)
About the Instructor
Rita Sabler
• Pentel Waterbrush, Large round Tip
• Portable watercolor box with lots of surface for mixing and favorite watercolors
• Watercolors (can be purchased in tubes and squeezed into half pans, student grade watercolors are fin
• Color pencils, not watercolor (optional)
• Portable sketching stool
Rita is an award winning artist, visual journalist, author, and educator based in Portland, Oregon, USA. She has taught Drawing, Urban Sketching and Visual Journalism courses at the Parsons School of Design, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Portland State University as well as given numerous workshops and lectures on drawing and visual storytelling all around the world.
In the span of her decade-long career as an educator and visual storyteller Sabler has inspired diverse audiences to cultivate a lifelong passion for urban sketching and reportage illustration. Her work has been featured in solo and group local and international shows. Sabler’s approach to teaching is rooted in individual attention to a particular student’s needs and goals. Her students routinely praise her for clear, supportive and non-judgemental way of distilling complex drawing techniques, giving them confidence and inspiration to nurture their individual styles. Her way of working with students of all skill levels brings great joy and pride from being able to capture the world in a sketchbook, and cultivate strong connections to the place and its people.
From 2019-2023 Rita Sabler served as the Education Director on the board of the global Urban Sketchers organization. In addition to teaching drawing Rita Sabler currently works as a freelance visual journalist for the Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritasabler
Inma Serrano Spain
Pencils, Line And Rock And Roll
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Suitable for all levels1
Workshop Description
In urban sketching there are many ways to describe a place. One of them is the traditional perspective. But there are many more keys to place some elements in a scene. I think that in urban sketching the visual narrative is more important than the technical correctness.
In this workshop we are going to work with keys that allow us to understand and tell life (architecture, people, depth, size, action...) beyond the traditional rules of perspective or the real local color. We will draw the place where we are, translating what happens there, using the line as the main graphic element. We will escape from the traditional rules of perspective and try other keys to place some elements in a scene such as narrative paths or connections of levels of depth.
We will do some exercises based on the Gestalt laws of perception (repetition, focus, contrast, common direction, size, etc.), translating the sensations and rhythms that move the scene. The feeling you have when you are drawing a place is very important. You have to transfer that feeling to your sketch. We will seek formal expressiveness and the handling of the stroke with pencils and colors, applying a personal style, feeling the movement of our hand, our own way of drawing, our graphic calligraphy.
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Learn More Here
Supply List
• Sketchbook with paper for pencil (similar to Basik)
• Dark black pencil (line tool)
• Sketch pencils for drawing (Graphite)
• Coloured pencils
About the Instructor Inma
Serrano
• Watercolor
• Water brush pen.
• Sharpener
• Eraser
• have a smooth texture and are grey or brown
Since she couldn’t stop drawing, she supposed she should do something with this. Inma has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Seville and combines teaching Arts and Drawing with different works as an illustrator. She collaborates regularly in the written press with her graphic reports and has occasionally illustrated books: novels, short stories, poetry and everything that comes her way. Her illustrations have been published in books and magazines. She is the author of the book Sevilla, from top to bottom, an illustrated travelogue sketchbook of the city where she lives.
She currently works as a teacher, teaching Visual Arts and Drawing to highschool students. She also serves as a correspondent in Urban Sketchers Spain and belongs to the Sevilla Chapter.
She has been an instructor in sketching workshops for Urban Sketchers International Symposiums in Santo Domingo (2011) Barcelona (2012) Singapour (2013) and Porto (2018) or Buenos Aires (2024). She also has led many sketching and illustration workshops in other European cities.
Sketching in the streets is essential in her life because it allows her to zoom, in an ingenuous and almost childish way, the people and the things around. She says she needs sketching and drawing to understand her life and to be happy.
Tactile Landscapes: Bringing Places to Life through Markmaking and Texture
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Suitable for all levels1
Workshop Description
This workshop teaches mark-making, pattern, and texture creation and its application to on-location sketching. It aims to replicate something akin to the sense of touch to create intimate, engaging sketches. The focus is on creating believable textures by developing a personal shorthand in mark-making.
To create these sketches, we will engage intimately with our surroundings, closely studying each surface. We will learn to translate these studies into textures, while understanding how to modify them to convey volume, depth and distance. To create our final set of sketches, we will study principles in composition and contrast, we will look at the differences between a photorealistic approach to texture and creating a shorthand for texture in sketches, and we will experiment with monochrome and full color.
The aim of this workshop is to create energetic, highly-textured sketches that engage the viewer with a heightened sense of immediacy and intimacy.
Supply List
• SGraphite Pencil: 2B or a softer one
• Pen with waterproof ink: either one pen that can make thick and thin marks or two pens
• with different line thicknesses. Bring pens you already have.
• Basic Watercolor Kit, any colors
• A 6-8 assorted colored pencils: water-soluble ones preferred ( I recommend a mix of light and dark and natural and bright pencils: for example deep brown, deep blue, (dark and natural, red, lime green, yellow, turquoise (bright and light)
Waterbrush or Travel brushes (at least one fine one and one round brush size 8 or higher), water container, paper towels, eraser, sharpener
• Your usual sketchbook
About the Instructor Suhita Shirodkar
Suhita is a visual storyteller and an educator who has been an active member of Urban Sketchers for over 13 years and has taught at numerous Symposiums. She teaches on-location and reportage sketching workshops all year round and specializes in conveying energy and movement in her sketches, be they people-filled urban scenes or landscapes rich in texture and color.
Suhita has received grants for her reportage projects including a Knight Foundation Grant and a Belle Foundation Grant. In 2023 she was Creative Ambassador to the City of San Jose, California where she currently lives.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suhitasketch
Paul Wang Singapore
Turn Everyday Objects Into Super Power Tools!
WORKSHOP LEVEL: Beginners / Intermediate1
Workshop Description
How do you stay inspired and maintain a creative practice? Have you forgotten how to be playful in your urban sketching?
Fear not because this experimental workshop is sequenced to help you break free from rigidity and renew your relationship with your art tools.
We will harness the power of play to help us to disassociate from our familiar art tools, practice unconventional thinking, break away from monotony and see new possibilities in drawing and painting. During the workshop, We will hack everyday objects using innovative art exercises and celebrate hidden potentials found in these objects. With these newly imagined tools, you can now make bold lyrical marks on paper and create movement-inspired urban sketches.. Ready to think side ways and super charge everyday objects?
1 Beginner - Little or no prior sketching experience
Intermediate - some sketching experience and understanding of basic techniques
Advanced - confident sketcher with experience in a wide range of mediums
Learn More Here
Supply List
• Sketchbook - Approximately A4 size & suitable for watercolour
• Loose Watercolour paper - hot pressed, approximately A4 size
• Watercolour - Basic set of watercolour (in pans or tubes)
• Watercolour brushes - Size 6 & 10 (or a Small & Large brush). (Do avoid water brushes)
• Accessories - Water container, Spray bottle, Paper Towel, Masking tape.
