Skillshare Class: Line and Wash Essentials: Urban Sketching for Beginners by Watercolour Mentor.
I chose this class mainly because I was curious about how the teacher incorporates figures in his drawings. I created urban scenes before, but I never added figures considering it might be complicated. I think the proper usage of the figure proportions scared me. Taking this class, I realised that it’s not that scary, and including some human figures in a sketch tells a story and adds more energy and life to the drawing.
The course is built up gradually. It starts with some helpful exercises, which show how to plan and compose a line and add a wash to the painting. Here I learnt how to create a beautiful night sky scene, which I had never done before. In the second phase, the main idea was to train myself to recognise and reduce any subject into simple shapes. I drew along with the teacher, who explained everything he did, not skipping even the tiniest detail. The whole process was easy to follow. I had so much fun doing it that I couldn’t stop, and I created an entire project with the urban scenes from my holidays.
Plan and Compose
I planned many times but never attempted to create a night sky scene like this. I got some great tips on using and blending the colours and how to add the stars with a simple method. I had two more tries before creating this postcard for my mum.
Beautiful Houses and Lovely Foliages
I’m always on a hunt to take photos of interesting urban scenes with eye-catching houses and the foliage around them. These scenes were the practice subjects of the course. I learnt that adding some human figures into the composition is straightforward and fun. I think I will incorporate this technique in my future sketches.
Holiday Memories
My final project presents the Eastbourne railway station. I visited the city not long ago. The station with the unusual colour composition, interesting architectural details and atmosphere captured my attention. First, I needed to get the perspective and the whole composition right, so I drew the main lines (and the not-so-main lines) with a pencil. Then I followed the pencil drawing with pen and ink. I usually use my fountain pen, and I did so in this case. It turned out that I wanted to incorporate so many little details that my lines looked bold, and the whole drawing was a bit overwhelmed. So I had a second attempt to create a much lighter version with a 0.5 pen. I experimented with bold colours, as the instructor did throughout the class. I was hesitant with the sky, but finally, I just gave it a bold turquoise colour. I like both outcomes; they have their pros and cons, but they can be loved for different reasons.
Pen and Ink vs. Colour
I thought sharing some work-in-progress stages during the drawing process might be fun. Just play with the arrows to see the drawing with only pen and ink or with wash added.
Rosario Tea Gardens Marazion, Cornwall
Street Scene – Course Demo
Eastbourne Railway Station