• Unconventional Tools - Anything from your kitchen. Recyclables are great!
About the Instructor Paul Wang
Paul is a passionate art and design educator from Singapore. For the last 24 years, he has been teaching students and teachers to think out of the box and pursue personal grow in their own creative journeys.
His art is highly inspired by his training in interior architecture and stage design. His convoluted lines and colourful splashes may look spontaneous but are highly choreographed, much like a stage performance.
He conducts many play-based art workshops in Singapore and abroad to inspire more people to play, experiment and follow their curiosity. Besides being a Daniel Smith brand ambassador, he is also an active Urban sketcher and currently serves as their Advisory Board member.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulwang_sg
ACT01
Leonie Andrews Australia
Your Personalised Poznań Sketchbook
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Activity Description
In this activity you will make your own concertina/leporello sketchbook, using a simple method and supplied preprepared materials. The sketchbook will be personalised with your choice of inks/watercolours and collage materials, before you complete making the sketchbook.
Each participant will be provided with a sheet of A3 160 - 200 gsm2, mixed media or hot pressed watercolour paper, marked and scored for cutting and folding, ready to be made into a concertina/leporello sketchbook. This will save time, allowing participants to focus on enhancing their sketchbook using paints, ink, and collage. The completed size of the book is 15 cm x 11cm, or 6 x 4 1⁄4 inches, when folded up.
Participants will work on their page with ink and/watercolour and Leonie will provide printed papers, relating to the city of Poznań, as collage material, to enhance your sketchbook. The final stage of the activity will focus on completing the sketchbook construction process and adding ephemera to the book. Once completed the book is ready for sketches to be added during the course of the Symposium.
You will also receive a set of instructions for the process, so you can make further books after the activity.
Supply List
• 2 Bulldog/folding clips to help with the sketchbook construction
About the Presenter Leonie Andrews
• Your usual sketch kit
• Travel ephemera; boarding pass/bus tickets/tea bag tags/cafe receipts, etc.
• A stool to sit on while working ( optional)
Sketching and drawing has always played an important part in Leonie’s life, and for the last decade Urban Sketching has been her main focus. Recently she has been making her own sketchbooks, giving her a more personalised sketching result. She attended her first USK Symposium in Singapore in 2015 and has also attended Symposia in Porto, Amsterdam and Auckland.She regularly goes to the Asialink Sketchwalk events, including Kuching, Taichung, Suwon and Penang. At all of these events she has built and strengthened her relations with sketchers from around the world.
Leonie graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, from the Australian National University School of Art and Design in 2006. Her artworks have been exhibited in Australia and internationally in Japan, the USA, France and the UK. In 2016 She was awarded an Asialink Arts Residency in Tokyo (sponsored by the Australian Capital Territory government and the University of Melbourne).
In 2019 she was a finalist in the prestigious Dobell Drawing Prize.
Bending Steel - How To Modify a Lamy Nib into Fude
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Activity Description
This Activity provides step-by-step instructions on how to modify a Lamy nib into a Fude, also known as Bent Nib, to make it better for sketching; follow along in twisting and sanding of your own Lamy nib to create a tool that meets your unique artistic needs.
The Problem: Fountain pens nibs are designed to lay down lines of equal thickness; once you make your fine/medium/ bold choice, you’re ‘stuck’ with the same line weight. While uniformity is great for notes, your artistic sketching may benefit from a tool that allows line variation - without constantly switching pen or nib.
The Solution: Modify a straight nib into Fude by bending the metal slightly upwards, then sand away bump on its bottom for smoothness and line variation. Once modified, your Fude nib will lay down all kinds of line weights: from a very faint, thin line to a fat and juicy cascade of ink!
I will show you how to make a Fude using your own pen from Lamy - any Safari, Vista or Al-star pen with EF, F or M nib will do. You will learn how to bend the nib, and how to remove the iridium ball to smooth its underside, creating a tool that uniquely fits your hand and sketching needs Please note this modification is permanent: once a nib is bent, it cannot be straightened back However, most Lamy pens use an easily replaceable nib; should you change your mind, just slide the nib off and replace with a new Lamy Z50 nib of your choice - and you’re as good as new!
Supply List
Vista/Al-star has the space required.
• PEN: Participants must bring their own pen to modify; finer nibs (EF, F, M) are preferred.
• Calligraphy or wide/stub nibs are not suitable. Use of a Lamy Safari/Vista/Al-star pen is suggested due to ease of nib replacement, and its low cost. Also consider room within the pen cap - will it still close after you bend the nib upright? Safari/
About the Presenter Marek Badzynski
• INK: Any fountain pen ink can be used; water soluble inks are suggested for easier cleanup. Bring your own ink in a Lamy cartridge, or fill a converter with your choice of ink - any brand and colour.
• SANDPAPER: Fine grit sand paper provided by the Instructor.
• PAPER: Regular note taking/copy paper for testing. Paper towels to clean after nib bending.
Marek is a sketcher with interest in architecture and in heritage buildings; using a fountain pen with a bent nib, also known as Fude, Marek combines expressive lines with layers of values to capture busy urban scenes. He makes quick visual records of daily life of Toronto, the city he lives in, and of places he visits, capturing their unique character in a simplified way, often using only values. He loves to sketch on location, and travels with a Fude pen, ink, and few sheets of watercolour paper allowing him to add a wash of paint to colour those precious memories.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marekbad64
Danna Feintuch USA
Bold Statements: How Creative Lettering Can Transform Your Sketches
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Activity Description
In this activity, you’ll explore creative lettering techniques to enhance sketches with flow and unity. Danna will demonstrate her relaxed style, showing how to experiment with font size, spacing, and placement without overthinking. You’ll hand-letter your own alphabet, stretch and squash letters for character, and fill negative spaces with text. Danna will provide tips on planning layouts and integrating text into sketches. You’ll learn how contrast balances a composition, adding a powerful finishing touch. Embrace your unique lettering and creative possibilities!
Supply List
• Please bring your usual sketch kit
About the Presenter
Danna Feintuch is a Brooklyn based Urban Sketcher. She has been an active member of her local New York City chapter for the last eight years. Danna has a Bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts from the University of Central Florida. She’s attended three Symposiums and countless workshops. Her work has been on display in Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, New Amsterdam Library and Washington Park in Brooklyn. Danna has made it her next goal to start teaching Urban Sketching workshops in person. Most of her lessons and skills have come from fellow Sketchers and she would be overjoyed to share them with others.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dannavision
Danna Feintuch
Eileen P. Goldenberg USA
Expressive Mark Making With Fountain Pens For An Urban Sketch-O-Rama!
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Activity Description
In this exciting activity you will try a variety of fountain pens with modified or unusual nibs for lines that tell the story in an expressive manner.
Eileen will bring a comprehensive hand out with photos of all the pens, outline of the class and links to where to purchase these pens She will talk about parts and function of Fountain Pens and pass around a variety of Fountain pens with many varied and interesting nibs
Create many types of marks to add interest to your urban sketches with modified Pilot Parallel pens, fude pens, architect nibs, stub nibs, ultra fine nibs, and more. Eileen will show you how to fill and maintain these pens, and which ones provide a large ink capacity, and there will also be an overview about inks and papers.
Supply List
• Sketchbook
• Your Fountain pens
About the Presenter
Eileen P. Goldenberg
Eileen lives and sketches in San Francisco CA and is a full time, award winning artist, showin her ceramics and paintings at prestigious art fairs. She has attended 6 Urban Sketchers
Symposiums and presented an activity in 2024 in Buenos Aires. She loves inspiring people to learn to draw and introduce them to the amazing Global network of Urban Sketchers!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eileenpg
ACT05
Rob Sketcherman Hong Kong
From iPad+Procreate to Printable Sketchbook
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Activity Description
What do you do with all your iPad sketches?
Learn to format your iPad sketches from Procreate into a printable sketchbook in this activity for all levels. Follow along with free apps, learn important settings, and understand key steps to take for best results as well as options to customize your printouts even more when you want to.
After more than 10 years working purely on iPad and Procreate, Rob finds that sketchers still prefer to touch paper when sharing work over a meal, and has taken to occasionally printing a selection of his work, after hearing that people are afraid to ask to see his latest sketches on iPad.
You may have printed the occasional piece, but have you ever turned a collection of digital sketches into your very own printed sketchbook? This activity takes you through all the steps needed to take the work you have already created in Procreate, export them for use, then use the free app Pages, to format your work and export your PDF for print. Bring a USB drive along, and by the end of this activity, you can immediately take that file to any location that does color laser printing to get your very own sketchbook printed.
Learn about everything from paper options, key settings, formatting steps to look out for, useful apps and more. Rob will also show examples of sketchbooks he has prepared and printed, and give you ideas for sharing your digital work while still enjoying the tangible, old-school feel of paper.
Supply List
A fully-charged iPad (please update to latest version iOS)
• Apple Pencil
• Existing iPad artwork: minimum 4 pcs
• Procreate app (please update to latest version)
• Pages app (please update to latest version)
About the Presenter Rob Sketcherman
Happiest when discovering and capturing colorful, people-filled scenes in his artwork, Rob Sketcherman is best known for the dynamic lines and vivid colors of his iPad urban sketches, all of which are done on location. He thrives on the immediacy of responding to sights, smells and sounds before him, capturing snippets of stories on the street as they unfold.
Self-taught and and inspired by comic books as a youth, Rob went completely digital at the beginning of 2014, embracing the mobility and versatility of just an iPad, Apple Pencil and the app, Procreate. He is now one of the administrators of Urban Sketchers Hong Kong, and has been an active part of the global Urban Sketchers movement, as well as a member of its international instructor faculty since 2015.
• USB drive that works with your iPad (note: older iPads using lightning ports, and you will need to check that you can use a compatible USB drive. Newer iPads have USB-C connectors, with many more options.)
DEM01
Reham Ali
Alexandria, Egypt
Sketching from an Unconventional Perspective
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
A Creative Approach to Architectural Visualization. In this demo , we explore the concept of viewing and capturing architectural spaces from an unexpected viewpoint, pushing beyond the traditional perspective. The idea is to break away from the usual frontal or eye-level angle and challenge ourselves to sketch scenes from low, high, or unconventional angles. Whether it’s from an extreme high angle with sense of vertigo, a very low vantage point, or another unexpected perspective, this demo could look similar to my workshop but actually it’s not, because the angles here will be very testing. This is a demo that will inspire you to look at architecture through a completely new lens. Let’s challenge our perceptions and elevate our creative potential in the world of architectural sketching!
About the Presenter Reham M Ali
Reham studied Fine-Arts and now works as Assistant Professor at IAU university. Reham is a workshop instructor in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and has taught at several USk Symposiums. Sketching architecture came as a natural part of her study and work. She began sketching on location in her senior year in college, and in 2015, she discovered Urban Sketchers. Since then she started to focus on sketching her hometown city, Alexandria, which is the main subject of her watercolor and sketching work.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/reham_m_a
DEM02
Dan Archer
Hong Kong
Adding Characters And Conversations To Your Urban Sketches
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
In this demo I will sketch whilst interviewing someone and discuss their background and connection to the arts scene in Poznan.
About the Presenter Dan Archer
Dan has been working as a graphic journalist for over a decade since graduating from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2009 with an MFA in Cartooning. His work focuses on human rights-related topics and he uses illustrated reportage and comics to protect the anonymity of his interviewees, which have included survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, homelessness, incarceration, and state-sponsored violence in Colombia. His graphic journalism has been featured by the BBC, Al-Jazeera, CBC, Vice, the US State Dept, CNN, Associated Press, the Nib, the Colombian government, Open Society, European Journalism Centre, Die Zeit Online, Der Speigel, and he has a Maynard Institute Award for mental health reporting. His debut graphic novel, Voices from Nepal: Uncovering human trafficking through comics journalism was published by University of Toronto Press in September 2024.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archcomix/
DEM03
Shari Blaukopf Canada
Evoking Mood Through Color
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
I will do a demo using a triad of primary colours and choosing either a warm or a cool colourcheme to evoke the mood and atmosphere of the scene.
About the Presenter
Shari Blaukopf
Shari is a Montreal-based teacher, painter and sketch blogger who loves to travel and share her love of sketching. She’s the author of The Urban Sketching Handbook: Working with Color, and you can find her online courses on Learn. Shariblaukopf.com. She is co-founder of Urban Sketchers Montreal and has been part of the Urban Sketchers community since 2012.
She’s given many watercolor workshops both on her own and internationally through the Urban Sketchers Workshop Program. Her watercolors are in corporate, government, private and royal collections in North America and abroad, and she’s a signature member of the American Watercolor Society and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.
Look Up! Sometimes the most amazing things to sketch are above your head! But how do you capture Poznan’s tall, dramatic building tops and towers in your small sketchbook? You use 3- point perspective! It’s not hard when you know what to look for.
About the Presenter Stephanie Bower
Seattle-based Stephanie worked as a licensed Architect in New York City before gravitating to professional architectural illustration and concept design. She taught for over thirty years in New York City at Parsons School of Design and in Seattle at the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts.
Stephanie is thrilled to be living her life-long dream as a globe-trotting instructor and urban sketcher, connecting with sketching friends around the world! She has taught at eight USk International Symposiums, has several online sketching classes, and teaches perspective and watercolor workshops around the world. Her awards include the prestigious Gabriel Prize fellowship in architecture to Paris, the Civita Institute’s fellowship to Italy, and she was twice honored with “Best Travel Sketch” in the KRob international architectural delineation competition.
Stephanie’s work has been featured in Watercolor Artist and Artist magazines, and she is the best-selling author of several books on sketching including The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Perspective, The Urban Sketching Handbook: 101 Sketching Tips, as well as the giant sketching tour around the globe, The World Of Urban Sketching.
How Painting First Can Result in Fast and Confident Progress
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
Róisín will demonstrate the same topic of drawing a background first, then people in outlining on top, then color and values in the background.
About the Presenter
Róisín Curé
Róisín is a passionate urban sketcher, as well as an author and teacher. An urban sketcher since 2012, her goal is to spread the fun of urban sketching to as many people as possible. She has written three books on urban sketching, including one in the The Urban Sketching Handbook series, called Drawing Expressive People (2020). The other two are about Galway (2019 & 2024) and Dublin (2021 & 2024).
She has taught all over Europe and as an instructor with Urban Sketchers, teaching in Porto (2018) and Amsterdam (2019). Sketching events in which she has taught or taken part include Portugal, Spain, France, Holland, the UK and Switzerland and of course Ireland.
Róisín has conducted classes and workshops for a global community since 2014 and an online sketching club since 2020. Her YouTube channel shares her sketching journey, constantly encouraging viewers and explaining her techniques. She also writes a sketching blog each week and hosted the Sketch Therapist podcast until 2023, which aimed to entertain, inform and inspire.
Róisín is the inventor of the SketchPocket, a mobile sketcher’s speciality bag made of cactus leather. The design was her solution to her obsessive desire to sketch in ink and watercolour anywhere and everywhere, standing or sitting.
Róisín co-founded Urban Sketchers Galway in 2014 and it is going strong today, with the group meeting weekly in Galway City. She speaks English, Irish, French and Spanish.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roisincure
DEM06
Maru Godas
Spain
Fairytale Landscapes With Gouache And Mixed Media
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
A panorama using gouache combined with materials like Neocolor, colored pencils, and markers. I will demonstrate my process for planning the layout, selecting colors, and layering techniques for roofs, details, windows, and more.
About the Presenter
Maru Godas
Formed as a graphic designer at the IDEP School of Design and the “Escola Superior de Disseny Llotja de Barcelona.” She founded her own graphic design studio in Barcelona, providing graphic design services to publishers and agencies in Spain: RBA, Planeta, National Geographic, Salvat, etc. She always had an illustration project on her hands and continued to paint with oils and gouache in her spare time. It was his true passion, and finally decided to dedicate it full time.
When she met the Urban Sketchers, new paths and new languages were opened, as well as the opportunity to travel and do workshops and lectures around the world. Also, to meet amazing people. She loves all techniques: Chinese ink, oil, watercolor, and colored pencils, although she’s known for her drawings and workshops with gouache and acrylic paint.
She has collaborated on several illustrated books and magazines and is the author of “Park Güell Journey,” the interactive digital book “Suri y yo,” and “Organic Beauty,” translated into five languages. She has done illustration commissions for CaixaForum, Racc, La Caixa, Diputación de Barcelona, Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, La Vanguardia, etc.
She was the director of the illustration festival “Compostela Ilustrada” (Spain) (2019–2022). Likewise, she has done international workshops in Chicago, Brighton, Palo Alto, Madrid, Porto, Lisbon, Tuscany, Bern, San Francisco, Málaga, New York, Santiago de Compostela, La Réunion Island, New Zealand, Tel Aviv,etc. Currently, she’s a member of the board of the ‘Centre Artistic de Sant Lluc,’ a century-old art institution in Barcelona. Now, she manages a dynamic balance between professional illustration commissions, authorship projects for books, and teaching activities, which include urban sketching workshops and illustration classes around the world.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marugodas
DEM07
Oliver Hoeller Austria
Storytelling: Your Sketch as Rich as Life!
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
Storytelling is at the core of Urban Sketching. Yet how to move beyond just sketching a pretty picture to tell a story is a challenge for many sketchers.
What turns a sketch into a story? What elements does a story need, to be understandable and interesting at the same time? On top of that, how can we make our story as rich as possible?
In this demo I will show how to make a rich spread that tells a story. I’ll demo the role of ‘establishing shots’ to give a sense of place as well as ‘zoomed-in details’ that give a flavor of the place and action. Then we’ll move on to the placement of the elements on the page. In order to turn our story elements into a coherent and readable whole, I’ll demonstrate how overlapping elements, panels and an arrangement along a grid can help structure information. To make the story richer - we’ll talk about including overheard conversations and sound elements to give an extra layer of information. Lastly, we’ll touch on how color schemes can emotionally charge our stories.
This demo is great for those who want to get inspired to bring storytelling to their sketching. We’ll cover any questions that come up.
About the Presenter
Oliver Hoeller
Oliver is a traveling artist, illustrator and educator. His passion is storytelling in Urban Sketching and he sees the humorous and ironic with an empathetic eye. Oliver’s work has been professionally recognized including the international travel sketchbook award 2022 “Prix de Carnet de Voyage”. After more than a decade in the UK and the US, he now lives with his wife and son in Vienna, Austria.
Enhancing Sketches with Metallic Paint on Colored Paper
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Demo Description
Explore the dynamic interplay of metallic paints on colored paper in this Demo. Learn to enhance your sketches with shimmering highlights, rich contrasts, and vibrant compositions using this unique technique.
About the Presenter Farah Irani
Farah is a graphic designer, illustrator, and creative director, blending design, stage production, and visual storytelling. An avid urban sketcher, she captures everyday moments with energy and character. In this workshop, Farah introduces a playful approach to colored paper, guiding you through intuitive, expressive, and fun sketching techniques. .
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farah.colors
DEM09
Andrew James
New Zealand
Divide
And Conquer: Drawing Complicated Scenes Fearlessly
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by detail, but the key is not to panic. Andrew will demonstrate his approach to scenes that can seem intimidating by breaking them down into bite-sized pieces.
About the Presenter Andrew James
Andrew is a sketchbook artist and Urban Sketcher from Wellington, New Zealand. He set out to learn to draw because of an upcoming trip. He felt that having an illustrated record of a year-long journey would be cool, but he didn’t expect to become obsessed with recording his life in pictures in little books. After more than a decade the sketchbooks are starting to pile up.
He is a founding member of his local chapter, Urban Sketchers Wellington, and draws as much as possible, especially with his young sons—kids are the most fearless and fun artists, inspiring! When not drawing for fun, he turns science into stories with words and drawings for a conservation non-profit.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajamesdraws
DEM10
Uma Kelkar USA
Go-uache on the Go
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Workshop Description
Uma will do an interactive demo where she will quickly demonstrate her approach using 3 pre-prepared gouache paintings at different stages. Then, with the group’s assistance and memory of her steps before, she will paint another demo piece from a reference photo (landscape/urbanscape) sourced from the crowd. If you are signing up, be ready to be quizzed, be on your toes, get your coffee. We will be fast!
About the Presenter
Uma Kelkar
Uma, was born and brought up in Pune, India but has lived in San Jose, USA for the past 20+ years. She is a watercolor painter, urban sketcher who also sketches in ink, gouache and on the iPad. She has taught at Urban Sketchers International Symposia (2017, 2018, 2019, 2024) and is author of Urban Sketching book for the iPad. She believes heavily in cross-pollination and borrows ideas from various fields to improve sketching. She is an engineer by profession. She was Secretary on the Executive Board of Urban Sketchers from Aug 2019 to July 2022. She is also Founder and CEO of Vivify.ai, a startup that uses AI to make human to human connection between creators stronger while multiplying their income.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umapaints
DEM11
Pedro Loureiro
Portugal
Sketch Like Theater: Show Less, Tell More
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
The demo will focus on how shapes and blank space define a set for our details in ink. Much like the workshop with the same name, Pedro will select and lay down some isolated details from the surroundings, in ink pen on the sketchbook. These are the actors and props, the details that tell the story. They may be very close up, or really far away, but they will convey depth, scale, texture and expression.
Then, with only a limited palette of watercolors, Pedro will lay down a few shapes of the most significant volumes around the urban area, in large washes, over the ink drawing. This is the stage, the scenery where the action takes place, and doesn’t need to be super detailed.
Finally, Pedro will lay down shapes of shadow, in a darker tone of watercolor, bringing three-dimensionality to the composition. This is the stage, lights that define contrasts and focus attention. Lights and shadows double down on the presence of actors and props.
This simple 3-step recipe is a good basis for focusing our sketch in a single-minded story that draws our attention in.
About the Presenter
Pedro Loureiro
Pedro is an architecture illustrator from Lisbon, Portugal. He began his artistic career as a child by copying his favorite comic book panels. Later he took drawing classes in architecture school and joined the Urban Sketchers community, consolidating his path into the professional art world.
Pedro’s mediums are waterproof ink and watercolor, which he uses to paint places, events, and people to remember. His goal for teaching is for his students to realize how perception changes when seeing the world through sketching, and everyone can learn to draw. He uses sketching as a tool of perception and understanding of surroundings, exciting characters, and stories of the everyday.
He teaches regular sketching workshops and tells stories in the blog Storysketching and in the Urban Sketchers Portugal. He was a regular writer for Drawing Attention, the monthly Urban Sketchers zine. Additionally, Pedro leads The Wedding Sketchers, an event live sketching project. “By sketching, we see the world in a novel way, and each sketch we do is a story that we tell back to the world.”
Instagram: www.instagram.com/pedromacloureiro
Sketching in Monochrome with Ink Washes
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
Fred will demonstrate his process for creating rich, light-filled sketches by layering brush and ink washes.
About the Presenter Fred Lynch
Fred has been a professor of Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design (his alma mater) in Providence, Rhode Island for over thirty years. Fred is a recipient of RISD’s John R. Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching. For twelve years he taught sketching journalism in a Summer Studies Program in Central Italy.
When not teaching, he creates artwork and illustrations that are published and exhibited all over the world including many Urban Sketchers Handbooks. He has won awards for his illustrations. Fred and his work have been featured on the Travel Channel. A longtime urban sketcher, he lectured at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona, and taught workshops in Paraty, Manchester, Porto and Amsterdam. For a number of years, Fred served on the USK Education Committee and is the inventor of the Big Crit, which began in Paraty, Brazil. Fred lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/FredLynchArt
Olivia Marcus France
How To Quickly Capture A Crowded Scene
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
Capturing the human body can seem complex and intimidating. Yet drawing people in the street or in their daily activities, sketching their attitudes, their particularities, depicting a crowd is an inexhaustible source of inspiration! During this workshop, we’ll learn how to compose a lively, colorful crowd scene and finally capture its atmosphere in panoramic format. We’ll focus in particular on how to create the illusion of movement and multitude.
About the Presenter
Olivia is a graphic designer and a sketching instructor. She worked with Vincent Desplanche and Luc Perillat on the organisation of the 10th USk France meeting 2023 (900+ participants) and also created the graphics for the event.
She is an active volunteer within her USk local chapter of Tououse for which she organizes monthly meetings and is in charge of the Chapter’s social media.
She has been a sketching instructor for several years. She teaches sketching workshops for the City of Toulouse and the University Toulouse Capitole since 2022. She was invited by USk Barcelona to teach at the BCN SketchFest 2024.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/om_lapom
Olivia Marcus
DEM14
Tetiana Ocheredko Poland
Stains And Textures In Architectural Sketches
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Demo Description
This demonstration will be useful for participants of all levels in urban sketching, as it covers the basic principles of academic drawing and material techniques.
About the Presenter Tetiana Ocheredko
Tetiana is a Ukrainian multimedia contemporary artist who has been living in Poland since 2022. A member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 2012, she has participated in over 45 international exhibitions and held 10 solo shows across Europe, China, the USA, Australia, and Cyprus. In 2020, her series of works earned her the prestigious Silver Key Honor Award from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cyprus. From 2016 to 2023, she worked as a painter-animator on the Oscar- and Golden Globenominated animated films painted in oils, «Loving Vincent» and «The Peasants». Her works are held in museum collections in Cyprus, Ukraine, and Egypt.
Join me for some gritty rear alley sketching. We will venture into back service areas of buildings and the in-between spaces to the hidden mess. I will demonstrate how we can make the ugly beautiful.
About the Instructor
Peter Rush
Peter is an enthusiastic and dedicated artist and architect whose enjoyment of urban sketching comes from wanting to show the whole character of the place. To spatially draw the everyday streets, the ordinary places where we live. With every drawing he aims to express the mood of a moment that will resonate to make an empathic connection with the observed.
His urban sketching has taken him to many places with exhibitions of his work throughout Australia, New Zealand and the United States. His urban sketching has been consistently recognised, winning and being selected as a finalist in numerous art prizes in Australia and New Zealand. His work has been featured in publications, most recently, The World of Urban Sketching by Stephanie Bower.
Join us for a thrilling demo on drawing sweeping skyline panoramas using an accordion sketchbook. In this session, Rita Sabler will guide you through the steps of creating a continuous, flowing line that captures the essence of your city’s skyline—highlighting major landmarks and simplifying details.The accordion sketchbook’s long format is perfect for this type of panoramic sketching, allowing you to capture full 360 degree skyline in one fluid composition.
About the Presenter Rita Sabler
Rita is an award winning artist, visual journalist, author, and educator based in Portland, Oregon, USA. She has taught Drawing, Urban Sketching and Visual Journalism courses at the Parsons School of Design, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Portland State University as well as given numerous workshops and lectures on drawing and visual storytelling all around the world.
In the span of her decade-long career as an educator and visual storyteller Sabler has inspired diverse audiences to cultivate a lifelong passion for urban sketching and reportage illustration. Her work has been featured in solo and group local and international shows. Sabler’s approach to teaching is rooted in individual attention to a particular student’s needs and goals. Her students routinely praise her for clear, supportive and non-judgemental way of distilling complex drawing techniques, giving them confidence and inspiration to nurture their individual styles. Her way of working with students of all skill levels brings great joy and pride from being able to capture the world in a sketchbook, and cultivate strong connections to the place and its people.
From 2019-2023 Rita Sabler served as the Education Director on the board of the global Urban Sketchers organization. In addition to teaching drawing Rita Sabler currently works as a freelance visual journalist for the Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritasabler
DEM17
Inma Serrano Spain
Fluid Strokes: Bringing Movement and Life to Our Paper
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
Our city’s daily life is usually linked to non-stop, to hurry. There is a relationship between architecture and the people who flow through the places. They come and leave. They stay. They move. It’s a dialogue between what is ephemeral and what remains.
In our sketches, the previous study of the sensations and rhythms that defines the scene may have a decisive influence in the final result.
In this urban sketching demo we will study the place that surrounds us, daring to experiment with other ways of representing space beyond the rules of traditional perspective, with the intention of distorting, suggesting, moving and adapting our drawings to a more personal and subjective perception.
About the Presenter Inma Serrano
Since she couldn’t stop drawing, she supposed she should do something with this. Inma has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Seville and combines teaching Arts and Drawing with different works as an illustrator. She collaborates regularly in the written press with her graphic reports and has occasionally illustrated books: novels, short stories, poetry and everything that comes her way. Her illustrations have been published in books and magazines. She is the author of the book Sevilla, from top to bottom, an illustrated travelogue sketchbook of the city where she lives.
She currently works as a teacher, teaching Visual Arts and Drawing to highschool students. She also serves as a correspondent in Urban Sketchers Spain and belongs to the Sevilla Chapter.
She has been an instructor in sketching workshops for Urban Sketchers International Symposiums in Santo Domingo (2011) Barcelona (2012) Singapour (2013) and Porto (2018) or Buenos Aires (2024). She also has led many sketching and illustration workshops in other European cities.
Sketching in the streets is essential in her life because it allows her to zoom, in an ingenuous and almost childish way, the people and the things around. She says she needs sketching and drawing to understand her life and to be happy.
This is an experimental hybrid demo and participatory session. I will demonstrate mark-making, layering, and how combining different tools and layering orders will result in different outcomes. After I had done a couple of takes, the participants will be invited to dip into the tool and supplies set and do their version. . Together, we will create a long banner of stones, each carrying the signature marks of its creator.
The demo shows how mark-making is a personal signature that works across everything you draw. I will share my urban sketches as examples of using this same mark-making in my sketches.
About the Presenter Suhita Shirodkar
Suhita is a visual storyteller and an educator who has been an active member of Urban Sketchers for over 13 years and has taught at numerous Symposiums. She teaches on-location and reportage sketching workshops all year round and specializes in conveying energy and movement in her sketches, be they people-filled urban scenes or landscapes rich in texture and color.
Suhita has received grants for her reportage projects including a Knight Foundation Grant and a Belle Foundation Grant. In 2023 she was Creative Ambassador to the City of San Jose, California where she currently lives.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suhitasketch
DEM19
Paul Wang
Singapore
Turn Everyday Objects Into Super Power Tools!
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
In this demo I will show how I play and turn everyday unconventional objects into fun drawing and painting tools. With these tools, I will craft an urban sketch inspired by the buildings of Poznan.
About the Presenter Paul Wang
Paul is a passionate art and design educator from Singapore. For the last 24 years, he has been teaching students and teachers to think out of the box and pursue personal grow in their own creative journeys.
His art is highly inspired by his training in interior architecture and stage design. His convoluted lines and colourful splashes may look spontaneous but are highly choreographed, much like a stage performance.
He conducts many play-based art workshops in Singapore and abroad to inspire more people to play, experiment and follow their curiosity. Besides being a Daniel Smith brand ambassador, he is also an active Urban sketcher and currently serves as their Advisory Board member.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulwang_sg
DEM20
Svitlana Lagutina
Poland
Beauty in Simplicity: Watercolor Sketching
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
IDuring this demo Svitlana will show how she finds an interesting subject to draw in any urban environment, frame the scene, and compose it on paper, simplifying complex forms to highlight the main elements. She will demonstrate why watercolor is ideal for this task.
Supply List
• A sheet of watercolor paper in any convenient size
• Brushes, preferably a wide one
• Watercolor paints (basic set)
About the Presenter Svitlana Lagutina
• A graphite pencil
• A sketchbook or paper tape if not using a sketchbook
• Water and a container for washing brushes
Svitlana is an artist, watercolorist, sketcher, architect, and photographer, born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1979. She holds a degree in architecture and has a significant background in the arts. She is a member of the Polish Watercolor Association (SAP) and an active participant in the Urban Sketchers group in Silesia (KiSZ). Her artistic journey began with 4-years at art school and then studies in anatomy at the Kyiv Academy of Arts. After graduating from the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, she worked as an architect, and since 2019, she has focused on her own artistic practice.
Svitlana creates watercolor, pastel, and other medium works, participates in international exhibitions, and conducts workshops and private lessons. She is often invited to international festivals to demonstrate her skills. She sketches regularly and believes that anyone can enjoy sketching without being a professional artist, but you cannot become a true artist without developing your skills through constant sketching.
Vanessa will demonstrate the process of sketching while savouring the delightful sights of a Poznan café! She will demonstrate techniques for creating quick sketches that incorporate both food and the ambiance of a café. Using simple outlines and a limited color palette to document not just what’s on your plate, but also the atmosphere that enhances your dining experience. She will share her personal strategies for making the most of your waiting time— transforming moments of anticipation into opportunities for creativity.
Moreover, participants will learn how to compose their sketches effectively, balancing the food with the surrounding environment to create a cohesive and engaging scene. Turning any meal into a beautiful visual narrative, making every dining experience an opportunity for artistic expression.
About the Presenter Vanessa Leung
Vanessa is an architect and her background in architecture has instilled in her an appreciation for details and sense of space. Being born and grew up in Hong Kong, she is used to the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, its ever-changing environment has inspired her to slow down and savour the beauty of her hometown. She will sketch her meals, the local eateries, the busy cluttered streets, the specialty stores and those vanishing old buildings that she passes by in her daily life. Her artworks are her personal journals and an ode to the old-world and cosmopolitan charm of Hong Kong
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vansketcher
DEM22
Julia
Majewska
Poland
Capturing The Moment: Mixed Media Speed Sketching
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
Julia will demonstrate how to quickly capture scenes, atmosphere, and events using various techniques at different drawing stages. With markers, ink, watercolors, pencils, and more. She will create a panoramic sketch of a place and its people. She will also share tips on selecting essential sketching tools.
Julia will guide you through her process of layering techniques such as acrylic and water-based markers, ink, watercolors, pencils and pastels to create a lively and expressive panoramic sketch. This demonstration will illustrate how combining different tools and approaches can bring out the unique atmosphere of a scene and the energy of people in It. In addition to practical drawing tips, she will shortly explain how to optimize your sketching kit by packing smartly and choosing only the most essential supplies, perfect for artists
About the Presenter Julia Majewska
Julia is a painter and urban sketcher born and based in Gdańsk, currently studying painting in Gdańsk and psychology in Sopot. She works in painting, illustration, and graphic design, and professionally lead art classes, sharing her creative skills and passion with others. She is passionate about urban sketching, capturing the dynamic essence of the city through spontaneous and expressive drawings.
Instagram: instagram.com/hypertrachelion
DEM23
Simone Ridyard UK
One-point Perspective and Creative Use of Watercolour Including Lots of Splashes!
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
2 demos in one session! In this demo Simone will start with a large-scale one-point perspective demonstration, looking at scale and context including some tips + tricks followed by a ‘free style’ colourful watercolour demo using a previously drawn sketch in the chosen demo location.
The first demo will cover (about 30 minutes):
• An introduction (or reintroduction) to the basic principles of perspective
• Understanding of one-point perspective; how it works in real life complex cityscapes rather than just as a theoretical exercise.
• Improved understanding of scale, massing and context and drawing people (in scale).
The second demo (about 10 minutes) ...will be where she watercolours over a previous sketch and talks through her process....it will be energetic and creative...and hopefully inspiring!
About the Presenter Simone Ridyard
Simone is a senior lecturer in Interior Design at Manchester Metropolitan University and has an international profile as an architectural illustrator through her work with Urban Sketchers. She founded Urban Sketchers Manchester in 2012 and her research centres on architectural reportage and in-situ drawing. Her workshops specialise in understanding perspective drawing.
Simone wrote Archisketcher: Drawing Buildings, Cities and Landscapes (North Light Books, 2015, currently out of print). She has also contributed to many publications on urban sketching and has edited two Manchester Sketchbooks, published by Mancunian Books. Simone Ridyard Sketchbook was published in 2023. Simone has collaborated with The Big Draw (UK) Winsor & Newton, Derwent, and Rhodia, on publicised art campaigns, and has been recently commissioned to write a ‘definitive’ guide to perspective drawing (publication date, summer 2026).
Instagram: instagram.com/simoneridyard
Andrey Shmatnik Canada
Capture The Vibe Of A Historic City
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Demo Description
In this session Andrey will demonstrate a complete sketch from start to finish. He will explain choosing the frame, composition on the page, perspective, adding people to the sketch, and sketching with a fude nib pen and watercolor.
You will see how to capture the complex urban scenery that includes buildings, people and urban infrastructure to capture the vibe of this historic city.
The sketch will be done using A4 or A3 size sketchbook, a fude nib fountain pen with waterproof ink, and watercolor.
About the Presenter Andrey Shmatnik
Andrey is an Architect and Urban Sketcher, living and working in Toronto, Canada. He was born and grew up in the former Soviet Union, later lived in Israel and Canada. For a long time, sketching had merely been a practical tool at work, until he discovered the concept of Urban Sketching in 2017. Since then, he has been a member of Urban Sketchers Toronto and urban sketching became an important and valuable part of his life. His urban sketches have been presented in several exhibitions in Toronto, Israel, and Ukraine. Being an active member of USK Toronto he has provided demos at several sketching events.
Instagram: instagram.com/andreysh555
DEM25
Liz Steel Australia
Architecture Starting With Shapes
(40/50 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Demo Description
Many sketchers think that you need perspective to sketch buildings and street scenes but Liz believes that the ability to see big shapes is just as important. Starting with shapes not only makes your sketching faster but it also results in more lively and colourful sketches!
In this demo, Liz will be working spontaneously to show how she creates most of her urban sketches these days— starting with watercolour shapes and then adding the details on top, either in ink or with more watercolour. She’ll demonstrate how she sketches buildings and their surroundings, starting with watercolour shapes. She will explain how to assess the scene in terms of big shapes—either shadow shapes, areas of similar colour, or negative shapes—and then decide on the first shape that will start your sketch.
You will see how to mix watercolour washes that will produce lots of pigment parties so that this first shape creates watercolour magic on the page. There will also be tips on how to control the pigment/water ratio of the wash so that this first shape dries quickly, and you can continue to add layers over the top without having to wait for it to dry.
About the Presenter Liz Steel
Liz Steel worked for 18 years as an architect in Sydney and is now a full-time artist, teacher and blogger focusing on quick sketching with ink, watercolour and mixed media. She captures moments from her daily life and travelling adventures in her sketchbooks and publishes regular updates at lizsteel.com.
Liz teaches on-location urban sketching workshops throughout the world and has her own online school – SketchingNow – where she offers in-depth courses to participants from over 40 countries.
Liz is the author of “Five Minute Sketching: Architecture” and loves to incorporate her architectural training with core drawing concepts, creating a fun yet accurate approach to location sketching.
Instagram: instagram.com/lizsteelart
LT01
Elizabeth Alley USA
Sketching in the Arctic
(20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Lecture Description
In May 2025, Elizabeth is participating in an artist residency in the Arctic Circle on a sailing vessel around Svalbard, where she will be sketching everything. This lecture will focus on initial expectations and the reality of spending two weeks living and sketching on a boat in the Arctic.
The Arctic Circle residency project expands Elizabeth’s current focus on the urban environment to create paintings of transitional landscape areas where different elements intersect (water’s edge, rivers, mountains, walkways, bridges, roads), incorporating the vocabulary of the Arctic. Through the activity of sketching, Elizabeth’s goal is to create an installation of paintings and drawings that conveys the brief moments of connection that we as humans can have with the landscape.
She will describe the preparation process, including experimenting with sketching materials, talking with people who had participated in similar activities, and gathering her gear for the Arctic.
The lecture covers what the experience was actually like while sketching in the Arctic, on a boat, on a zodiac, on a glacier. The other participants will include artists and scientists, and she will talk about what it was like to make my work around people from all over the world who are approaching their projects in a diversity of ways.
She will conclude by talking about how the sketching experience impacted her artmaking and artwork and the connection in her work between on-location sketching and studio work.
About the Presenter Elizabeth Alley
Elizabeth Alley is a painter and sketchbook artist from Memphis, TN, focusing on sketching and making paintings about landscapes experienced through actions. She has shown her work locally and regionally since receiving her BFA from University of Memphis in 1998. She has maintained her art practice while helping others learn, connect, and create by teaching art, volunteering with Urban Sketchers (USk) and the Memphis USk chapter, and organizing and participating in over 45 solo and group shows.
The Hand that Draws the Future - the Cognitive Benefits of Urban Sketching
(20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Lecture Description
While there appears to be general consensus that drawing by hand has value, it has only been over the past couple of decades that neuroscientists have begun to prove the significant cognitive benefits of drawing by hand; benefits that enhance memory, learning and creativity; benefits that have broad implications for this and future generations.
The average human brain consists of 100 billion neurons. At any given time, 200 million neural connections, or synapses, are made. When synapses occur between neurons, they tend to wire together to create neural loops or maps that oscillate in synchronous rhythms in different regions of the brain. When measured using EEG or fMRI technology, the frequencies of these rhythms can tell us how active or inactive specific regions of the brain are in response to external stimuli, such as typing, writing and drawing.
Recent neuroscientific studies have shown how drawing by hand stimulates the deep structures of our brains, especially within the limbic region, to enhance memory, learning and creativity. Using EEG and fMRI technology, neuroscientists have demonstrated that drawing by hand results in high frequency brain activity within those deep structures, especially during the ideation phase, paving the way to envisioning new experiences and ideas that have not yet occurred.
This lecture will outline some of this research, especially out of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and how these findings are directly relevant to the practice of urban sketching. Specifically, while sketching in and of itself may be satisfying and enjoyable, the act of sketching could actually unlock the brain’s potential for imaginative and creative thinking that might otherwise remain hidden. Participants will also be introduced to a recent longitudinal fMRI study out of Auburn University which demonstrates that observational drawing can significantly improve cognitive processing, with relevance to pedagogy and mental health.
About the Presenter
Ivan Chow
Ivan is a retired architect and award-winning artist. He has practiced in various architecture firms including his own; managed a private real estate investment fund; been a capital project manager at UMass Amherst; fulfilled leadership roles as department chair and dean at the Savannah College of Art and Design; and served as artist-in-residence instructor at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and is currently an instructor with the Fallingwater Institute.
Ivan has degrees in architecture from Harvard University and the University of California Berkeley. His artwork has been featured in Outdoor Painter magazine, covered by local news stations and been published in several books including Travel Sketching: Drawing Insights from Istanbul, Sketching Savannah and Sketching Fallingwater.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/qkkdraw
LF01 Vanessa Leung
Hong Kong
Art To Cart: Transform Sketches into Merchandise
(20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Lecture Description
Learn how to transform your sketches into engaging merchandise. This lecture covers selecting and classifying your artwork, creating collages, exploring product options, and turning your creativity into profitable, fun items you can proudly own.
Vanessa will share her experiences with making merchandise with her sketches, both successful ones and frustration moments with production.
Topics will include
• Choosing Your Sketches - criteria for selecting impactful sketches
• Identifying personal style and themes
• Classifying Sketches - organizing sketches and understanding target audiences for each category
• Creating Collages - techniques for combining different sketches into cohesive designs
• Tips on producing files for production
• Tools and software for digital collaging
• Exploring Merchandise Options - types of products to consider (e.g., prints, apparel, accessories).
• Evaluating market demand for various merchandise
• Making It Fun and Profitable - Strategies for marketing and selling your creations
• Balancing creativity with commercial viability
About the Presenter Vanessa Leung
Vanessa is an architect and her background in architecture has instilled in her an appreciation for details and sense of space. Being born and grew up in Hong Kong, she is used to the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, its ever-changing environment has inspired her to slow down and savour the beauty of her hometown. She will sketch her meals, the local eateries, the busy cluttered streets, the specialty stores and those vanishing old buildings that she passes by in her daily life. Her artworks are her personal journals and an ode to the old-world and cosmopolitan charm of Hong Kong
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vansketcher
Rita Sabler USA
When Photography Falls Short: The Power of Drawing in Telling Sensitive Stories
(20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Lecture Description
From stories of loss, illness, death, and survival Rita has used drawing as her way to approach people in vulnerable situations and tell their story. In this lecture, she will discuss how drawing from life allows her to do my work as a visual journalist, approaching sensitive subjects with intimacy and respect. Unlike photography, drawing fosters trust and curiosity. Rita will share examples from her recent projects documenting people and towns in the aftermath of a wildfire, border communities, and honoring the dead in Oaxaca.
About the Presenter
Rita Sabler
Rita is an award winning artist, visual journalist, author, and educator based in Portland, Oregon, USA. She has taught Drawing, Urban Sketching and Visual Journalism courses at the Parsons School of Design, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Portland State University as well as given numerous workshops and lectures on drawing and visual storytelling all around the world.
In the span of her decade-long career as an educator and visual storyteller Sabler has inspired diverse audiences to cultivate a lifelong passion for urban sketching and reportage illustration. Her work has been featured in solo and group local and international shows. Sabler’s approach to teaching is rooted in individual attention to a particular student’s needs and goals. Her students routinely praise her for clear, supportive and non-judgemental way of distilling complex drawing techniques, giving them confidence and inspiration to nurture their individual styles. Her way of working with students of all skill levels brings great joy and pride from being able to capture the world in a sketchbook, and cultivate strong connections to the place and its people.
From 2019-2023 Rita Sabler served as the Education Director on the board of the global Urban Sketchers organization. In addition to teaching drawing Rita Sabler currently works as a freelance visual journalist for the Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritasabler
Andrey Shmatnik Canada
How Urban Sketching Changed The Way I See Cities
(20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
Learn More Here
Lecture Description
In this lecture illustrated with examples and his own sketches, Andrey describes his personal journey as an urban sketcher and how his perception of urban environments has changed.
People see cities and urban environments in many different ways, but they normally have something in common, they like cities that are perceived as beautiful and safe. These two qualities are often linked to each other. The more organized and accurate buildings/streets/neighborhoods/cities look like, the safer and nicer they feel. The word ‘beautiful’ is also very subjective and normally refers to well-maintained and accurate buildings of distinctive and interesting architecture. Therefore, the stereotype of a beautiful city or building often refers to well-maintained restored and touristic cities. Western European cities are the stereotype of beauty in this sense.
As an architect, who had an understanding of a city structure and urban features, Andrey felt uncomfortable while walking down the streets of many cities and places that did not meet the co-called European standard of urban beauty. He always tried to imagine how what he saw could look like, being rebuilt, restored etc. This perception changed dramatically after he fall in love with the concept of urban sketching and started doing it himself in 2017.
About the Presenter Andrey Shmatnik
Andrey is an Architect and Urban Sketcher, living and working in Toronto, Canada. He was born and grew up in the former Soviet Union, and later lived in Israel and Canada. For a long time, sketching had merely been a practical tool at work, until he discovered the concept of Urban Sketching in 2017. Since then, he has been a member of Urban Sketchers Toronto and urban sketching became an important and valuable part of his life. His urban sketches have been presented in several exhibitions in Toronto, Israel, and Ukraine. Being an active member of USK Toronto he has provided demos at several sketching events.
Instagram: instagram.com/andreysh555
Detlef Surrey
Germany
Berlin - The Wall Revisited. Search For Traces With My Sketchbook
(20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A) Learn More Here
Lecture Description
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Detlef set out with his sketchbook in search of traces on the former Wall strip and documented what he found there today. This lecture is a combination of personal and historical history and his reportage drawing project.
Through the drawings shown, he will give short anecdotes about West Berlin as an island, surrounded by the territory of East Germany. In his sketches, he aims to give an impression of the former situation, versus the joy of the present day where communities are growing together.
About the Presenter Detlef Surrey
Detlef is an Illustrator, Cartoonist and Urban Sketcher, based in Berlin. He Studied Visual Communication at the UdK /University of Arts) Berlin. His clients are publishing houses, organizations, and the German Bundestag (parliament).
He has been a member of Urban Sketchers Berlin since 2012 and gives various lectures and workshops at regional Urban Sketchers events.
